New Church Life May/Jun 2014 | Page 21

      Swedenborg as his spiritual eyes were opened. But the Lord appeared to him several times, beginning in 1745, yet one appearance was not apparently more significant than another. We do find the statement “1747, the 7th day of August (old calendar): a change of state in me, [introducing me] into the heavenly Kingdom, in figure,” (Spiritual Experiences 148e, taken from the Biblical Index which he was then making). This occurs relatively early in the process and apparently is never referred to again. So it has never been a date that New Church people have focused upon. Also, Swedenborg’s spiritual eyes were opened very gradually, with numerous steps along the way. So even when, in hindsight, Swedenborg gives a year for when his eyes were opened, he gives differing years as the date! This was probably due to it being a long process, with any one of a number of years which could be selected. However, this does make it challenging to have a precise time to locate this essential precursor to the giving of this revelation. When the Writings were first being revealed to Swedenborg might suggest a date, since they are the means by which the judgment occurred in the spiritual world and are now the foundation for this new dispensation. But there are challenges with this. When did they start? In the recent translation of Spiritual Experiences much material was brought in from the Word Explained, which has traditionally been considered a pre-theological work. The reasoning is that Swedenborg was recording spiritual experiences there and thus they are part of the later material. But it makes a starting point fuzzy, to say the least. Perhaps we could look at when the Arcana Coelestia, the first work of the Writings carried through to publication, came out. There is a date on the first page of volume one – 1747. But since the work comprised eight Latin volumes published from 1747-1756, and no specific day of the year is listed in the first volume, that has not provided a clear point in time. The Last Judgment might be a logical date to focus on. After all, it was a spiritually transforming experience for the entire human race. But it was an event of long duration with no clear cut-off date. One could argue it was the culmination of centuries of growing religious darkness. And even when we focus on the events described in the Spiritual Experiences and then in the Last Judgment works, they began in late 1756 and were completed in 1757. Again, not with any specific day nor with any specific cataclysmic event to highlight – either in this world or the next.2 2  Previous judgments on churches have also been like this. We are given many judgment events relative to the Ancient Church. The Lord’s judgment on the Israelitish Church and establishment of the First Christian Church can be tied to the crucifixion and then rising on the first day of the week, commemorated by Good Friday and Easter. But it was really the Lord’s entire life, teaching and resisting of the hells in temptations that effected that judgment. 229