Lesson 3 – Third Law of Divine Providence
Transcript
In this episode we will discuss the third law of Divine Providence.
The third law is that we should not be compelled to believe in God, in His providence, or in anything because compulsion takes away freedom.
It states: It is a Law of Divine Providence that we should not be compelled by outside forces to think and intend and so believe and love in matters of our religion, but that we should guide ourselves and sometimes compel ourselves.
Puppets and robots don’t have thoughts or feelings, have no will of their own and so no freedom. For time immemorial, as far as we can know, wars have been fought over freedom – to protect it or regain it, including the freedom to believe as we choose and live accordingly: in other words – freedom of thought and religion. As a Swedenborgian and Libertarian, I feel so strongly about freedom that I have placed it as a paramount principle in this ministry and have summarised the so called inalienable rights in a different video – and if I can remember it, I will put a link of it in the comments 😊
No one wants to be coerced, which amounts to slavery. God wants for us to make good choices, but he will not – in fact cannot – force us to do so. God’s will is that each and every one of us gets to heaven by actually choosing to live a heavenly life, a heavenly state of mind, which is so beautifully promised in and depicted by the Exodus story. But God must and will leave people free to reject what is good and true and choose to live a hellish (selfish) life.
In Divine Providence, we read:
[2] We can be compelled to say that we think and intend something or that we believe and love something, but unless this is or becomes a matter of our own desire and our consequent reasoning, it is not something that we really think, intend, believe, and love. We can also be compelled to speak in favour of religion and to act according to religion, but we cannot be compelled to think in its favour as a matter of our own faith and to intend it as a matter of our own love. (DP 129)
Swedenborg asserts that no-one can be reformed by threats and punishments, or even by miracles and visions of the afterlife.
In order for our faith to be transformative and real, and for our spiritual reformation to be effective, we have to examine ourselves in the light of the values we hold and profess to and judge ourselves if we are living in accordance with them. In other words, we have responsibility for ourselves to check if we are true to our beliefs or not. It is only when we voluntarily and consciously choose to act in accordance with our faith that our character change takes place in reality. That we see real change to our mental state, reforming our mind and spirit.
An external event like a miracle may make a big impression, and it may even force us to rethink our beliefs. However, “force” is the key word here. If we have a vision of God telling us to go help the poor, we may feel compelled to do so simply because of the overwhelming experience we’ve just had. It’s no different from acting to help others because an authority figure has told us that we must do so. If we have not consciously chosen to become a better person, to do good simply because it is good, then our inner selves are not changing—and deep inside is where it really counts. What we actually do doesn’t matter if we’re motivated by fear or external pressure.
For the same reason, people who have mental illnesses, or who suffer from some other disability that prevents them using their freedom and rationality, are not held spiritually responsible for their actions. This also includes emergency situations where a person is acting out of instinct or desperation, or times and places where people are genuinely ignorant of spiritual truths.
It is for this reason too that death-bed confessions are of no real value. Why last rights being read has no effect on the spiritual state of the person and so the quality of the afterlife that correlates to that persons character.
Furthermore, this law gives us a great hint too, as to how we should engage in introspection. That is, we need to consider the thoughts and feelings we would prefer to act on and give life to if we had no external forces pressuring us to comply with other expectations. Because it is those thoughts and feelings that define us, even if we are not acting upon them. For example, the law prevents us from stealing, but would we steal something if there were no external consequences? Peer pressure requires us to conform to certain standards of behaviour, but would we be as polite or helpful if we did not feel any external pressure to conform to the expectations of others?
Of course, we need to have a humble willingness to learn and so an open mind seeking to know what is true and a genuine effort seeking to apply the same with good intent.
This takes us to the fourth 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.
Look forward to join me in the next lesson.