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Genesis 4

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1 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceiveth and beareth Cain, and saith, `I have gotten a man by Jehovah;'

2 and she addeth to bear his brother, even Abel. And Abel is feeding a flock, and Cain hath been servant of the ground.

3 And it cometh to pass at the end of days that Cain bringeth from the fruit of the ground a present to Jehovah;

4 and Abel, he hath brought, he also, from the female firstlings of his flock, even from their fat ones; and Jehovah looketh unto Abel and unto his present,

5 and unto Cain and unto his present He hath not looked; and it is very displeasing to Cain, and his countenance is fallen.

6 And Jehovah saith unto Cain, `Why hast thou displeasure? and Why hath thy countenance fallen?

7 Is there not, if thou dost well, acceptance? and if thou dost not well, at the opening a sin-offering is crouching, and unto thee its desire, and thou rulest over it.'

8 And Cain saith unto Abel his brother, [`Let us go into the field;'] and it cometh to pass in their being in the field, that Cain riseth up against Abel his brother, and slayeth him.

9 And Jehovah saith unto Cain, `Where [is] Abel thy brother?' and he saith, `I have not known; my brother's keeper -- I?'

10 And He saith, `What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood is crying unto Me from the ground;

11 and now, cursed [art] thou from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive the blood of thy brother from thy hand;

12 when thou tillest the ground, it doth not add to give its strength to thee -- a wanderer, even a trembling one, thou art in the earth.'

13 And Cain saith unto Jehovah, `Greater is my punishment than to be borne;

14 lo, Thou hast driven me to-day from off the face of the ground, and from Thy face I am hid; and I have been a wanderer, even a trembling one, in the earth, and it hath been -- every one finding me doth slay me.'

15 And Jehovah saith to him, `Therefore -- of any slayer of Cain sevenfold it is required;' and Jehovah setteth to Cain a token that none finding him doth slay him.

16 And Cain goeth out from before Jehovah, and dwelleth in the land, moving about east of Eden;

17 and Cain knoweth his wife, and she conceiveth, and beareth Enoch; and he is building a city, and he calleth the name of the city, according to the name of his son -- Enoch.

18 And born to Enoch is Irad; and Irad hath begotten Mehujael; and Mehujael hath begotten Methusael; and Methusael hath begotten Lamech.

19 And Lamech taketh to himself two wives, the name of the one Adah, and the name of the second Zillah.

20 And Adah beareth Jabal, he hath been father of those inhabiting tents and purchased possessions;

21 and the name of his brother [is] Jubal, he hath been father of every one handling harp and organ.

22 And Zillah she also bare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; and a sister of Tubal-Cain [is] Naamah.

23 And Lamech saith to his wives: -- `Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, give ear [to] my saying: For a man I have slain for my wound, Even a young man for my hurt;

24 For sevenfold is required for Cain, And for Lamech seventy and sevenfold.'

25 And Adam again knoweth his wife, and she beareth a son, and calleth his name Seth, `for God hath appointed for me another seed instead of Abel:' for Cain had slain him.

26 And to Seth, to him also a son hath been born, and he calleth his name Enos; then a beginning was made of preaching in the name of Jehovah.

   

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Doctrine

Napsal(a) Joe David

In this photo, entitled Reaching Out, two bean plants are climbing adjacent poles, and they have each reached out a tendril to bridge the gap.

Doctrine may be defined as organized truth that informs the way we act and think about the world.

In common usage, "doctrine" is not something that has to be grand or solemn. We all have doctrines about many little things like lawn care, car maintenance, or fixing chili; this kind of doctrine is just the way we do something because we think it is the right way. Often the reasoning behind these doctrines is that it is the way our parents did it, that we read it somewhere, or that it just seems right.

Everyone has a doctrine about how they live their lives in general as well, such as a charitable doctrine of looking out for others, or a selfish doctrine of "me first." Whether or not we have given it much thought, we live in accordance with our doctrine - our way of thinking.

Swedenborg used "doctrine" quite specifically to mean the organized arrangement of spiritual teachings about various aspects of reality. All religions have sacred beliefs, some of them written, like the Bible or the Quran, and some of them oral. From these beliefs they establish doctrine. In many cases organizations of the same religion will emphasize or reject different sets of truths and develop different forms of doctrine. Moreover, different religions will disagree about the validity of the original beliefs. But most would agree that the Truth, with a capital T, comes from some version of God.

The Writings for the New Church tell us that, in the Bible, cities represent doctrine. This was because cities were organized habitations, home ground to many people, places where there was much interchange of ideas and goods between people. They were places that could accommodate differing neighborhoods, and that could be fortified. On a spiritual plane all these things can be said about doctrine. It’s interesting to notice just how often cities are mentioned in the Word, either to be conquered, lived in, or built. Mention of a city comes as early as Genesis 4:17, just after the expulsion from the garden of Eden, where we are told that Cain built a city in the land of Nod and named it after his son, Enoch. Then in Genesis 11, men are not only building the well-known tower of Babel, but also a city of which the tower was a part. There are hundreds of other cities mentioned, and they signify different structures of doctrine.

Finally, in the next to last chapter of the Word (Revelation 20) we are told of the descent from God of the City New Jerusalem, coming down to earth. We in the New Church believe that this City represents a new doctrine, given by the Lord, written down and published by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 1700s, that resolves the false ideas that came into Christianity with the ideas of three persons in God, and with the later belief in salvation by faith alone.

New Christian doctrine holds that there is one God - one Divine Person who is the Lord God Jesus Christ, and that salvation requires a joining of faith and charity (a belief in true ideas, and a love for God and the neighbor).

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 320, 902; Arcana Coelestia 399, 402, 3364 [2]; Teachings about the Sacred Scripture 54; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 63; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 7; True Christian Religion 508 [5])