Church of the Holy City

The Process of Regeneration

The Process of Regeneration
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
January 27, 2013

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Mark 1:21-28 Psalm 111

Two things caught my attention in the Mark Passage we heard this morning. First was Jesus’ identity. The evil spirit announces to the whole congregation that Jesus is the Holy One of God. This name is also in Luke 1:35, where Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to “The Holy One.” Swedenborg cites an abundance of references from the Old Testament to show that that term, Holy One, means Jehovah God. He lists 21 references in the Old Testament that call Jehovah God the Holy One and also our Savior. Once Jesus is identified as God, Jesus casts the evil spirit out of the man and he is healed. Casting out the evil spirit is symbolic of the way Jesus casts out all evil from us. Maybe I should say that this isn’t even a symbolic act: the evil that is in us is from the influence of the hells, and its evil spirits. And in the teachings of this church, casting out evil and opening up one’s heart for good is the process called regeneration, or spiritual rebirth.
Last Sunday I talked about sin and our free will in regard to good and evil. I said that we are in between heaven and hell, and that we receive influences from both. I said that we are free to turn toward the one or toward the other. This Sunday, I would like to develop that idea in greater depth. In doing so, I will also talk about the process Swedenborg calls regeneration, which is the way we become angels.
I said last Sunday that we do not look at sin in the way traditional Christians do. We do not believe that Adam’s original sin is transmitted to every human at conception. But there is an influence from traditional Christianity in Swedenborg. He claims that our emotions tend to favor evil. Swedenborg calls this our fallen will. Or in other places, he calls it hereditary evil. What this means is that we inherit a tendency to evil from our parents. This notion of a corrupted will is in Augustine and from Augustine it was adopted by the Lutheran Church Swedenborg grew up in. Swedenborg does not say we inherit evil or sin, but that we inherit an inclination to it.
But, my friend, hereditary evil is from no other source than parents; not indeed the evil itself which a man actually commits, but the inclination to it. . . . From this it follows that man is not born into evils themselves, but only into an inclination to evils; having, however, a greater or less proclivity for particular ones (TCR 521).
While Swedenborg seems to be saying that hereditary evil is only an inclination to evil, he also seems to say that we all have evil in us that needs to be removed. This idea is implied in his system of repentance, reformation and regeneration. If we don’t have evil in us, why would Swedenborg talk about the need for repentance? For that matter, why would Jesus say we need to be reborn to enter heaven? Perhaps Swedenborg’s psychology works as an accurate description of human personality. In Swedenborg’s psychology, our inner mind is open to heavenly influences while our lower mind and body is subject to hellish delights.
Now because man as to the interiors of his mind has been born spiritual, . . . consequently born for heaven, while yet his natural or external man is . . . hell in miniature, it follows that heaven cannot be implanted in hell unless it be removed (TCR 612).
Swedenborg’s system of salvation is one in which a person fights from his internal mind and drives out evil desires that reside in his lower, external personality. The assumption seems to be that there is evil in our external personality that needs to be removed.
Combat arises between the internal and the external man, and the one that conquers rules over the other. A combat then arises because the internal man has been reformed by means of truths, and from these it sees what is evil and false, and these are still in the external or natural man. Therefore, first dissention springs up between the new will which is above, and the old will which is below; and because this dissention is between these wills, it is also between their delights; for it is well known that the flesh is opposed to the spirit, and the spirit to the flesh, and that the flesh must be subdued before the spirit can act and become a new man (TCR 596).
Swedenborg is right when he says that this process is well-known. I don’t think that there’s anything original and new in this idea of regeneration. It is described well in Paul’s letter to the Galatians,
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh . . . And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:16-17, 24).
What is new in Swedenborg is the detailed description of how this process plays out. This description is done with the precision of a scientist. We can sometimes see these processes working out in our own psyche, but to describe them is an exceedingly difficult task. It is known that devils tempt us to favor depraved emotions and behaviors and that angels inspire us to love good and healthy emotions and behaviors. But how this goes on in our souls isn’t described anywhere in as much detail as we find it in Swedenborg. It is either Swedenborg’s strength, as a seer who guides us on the path of spiritual attainment. Or it is Swedenborg’s weakness, as worldly-minded individuals do not accept the idea of genuine visionary experience. In any event, let’s hear Swedenborg’s description of how the struggle between good and evil takes place in our souls. This reading would probably be rated 18+ by the motion picture industry as it contains graphic spiritual content.
There are evil spirits who . . . in times of temptation call up a person’s falsities and evils . . . But the angels with the person draw out his goods and truths, and thus defend him. This conflict is what is felt and perceived by the person, and causes pain and remorse of conscience. . . . When a person is tempted as to things of the will, . . . there are evil genii . . . who inflame him with their lusts and the filthy loves with which he is imbued, and thus fight through the person’s own lusts–which they do so maliciously and secretly that it could not be believed to be from them. For in a moment they pour themselves into the life of his lusts, and almost instantly invert and change an affection for good and truth into an affection for evil and falsity, so that a person cannot know but it is done of his own self and comes forth of his own will. This temptation is most severe, and is perceived as an inward grief and tormenting fire (AC 751).
Perhaps last Sunday I made it sound like the process of reformation is easier than it actually is. This Swedenborg passage shows that the process of choosing good is severe and difficult. In other places he says that a person can come to despair as to their own spiritual wellbeing. In this passage, we see how crafty evil spirits can be when they seek to destroy us. They twist our good emotions into perversions without our knowing it. They inspire into our own soul their own depravities and make it look like we are the ones who have these depravities. Yet they are counterbalanced by heavenly influences from God and from angels. And through these struggles, we come to know what good feels like, we learn what truth is, and we dedicate our lives to these higher principles.
As I have been suggesting, this is a process. Regeneration, spiritual rebirth, doesn’t happen in an instant. If Swedenborg is right, the evil that resides in our lower selves–our external personality–has been developing as we grow and mature. He seems to be saying that we all have built up a shell that is oriented to the world and composed of worldly and selfish drives. (Swedenborg and Augustine would call these drives lusts.) This shell, this lower self cannot be broken up in an instant. We need to reprogram our attitudes, our goals, and our emotions. We need to become new and different people. This kind of real and genuine personality change can only happen gradually over time. Swedenborg describes this process by means of graphic images and metaphors,
Sins are removed so far as a person is regenerated, because regeneration is restraining the flesh that it may not rule, and subjugating the old man with its lusts . . . Who that yet has sound understanding, cannot conclude from this that such things cannot be done in a moment, but successively, as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born, and educated . . . ? For the things of the flesh or the old man are inherent in him from birth, and they build the first habitation of his mind, in which lusts abide like wild beasts in their dens, . . . and by turns they steal as it were into the lower rooms of that house, and afterward they make their way up by ladders, and form chambers for themselves; and this is done successively, as an infant grows, reaches childhood, then youth, and then begins to think from his own will. Who does not see that this house which has been thus far built in the mind . . . cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in place of it? (TCR 611)
Is this picture of gradual destroying and rebuilding for everyone? Would all honest spiritual sojourners agree that their souls need to be refined in the fire of the crucible? Is the lifetime struggle Swedenborg describes for everybody? I leave the answer to that question to the honest soul-searching and introspection of seekers everywhere. For ultimately truth needs to be tested in a person’s life and rational mind. We are free to assent or disagree, according to our conscience and best lights. But of one thing we can be sure, “All may be regenerated, each according to his state” (TCR 580).