Heavens
'The former heavens, which passed away,' as mentioned in Revelation 21:1, signify the societies of people in the spiritual world who were only in external or apparent good. (Apocalypse Explained 675) Heavens are celestial and spiritual things. Consequently, they are inmost things, both of the Lord's kingdom in heaven and in the earth. This also refers to the church, and every individual, who is a kingdom of the Lord, or a 'church.' Consequently, heavens denote all things pertaining to love and charity, and faith grounded in them, as well as all things pertaining to internal worship. In like manner they denote all things pertaining to the internal sense of the Word. All these things are heavens, and are called, 'the throne of the Lord.' (Arcana Coelestia 2162)
(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 21)
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings # 247
247. The ancient churches. The first and earliest church on this planet was the one described in the first chapters of Genesis; it was a heavenly church, the finest of them all: 607, 895, 920, 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545. What the people of the earliest church are like in heaven: 1114-1125. They live in the best light: 1116, 1117. There were several churches after the Flood, which are collectively referred to as "the ancient church": 1126, 1127, 1128, 1327, 10355 (which contain further discussion of these churches). The ancient church was spread across all the countries of the Middle East: 1238, 2385. What the people of the ancient church were like: 609, 895. The ancient church was a representative church; 1 the symbols it used had been gathered together by certain people of the earliest church: 519, 521, 2896. There was a Word in the ancient church, but it has been lost: 2897. What the ancient church was like when it began to go into decline: 1128. The difference between the earliest church and the ancient church: 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493. The earliest and ancient churches were present in the land of Canaan, and this is the source of the symbolism of its particular places: 3686, 4447, 4454. On the church that began with Eber and was called "the Hebrew church": 1238, 1241, 1343, 4516, 4517. The difference between the ancient church and the Hebrew church: 1343, 4874. The Hebrew nation began the practice of ritual sacrifices, a practice utterly unknown to the ancient churches: 1343. The inward aspects of the ancient churches agree with those of the Christian church, but the outward aspects do not: 3478, 4489, 4772, 4904, 10149. In the earliest church, revelation was direct; in the ancient church it came through correspondences; in the Jewish church it came by audible speech; and in the Christian church it came through the Word: 10355. The Lord was the God of the earliest church and was known as Jehovah: 1343, 6846. The Lord is heaven, and the Lord is the church: 4766, 10125, 10151, 10157. On the fact that the Lord's divine nature makes heaven, see Heaven and Hell 7-12, 78-86; so it also makes the church, since what makes heaven for us also makes the church, as stated earlier in these teachings [§§60, 241].
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. In what Swedenborg calls a "representative church," all the details and circumstances of the rituals symbolically reflect an inner worship of the Lord and the heavenly and spiritual realities of his kingdom ( Secrets of Heaven 1437). See also Secrets of Heaven 4288[2] for the contrast between this kind of church and a representation of a church in which the outward forms have been retained but have lost their connection with inner worship. [GFD]
