Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 113No one hath heard the Father’s voice at any time, nor seen hisform (John 5:37; see also John 1:18).Moreover, that men worshiped the Lord when he was in the world,by falling upon the face at his feet, may be seen in Matt. 28:9; andin Mark 7:25–26; Luke 8:41; 17:15–16, 18; and in John 11:32.78. As dead signifies failure of self-life. This is evident from thesignification of “as dead,” in reference to the Divine presence withman, as meaning the failure of self-life; for man’s self-life is thatinto which he is born, which is in itself nothing but evil, for it isaltogether inverted, for it has regard to itself and the world only,and therefore turns itself back away from God and from heaven.The life that is not man’s self-life is that into which he is led whenhe is being regenerated by the Lord; and when he comes into thatlife he regards God and heaven in the first place, and self and theworld in the second. That life flows in with man when the Lord ispresent; consequently so far as that life flows in, so far there iseffected a turning of the life. This turning, when effected suddenly,causes man to appear to himself as dead; thence it is that by “asdead” is here signified the failure of self-life. But these two states oflife cannot be so described as to be apprehended. Moreover, theyare not the same with a man and with a spirit, and they are whollydifferent with the evil and with the good. Man cannot live with thebody in the presence of the Divine; those who do live areencompassed by an angelic column, which moderates the Divineinflux; for the body of every man is nonreceptive of the Divine,consequently it dies and is cast off. That man cannot live with thebody in the presence of the Divine can be seen from the words ofthe Lord to Moses:Thou canst not see my faces; for man shall not see me and live(Exod. 33:20);Moses, therefore, because he desired to see, was placed in a cleft ofa rock and was covered until the Lord had passed by. Furthermore,it was known to the ancients that man cannot see God and live, asis evident from the book of Judges: