Angel Choirs, Peace, And Being Gathered To Our Ancestors | NCE Spotlight

Featured quotations from Emanuel Swedenborg's Secrets of Heaven:


3350:2


Then I heard numerous choirs putting forth various
representations, and even though there were many choirs and many
in each choir, they acted as one. The forms of the various
contributions combined into a single whole filled with heavenly
beauty.


The same effect can be produced by the entirety of heaven,
populated as it is by millions and millions, who act in unison
because they love each other, since as a result they allow the
Lord to lead them. Amazingly, the more there are—the more
millions there are—to populate heaven, the more distinct and
perfect everything becomes. 


2780


Peaceful conditions in the heavens resemble the mood of dawn on
the earth. Everything heavenly and spiritual in the heavens
exists in a state of peace, which is what gives all of it its
charm, blessing, and happiness. In the same way, at the time of
dawn on earth, everything displays itself to us as pleasant and
cheerful. Individual details draw their character from the
general mood. . . . The case is the same with a state of
innocence. It emerges under peaceful conditions and is a general
mood affecting everything involved in love and faith. Unless the
various facets of love and faith have innocence within them, they
lack their essential ingredient. That is why no one can go to
heaven without possessing some innocence (Mark 10:15). 


3255:1 


When people died, the ancients customarily said they were
gathered to their ancestors, or to their people, by which they
meant that they literally went to their parents and other close
and distant relations in the other world. This saying was one
they received from the earliest people, who were a heavenly race.
While the earliest people were living on earth, they were also
present with angels in heaven, so they knew how matters stood.
They knew that everyone who shares the same kind of goodness
meets in the other life and lives together, as does everyone who
shares the same truth. The former they would describe as being
gathered to their ancestors. . . , but the latter, to their
people.