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

Notas de rodapé:

67. Next, since we are by creation heavens in smallest form and therefore images of the Lord, and since heaven is made up of as many desires as there are angels, each of which is a person as to its form, it follows that the constant effort in divine providence is for each of us to become a heaven in form and therefore an image of the Lord. Further, since this is accomplished by means of the desire for what is good and true, it is for us to become that desire. This, then, is the constant effort in divine providence.

The very heart of providence, though, is that we should be in some particular place in heaven or in some particular place in the divine heavenly person and therefore in the Lord. This is what happens for people whom the Lord can lead to heaven. Since the Lord foresees this, he also constantly provides for it, with the result that all of us who are allowing ourselves to be led to heaven are being prepared for our own places in heaven.

299. A book written within and on the back, signifies the state of life of all in heaven and on the earth, in general and in particular. This is evident from the signification of "book," here the "book of life," as being what the Lord inscribes or implants in the spirit of man, that is, in the heart and soul, or what is the same, in his love and faith (of which see above, n. 199; therefore "the book" here signifies the states of life of all in heaven and on the earth, and "written" signifies what is implanted by the Lord (that to "write" signifies to implant, see also above, n. 222. Also from the signification of "within and on the back," as being what is in the heart and soul, or in the love and faith; for with man and spirit love is within, because it makes his life; but faith, unless it is in his love, is not within him, but behind or "at the back;" for faith that is faith makes altogether one with the love, since what a man loves is of his faith, but what he does not love is not of his faith. That which one thinks from memory and teaches from doctrine, appears, indeed, to be faith; but if this be loved only from a natural, not from a spiritual love, it is merely the sight of the thought of the external man, which sight counterfeits faith; but such faith, since it is destitute of life, until it is implanted in the internal man and its love, is not in man but behind him, or at his back. Faith implanted in the internal man and its love is believing and loving the truth because it is truth, and not loving it chiefly for the sake of a reputation for learning, and honor or gain therefrom. From this it can be seen what is signified by "written within and on the back."

[2] What is treated of in this chapter is, that the Lord only, and no one but the Lord, knows the states of life of all in general and of each one in particular. This is representatively depicted by "a book written which no one was able to open and read, neither to look thereon, except the Lamb," that is, the Lord. No one knows this but the Lord alone, because He is the only God, and because He formed the angelic heaven after His own image, and man after the image of heaven; for this reason He knows all things of heaven in general, and He who knows all things of heaven in general knows also every one in particular; for a man who is in truths from good, as well as an angel, is an image of heaven, since he is a form of heaven. From this it also follows that no one but he who knows the general state of all knows the state of anyone in particular, for the one is inseparably connected with the other. (But as these things cannot be described in a few words, see what is shown in the work on Heaven and Hell, where they are more distinctly and clearly described, in the following articles: The Divine of the Lord makes Heaven, n. 7-12; Every Angel is a Heaven in the Least Form, n. 51-58; The whole Heaven in the Complex has reference to one Man, n 59-67; likewise each Society there, n. 68-72; Every Angel, therefore, is in a perfect Human Form, n 73-77; From the Divine Human of the Lord it is that Heaven in the Whole and in Part has reference to Man, n 78-86; There is a Correspondence of all Things of Heaven with all Things of Man, n. 87-102; On the Conjunction of Heaven with Mankind, n. 291-302)

[3] It is to be observed that here and elsewhere in the Word a "book" is mentioned, meaning thereby a roll [volumen]; for in ancient times they wrote upon parchments, which were rolled up, and the parchment was called a "book" and the "roll of a book," as can also be seen in the Word; thus in Ezekiel:

I looked, when behold, a hand was put forth unto me; and lo, the roll of a book was therein, written in front and behind (Ezekiel 2:9-10).

And in David:

Then said I, Lo, I am come; in the roll of the book it is written of Me (Psalms 40:7).

For this reason it is said in Isaiah:

All the host of the heavens shall waste away, and the heavens shall be rolled up as a scroll (Isaiah 34:4).

Likewise in Revelation:

Heaven was removed, as a book that is rolled up (Revelation 6:14).

From this it can be known how the book that John saw was "written within and on the back."