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:

230. There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us. The reason there are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord is that the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, as explained above [28-33]. Since the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, he is also usefulness itself, since love has useful functions as its goal and puts them into effect by means of wisdom. Apart from usefulness, love and wisdom have no definition or boundary, no dwelling. This means that we cannot say they exist or are present unless there is a useful function in which they occur.

These three elements constitute three vertical levels in agents of life. These three are like the first end, the intermediate end that we refer to as the means, and the ultimate end that we refer to as the result. I have already [167-169, 184] explained and amply documented the fact that purpose, means, and result constitute three vertical levels.

7679. 'And Jehovah brought an east wind' means an agent of destruction. This is clear from the meaning of 'an east wind' as an agent of destruction. 'An east wind' has this meaning because it was dry and turbulent, and because it therefore withered the produce of that land, and by its force shattered trees, and ships at sea. This is why that wind, acting as an agent [of destruction], describes the effect that Divine power can have. In addition 'the east' means the good of love and charity, for the Lord is meant by it in the highest sense, 101, 1250, 3708. Also, being Divine, the good of love and charity is in origin very gentle, and consequently is also such in its movements when it passes into heaven. But when it comes down into hell it becomes rough and fierce, because the inhabitants of hell make it so. Therefore the inflow and presence there of that Divine good not only torments them but also devastates them. This too explains why a wind from the east or 'an east wind' means an agent of destruction.

[2] The fact that this wind means an agent of destruction is evident from the places in which it is mentioned in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

Like an east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. Jeremiah 18:17.

In Ezekiel,

The vine that was planted, will it thrive? ¹ When the east wind strikes it, will it not wither completely?. Ezekiel 17:10.

In the same prophet,

That vine has been plucked up in anger, it has been cast down onto the ground, the east wind has dried its fruit. Ezekiel 19:12.

In Hosea,

He will be among his brothers a ferocious one; an east wind will come, Jehovah's wind rising up from the desert, and his spring mill become dry, and his fountain dried up. Hosea 13:15.

In David,

By an east wind You will shatter the ships of Tarshish. Psalms 48:7.

In Ezekiel,

They brought you down to many waters, those who despise you; the east wind broke you in the heart of the seas. Ezekiel 27:26.

From these places it is evident that 'an east wind' means an agent of destruction, because it was a dry wind and a turbulent one. It therefore also means an agent of devastation, as in Hosea,

Ephraim feeds the wind, and pursues the east wind. All the day long he multiplies lies and devastation. Hosea 12:1.

'Ephraim' stands for the Church's understanding, 5354, 6222, 6238. 'Feeding the wind' is multiplying lies, and 'pursuing the east wind' is multiplying devastation. A state of devastation and temptation is also called 'the day of the east wind' in Isaiah 27:7-8.

Footnotes: