Here we are in the 21st century. We know that the universe is an enormous place. We're just bursting with scientific knowledge. But how are we doing with the even-bigger ideas? Our human societies seem to be erasing them, or ignoring them - maybe we think we're too busy for them.

Here on the New Christian Bible Study site, we'll buck the trend. We want to explore the big ideas that give us a framework for living better lives. Here's a start on a list of big ideas from a New Christian perspective. For each idea, there is a footnote that lists some references in Swedenborg's theological works:

1. God exists. Just one God, who created and sustains the entire universe in all its dimensions, spiritual and physical. ¹

2. God's essence is love itself. It's the force that drives everything. ²

3. God's essence comes into being, that is, it exists, in and through creation. ³

4. There are levels, or degrees, of creation - ranging from spiritual ones that we can't detect with our physical senses or sensors, to the level of the physical universe where most of our awareness is when we're alive here. ⁴

5. The created universe emanates from God, and it's sustained by God, but in an important way it is separate from God. He wants it to be separate, so that freedom can exist. ⁵

6. God operates from love through wisdom - willing good things, and understanding how to bring them about. ⁶

7. The physical level of creation exists to provide human beings with an opportunity to choose in freedom, with rationality, whether or not to acknowledge and cooperate with God. ⁷

8. God provides all people everywhere, regardless of their religion, the freedom to choose to live a life of love to God and to the neighbor. ⁸

9. God loves everyone. He knows that true happiness only comes when we're unselfish; when we're truly motivated by a love of the Lord which is grounded out in a love of the neighbor. He seeks to lead everyone, but will not force us to follow against our will. ⁹

10. God doesn't judge us. He tells us what's good, and what's evil, and flows into our minds to lead us towards good. However, we're free to reject his leading, and instead opt to love ourselves most. Day by day, we create habits of generosity or of selfishness, and live out a life in accordance with those habits. Those habits become the real "us", our ruling love. ¹⁰

11. Our physical bodies die eventually, but the spiritual part of our minds keeps going. It's been operating on a spiritual plane already, but our awareness shifts - so that we become fully aware of spiritual reality. ¹¹

Footnotes:

5079. 'Against their lord the king of Egypt' means that these - the external or bodily senses, meant by 'the cupbearer and the baker' - were contrary to the new state in the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'the king of Egypt' as factual knowledge in general, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462, 4749, 4964, 4966; for, the king being the head of the nation, 'the king of Egypt' is similar in meaning to 'Egypt', the same as in other places where the king of any nation is referred to or named, 4789. Since factual knowledge in general is meant by 'the king of Egypt', so also is the natural man meant by him; for all factual knowledge is truth as it exists in the natural man, 4967. While the actual good there is meant by 'the lord', 4973. The reason a new state in the natural man is meant is that the previous chapter dealt with the interior aspects of the natural, which were made new, or - in the highest sense, in which the Lord is the subject - were glorified, whereas the present chapter deals with the exterior aspects of the natural which are to be brought into accord or agreement with those interior ones. These interior aspects of the natural which have been made new - or, what amounts to the same, a new state in the natural man - are what are meant by 'the lord the king of Egypt', while the exterior aspects which have not been brought into a state of order and are consequently contrary to it are meant by 'the cupbearer and the baker'.

[2] There are interior aspects of the natural and there are exterior ones. The interior aspects of the natural are known facts and the affections for them, but the exterior aspects are both kinds of sensory perception spoken of above in 5077. When a person dies he leaves behind those exterior aspects of the natural; but the interior aspects of the natural he takes with him into the next life where they serve as the foundation on which spiritual and celestial things can be based; for when a person dies he loses nothing apart from his flesh and bones. He keeps his memory in which everything he has done, spoken, or thought is recorded, and he keeps every natural affection and desire, and so every interior aspect of the natural. He does not need its exterior aspects, for he does not see anything that is in the world, or hear anything that is in the world, or smell, taste, or touch anything that is in the world, only what is in the next life. Things in the next life, it is true, seem for the most part to be like those in the world, but they are not, for they hold what is living within them, such as things proper to the natural world do not hold within them. For every single thing in the next life owes the beginning and the continuance of its existence to the Sun there, which is the Lord, as a consequence of which it has that which is living within it. But every single thing in the natural world owes the beginning and the continuance of its existence to the sun there, which is material fire, as a consequence of which it does not have that which is living within it. What gives it the appearance of having life within it is that its origin lies solely in the spiritual world, that is, in the Lord through the spiritual world.

5097. 'And Joseph came to them in the morning" means that which was revealed and made clear to the celestial of the spiritual. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial of the spiritual, dealt with in 4286, 4592, 4963, and from the meaning of 'the morning' as a state of enlightenment, dealt with in 3458, so that what was revealed and made clear is meant. The reason 'the morning' has these meanings is that all the periods of a day, like all the seasons of a year, mean the various states that arise owing to variations of the light of heaven. Variations of the light of heaven are not like the daily and annual variations of light in the world; they are variations of intelligence and love. For the light of heaven is nothing else than Divine Intelligence flowing from the Lord, which also shines before the eyes as light, while the warmth accompanying that light is the Lord's Divine Love, which is also felt as a radiated warmth. It is that light which provides a person with understanding, and that warmth which provides him with both vital heat and a will desiring what is good. In heaven morning is a state of enlightenment, of enlightenment in matters involving goodness and truth; and this state arises when there is an acknowledgement, more so when there is a perception that good is indeed good and truth is indeed truth. Perception is a revelation that takes place internally, and therefore 'the morning' means something that has been revealed. And because that which has previously been obscure is now made clear, 'the morning' as a consequence also means that which has been made clear.

[2] In addition to this, 'morning" in the highest sense means the Lord Himself, for the reason that the Lord is the sun from which all light in heaven flows; He is always a rising sun and so is always a morning one. He is rising always on everyone who receives truth that is the truth of faith and good that is the good of love; but He is setting on everyone who does not receive these. Not that the sun there ever sets, for as has been stated, it is always a rising one, but that anyone who does not receive that truth or good causes it so to speak to set on himself. This may be compared in some measure to the changes which the sun of the world undergoes so far as the inhabitants on earth are concerned. Here too the sun does not really set since it remains all the time in its own fixed position, from where it is constantly shedding light. Yet it does seem to set because the earth spins daily on its axis, and as it goes round it takes its inhabitants out of sight of the sun, see the first example given in 5084. Thus the sun does not actually go down but anyone inhabiting the earth is removed from its light. This comparison is used to illustrate a particular point; but the phenomenon referred to is in itself instructive because every detail of the natural creation is representative of the Lord's kingdom. The instruction held within that phenomenon is that a loss of the light of heaven, that is, of intelligence and wisdom, does not come about because the Lord, the Sun of intelligence and wisdom, sets on anyone. It comes about because the inhabitant of His kingdom takes himself away, that is, he allows hell to be his leader and so take him away.