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:

8938. 'In every place where I shall put the memory of My name' means the state of faith [in the Lord] with each individual person. This is clear from the meaning of 'place' as state, dealt with in 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 3404, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381, so that 'every place' is the state of each individual or with each individual person. The reason why the state of faith is meant is that 'the name of Jehovah' means everything in its entirety through which the Lord is worshipped, thus all aspects of faith and charity, 2724, 3006, 6674. Consequently 'putting the memory of the name of Jehovah God' means [that state in] the person with whom - that is, in whose heart - charity and faith that come from the Lord are present. The meaning in the literal sense is that they were to sacrifice burnt offerings and eucharistic offerings, thus their flocks and herds, in Jerusalem, this being the place chosen by the Lord for them in which to worship Him, and so in which 'He put the memory of His name'. A place is not meant however in the internal sense, but each individual person with whom charity and faith are present; for 'place' does not mean place in the internal sense but state, and 'name' does not mean name but faith and worship, so that a person who has attained a state in which faith is being received from the Lord is meant. In Jerusalem furthermore, the place in which the Lord was worshipped through the burnt offerings and eucharistic offerings, all things of the Church were represented. This is why 'Jerusalem' in the Word, and 'the New Jerusalem' in the Book of Revelation, means the Lord's Church; and the Lord's Church exists with each individual person in a state in which charity and faith received from the Lord are present. For a person is in himself the Church, and the many with whom the Church exists compose the Church collectively. From all this it is also evident that 'in every place in which I shall put the memory of My name' means the state of faith with each individual person.

4882. 'And went' means life. This is clear from the meaning of 'going' as living, dealt with in 3335, 3690. This meaning of 'going' in the internal sense as living does indeed seem quite remote from or unrelated to ideas man has which constitute his thought. The reason for this is that man dwells within space and time, and with these has formed the ideas comprising his thought, such as the idea of going, advancing, setting out, sojourning, or moving on. Now because these actions occur within both space and time, and as a consequence space and time have become embedded in ideas of those actions, man therefore finds it difficult to grasp that states of life are meant. But when his idea of those actions is relieved or divested of spatial and temporal elements the spiritual reality that is meant leaps out. For in the spiritual world or heaven nothing at all spatial or temporal enters the ideas they have, but instead aspects of a state of life, 1274, 1382, 2625, 2788, 2837, 3356, 3404, 3827, 4814. It does indeed appear to spirits and angels that they too move about, going from one place to another, and indeed exactly in the same way as it appears so to men. All the same, it is the changes taking place in their state of life that are responsible for this appearance. To them also, no less than to men, the appearance is that they live self-dependently, when in fact they do not live self-dependently but are dependent on the Lord's Divine, the source of every spark of life. Among angels these appearances are called real ones, because they seem in all reality to exist.

[2] I have on occasions spoken to spirits about these appearances, but those who are not governed by good, nor consequently by truth, do not wish to listen when told it is but an appearance that they live self-dependently; for their wish is to live self-dependently. But in addition to showing them from actual experience that they do not lead self-dependent lives and that every advance made from one place to another is a change to, and an advance made in, their state of life, I have also told them that for them it may be sufficient for them to know no other than that they live self-dependently, and that their life would be life no more if they did not live self-dependency. It would nevertheless be better for them to know what the situation really is, for in that case they would have the truth; and if they have the truth they also dwell in the light of heaven, since the light of heaven is the truth itself which flows from the Lord's Divine. Furthermore, if the truth existed with them in this way they would not claim that good was their own, nor would evil cling to them. Angels possessing that truth do not merely know it; they also have a perception of it.

[3] Intervals of time and space in the spiritual world are states of life, and every spark of life has its origin in the Lord, as the following experience may show. Each spirit and angel sees on his right those who are good and on his left those who are evil; this is so in whatever direction he turns himself. If he turns and looks eastwards he sees the good to the right and the evil to the left. The same happens if he turns and looks to the west, and likewise to the south or the north. This is the case with every spirit or angel, so that if there were two, and one of these turned and looked to the east and the other did so to the west, each would still see the good on his right and the evil on his left. Those far removed from, even behind the backs of, those who behold them are seen in those unchanging positions. From these considerations one may deduce clearly that every spark of life has its origin in the Lord, that is, that the Lord is within the life of everyone; for in the spiritual world the Lord is seen as the Sun, the good or sheep being on His right, and the evil or goats on His left. The same is therefore the case with each spirit or angel, for the reason, as stated, that the Lord exists in every spark of life. This is bound to look like a paradox to man, for as long as he is in the world man has ideas that are formed from worldly things, and therefore from what is spatial and temporal. But as stated above, in the spiritual world no ideas are formed from what is spatial and temporal but from the state belonging to affections and the thoughts flowing from these. It is for this reason also that the intervals of space and time in the Word mean states.