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:

213. As for love and wisdom, love is the purpose, wisdom the means, and service the result. Further, service is the composite, vessel, and foundation of wisdom and love, such a composite and such a vessel that every bit of love and every bit of wisdom is actively present in it. It is their total presence. We need to be absolutely clear, though, that in keeping with what was presented in 189-194 above, what are present in service are all the elements of love and wisdom that are of the same kind, harmonious.

10336. 'And I have put wisdom in the heart of everyone wise in heart' means all those who will and do what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake. This is clear from the meaning of 'heart' as the inmost part of a person, which is called his will, and since that which composes a person's love constitutes his will, 'heart' also means love (for the meaning of 'heart' as love, see 3635, 3883-3896, 9050, and for the meaning of it as the will, 2930, 3888, 7542, 8910, 9113, 9300, 9495); from the meaning of 'the wise in heart' as one who wills and loves what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake, for it is the mark of someone 'wise', and it is wisdom, to be moved by love to put truths into practice, 10331, and the mark of someone 'wise in heart' and wisdom of heart to be moved by love to put good into practice; and from the meaning of 'putting wisdom in the heart' as being moved by the Lord, and so by the good of love, to do those things, for the good of love originates in the Lord. All such people will and do what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake, because good and the truth that goes with good are the Lord as He exists with them; for those things which originate in Him, and so which are His, are also He Himself.

[2] This is the reason for saying that the Lord is Goodness itself and Truth itself. It is clear from the Lord's own words that He is Goodness itself,

Why do you call Me Good? Nobody is Good except the one God. Matthew 19:16-17; Luke 18:18-19.

And where the good deeds of love and charity are listed,

Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

The word 'brothers' describes those who are governed by good, and so describes varieties of good, see 2360, 3803, 3815, 4121, 5409; thus 'the Lord's brothers' are those who are governed by good that originates in Him, 4191, 5686, 5692, 6756. It is likewise clear from the Lord's words that He is Truth itself,

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6.

And elsewhere,

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth; He will not speak from Himself. He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. John 16:13-15.

From all this it is evident what 'putting wisdom in the heart' means.

[3] 'Writing the law on the heart' in Jeremiah is also used to mean much the same thing,

I will put My law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart. No more will every man teach his companion, or every man his brother ¹ , saying, Know Jehovah. For they all will know Me. Jeremiah 31:33-34.

'Writing the law on the heart' means entering Divine Truth into the will, thus in a person's love. When this is done the person no longer has to draw Divine Truth out of store in his memory; instead the good itself belonging to love causes him to perceive intuitively. This is why it says, 'No more will every man teach his companion, or every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah. For they all will know Me'. This is what celestial angels inhabiting the inmost heaven are like, see in the places referred to in 9277.

[4] What it is to will and do what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake, meant here by 'putting wisdom in the heart of everyone wise in heart', must be stated briefly. All who love the Lord above all things and their neighbour as themselves do what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake. For as has been stated above, goodness and truth are the Lord Himself; therefore since they love what is good and true, that is, since they are moved by love to will and do it, they love the Lord. Those too who love their neighbour as themselves will and love what is good and true for goodness and truth's sake, for in the universal sense that which is good and true constitutes the neighbour. The neighbour is one's fellow citizen, the [local] community, one's country, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom; and loving the neighbour consists in goodwill towards these, that is, in desiring their good, and therefore their good is what must be loved. And when this is loved the Lord is loved, since He is the source of this good.

[5] From all this it is evident that love towards the neighbour, which is called charity, holds love to the Lord within itself. If this love is not held within it, fellow citizens, community, country, Church, and the Lord's kingdom are loved for selfish reasons, and so not from a desire that is good but from one that is bad; for whatever a person does for the sake of self as the end in view springs from a desire that is bad. Loving the neighbour for the sake of self consists in loving him for the sake of gain and important positions as the ends in view. The end in view is what determines whether something springs from a desire that is good or one that is bad. The end in view is identical with the love; for what the person loves, that he has as his end. The end in view is also identical with the will; for what a person wills, that he loves. Consequently the end for the sake of which someone acts, or his intentions, constitutes the real person; for a person's character is determined by the character of his will and of his love.

Footnotes: