While a person is being regenerated and made spiritual, he is continually in a struggle, which is why the Lord's church is called "militant." Always before this, selfish desires have ruled, since the whole person is made up of purely selfish desires and the miscon­ceptions that come from them. As he is regenerated, his selfish­ness and misconceptions cannot be wiped out instantaneously, for that would amount to destroying the whole person. This is the only life he has acquired! Therefore, evil spirits are left with him for a long time, to stir up his selfish motives and thus permit them to be detached in countless ways, to the point where the Lord can bend the person toward goodness and in this way reform him.

During temptation, all the spiritual nourishment the evil spirits allow a person is like leaves and grass (see Genesis 1:30). Evil spirits totally despise everything that is good and true— i.e. everything related to love for the Lord and belief in Him, which are the only things that are good and true, since they have eternal life in them. But the Lord gives the person nourishment comparable to the herb yielding seed and the tree in which is fruit—in other words, peace and quiet with its joy and happiness— from time to time.

If the Lord did not protect people every moment—even every micro-second—they would be instantly destroyed, for such murderous hatred prevails in the world of spirits against anything related to love for the Lord and belief in Him that it could never be described. I can vouch with certainty that this is the case, since for some years now I have been with spirits in the other life, though also in my body as well. I have been surrounded by bad ones, even the worst of them, and sometimes in the thousands. They have been allowed to pour out their poison and infest me in every way they could, and yet they could not harm my smallest hair, I was so well protected by the Lord. From so many years of experience, I have been thoroughly informed about what the world of spirits is, and also about the struggle that people who are being regenerated must go through to reach the happiness of eternal life. [Arcana Coelestia 59]

The periods and states of a person's regeneration, all together and separately, amount to six, spoken of as the days of his creation. For he changes, step by step, from not human to starting to be human, first a little bit, then more, until the sixth day, when he becomes an "image" of God. [Arcana Coelestia 62]

Meanwhile, the Lord keeps fighting for him against evil influences and false concepts, and through struggles strengthens his position in the truth and in goodness. [Arcana Coelestia 63]

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selfishness and misconceptions cannot

be wiped out instantaneously

for that would amount to destroying

the whole person

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A time of struggle is a time when the Lord is busy, which is why the Prophets call a regenerated person the work of God's fingers. Nor does the struggle abate until love takes the leading role, and then it ceases. When the work reaches the point where belief unites with love, it is called "very good," because then the Lord acts in him as His "likeness."  At the end of the sixth day, the evil spirits withdraw, and the good come in, and the person is brought into heaven, or into heavenly paradise.

"Until the waters had dried up from the earth" (Gen. 8:7). These words refer to the appearance that false concepts go away, as can be concluded from the situation of someone who is being regenerated. Today everybody thinks that the evil inclinations and false ideas in people are shattered and eliminated when they are being regenerated, so that when they are regenerated nothing of .evil and falsity remains, and a person is clean and upright, as if scrubbed and washed with water. But this is a very false concept. Not one evil tendency or false idea is ever shattered and eliminated. Everything received by heredity and acquired by activity remains, so that even a regenerated person is nothing but evil and falsity. This is quite apparent in souls after death.

This becomes quite obvious in the fact that nothing of goodness and nothing of truth is from people. It is from the Lord, and everything bad and false is people's, from their egos. And a person on earth, as well as a spirit, and even an angel, if left to himself in the least, would hurry to hell.  This is why even the Word says that heaven is not pure.

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"until the waters had dried up from the earth"— the appearance that false concepts go away

 (linocut by Donna Heldon © 2009)

The angels accept this, and anyone who does not accept it cannot be among angels. It is only the Lord's mercy that frees them—drags them out of hell, in fact, and holds them back from running into it on their own. Angels are fully aware that the Lord holds them back from hurrying to hell, and so do good spirits to some extent. Evil spirits, like people on earth, do not believe this, but it has often been demonstrated to them.

