Could there be reasons for the humble, vulnerable beginnings of Jesus’s life?

In this video from his Swedenborg and Life web series, host Curtis Childs and featured guests explore how the Divine design may have been at play from the very beginning of Christ's life.

(Referencias: Apocalypse Explained 706 [12]; Luke 2:8-12; The Word 7; True Christian Religion 89, 90, 96, 766)

764. After This Night Comes the Morning, Which Is the Lord's Coming

Since the successive stages of the church on both a large and a small scale are described in the Word as the four seasons of the year (spring, summer, fall, and winter) and as the four times of day (morning, afternoon, evening, and night), and since the modern-day church, which is Christianity, is the night, it follows that now the morning is at hand. The morning is the beginning of a new church.

The following passages make it clear that the Word describes the successive stages of the church as the four parts of the day, which are determined by light.

Through the evening and the morning, for two thousand three hundred [days], what is holy will be made just. The vision of the evening and the morning is the truth. (Daniel 8:14, 26)

Someone was crying out to me from Seir, "Watchman, watchman, what of the night?" The watchman replied, "Morning is coming, but so is the night. " (Isaiah 21:11-12)

The end has come. The morning is upon you, O you who dwell in the land. Behold, the day has come; the morning is over. (Ezekiel 7:6-7, 10)

In the morning, in the morning Jehovah will bring his judgment to light; it will not be lacking. (Zephaniah 3:5)

God is in her midst. God will help her when she looks for the morning. (Psalms 46:5)

I have been waiting for Jehovah. My soul waits for the Lord like those who watch for the morning. They watch for the morning because with him there is the most redemption. He will redeem Israel. (Psalms 130:5-8)

[2] In the passages just quoted evening and night mean the time when the church is at an end; morning means the time when the church is just beginning.

The Lord himself is also called the Morning, as we see in the following passages:

The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me, "He was like the morning light, a morning without clouds. " (2 Samuel 23:3-4)

I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the shining morning star. (Revelation 22:16)

From the womb of your dawn comes the dew of your youth. (Psalms 110:3)

These quotations are about the Lord. Since the Lord is the Morning, he rose from the tomb first thing in the morning, in order to begin a new church (Mark 16:2, 9).

[3] What the Lord says about his Coming makes it obvious that we are to await it:

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him and said, "Tell us what the sign of your Coming and of the close of the age will be. " (Matthew 24:3)

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Humankind will appear, and they will see the Son of Humankind coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory. (Matthew 24:29-30; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27)

Like the days of Noah, so will the Coming of the Son of Humankind be. Therefore be prepared, because you do not know at what hour the Son of Humankind will come. (Matthew 24:37, 39, 44)

In Luke:

When the Son of Humankind comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)

In John:

Jesus said of John, "If I want him to remain until I come . . . " (John 21:22-23)

[4] In the Acts of the Apostles:

When they saw Jesus taken up into heaven, two men were standing near them in white clothes. They said, "Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way you saw him go up to heaven. " (Acts of the Apostles 1:9-11)

In the Book of Revelation:

The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants what must happen. "Behold, I am coming. Blessed are those who keep the commandments of this book. Behold, I am coming, and my reward is with me, to give to all according to their works. " (Revelation 22:6-7, 12)

And from the same chapter:

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, a shining morning star. The spirit and the bride say, "Come. " And those who hear, say, "Come. " And those who are thirsty, come. Those who wish to, take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:16-17)

And again in the same chapter:

He who testifies to these things says, "I am indeed coming. " Amen. Do indeed come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. (Revelation 22:20-21)

6. VI. The Word and natural theology, as being nothing but the Word and derived from it; the excellence of the style of the Word.

I heard a serious argument between spirits who in the world had been learned, in some cases from the Word, in others as the result of natural illumination. The latter insisted that natural theology is sufficient, and is able to teach, in fact enlighten, a person without the Word. One could see that God exists, there is a heaven and a hell, and that the soul is immortal and life is everlasting. The other party, however, said it is only the Word which teaches these things and gives enlightenment. The spirits who took the part of natural theology alone made a violent attack on the supporters of the Word, and kept it up for several days, thinking in their hearts and eventually saying that the Word is of no value. It was written in a style so simple and at the same time so obscure in very many places that no one could be taught, much less enlightened, by it. They said that the writings of learned people were far superior, such as the writings of Cicero, Seneca and a number of modern scholars.

The reply they were given was that the style of the Word excels that of all the learned people in the whole world, because there is in it not a single phrase, or rather not a single word or letter, which does not contain something of the Lord, and so something of heaven and the church, since it comes from God, and is consequently at its inmost level spiritual. This Divine quality lies hidden within it, like the soul in the body. When a person reads it, this is unfolded in sequence to the eyes of angels. They are affected by the holiness in it as its spirituality is unfolded, and this is communicated to the person. From this it is clear that its very style, however simple it appears, is infinitely superior to any style used by the most learned people in the world. Although their style may be polished, ¹ elegant and sublime, it still does not communicate with heaven, so that compared to the style of the Word it is utterly worthless.

[2] Although the spirits who supported natural theology listened to this, they still rejected it, because it was plain that in the world they had despised the Word. Those who in the world despise the Word, and support this attitude by quoting passages from it, go on perpetually despising it after death. For any principle adopted in the world about God and the Word, and then confirmed, after death remains rooted too deeply to be eradicated. So since they were communicating not with heaven, but with hell, they began to establish links with some satans there, to such an extent that they ended up by talking together with the satans, and gnashing their teeth they breathed slaughter against the souls of the supporters of the Word. Still they were unable to do anything at all to them, for they had the Lord on their side, and the others had Satan on theirs. One group therefore was received into heaven, and the others were thrown into hell.

[3] Afterwards the angels talked about natural theology, saying that without the Word it reveals nothing, but merely confirms the points of the church's teaching known from the Word. Proofs from nature, gathered by means of the illumination of the reason, strengthen spiritual truths, because everyone has some natural idea of spiritual matters. This allows him to keep these things in his memory, and he can take them out to think about them, and use his reason to turn them over and debate them. If therefore proofs are adduced from nature, this strengthens the truth. But care must still be taken that falsity is not seized upon in place of truth, since clever people are just as able to prove falsity as truth. Consequently a heresy can be so strengthened that it destroys the real truth.

[4] They went on to say that no one can approach spiritual theology from natural theology, though anyone can approach natural theology from spiritual, since this is in accordance with Divine order, but the other is contrary to it. For the natural is gross and impure, the spiritual is subtle and pure. It is impossible to approach the subtle and pure from the gross and impure, but the reverse is possible; the angels can look below them and see all that is there. But no one from lower down can see what is in the heavens. In fact an angel can see a spirit, who is more gross, but this spirit cannot see an angel, who is more pure. When therefore such spirits go up into a heaven inhabited by angels, as often happens, they see no one, not even their houses; so they go away saying it is empty and waste space.

[5] It is the same with the Word. Those who do not believe in the Word on the evidence of the Word are quite unable to believe in anything Divine on the evidence of nature. For the Lord teaches:

They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone comes back from the dead. Luke 16:29, 31.

The same is true, if anyone rejects the Word and wants to believe solely on the evidence of nature. As for certain of the ancients, who were pagans, such as Aristotle and Cicero and others, writing about the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, they did not acquire this knowledge first from their own natural illumination, but from the religion of the ancients. They had received a Divine revelation, which was spread successively to other heathens.

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