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:

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #330

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330. Since the goal of creation is a heaven from the human race (and therefore the human race itself), the intermediate goals are everything else that has been created. Because these do relate to us, they focus on these three aspects of us: our bodies, our rational functioning, and, for the sake of our union with the Lord, our spiritual functioning. We cannot be united to the Lord unless we are spiritual; we cannot be spiritual unless we are rational; and we cannot be rational unless we are physically whole. These aspects are like a house, with the body as its foundation, the structure of the house as our rational functioning, and the contents of the house as our spiritual functioning. Living in the house is union with the Lord.

This enables us to see the sequence, level, and focus of the relationship to us of the useful functions that are intermediate goals of creation. That is, they are for the support of our bodies, for the development of our rational ability, and for our acceptance of what is spiritual from the Lord.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10644

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10644. 'And tear down their groves' means that their teachings are to be totally rejected. This is clear from the meaning of 'groves' as the teachings of the Church, at this point the teachings of the type of religion that is practised by idolaters, which are teachings that consist of falsity arising from evil. The reason why teachings are meant by 'groves' is that instances of perception or awareness of what is good and true are meant by 'trees', of perception among those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom, and of awareness among those who are in His spiritual kingdom; and each species of a tree means a specific kind of perception or awareness. This accounts for the meaning of 'paradise gardens' and other 'gardens' as heavenly intelligence and wisdom, and for that of 'forests' as the knowledge which the natural man possesses. From all this it may be recognized why it is that teachings are meant by 'groves', and why it was that the ancients performed holy acts of worship in groves. For the Church among the ancients was a representative one, all of whose outward forms represented inner realities, such as they are in heaven, which have regard to the Lord, to love for Him and faith in Him, and to such things as are aspects of love and faith. The reason why groves, and also forests, gardens, and paradise gardens, as well as trees according to their species, mean such things lies in representative objects in the next life. The angels' intelligence and wisdom determine what kinds of objects appear there; for whatever makes its appearance has a celestial or spiritual origin.

Teachings are meant by 'groves', and the ancients performed holy worship in groves, see 2722, 4552.

Heavenly intelligence and wisdom is meant by 'paradise gardens', 3220, 4528, 4529.

The like is meant by other 'gardens', 100, 108, 1588, 2722.

The knowledge which the natural man possesses is meant by 'forests', 9011(end).

Instances of perception, and those of awareness (or cognitions), of goodness and truth are meant by 'trees', 103, 2163, 2682, 2972, 7692, 8326.

The Ancient Church performed worship in groves and in gardens under trees, in accord with the meanings these carried, 2722, 4552.

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