Heaven Revealed/Chapter 23
XXIII.
SEX AND MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN—SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY.
THAT there should be marriages in heaven, is something so reasonable in itself, and withal so desirable by those who have any true idea of the spiritual nature of true marriage, that Christians in general would readily believe it, did it not seem contrary to the explicit teachings of Scripture. Their highest reason favors the idea; the distinguishing characteristics of the masculine and feminine soul, seem to necessitate the relation in the Hereafter; and the deepest want of our nature and the best feelings of the regenerate heart, encourage the hope that it may be as the great seer has revealed. Yet they cannot accept Swedenborg's teaching on this subject, because of the Lord's words to the unbelieving Sadducees, quoted at the conclusion of the last chapter.
That pious minds should, in view of the Scripture referred to, feel some repugnance toward the new doctrine—a repugnance all the stronger, too, in proportion to their reverence for the Scripture—is not surprising. And when opposition to any of the great Swede's revealings springs from such pious ground—from a belief that they are contrary to the Word of the Lord—we confess to a profound respect for it. We blame no one for his opposition to the doctrines promulgated by Swedenborg, while he honestly believes that they contradict the Bible. We would not have a person accept a word he teaches—nay, would counsel him not to accept it—so long as it seems to him contrary to the teachings of the Divine Word.
Yet we would urge all to remember this: that the Lord reveals Himself in his Works as well as in his Word; that both these Volumes are alike his, and therefore alike sacred; and that his laws, from whichever of these sources ascertained, are equally divine, and equally entitled to our reverence. We would beg them further to bear in mind, that men are just as liable to misunderstand and misinterpret one of these Volumes as the other. There is nothing to secure us absolutely against misunderstanding either; and the proofs are abundant that both have often been misinterpreted. Whenever these two Volumes, therefore, Nature and Revelation, seem in conflict, we may be sure that the conflict is only apparent, and arises from our misunderstanding one or the other; and it is the part of wisdom to endeavor to ascertain which it is that we have misunderstood. As God's Word may help us to see and understand Him in his works, so the revelation of his will in his works may often aid us to a right understanding of his Word. He is our Creator; and some of his purposes concerning us are written upon the human soul as legibly as they could be written in a book or on tables of stone, and as easy to be misunderstood. And among his purposes thus plainly written, is that in regard to the conjugial relation and its existence in the world beyond. A marriage union of the sexes, not merely in this world but in heaven likewise, is legibly inscribed on the whole nature and constitution of man and woman, by God's own finger.
And now let us see if the passage in Matthew (xxii. 30) really teaches anything contrary to this—as many Christians think it does, and as at first sight, indeed, it appears to teach.
The question which the unbelieving Sadducees had put to our Lord on the occasion referred to, shows that they had no idea of marriage as an internal and spiritual relation—a soul union. Their views of it were of the lowest kind. They thought of it as a relation which might exist between one woman and any number of men; and vice versa. The idea of an eternal adaptation of one man to one woman and only one, seems never to have entered their minds. It was not, therefore, of real marriage that they were thinking when they put to our Lord the question: "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven?" for, as Swedenborg says, "there are no marriages elsewhere than in heaven; but beneath heaven [that is, among those in low or external states] there are only nuptial connections (connubia) which are tied and parted." (C. L. n. 192.)
Now it was simply of these connubia that the Sadducees were thinking, when they propounded to our Lord the question about the woman that had been married or tied to seven brethren. And the answer He gave them was the answer to the thought in their understanding; and it was the truth. It was as if He had said: "That of which you are thinking is not marriage, but only an external or nuptial connection. And as this is what you think is marriage, it is therefore what you inquire about. And in reply, I tell you there are no such marriages in the great Hereafter. Then and there, or in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, according to your idea of this relation; but are as the angels of God in heaven—constitutionally and organically adapted each to the other, as parts of one and the same whole."'
The Lord's reply to the Sadducees, therefore, considered as an answer to the thought in their minds, was true even in its literal sense. But his words all have a meaning deeper than that of the letter. "The words that I speak unto you," He says, "are spirit and are life." (John vi. 63.)
A slight examination of the passage in Matthew, together with the context, will show us that reference is here had more especially to spiritual marriage, or the union of good and truth in human minds, and the consequent conjunction of such minds with the Lord. This is the spiritual or heavenly meaning of marriage, and the meaning which those attach to the term when it occurs in Scripture, who understand the Lord's words according to their spiritual sense. That such is the kind of marriage more particularly referred to in his reply to the Sadducees, is plain from the context. Before propounding their question they referred to what Moses taught respecting marriage with a deceased brother's wife—a plain matter of fact, so plain that it could not be misunderstood if its literal sense alone were the sense intended. Yet the first words in the Lord's reply, were: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." But they did know the Scriptures in their literal sense, and they understood the passage in Moses about marriage merely in that sense. But because the literal is not the true way of understanding the Scriptures, and because they knew nothing of the true spiritual signification of marriage, therefore the Lord says to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures."
Besides, at the commencement of the chapter which records this conversation, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a marriage; and all who are invited to become subjects of this kingdom, are represented as called to the marriage. And in the Revelation we read: "Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." The Lord, too, is often called Husband and Bridegroom in the Word; and the church, composed of all who become spiritually conjoined to Him by a life of obedience to his commandments, is called his Wife and Bride. Thus in Isaiah: "Thy Maker is thy Husband; the Lord of hosts is his name." (liv. 5.) And in Matthew: "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn so long as the Bridegroom is with them?" And in the Apocalypse the angel who talked with John, said: "Come hither, and I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb's Wife." (xxi. 9.) And in the next verse we are told who the Bride is—the Holy Jerusalem, the true church of the Lord. "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." And on another occasion the seer heard the voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying: "Let us rejoice and be glad, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Bride hath made herself ready." (xix. 7.)
Do not such passages prove that marriage, when mentioned in Scripture, has a spiritual meaning? And that it signifies that conjunction of the Lord with his people, which is elsewhere spoken of as the reciprocal indwelling of the Lord in man and man in the Lord. And this takes place in proportion as we receive from Him love and wisdom, or in the degree that we learn truth, and, through religious obedience to its requirements, cleanse our hearts of all selfish and evil loves; for in that degree our interiors are opened, and we receive an influx of the Lord's life—we appropriate, as it were, the very Divine substance, the Lord's own flesh and blood. Hence He says: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." The Lord's flesh is the good of his divine love, and his blood is the truth of his divine wisdom.
As man advances in the regenerate life, truths in his understanding become married to their corresponding goods in the will. And this union of truths with goods in the mind, is the spiritual or heavenly marriage; and in the degree that it takes place, the man is brought into a state of marriage union with his Maker. He is in the Lord, and the Lord is in him; and he delights to do the will of the Lord. In the degree, therefore, that this heavenly marriage takes place in any mind, the kingdom of heaven comes to that mind.
This union or marriage of good and truth in human minds, comes from the marriage of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in the Lord; for these in Him are united like heat and light in the sun. And they proceed as one from Him, and are received by the angels as one. For the angels have no will contrary to the Lord's. They love to do what He loves to have them do. Thus they live in marriage union with Him, having in themselves—and this, from Him—the heavenly marriage of good and truth.
But the state of the unregenerate man is far otherwise. His will is opposed to the will of the Lord. Good and truth do not exist in marriage union in his mind. Evil instead of good loves are in his will, which are opposed to the truths in his understanding. He does not love to do what the truth teaches him he ought to do. And before he can come into the heavenly state, he must regard and shun as a sin against God the indulgence of every inclination which the truth condemns. Whenever we shun the indulgence of any evil as sin, that evil is gradually removed, and the opposite good affection takes its place. The truth in our understanding which revealed and condemned the evil, is thus married to its corresponding good in the will. And by a succession of such marriages the work of regeneration advances and the heavenly state is gradually perfected. But it is only the truths which we religiously obey while here on earth, that become married to goods in the will, and so remain with us permanently. Truths that are known and not obeyed, acquire no permanent abode in the soul. They may seem to be ours, but they are not until they become of the life—until they are brought down and obeyed, and thus become rooted, as it were, in the natural degree of the mind. We have no real interior affection for them, and when we come fully into the state of our interiors, as we shall in the other world, they will be taken from us, for we shall then deny and reject them. Accordingly it is written: "Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." (Luke viii. 18.) Truths that have been disregarded and disobeyed by us in the life on earth, cannot be married to their appropriate goods in the world beyond; nor can the good and delightful things of heaven which are born of such marriage, be then and there given us. And this is the meaning of these words of the Lord, understood in their spiritual sense: "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage."