Since the human condition is such that nothing evil and false can ever be shaken off so as to be eliminated, because people's own lives consist in evil and false things, the Lord, by Divine mercy, sub­dues a person's evils and falsities through temptations to the point where they seem almost lifeless, as He regenerates the person. Yet the evil and false elements are not dead, only controlled so as to keep them from opposing good and true qualities from the Lord. And through temptations the Lord provides a new ability to accept good qualities and true concepts, gifting the person with ideals about good and truth, and an interest in these qualities, toward which bad inclinations and false concepts can be deflected.

The Lord also inserts into a person's general notions particulars, and the details of the particulars, which are tucked away in him and which he knows nothing about.   These are more internal than the sphere of his grasp and notice. The particulars and details are able to serve as receptors or vessels for the Lord to fill with love for others, and fill this love with innocence. Their marvellous blending in a person might represent a kind of rainbow, which is why the rainbow has become a symbol of a covenant (as in Gen. 9:12-17).

When someone has been formed in this way, he is spoken of as reborn. All his bad qualities and wrong concepts remain in existence, yet all his good qualities and true concepts are spared, too.

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heaven is not pure

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As for a bad person in the other life, all his evil ways and false notions, just as they were in his bodily life, come back and are turned into hallucinations and the torments of hell. But as for a good person, all his states of good and truth, like states of friendship, love for others, and selflessness, with their joys and happiness, are brought back, immeasurably expanded and multiplied. So these are the things referred to (Gen. 8:7) by the drying up of the waters, which is the seeming elimination of falsities. [Arcana Coelestia 868]

If people could be reformed under compulsion, there would not be anyone in the universe who was not saved, for nothing would be easier for the Lord than to force people to fear Him and worship Him, even love Him in a sense. The ways are innumerable. But since we do not relate positively to what we do under compulsion and therefore do not make it part of ourselves, far be it from the Lord to force anyone.

So long as a person is struggling, or is a member of the "militant" church, it seems as if the Lord compels him and that he has no freedom. For then he is always struggling with his self-interest and materialism; in other words, against the freedom he was born in and grew up in. This is why there seems to be compulsion. Yet in the struggles in which he wins, there is greater freedom than there is without struggles. The freedom does not belong to him, but to the Lord, and yet it seems like his own. [Arcana Coelestia 2881]

People who are being regenerated are in a quiet state at the very outset, or a state of outward peace. Outward peace, or peace in outward aspects, is known as quietness. It emerges from a state of Divine peace deep within and comes out in surface qualities through the removal of selfish desires and false notions, for these are what cause all unrest. Everyone is also in a state of quiet at the beginning of his life, or in infancy, but the more anyone advances into life, or grows up, the farther he gets from this state. He gets involved in worldly matters and consequently in the anxieties of self-interest and materialism and the false ideas these produce.

It is nearly the same in the new life of someone who is being regenerated. At the outset he enjoys a quiet state, but as he moves into his new life, he moves into an un-

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if people could be reformed under

compulsion

there would not be anyone in the

universe who was not saved

______________________________________________________

quiet state as well. For the evil inclinations and false ideas that he has adopted earlier float up and surface to disturb him—eventually to the point where he is undergoing temptations and harassments by a diabolic swarm who make a constant effort to destroy his new life. Yet he still has a state of peace on the inmost plane. If he did not, he would not resist, since he keeps seeing this state as the purpose of the struggles he is in. Without this as the purpose, he would never have the strength and toughness to fight.

This is also the reason why he wins. And since this inner peace is his purpose, he reaches it after the struggles or temptations. It is like the time of spring for him, after the seasons of autumn and winter pass, or like the time of dawn after the evening and night. [Arcana Coelestia 3696]

When conditions in someone who is being regenerated are reversed—that is, when goodness takes the lead—then temptations come. Before that, the person cannot undergo them, because he lacks concepts to defend himself by and to go back to for reassurance. For the same reason, no one undergoes temptations until he has reached adulthood. Temptations unite the truth with goodness. [Arcana Coelestia 4248]

Today hardly anyone in the Christian world knows the source of temptations. People who undergo them assume that they are just stresses that creep out from evil inclinations deep inside a person, which disturb him at first, then distress him, and finally torment him. But they completely fail to realise that temptations are caused by the evil spirits around someone. They fail to realise it because they are in the company of spirits while they live in the world, and they hardly think there is any spirit at all around them. And yet people are interiorly in the company of spirits and angels all the time!

