Purpose of Proverbs Translation

The writings of Swedenborg can be pithy and difficult to read in our age. They were originally written in Latin. What I have done here is reflect on sentences and attempt to boil their meaning down into easily understandable "proverbs".

Friday, February 4, 2011

3 Citations from Divine Providence by Emanuel Swedenborg simplified into provberbs

The Lord cannot rid us of (the) evil (in our outer nature) without our help.  D.P. 114

In all Christian churches the accepted teaching is that before we come to take Holy Communion we should:
1.     Examine ourselves
2.     See and admit our sins
3.     Repent by fraining from them and rejecting them because they come from the devil.
Otherwise our sins are not forgiven, and we are damned.  D.P. 114

When people hear sermons on salvation by faith alone, they dismiss the Holy Communion vow.  D.P. 114

All Christian churches share the basic conviction that we need to examine ourselves, see and admit our sins, and then refrain from them; and (that) otherwise we face not salvation but damnation.  D.P. 114

Think about this, then, with some clarity of mind and if you are religious you will see that repentance from sins is the pathway to heaven.  D.P. 114

You will see that faith apart from repentance is not really faith and that people who are without faith because they are without repentance are on the road to hell.  D.P. 114

Some people accept a faith separate from charity.  D.P. 115

Paul lists the laws of faith and says that they are in fact deeds of charity.  D.P. 115

(In the Word) are lists of evil deeds (which) people who do them cannot enter heaven.  D.P. 115

Whatever we hear, see, think, intend, say, and do seems to belong to us completely.  If it did not seem like this, we would not be able to accept divine truth, decide to do good, or internalize love and wisdom.  We would have no charity and faith.  D.P. 116

Does it not seem exactly as though we ourselves think about what is good and true in spiritual, civil, and moral matters?  D.P. 116

We should do what is good and think what is true.  D.P. 116

We are to expel evils.  D.P. 116

Many people do not know that they are involved in evil.  They do not do evil things outwardly.  They are afraid of civil laws and of losing their reputations.  D.P. 117 

Avoid evil deeds on religious grounds because they are sins and are in conflict with God.  D.P. 117

Examine your thoughts and intentions.  D.P. 117

Don’t believe that the law does not condemn sins.  Pay attention to them.  Don’t doubt whether there are such things as sins.  They are sins in God’s sight.  D.P. 117

Natural moralists believe that everything depends on our civic and moral life.  D.P. 117

Natural moralists (only) cultivate a reputation and a name for decency and honest for the sake of position or profit.  D.P. 117

Struggle against sins.  D.P. 118

Don’t only prevent sins from being visible in the world  D.P. 118

The Lord cannot cleanse us until we have done our part.  D.P. 119

Cooperate with the Lord. D.P. 119

We are forms of hell when we are in the grip of our compulsions and the evils they cause.  D.P. 119

The Lord is constantly pressing us, urging us, to open the door.  D.P. 119

There are infinite things in the inner state of our minds.  D.P.  120

Our thought or our inner self is our actual spirit.  D.P. 120

Our senses tell us nothing about the way our minds or souls work.  D.P. 120

We do not know how the Lord is at work in our minds or souls.  D.P. 120

Don’t believe:
1.     Simply believing what the church teaches cleanses us from our evils. 
2.     (Just) doing good cleanses us.
3.     (Just) knowing, discussing, and teaching about churchly matters cleanses us.
4.     (Just) reading the Word and devotional literature cleanses us.
5.     (Just) going to church and listening to sermons and taking Communion cleanses us.
6.     (Just) renouncing the world and being resolutely devout cleanses us.
None of these cleanses us unless we examine ourselves, see our sins, admit them, accept responsibility for them, and repent by not committing them any more.  By the Lord’s power.  D.P. 121

Don’t do 1-6 for credit or hypocritically.  D.P. 121


1 comment:

  1. Thank you for this list! It is great to have these wonderful ideas put so succinctly. Though, the book "Divine Providence" itself is a good read itself too... :)

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