regenerates, and sanctifies people who are in an ongoing state of faith
that leads them to perform acts of goodwill. I taught that faith does not
exist by itself, meaning without good works, just as a tree is not good
without fruit, the sun without light, or fire without heat. I brought accu-
sations against people who said that good works were not necessary. In
addition, I enlarged the role of the Ten Commandments and repentance
as well. In an amazing way, then, I applied everything in the Word to the
topic of faith. Nevertheless, I revealed and demonstrated that it is faith
alone that brings salvation.”
In complete confidence in his own assertion that he had not falsified
the Word, he came up to the table. Despite a warning from the angel, he
touched the Word. Flame and smoke suddenly shot out of the Word and
there was an explosion with a loud bang that threw him into the corner
of the room. For quite a few minutes he lay there as if he were dead.
The angelic spirits were astonished by this. It was explained to them
that beyond everyone else he had been the main promoter of acts of
goodwill as extensions of faith. Nevertheless, by acts of goodwill he had
merely meant political activity (also called civic and moral activity)
because this needs doing for the sake of the world and our prosperity in
it; in his view such activity was unnecessary for our salvation. He also
speculated that there is invisible work done by the Holy Spirit—work of
which we know nothing—that is instilled in [the activation] of faith in
our state.
[ 8 ] After that the angelic spirits talked to each other about falsification
of the Word. They agreed on the point that to falsify the Word is to take
truths out of it and use them to reinforce falsities, which is dragging truths
out of and away from the Word and killing them. An example would be
taking all the truths listed before by the spirits from the abyss, applying
them to the modern-day faith, and explaining them from that point of
view. (I will show later [§ 178 ] that that faith is pregnant with falsities.)
Another example would be to take this truth from the Word: we have
to live with goodwill and do what is good to our neighbor. We could rea-
son that everything good that comes from ourselves is not really good
since we hope to be rewarded for it, and on that basis convince ourselves
that we ought to do what is good, but not for the sake of our salvation. If
we adamantly espouse this point of view, however, we are dragging this
truth out of and away from the Word and slaughtering it. In his Word,
the Lord requires that all who want to be saved must love their neighbors
and lovingly do them good.
The same goes for the rest of their list.
§162 the holy spirit & divine action 235