Temptations set in when someone is in the process of regeneration, for no one can be regenerated without going through temptations. These are brought out by evil spirits

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in the struggles in which one wins,

there is greater freedom than without

struggles

______________________________________________________

who are around the person, for at that time he is placed in his own particular state of evil—that is, the one that belongs to his own ego. When he enters this state, bad spirits, hellish ones, surround him. When they notice that he is inmostly protected by angels, the evil spirits stir up the misbelief that he has thought about and the bad things he has done.  But angels defend him from deep within.

This confrontation is what is felt in the person as temptation, but so faintly that he hardly knows but that it is just anxiety. For people, especially if they know nothing about spiritual influence, are quite in the dark and are hardly aware of a thousandth part of what the evil spirits and angels are disputing. Yet it is about the person and his eternal salvation, and the battle is waged by means of the person, for they are contending on the basis of—and about— qualities in the person. I am privileged to know most certainly that this is so. I have heard the battle, felt the spiritual influence, seen the spirits and the angels, and I have spoken with them at the time and afterwards, even about the controversy.

Temptations mainly come up when someone is becoming spiritual, for then he is getting a spiritual grip on the truths of his belief. The person is often unaware of this, yet the angels around him see traces of spirituality in his worldly interests, inasmuch as his innermost makeup is now open toward heaven. And this is why someone who has been regenerated is among angels after life in this world, and there he both sees and feels spiritual things that formerly seemed like worldly ones to him. So when someone is in this state, he can be defended by angels when attacked by bad spirits during temptation. It gives the angels a foothold to work from.   They influence the spiritual plane in him, and through it the worldly plane.

And so when worldly truth is removed, so that a person has nothing to defend himself with, he enters temptations and is accused by bad spirits, who are all quite worldly-minded. They mainly accuse one of telling lies against what is good. For example, they charge that he has thought and said "you should do good to your neighbour," and has demonstrated it in act.  Then they charge that by "neighbour" he only means people

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people are interiorly in the

company of spirits and angels

all the time

______________________________________________________

who are good and value the truth, but not those who are bad, are dishonest, and cannot be changed. So, since he no longer wants to do good things for bad people—unless they are benefited by punishment to improve them or to keep them from harming others—the spirits charge that he thinks and speaks falsely, and that he does not say what he thinks.

As another example, when someone becomes spiritual he no longer thinks it is holy and pious to give to monasteries, nor even to wealthy churches, and before he became spiritual he had thought these things were holy and pious, so the evil spirits accuse him of duplicity, and they dredge up all the opinions that he used to foster about its being holy and pious, and also everything he did on the basis of that thinking.

Countless other examples are the same. These examples are just a little illustration. The spirits mainly enter the affections that some­one used to have, and stir them up, as well as the dishonest and bad things he has thought of and done, and in this way they lead him into anxiety, and most often into doubt, to the point of despair.

So this is where spiritual anxieties come from, and so-called pangs of conscience. To the person, they seem to be within himself, owing to the passing in—and the passing on. Someone who knows and believes this is like someone who sees himself in a mirror and knows that it is not himself that appears in the mirror or behind it, but his reflection. But anyone who does not know and believe it, is like someone who sees himself in a mirror and thinks that it is he himself who appears there, not his reflection. [Arcana Coelestia 5036]

In people who are being regenerated, a change takes place, in that they have been led to goodness by way of the truth, and afterwards goodness leads them to the truth. When this reversal happens— when their state changes and becomes the opposite of before, they grieve, for then they come under temptation. Through this temptation parts of their self-image are weakened and crippled, and good is brought in, and with the good, a new will, and with this a new freedom, and therefore a new selfhood. In Genesis 44 and 45, this is represented in the brothers of Joseph coming back to Joseph in despair and offering themselves to him as servants, and in their being kept in that state for some time. And Joseph identifies himself to them only after the temptation, for when a temptation is complete, the Lord shines in with consolation. [Arcana Coelestia 5773]