We thus see that this Scripture, rightly understood, is by no means opposed to the new doctrine concerning marriages in heaven. Even its literal sense, rightly interpreted, teaches nothing to the contrary. For there are no such nuptial connections in heaven as the Sadducees thought of as marriage, and about which, as the Lord perceived, they inquired of Him.
Then there are other passages of Scripture, which, understood in their literal sense, clearly favor the doctrine taught by Swedenborg. As that, "a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh." (Gen. ii. 24.) And these words of the Lord in answer to the Pharisees: "Have ye not read that He who made them at the beginning, made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matt. xix. 5-7.) |
We are here taught that man and woman were designed for each other from their very creation; that they are adapted, each to the other, and so joined together as parts of one and the same whole, by the Creator Himself. And it surely would not be said of beings created to live forever, that God had joined them together, if there were no joining of their immortal part—no mutual and organic adaptation of soul to soul. The beings that God joins together, must be organically fitted to each other as parts of one whole, and must therefore be joined for the full term of their existence. A man and a woman may be joined in an external union—a semblance of marriage—agreeable to human laws; and may separate in a few months for lack of mutual love, or of the proper organic adaptation of soul to soul. Can it be said of such that they were joined together by God? Every one can see that this would be charging the Creator with folly. Then extend the time, and suppose the parties joined in an external marriage for ten, twenty, or fifty years, and then to separate for lack of the proper constitutional adaptation of each to the other; could it with any greater propriety be said that they were joined by God? No: Man may join or tie together beings who are internally, constitutionally and mutually repugnant, and do not really belong together; just as they may join truth with evil, heaven with hell in their own minds. But all such alliances must, from their very nature, be sooner or later dissolved. But those whom God joins together, are and must be joined in the inmost ground of their being. And if created to live forever, they must (if joined by Him) be joined not for a day, but for the whole term of their existence; and so joined as, of twain, to make one flesh—one whole mind or person.
"Marriage in heaven," says Swedenborg, "is the conjoining of two into one mind. . . . Two married partners in heaven, therefore, are not called two but one angel."—H. H. n. 367.
"The most perfect and noble human form, is when two forms become one by marriage, thus when, two fleshes become one flesh, according to creation. The mind of the man is then elevated into superior light, and the mind of the wife into superior heat; and then they germinate, blossom and fructify, as trees in the time of spring."—C. L. n. 201.This, we see, is in perfect agreement with what we read in Genesis (v. 1, 2): "In the day that God created mian, in the likeness of God created He him, male and female created He them, and blessed them and called their name Adam [or man]." It requires both the male and female to make the âdâm—the man—that is the whole man. Therefore God called the name of the two conjoined—the male and female—their name, âdâm. And the Adam, including both sexes, is said to have been in the likeness of God. The reason is, that the female was created to be an image more especially of the Divine Love, and the male to be an image more especially of the Divine Wisdom. And as the union of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is eternal, the conclusion is irresistible that the marriage of the male and female, whose union images that of these two principles in the Divine, must also be eternal.
We are further taught by the Lord, that "for this cause," that is, because we were created male and female, "shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;" which shows us that the conjugial relation is to endure when the parental, or the tie that binds parent to child, has ceased to exist. And endure how long? How long shall a man cleave unto his wife? Clearly so long as their distinctive natures remain what they are, and there exists such a mutual and organic adaptation of soul to soul, that they twain, by cleaving to each other, are no longer two but one.
The Bible, therefore, teaches that man and woman were created for union in heaven, as truly as it teaches that they were created for each other and belong together during their earthly sojourn. And if it teaches that marriage on earth was designed by Him who made us, it teaches with equal clearness that it was intended for man's highest or heavenly state, and that its duration will be coterminous with that of the soul itself.