New Christian Bible Study

Commentary

 

The Big Ideas

By New Christian Bible Study Staff
A girl gazes into a lighted globe, showing the solar system.

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:

1. Divine Love and Wisdom 4, 15, 16, 23, 301, Divine Providence 46, True Christian Religion 11, 19.

2. Divine Love and Wisdom 4, 29, 30, Apocalypse Explained 297, Heaven and Hell 13, 545.

3. Divine Love and Wisdom 31, 32, 57, 59, 84, 169-171, 329, 330, Divine Providence 3, 27.

4. Divine Love and Wisdom 65, 179, 180, 213, 230, 363.

5. Divine Love and Wisdom 44, 45, 55.

6. Divine Love and Wisdom 42, 43, 52, 154, Divine Providence 3, 5.

7. Divine Providence 27, 71, 72, 75, 129, True Christian Religion 459, 490.

8. Divine Providence 145, 322, 324, 325, 328, Apocalypse Explained 986, Heaven and Hell 522, True Christian Religion 457.

9. Divine Providence 67, 322, 333, 334, Heaven and Hell 312, 319, 324.

10. Apocalypse Explained 986, Heaven and Hell 479, 481, 525, 598. The True Christian Religion 795.

11. Arcana Coelestia 168, 1854, 3016, 5078, 6008, 8939, Heaven and Hell 445, 461, 493, 498, Divine Love and Wisdom 90, Last Judgment 25.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6009

Study this Passage

  
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6009. Verses 5-7 And Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their young children, and their wives, in the carts which Pharaoh sent to carry him. And they took their livestock, and the acquisitions they had made in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt - Jacob and all his seed with him. His sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his seed he brought with him to Egypt.

'And Jacob rose up' means an enlightening of natural truth. 'From Beersheba' means from the doctrine of charity and faith. 'And the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father' means that truths which were spiritual ones caused natural truth to move ahead. 'And their young children' means accompanied by aspects of innocence. 'And their wives' means aspects of charity too. 'In the carts which Pharaoh sent to carry him' means the matters of doctrine obtained from the Church's factual knowledge. 'And they took their livestock' means forms of the good of truth. 'And the acquisitions they had made in the land of Canaan' means truths acquired from other truths which the Church already possessed. 'And came to Egypt' means the introduction into the Church's factual knowledge. 'Jacob and all his seed with him' means of natural truth and all matters of faith belonging to that truth. 'His sons and his sons' sons with him' means truths in their own order. 'His daughters and his sons daughters' means forms of good in their own order. 'And all his seed' means every integral part of faith and charity. 'He brought with him to Egypt' means that they were gathered together into the Church's factual knowledge.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Genesis 46

Study

   

1 Israel traveled with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.

2 God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" He said, "Here I am."

3 He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation.

4 I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph will close your eyes."

5 Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6 They took their livestock, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt--Jacob, and all his seed with him,

7 his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and he brought all his seed with him into Egypt.

8 These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.

9 The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron.

14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.

16 The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

17 The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, even sixteen souls.

19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

21 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.

23 The son of Dan: Hushim.

24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven.

26 All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct descendants, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six.

27 The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.

28 He sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

29 Joseph prepared his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

31 Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

32 These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.'

33 It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?'

34 that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

   

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