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Emanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; January 29, 1688 – March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741 at the age of fifty-three he entered into a spiritual phase in which he eventually began to experience dreams and visions beginning on Easter weekend April 6, 1744. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, whereupon he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his spiritual eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons and other spirits.
As I read some about Swedenborg, I couldn’t help but see some coincidental parallels to Joseph Smith, in his life and his teachings.
Some interesting things about Swedenborg:
– Swedenborg’s desire to understand the order and purpose of creation first led him to investigate the structure of matter and the process of creation itself. In one of his books, he presents the view that the soul is based on material substances.
– As stated in the overview above, he had visions and dreams and had his “spiritual eyes” opened.
– In one dream, a man told Swedenborg that He (the man in the dream) was the Lord, that He had appointed Swedenborg to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. The same night, the spiritual world was opened to Swedenborg.
– He took up afresh his study of Hebrew and began to work on the spiritual interpretation of the Bible with the goal of interpreting the spiritual meaning of every verse.
– Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church.
– Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other.
– Swedenborg taught the World of Spirits is located half-way between heaven and hell, which everyone passes through on their way to heaven or hell. He believed the Judgment had already taken place because the Christian church had lost its charity and faith, resulting in a loss of spiritual free will that threatened the equilibrium between heaven and hell in everyone’s life. Basically, the apostacy, although he never claimed a restored authority, only the calling from God to correct the teachings of faith and charity.
– The quality of the relationship between husband and wife resumes in the spiritual world in whatever state it was at their death in this world. Thus, a couple in true spiritual love remain together in that state in heaven for eternity.
– There is evidence that Swedenborg wrote a letter to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in February 1772, saying he (Swedenborg) had been told in the world of spirits that Wesley wanted to speak with him. Wesley, startled, since he had not told anyone of his interest in Swedenborg, replied that he was going on a journey for six months and would contact Swedenborg on his return. Swedenborg replied that that would be too late since he (Swedenborg) would be going to the spiritual world for the last time on March 29. Indeed, Swedenborg died on March 29th, as predicted.
Some differences between Swedenborg and Joseph Smith:
– Swedenborg never attempted to establish a church, although after his death many reading groups gathered to begin understanding his works, and his works were very influential to writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Adam Mickiewicz, Honoré de Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges, Carl Jung, Helen Keller, and even Johnny Appleseed.
I think I could find space in my faith to believe that God very well could work through people like Swedenborg, just as much as Joseph Smith. If Swedenborg taught Charity was critical to faith, and often lacking in the current churches … he may have been on to something divinely inspired.
Do you think his experiences could be just as valid as Joseph Smith’s?
Answer which poll question you mostly align with, and then feel free to comment about how you process things like this, where others have had visitations or spiritual experiences and what that means to you.
If you read my other thread on whether we can learn much from history, since most of it is unverifiable, you’ll understand why I said Swedenborg’s experience is no less valid to me than Joseph Smith or Tom Haws. Swedenborg is a favorite of Tom’s 
Heaven and Hell” has been referenced here in other threads. If you do a word search for his last name (“Search” box at the top right corner of the page), you can read all of the comments about and references to him that are in our archives. I have no idea, really, how “eternally, universally valid” anyone else’s experiences are, but I certainly am not opposed to the idea that lots of other people have had “real” revelations and prophetic experiences. I think our canonized scriptures are crystal clear that not all prophets are accepted as such and that there are certain times when many prophets come out of the woodwork in droves – out of nowhere, so to speak. For example, the Second Great Awakening reads a lot like the time of Lehi in Jerusalem in many ways.
That alone ought to give us pause if we are inclined to brush off someone like Swedenborg without seriously considering their words.
Major influence on William Blake and Rudolf Steiner… qv… I voted for them all being the same and equal because that was the closest option for my opinion, I think. But I don’t really think they are all exactly the same or equal in value or meaning, just that I think they all come from God, and they are all
similar. Each “prophet” from JS to Swedenberg to someone like Tom (just using him as an example) are all telling a story from God. They are not the same. They are not all equal. Each one will take you on a different trip. I like to describe these types of things as all being rides in the same amusement park. Does that make sense? Disney World has many different rides. Some are scary and full of thrills, and some are peaceful and happy, full of song. They are not the same ride. They are not all equal. But they all provide amusement. Everyone enters by the same gate and exits by the same gate. Everyone needs to pay admittance or have a ticket. I’m not sure exactly what that correlates to in the Church or the Gospel precisely, but I think that describes the role of different religions and different holy prophets. They are all rides in an amusement park. They all take you on a trip that goes somewhere.