I have discussed with spirits the changing condition of human life, and that it is carried up and down, toward heaven, and toward hell. But those who let themselves be regenerated are carried steadily upward and thus into ever more interior heavenly communities. The Lord gives those who are regenerated extension of range into those communities principally through temptations, in which they resist evil ways and false concepts. For the Lord is then fighting, through angels, against the bad ways and false concepts, and so the person is brought into the more interior communities of those angels. And once he is brought there, he stays. This also gives him a fuller and higher ability to comprehend. [Arcana Coelestia 6611]

When someone is being regenerated, he is placed in struggles against false concepts, and the Lord then holds him to the truth—but to the truth that he has convinced him-

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people in a church of any doctrine

can be regenerated,

but those with genuine truths more

readily than others

______________________________________________________

self is true. By means of this truth false notions are confronted. It is even possible to con­front them from truth that is not genuine, if it is at least of a kind that can identify with goodness to some extent. Integrity is what mates truth with goodness, for integrity is the connecting link. This is why people in a church of any doctrine can be regenerated, but those with genuine truths more readily than others. [Arcana Coelestia 6765]

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spiritual anxieties ... seem to be within oneself

Those who have not been taught about human regeneration will assure you that people can be regenerated without temptation, and sometimes that someone is regenerated when he has come through one temptation.   But it should be known that no one is regenerated without temptation, and that many temptations come, one after another.   The reason is that regeneration takes place in order for the previous life of the person to die away and for a new life that is heavenly to come in.   You can assume from this that there certainly will be a struggle, for the former person resists and does not want to die out, while the life of the new person can enter only where the old life has expired.   Clearly there is a struggle on both sides, and a fierce one because it is a struggle for life.

Thinking with enlightened rationality, one can conclude that people cannot be regenerated without a struggle—in other words, without spiritual temptations. And also that one is not regenerated by one temptation, but by many. For there are many, many kinds of wrong that have become the joy of the previous life—the old life. All those bad practices cannot be mastered once and for all, because they cling tenaciously. They have been rooted in ancestors going back for many centuries and are inborn in the person and confirmed by his deliberate misconduct from childhood. All these bad traits are diametrically opposite to the heavenly goodness that is being introduced and that makes life new. [Arcana Coelestia 8403]

The following quotations are presented as a summary of this chapter:

People who are being regenerated undergo temptations. [Arcana Coelestia 8958]

Temptations are spiritual struggles in a person, for they are struggles between the badness in him from hell and the goodness in him from the Lord. [Arcana Coelestia 8959]

Temptation is induced by evil spirits who take up residence with a person, in his sinful ways and false notions. They stir up his wrongs and accuse him. The angels from the Lord, who reside in his good ways and true beliefs, call forth the true beliefs in him and defend him. [Arcana Coelestia 8960]

Temptations are about the dominion of evil from hell in a person and of goodness from the Lord in him. The evil that wants to con­trol is in the worldly or external person, while the good is in the spiritual or inner person. Therefore temptations are also about the dominance of one of these over the other. If the evil wins, the worldly side of the person dominates the spiritual. If the good wins, then the spiritual side dominates the worldly. [Arcana Coelestia 8961]

These struggles are waged through true beliefs from the Word. A person must fight through these against evils and false concepts. If he uses other means than these, he does not win, because the Lord is not in other means. [Arcana Coelestia 8962]

Since the struggle is waged by true beliefs from the Word, people are not taken into the battle until they have concepts of good and truth and therefore have achieved some spiritual life. For this reason, these struggles do not emerge until people have reached adulthood. [Arcana Coelestia 8963]

Anyone who lacks true beliefs from the Word on the basis of which to fight—who has no spiritual life in him from these beliefs— is not brought into any struggle, because he will fail, and if someone fails, his condition after temptation becomes worse than before. Evil has then acquired power over good, and untruth over truth. [Arcana Coelestia 8964]

