124、由于在当今教会，许多人缺乏对死后生命的信仰，几乎不信天堂和作为天地之神的主，所以我灵的内层被主打开，好叫我留在肉体中，同时又能与天堂天使同在，不仅与他们交谈，还看到那里令人惊叹的景象并描述它们，以防今后又有人说：“谁从天堂来到我们这里报告说，有这么一个地方，并且那里有什么东西？”不过，我知道，那些之前就发自内心否认天堂与地狱，以及死后生命存在的人更加不信并继续否认它们的存在。事实上，把乌鸦变成白的，都比让那些发自内心拒绝信仰的人去相信容易。原因在于，他们对这类事总是持消极否定的态度，从来不持积极肯定的态度。到目前为止我所说，以及还要进一步所说关于天使和灵人的话是对少数相信的人说的。然而，为把其余的人引向某种承认，我蒙允许讲述诸如令好奇心强的人感兴趣，并能引起他们注意力的那类事，现在便讲述星空中的诸星球。
124. Since many in the present-day church 1do not believe in life after death and scarcely believe that heaven exists or that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, the deeper levels of my spirit have been opened so that even while I am in my body I can at the same time be in the company of angels in heaven and not only talk with them but also see amazing things there and describe them. This is so that no one in the future will say, “Who has come from heaven to tell us that it exists and describe what is there?” 2
All the same, I am well aware that people who at heart have already denied the reality of heaven and hell and life after death will be adamantly opposed to these descriptions and will deny them, because it is easier to make a crow white 3than it is to make people believe something once they have rejected faith from their heart. This is because they constantly approach such matters from a negative perspective and not from an affirmative one. 4
What I have said and am about to say about angels and spirits is primarily for those few who believe. Nevertheless, in order that others too may be persuaded to accept at least a few of these ideas, I have been allowed to include the sort of details that appeal to and intrigue the curious. The next stories will be about extrasolar planets.
Footnotes:
1. By “the present-day church,” Swedenborg here refers to the Christian church as it existed in his day. On Swedenborg’s use of the term “church,” see note 3 in New Jerusalem 4. [Editors]
2. Compare Proverbs 30:4, “Who has ascended to heaven and come down?” (New Revised Standard Version) and its echoes in John 3:13 and Romans 10:6. See also similar statements in Secrets of Heaven 5224; Heaven and Hell 1, 312:3; Last Judgment 15[3]; Marriage Love 39; True Christianity 160:4. [SS, LSW]
3. The ease with which absurd propositions can be proven by scholarly rhetoric is a common theme of Swedenborg’s, and his favorite example is the argument “proving” that crows (or ravens) are white. See Divine Providence 318:4; Marriage Love 233:4; True Christianity 334:5; Revelation Explained (= Swedenborg 1994-1997a) 824:2. The use of white crows or ravens as counterexamples in philosophy has a long history going back at least to Aristotle’s Prior Analytics 26a38 (= Aristotle 1984, 42). [SS, RS]
4. For more discussion of the negative and affirmative perspectives mentioned here, and the results of each, see Secrets of Heaven 2568, 2588, 3913, 4760; Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) 4533-4536, 4577[a]. [LSW]
124. Since many in the church to-day lack any belief in life after death, and almost all belief in heaven and in the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, I have had the interiors of my spirit opened by the Lord, so that I can, while remaining in the body, be together with angels in heaven, not only talking with them, but seeing the astonishing sights of heaven and describing them. This may prevent them afterwards asking, who has come from heaven to us and reported on its existence and what it contains? But I know that those who have previously denied in their hearts the existence of heaven and hell, and life after death, will become all the more set in their unbelief and continue to deny their existence. It is easier to turn a raven white than to turn those who have once rejected belief at heart into believers. This is because they always take a negative, never a positive, view of such matters. So let what I have so far said and shall say further about spirits and angels be addressed to the few who do believe. However, to guide the rest to some sort of acknowledgment, I have been allowed to report facts likely to entertain and excite the attention of the curious; so I shall also report now on the worlds in the starry sky.
124. Because at this day with many in the church there is no belief in the life after death, and scarce any belief in heaven, nor in the Lord as the God of heaven and earth; therefore the interiors which are of my spirit have been opened by the Lord, so that while still in the body, I can at the same time be with angels in heaven, and not only speak with them, but also see the stupendous things there, and describe them; so that it may not chance to be said hereafter, "Who has come to us from heaven and told us that there is such a place, and what there is there?" But I know that they who in heart have before denied heaven and hell and the life after death, will still confirm themselves against them, and deny them; for it is easier to make a crow white, than to make those believe who have once rejected faith in the heart. The reason is, that they always think of such things from the negative, and not from the affirmative. Nevertheless, let what has been said hitherto, and what is still further to be said concerning angels and spirits, be for the few who are in faith. And that the rest also may be led along to something of acknowledgment it has been conceded to relate such things as delight and attract the man who is desirous of knowing; and now about the earths in the starry heaven.
124. Quia hodie in Ecclesia apud multos nulla fides est de vita post mortem, et vix aliqua de coelo, nec de Domino quod sit Deus coeli et terrae; ideo interiora, quae sunt spiritus mei, a Domino aperta sunt, ut possim, dum in corpore sum, simul cum angelis in coelo esse, et non modo loqui cum illis, sed etiam ibi videre stupenda, et eadem describere; ne forte posthac etiam dicturi sint, quis ex coelo ad nos venit et narravit quod sit, et quae ibi. Sed scio quod, qui corde prius negaverunt Coelum et Infernum, ac vitam post mortem, etiam contra illa se obfirmaturi sint, et negaturi; nam facilius est corvum album facere, quam efficere ut credant, qui semel corde rejecerunt fidem; causa est, quia de talibus semper cogitant ex negativo, et non ex affirmativo. Sint usque haec, quae de Angelis et Spiritibus hactenus dicta sunt, et ulterius dicenda, pro paucis illis qui in fide sunt: ut autem reliqui etiam perducantur ad aliquid agnitionis, concessum est memorare talia, quae delectant et allectant hominem sciendi cupidum, quae nunc quoque erunt de Telluribus in Coelo astrifero.