Despite this instruction it is hard to avoid being guided by our self-will
rather than an objective view of the teachings.
Jeremiah the prophet railed against this tendency:
Both prophet and priest practice hypocrisy. They strengthen the hands of the evil.
They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of Jehovah. (Jeremiah
23:11,14,16)
Jesus made a similar criticism of church leaders:
You have made the Word of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did
Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: “In vain they worship Me,teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:6-9)
The Heavenly Doctrines emphasize this point:
It is blasphemy not to draw the doctrine of the church from the Word, but to hatch
it from one’s own intelligence. The reason is that the church is founded on the Word
and its character is such as its understanding of the Word. (Apocalypse Revealed
571)
A true worship of God has its origin in things of the Word and not at all in those of
self-intelligence… If you have fashioned such things as are to constitute the worship
of God, and they are not products of the Word but of self-intelligence, no worship
exists. (Arcana Coelestia 8943)
In one instance Swedenborg observed that some preachers in the spiritual
world were let go after preaching about faith alone:
I have heard several reasons why those preachers are deprived of their priestly
status. People gave me the following as the primary reason: “They shape their
sermons to conform with their own earthly light and therefore their own spirit
rather than with the Word and therefore the spirit of God. Yes, they do begin their
sermons by quoting the Word, but they merely touch these quotes to their lips, and
go no further because the quotes do not taste good to them. Instead they soon select
some tasty idea of their own.” (True Christian Religion 810)
In the story of Balaam, the prophet definitely wished to select some tasty
idea of his own. We are told in the Heavenly Doctrine that as he traveled with
his donkey from Syria to meet Balak, “he continually thought upon the use of
enchantments for destroying the sons of Israel.” (Apocalypse Explained 140)
Because of these thoughts the Angel of the Lord came and blocked his
path – an apparition seen clearly by his donkey, but not by Balaam. When
the donkey moved out of the way, and finally would go no farther, Balaam
was enraged and beat her. In the story this caused her to open her mouth
and remonstrate with him, after which the Angel also showed himself and
said: “Only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak.” We have this
explanation:
By the female donkey that Balaam rode is meant, in the spiritual sense of the
Word, the enlightened intellect. The angel with the drawn sword signifies Divine
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