I like what Brian said. Swedenborg is Swedenborg, Smith is Smith, and you are you. The full experience involves riding on more than one ride. I wasn’t sure whether to vote 3 or 4. I voted 4, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we are all prophets of God. I just liked the idea that the revelations are all meaningful for enlightenment. I definitely don’t consider Swedenborg a lesser prophet than Joseph Smith. After all, as has been said, one thing he has going for him is he didn’t start a church.
😆 Tom Haws wrote:I like what Brian said. Swedenborg is Swedenborg, Smith is Smith, and you are you. The full experience involves riding on more than one ride. I wasn’t sure whether to vote 3 or 4. I voted 4, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think we are all prophets of God. I just liked the idea that the revelations are all meaningful for enlightenment.
I definitely don’t consider Swedenborg a lesser prophet than Joseph Smith. After all, as has been said, one thing he has going for him is he didn’t start a church.
😆 Actually he did…
PiperAlpha wrote:…I think I could find space in my faith to believe that God very well could work through people like Swedenborg, just as much as Joseph Smith. If Swedenborg taught Charity was critical to faith, and often lacking in the current churches … he may have been on to something divinely inspired.
Do you think his experiences could be just as valid as Joseph Smith’s?… Answer which poll question you mostly align with, and then feel free to comment about how you process things like this, where others have had visitations or spiritual experiences and what that means to you.I voted that these experiences aren’t necessarily from God but are still valid spiritual experiences because that was the closest description of what I think about this. However, even if some of Joseph Smith’s reported visions or “revelations” were legitimate mystical experiences he couldn’t really explain I think in his case you also have to also consider the possibility of conscious fraud in some cases. For example, he and others around him talked about physical plates the Book of Mormon was supposedly translated from so where would this idea come from if these plates weren’t really given to him and taken back by an angel?
Even worse is the Book of Abraham because if it was really “inspired” it seems to me that part of the inspiration should have been to not claim that it was a translation of the funeral text papyrus fragments he was showing people. If someone claims that entire books are the literal word of God and this later appears to be wrong then they probably deserve to lose some credibility and it’s hard to really expect people to have much confidence in them. I don’t know if Swedenborg ever made any claims like this but if he really had a remote vision of the Stockholm fire all skeptics can say about it is that maybe he lied or it was a lucky coincidence. Personally, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt about their “spiritual” experiences until there is a good reason to suspect they were lying or misinterpreting what these experiences really mean.
SamBee wrote:Hmm. Not sure. Did he start that, or is it like Christianity, a retrofit on his teachings? I tend to think Jesus didn’t start a church either. It seems he just did the Jewish thing.
It seems that there are several Swedenborgian organisations. (No surprise) William Blake is one of his most noted followers. Rudolf Steiner (google) was also highly influenced by him. As for Jesus, depends what you mean by Judaism. Most Jews now seem to follow the legalistic, hair-splitting, rabbinical school of Judaism. Jesus’ Judaism was the spirit, not the letter of the law.
[img]http://www.brynathyn.edu/visit/facilities/images/cathedral.jpg [/img] 
[img]http://www.whateverproductions.us/ExplorePA/BrynAthynS.jpg [/img] Swedenborg did not start any church himself. However, as pointed out, some followers who were really moved by his teachings did organize. Depends what you mean by start. If you put something out there, it will invariably have an effect. SamBee wrote:Depends what you mean by start. If you put something out there, it will invariably have an effect.
I think there is a difference between Joseph Smith starting a church, and Swedenborg who taught about his revelations and the “clarifications” of the bible … and then others started a church after him. Just to mention that intent in the person who “put something out there”… but I’d agree with you Sam, he is the one who started it. I just didn’t get any impression he intended to start a church.
I wonder if Swedenborg lived in the New World if there would have been more freedoms to be able to start something?
Yes, I think things would have been quite different if he lived in the USA.
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