THE LAWS OF PERMISSION
ARE ALSO
LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE
(CONTINUATION)
nos.253-255

Selection from
ANGELIC WISDOM
CONCERNING
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Translated from the Latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

• For the natural man says in his heart, How can so many discordant religions exist, instead of one true religion over all the earth, if the Divine providence has as its end a heaven from the human race (as shown above, DP  27-45)?  But listen, I pray: All the human beings that are born, however many and in whatever religion, can be saved, provided they acknowledge God and live according to the commandments in the Decalogue, which are not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to bear false witness, for the reason that doing such things is contrary to religion, and thus contrary to God. Such fear God and love the neighbor; they fear God in the thought that to do such things is contrary to God; and they love the neighbor in the thought that to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, to bear false witness, and to covet the neighbor's house or wife is against the neighbor. Because such in their life look to God, and do not do evil to the neighbor, they are led by the Lord; and those who are led are also taught in accordance with their religion, about God and about the neighbor; for those who so live love to be taught, while those who live otherwise do not; and because they love to be taught, when after death they become spirits they are instructed by the angels and gladly accept such truths as are in the Word. Something about these may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 91-97, and n. 104-113).

• The merely natural man confirms himself against the Divine providence when he considers the religious condition of various peoples - that there are some who are totally ignorant of God, and some who worship the sun and moon, and some who worship idols and graven images. Those who draw arguments from these things against the Divine providence are ignorant of the arcana of heaven, which are innumerable, and with scarcely one of which man is acquainted, among which is this, that man is not taught immediately from heaven but mediately (see above, DP 154-174). And because man is taught mediately, and the Gospel could not reach through missionaries all that dwell in the whole world, and yet religion could be communicated in various ways even to the nations that occupy the remote parts of the earth, therefore this has been accomplished by the Divine providence. For no man gets his religion from himself, but through another, who has either learned directly from the Word, or by transmission from others who have learned it, that there is a God, that there are a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, and that in order to become happy God must be worshiped.

That a religion was spread throughout the world from the Ancient Word, and afterwards from the Israelitish Word, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 101-103); and that if there had been no Word there could have been no knowledge of God, of heaven and of hell, of the life after death, still less of the Lord, see the same work (n. 114-118). When a religion has been once implanted in a nation the Lord leads that nation according to the precepts and dogmas of its own religion; and He has provided that there shall be in every religion precepts like those in the Decalogue; as, that God must be worshiped, His name must not be profaned, a sacred day must be observed, parents must be honored, and there must be no murder, adultery, theft, or false witness. The nation that regards these precepts as Divine and lives according to them from a religious motive is saved (as has been said just above, DP 253). Moreover, most nations remote from Christendom regard these not as civil but as Divine laws, and hold them sacred. That man is saved by a life according to these precepts may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem [concerning Life] from the Commandments of the Decalogue, from beginning to end.

Among the arcana of heaven is this also: The angelic heaven before the Lord is as one man, whose soul and life is the Lord; and this Divine Man is a man in complete form, not only in respect to external members and organs, but also in respect to internal members and organs, which are many, and even with respect to the skins, membranes, cartilages, and bones; but in that Man all these are spiritual, not material. And it has been provided by the Lord that those also who could not be reached by the Gospel, but only by a religion, should also be able to have a place in that Divine Man, that is, in heaven, constituting those parts that are called skins, membranes, cartilages, and bones, and that they, like others, should be in heavenly joy. For it matters not whether they are in joy like that of the angels of the highest heaven or in joy like that of the angels of the lowest heaven; for every one who comes into heaven enters into the highest joy of his heart; he can bear no higher joy, for he would be suffocated thereby.

This may be compared to a peasant and a king. A peasant may be in a state of the highest joy when he goes about with a new suit of coarse wool, and sits down to a table on which is pork, a bit of beef, cheese, beer, and common wine, and would be oppressed at heart if like a king he were clothed in purple and silk, gold and silver, and a table were placed before him covered with delicacies and costly dishes of many kinds, with noble wine. From this it is clear that there is heavenly happiness for the last as well as for the first, for each in his degree; so also for those who are outside of the Christian world, provided they shun evils as sins against God because they are contrary to religion.

There are a few who are wholly ignorant of God. That if such have lived a moral life they are taught by angels after death and receive in their moral life something spiritual, can be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 116). So with those who worship the sun and moon, believing God to be there; as they do not know otherwise this is not imputed to them as a sin; for the Lord says,

If ye were blind (that is, if ye did not know) ye would have no sin (John 9:41).

• The merely natural man confirms himself against the Divine providence when he sees the Mohammedan religion accepted by so many empires and kingdoms. That this religion is accepted by more kingdoms than the Christian religion may be a stumbling-block to those who think about the Divine providence and who at the same time believe that only those who are born Christians, that is, those where the Word is, and by it the Lord is known, can be saved. But the Mohammedan religion is not a stumbling-block to those who believe that all things belong to the Divine providence. Such inquire how this is, and they find out; it is in this, that the Mohammedan religion acknowledges the Lord as the Son of God, as the wisest of men, and as a very great prophet who came into the world to teach men; a great part of the Mohammedans make Him greater than Mohammed.

To make it fully clear that this religion was raised up by the Lord's Divine providence to destroy the idolatries of many nations it shall be set forth in a certain order. First, then, respecting the origin of idolatry. Previous to that religion the worship of idols was common throughout the world. This was because the churches before the coming of the Lord were all representative churches. Such was the Israelitish church. In that church the tabernacle, Aaron's garments, the sacrifices, all things belonging to the temple at Jerusalem, and the statutes, were representative. Among the ancients there was a knowledge of correspondences (which includes a knowledge of representatives), the essential knowledge of the wise; and this was especially cultivated in Egypt, and from it their hieroglyphics were derived. From that knowledge they knew the signification of animals of every kind, also the signification of all kinds of trees, and of mountains, hills, rivers, fountains, and also of the sun, the moon, and the stars. And as all their worship was representative, consisting of pure correspondences, they worshiped on mountains and hills, and also in groves and gardens, and they consecrated fountains, and in their adoration of God they turned their faces to the rising sun; moreover they made graven images of horses, oxen, calves, lambs, and even birds and fishes, and serpents; and at home and elsewhere they placed these in an order in conformity to the spiritual things of the church to which they corresponded, or which they represented. They also placed like things in their temples, to call to remembrance the holy things which they signified.

After a time, when the knowledge of correspondences had been lost, their posterity began to worship the graven images themselves, as holy in themselves, not knowing that their fathers of ancient time had seen no holiness in them, but that they merely represented and thus signified holy things, according to correspondences. From this the idolatries arose which filled the whole world, Asia with the neighboring islands, Africa, and Europe. To extirpate all these idolatries it came to pass, under the Lord's Divine providence, that a new religion arose, adapted to the genius of Orientals, in which there was something from the Word of both Testaments, and which taught that the Lord came into the world, and that He was the greatest prophet, the wisest of men, and the Son of God. This was done through Mohammed, from whom that religion was called the Mohammedan religion.

Under the Lord's Divine providence this religion was raised up and adapted to the genius of Orientals, as has been said, to the end that it might destroy the idolatries of so many nations, and give them some knowledge of the Lord before they entered the spiritual world. And this religion would not have been accepted by so many kingdoms, and would have been powerless to extirpate idolatries, if it had not been adapted and suited to the ideas of thought and to the life of them all. It did not acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, because Orientals acknowledged God as the Creator of the universe, and were unable to comprehend how He could come into the world and assume the Human; even as Christians do not comprehend this, and consequently in their thought separate His Divine from His Human, and place the Divine near the Father in heaven, and His Human they know not where.

From all this it can be seen that the Mohammedan religion arose under the Lord's Divine providence; and that all of that religion who acknowledge the Lord as the Son of God, and at the same time live according to the commandments of the Decalogue (which they also have), by shunning evils as sins, come into a heaven that is called the Mohammedan heaven. This heaven, too, is divided into three heavens, a highest, a middle, and a lowest. In the highest heaven are those who acknowledge the Lord to be one with the Father, and thus to be Himself the only God; in the second heaven are those who give up their many wives, and live with one wife; and in the lowest those who are being initiated. More about this religion may be seen in the Continuation concerning the Last Judgment and concerning the Spiritual World (n. 68-72), where the Mohammedans and Mohammed are treated of.  ... (Continue)

(The Divine Providence 253 - 255)