Because belief is rare today, the church is coming to an end, so few undergo spiritual temptations today. This is why it is scarcely known what temptations are and what they lead to. [Arcana Coelestia 8965]

Temptations lead to confirmation of true beliefs, implanting them, and making them voluntary, so that they become the good qualities related to love for others. For a person uses true beliefs to fight against bad inclinations and misconceptions, and his mind is aligned with truths, so when he wins, he becomes confirmed in them and implants them. And the bad inclinations and misconceptions he has confronted, these he regards as the enemy, and he rejects them. Temptations also subdue self-indulgent impulses that come from self-interest and worldliness, and they make someone humble. This makes him able to accept heavenly life from the Lord, which is new life, the life of a regenerated person. [Arcana Coelestia 8966]

Through temptations true beliefs are confirmed, good habits of love for others are implanted, and the self-seeking of evil is controlled, so the spiritual or inner person gains control, through temptations, over the worldly or superficial person. In other words, the good state of love for others and of belief gains control over the bad state of self-love and materialism. When that happens, a person gains insight into what is good and what is true, what is evil and what is untrue. From this comes intelligence and wisdom that then increase every day. [Arcana Coelestia 8967]

When valid beliefs are introducing someone to love for others, he undergoes temptations, and when he achieves the good state of loving others, the temptations end, for then he is in heaven. [Arcana Coelestia 8968]

In temptations a person has to struggle against bad inclinations and false concepts as if by himself, and yet believe that the Lord is doing it. If he does not believe it during the actual temptation, because then he is in the dark, he still believes it afterwards. If after temptation someone did not believe that the Lord alone was fighting for him and winning for him, he would only have undergone a superficial temptation, a temptation that did not go deep nor implant any belief or love for others. [Arcana Coelestia 8969]

And note the following statements stressing the reasons why people must be regenerated:

Someone who does not receive spiritual life—i.e., who is not regenerated—cannot enter heaven, as the Lord teaches in John 3:3: "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." [Arcana Coelestia 8548]

People are not born into spiritual life by their parents, but into worldly life. Spiritual life is to love God above all and to love other people as you love yourself, in line with the teachings about faith that the Lord has taught in the Word. Worldly life, however, is to love oneself and the world more than you love other people, even more than God Himself. [Arcana Coelestia 8549]

By his parents, everyone is born into the evils of self-love and materialism. Every bad inclination that comes naturally, so to speak, is handed down to offspring uninterruptedly from parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, going back in a long line. Consequently, the inheritance of evil eventually reaches the point where a person's complete self-life is nothing but evil. This unbroken heritage can be interrupted and changed only by a life of belief and love for others, from the Lord. [Arcana Coelestia 8550]

What someone receives by heredity he inclines toward and always slides into, so that he confirms this evil in himself. He also adds more on his own. [Arcana Coelestia 8551]

These evil ways are quite opposed to spiritual life. They destroy it. Therefore, as to spiritual life, unless someone is conceived again, born and raised again, in other words, created again by the Lord, he is lost, since he wants nothing, and therefore thinks about nothing, except what is from hell. [Arcana Coelestia 8552]

People being like this, the arrangement of their lives is upside-down. What should rule serves, and what should serve rules. For someone to be saved, this alignment must be turned just the other way up. This is done through regeneration by the Lord. [Arcana Coelestia 8553]

For Comments please E-mail: information@swedenborg.ca

Read the next [10th] chapter "The Lord's help in temptation"

Or go to the previous [8th] chapter "The use or purpose of temptation"

[Top]

Introduction   

[1] Where temptations come from    
[2] The Lord's temptations    
[3] All kinds of temptations
[4] The struggles of temptation   
[5] Inward, rational and worldly    
[6] Evil from Hell and Good from Heaven
[7] The mechanics of temptation    
[8] The use or purpose of temptation    
[9] Transformation
[10] The Lord's help in temptation    
[11] It all applies in our daily lives
[12] The necessity of self-examination and repentance    

Appendix
An investigation into the implications of Spiritual Temptations