Lesson 1 – First Law of Divine Providence
Transcript and notes
The first law is that God permits evil to exist, which I prefer to call selfishness, for the sake of our freedom: that we should be free to think for ourselves and behave in a manner we ourselves think appropriate.
It states: It is a Law of Divine Providence that we should act in freedom and in accord with reason
To me it seems fundamentally obvious that, unless we are in fact free, we would only be mere automatons – robots or string puppets. Without freedom we would have no ability to exercise our own will, nor behave in a way we would want. In fact, we would not even be able to contemplate, but would simply be – knowing nothing other than what is.
That makes this likely to be THE most important divine law to understand. It also is rudimentary to the other laws and the principal of it is nowhere else explained as clearly as in Swedenborg’s spiritual philosophy.
Let me offer a couple of quotes to highlight this
The first from the book Divine Providence:
Rationality enables us to think on a higher level, and freedom enables us to think that way from desire, intentionally. If we did not have the freedom to think that way, that is, we would not have the intention and therefore would not have the thought.
The result is that if we do not want to understand anything except what has to do with this world and its nature, if we do not want to understand what is good and true on moral and spiritual levels, we cannot rise from knowledge into intelligence, let alone from intelligence into wisdom, because we have blocked off these abilities. (Divine Providence, 75)
The second from a small book, but an absolutely fantastic introduction to Swedenborg’s entire theology, called “New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine”, which is also published as “The Heavenly City” or “Introducing The New Jerusalem”.
“The seed that is sown in freedom lasts; but what is sown under compulsion does not, because compulsion is not in accordance with the person’s will, but with the will of the one who compels” (New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine n. 143)
Now freedom, or free will, canNOT be separated from acting contrary to what is good and true – which is selfishness – commonly called evil.
Swedenborg clearly explains the origin of evil and our freedom in another book: “Divine Love and Wisdom” and this quote too goes to support this primary law of providence.
“The origin of evil is the abuse of the abilities proper to us called rationality and freedom. By rationality, I mean the ability to discern what is true and therefore what is false, and to discern what is good and therefore what is evil. By freedom, I mean the ability freely to think, intend, and to do such things.” (Divine Love and Wisdom#264)
It may help to summarise the philosophy Swedenborg proposes by saying that we are protected under Divine Providence to be in a state receptive of both good and evil and allowed to decide upon which to accept and own and thereby affecting the quality of our character – to determine who we are and want to be. By deciding for ourselves which thoughts and affections to accept and act upon we are able to shape our own character.
As said already, if we were not able to make choices, we would not feel like autonomous beings, but more like marionettes (puppets controlled by a puppet master). That would in fact be no life worth living, if life at all.
Moreover, it is exactly this freedom that makes us distinctly human, but more on that another time. To elaborate and give a further insight into my understanding of how I believe things operate, I offer a rudimentary perspective in a diagram here:
This diagram shows in essence that:
- We are not our thoughts and feelings, but that these flow into us. We don’t have conscious control of these. Swedenborg calls this influx. He describes that these flow into us from the spiritual realm.
- We can, and must, however, reflect on these thoughts and feelings. Those trigger and affect our understanding and affections, but are also influenced by our understanding and loves. It is here we decide which thoughts and affections we wish to hold on to and own and which to reject.
- Finally, the thoughts and affections underpin our behaviour, our deeds and words. While it isn’t directly necessary to externalise our thoughts and affections for them to shape our character, when we do, they certainly affect our character with each confirmation in word and deed. It is also at this most external level of life that we are able to most readily able to reflect on the quality of our thoughts and affections. In other words, what we love!
As I said, freedom is fundamental, because it places us in our own driver seat. We ought to take full responsibility for our state of mind and thus quality of character. We will hear that this freedom is very much protected by God, because it goes to who we are.
Swedenborg says that “we are what we love.” (Divine Love and Wisdom #1). The bible, in proverbs, says the same thing: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7).
Our rational mind is able to reflect on the thoughts and feelings flowing into us and we are therefore consciously able to determine which to affirm and own or reject.
By our own choices then, we change what we believe and what we love. And it is what we love that determines our character – nee is our essential character. It becomes obvious then that we cannot instantaneously change our essential character and nature without at the same time destroying who we are.
Let me repeat that!
We cannot instantaneously change our essential character and nature without at the same time destroying who we are!
We can only remain who we are if we change ourselves – voluntarily – which is a progressive and gradual process.
Now let us briefly turn to the Bible too.
That we have this freedom and choice is clear from experience and the Word in Luke:
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)
God, being Love itself, cannot dominate or control, but allows for freedom and others expressing their own will. This doesn’t mean God is absent or not actively involved. Through Divine Providence, God guides, protects and nurtures us in and through our freedom.
This, of course, is no different to any parent seeing their children grow up and needing to allow them to make their own mistakes and learn about life by themselves. This is because the alternative, sheltering our children from themselves and reality, would not allow them to learn the mental tools to become resilient, useful and dependable human beings capable of having their own rational will or purposeful intent.
