True Christian Religion (Ager) n. 580

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

580. Every man may be regenerated, each according to his state; for the simple and the learned are regenerated differently; as are those engaged in different pursuits, and those who fill different offices; those who search into the external things of the Word, and those who search into its internals; those who are principled in natural good from their parents, and those who are in evil; those who from their infancy have entered into the vanities of the world, and those who sooner or later have withdrawn from them; in a word, those who constitute the Lord's external church are regenerated differently from those who constitute His internal church, and this variety, like that of men's features and dispositions, is infinite; and yet everyone, according to his state, may be regenerated and saved. [2] The truth of this can be seen in the heavens, to which all the regenerate go, in that there are three heavens, a highest, a middle, and a lowest; and those who by regeneration acquire love to the Lord enter the highest heaven, those who acquire love to the neighbor, enter the middle heaven, and those who merely practice external charity, but at the same time acknowledge the Lord as God the Redeemer and Savior, enter the lowest heaven. All these are saved but in different ways. [3] All may be regenerated and thus saved, because the Lord with His Divine good and truth is present with every man; this is the source of everyone's life and his ability to understand and will, together with freedom of choice in spiritual things; in no man are these lacking. And the means to these are also given, for Christians in the Word, and for Gentiles in their religions, which teach that there is a God, and which furnish precepts respecting good and evil. From all this it follows that everyone may be saved; consequently that it is not the Lord's fault if man is not saved, but man's, because he does not co-operate.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church