It is for this reason – (that we are allowed to be free)- that Swedenborg writes that regardless of a person’s spiritual or philosophical beliefs, if they have their heart and mind set to prioritise first and foremost what is good and true and apply what they believe to be so, they lead a life to and have a place in heaven. Because it is those who have the humility to accept reality as it is, a willingness to learn and the will to apply the truth as they understand it, who are able to grow into eternity and are in a heavenly state of mind.
In Apocalypse Explained we read:
everyone who knows them and lives according to them [Ten Commandments], not merely from the civil and moral law, but also from the Divine law, will be saved; thus everyone in his own religion, whether Christian or Mohammedan or Gentile. And what is more, a man who from religion lives these truths, even if in the world he knows nothing about the Lord [Jesus Christ], nor anything else from the Word, yet he is in such a state as to his spirit that he wishes to become wise; consequently after death he is instructed by the angels and acknowledges the Lord and receives truths according to his affection and becomes an angel. (AE 1179)
and a little further on in next section he is more direct:
in whatever religion a man may live he can be saved (AE 1180
We also find it nicely summarised in our topic book: Divine Providence
Please listen, though! No matter what religion people are born into, people can all be saved if they believe in God and live by the precepts of the Ten Commandments–not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to commit perjury, because to do so would be contrary to THEIR religion and therefore contrary to God. (DP253)
Jesus also clarified this when he told His disciples “He who is not against us is for us.” (see Mark 9:38-41 or Luke 9:49-50)
Also John chapter 14 verse 2 highlights the idea of liberty and God accommodating the many different ways of understanding the Divine, being Love and Wisdom or what is Good and True.
Why am I sharing these last few quotes?
Well, to highlight that it is nonsensical to force others to become members of a particular religion or to act as a judge and say only if you believe exactly as I, can you please God, be a good person, be enlightened and go to heaven. We all must accept that the Lord guides each one individually on their own path and never breaks anyone’s will. Who are we then to decide that things are so black and white? The only fundamentals are to believe in a Divine Creator and to live according to one’s religion with the heart intent of doing what is good and a humble willingness to learn what is true.
Finally, I will add here, to make it clear, that we cannot be reformed if rationality is absent. To change our nature, we must change freely and willingly. This in turn can only occur in a state where we understand our choices. We cannot have consent, being a decision of free will, without being informed and aware of that which we consent to and so choose. There is no choice without understanding the consequences and alternatives.
So for example in states of fear, disease, insanity, or ignorance, such as when affected by drugs, having been forcibly manipulated or brainwashed, or under some kind of duress; when we aren’t able to make informed, rational decisions, we are unable to effect and change to our nature. If we are not truly free, our choices have no effect on our character and spiritual destiny. However, as long as we are of sound mind and body, we must be free to choose – even if what we choose is not what God wants for us.
Allow me to share a longer section from Divine Providence, in which Swedenborg explains different scenarios in which Freedom is absent. This is important, because without freedom there is no spiritual transformation and so no consequences of our choices.
In other words again, without true freedom we are spiritually blind!
I have stated that everyone has the ability to intend called freedom and the ability to discern called rationality, but it needs to be clearly understood that these abilities are virtually instinctive in us. They are what make us human.
As I have already explained, it is one thing to act freely and rationally and another thing to act in true freedom and with true rationality. Only people who have allowed themselves to be regenerated by the Lord can act in true freedom and with true rationality.
[2] Real freedom and real rationality are impossible for people who are born feebleminded or who have become so, as long as they remain feebleminded. Real freedom and real rationality are impossible for people who are born dense and dull or who have become so through idleness or some sickness that distorts or shuts down the deeper levels of the mind, or else through a love for bestial living.
[3] Real freedom and real rationality are impossible for people in the Christian world who resolutely deny the Lord’s divine nature and the holiness of the Word and who maintain this denial decisively all the way to the end of their lives. This is what “the sin against the Holy Spirit” means, the sin that is not forgiven in this age or in the age to come (Matthew 12:31, 32).
[4] Real freedom and real rationality are also impossible for people who attribute everything to the material world and nothing to Divinity and who make this a part of their faith by arguments based on visual evidence, because they are atheists.
[5] Real freedom and real rationality are difficult for people who have to a large extent convinced themselves of false religious principles, because people who convince themselves of false principles are denying true ones. If they have not convinced themselves, though, they can [have true freedom and rationality] no matter what their religion is.
[6] Little children and youths cannot attain to true freedom and rationality until they reach the age of maturity, because the deeper levels of our minds are opened only gradually. In the meanwhile they are like seeds in unripe fruit that cannot sprout when they are planted.
(Divine Providence n. 98)
And to the extent possible, without removing our freedom, God protects and provides us with a spiritual equilibrium between Hellish influences and Heavenly influences, so that we can choose either freely. This is referring to the influx we discussed earlier – the inflow of thoughts and affections from the spiritual world.
We read this promise in Arcana Coelestia and Divine Providence.
There is a sphere of endeavours to do evil from the hells, and a sphere of endeavours to do good from the heavens, between which there is equilibrium, so that man may be in freedom, and can be reformed (AC 8209)
The Lord guards the freedom in a person as a person does the pupil of his eye. (DP97)
This leads us to the second law of Divine Providence, which we will discuss in the next lesson. Don’t forget to comment in the Activity Feed and share if you enjoyed this.
Thanks for watching and please join me in the next lesson.