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Las grandes ideas

Por New Christian Bible Study Staff (Traducido por computadora al Español)

A girl gazes into a lighted globe, showing the solar system.

Aquí estamos en el siglo XXI. Sabemos que el universo es un lugar enorme. Estamos rebosantes de conocimiento científico. ¿Pero cómo vamos con las ideas más grandes? Nuestras sociedades humanas parecen estar borrándolas, o ignorándolas - tal vez pensamos que estamos demasiado ocupados para ellas.

Aquí, en el sitio del Nuevo Estudio Bíblico Cristiano, vamos a romper con la tendencia. Queremos explorar las grandes ideas que nos dan un marco para vivir mejor. Aquí hay un comienzo en una lista de grandes ideas desde la perspectiva del Nuevo Cristiano. Para cada idea, hay una nota al pie de página que enumera algunas referencias en las obras teológicas de Swedenborg:

1. Dios existe. Un solo Dios, que creó y sostiene el universo entero en todas sus dimensiones, espirituales y físicas. 1

2. La esencia de Dios es el amor mismo. Es la fuerza que impulsa todo. 2

3. La esencia de Dios llega a existir, es decir, existe, en y a través de la creación. 3

4. Hay niveles, o grados, de creación, que van desde los espirituales que no podemos detectar con nuestros sentidos o sensores físicos, hasta el nivel del universo físico donde está la mayor parte de nuestra conciencia cuando estamos vivos aquí. 4

5. El universo creado emana de Dios, y está sostenido por Dios, pero de manera importante está separado de Dios. Quiere que esté separado, para que la libertad pueda existir. 5

6. Dios opera desde el amor a través de la sabiduría - deseando cosas buenas, y entendiendo cómo llevarlas a cabo. 6

7. El nivel físico de la creación existe para proporcionar a los seres humanos la oportunidad de elegir en libertad, con racionalidad, si reconocer y cooperar con Dios o no. 7

8. Dios proporciona a todas las personas en todas partes, independientemente de su religión, la libertad de elegir vivir una vida de amor a Dios y al prójimo. 8

9. Dios ama a todo el mundo. Sabe que la verdadera felicidad sólo viene cuando somos desinteresados; cuando estamos verdaderamente motivados por un amor al Señor que se fundamenta en el amor al prójimo. Él busca guiar a todos, pero no nos forzará a seguir en contra de nuestra voluntad. 9

10. Dios no nos juzga. Nos dice lo que es bueno y lo que es malo, y fluye en nuestras mentes para guiarnos hacia el bien. Sin embargo, somos libres de rechazar su liderazgo, y en su lugar optar por amarnos a nosotros mismos. Día a día, creamos hábitos de generosidad o de egoísmo, y vivimos una vida de acuerdo con esos hábitos. Esos hábitos se convierten en el verdadero "nosotros", nuestro amor imperante. 10

11. Nuestros cuerpos físicos mueren eventualmente, pero la parte espiritual de nuestras mentes sigue funcionando. Ya ha estado operando en un plano espiritual, pero nuestra conciencia cambia - para que nos volvamos plenamente conscientes de la realidad espiritual. 11

Notas a pie de página:

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Divine Providence #76

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76. Anyone whose rationality has not been beclouded can see or grasp the fact that if we did not seem to be in possession of ourselves, we would not experience any wish to know anything or any wish to understand anything, since all pleasure and satisfaction and therefore all volition comes from feelings that derive from love. Who could set out to know or understand something unless there were some feeling of satisfaction involved? Could we have any such feeling of satisfaction unless what moved us seemed to be really ours? If it were not ours at all, but came from someone else--that is, if one person were instilling some of his or her feelings into the mind of someone who really had no inclinations to know or to understand--would that second person accept the feelings? Could that second person accept them? Could we call that second person anything but a dumb animal or a passive lump?

Clearly, then, it stands to reason that even though everything is flowing in, everything we perceive and therefore think and know, everything we intend and do in response to our perceptions, still it is by divine providence that it all seems to be ours. Otherwise, as just noted, we would not accept anything and could not be given any intelligence or wisdom.

It is acknowledged that everything good and true belongs not to us but to the Lord, even though it does seem to us to be ours. Since everything good and true does seem to be ours, so does everything that has to do with the church and heaven, with love and wisdom, and with charity and faith, even though no element of them really belongs to us. None of us could accept them from the Lord if we did not seem to perceive them as our own.

This supports the truth of the matter, namely, that whatever we do freely, whether or not it is guided by reason, seems to be ours as long as it is in accord with our reason.

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

De obras de Swedenborg

 

Divine Providence #27

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27. The Lord's Divine Providence Has as Its Goal a Heaven from the Human Race

I have explained elsewhere that heaven did not originate in angels who were created angels at the beginning, and that hell did not originate in a devil who was created an angel of light and was cast down from heaven. Rather, both heaven and hell are from the human race. Heaven is made up of people who are involved in a love for what is good and a consequent discernment of what is true, and hell of people who are involved in a love for what is evil and a discernment of what is false. I have been given convincing evidence of this through long-term association with angels and spirits, and would refer you to Heaven and Hell 311-316, the booklet The Last Judgment 14-27, and the whole of Supplements on the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World.

[2] Since heaven comes from the human race, then, and since heaven is living with the Lord forever, it follows that this was the Lord's goal for creation. Further, since this was the goal of creation, it is the goal of the Lord's divine providence.

The Lord did not create the universe for his own sake but for the sake of people he would be with in heaven. By its very nature, spiritual love wants to share what it has with others, and to the extent that it can do so, it is totally present, experiencing its peace and bliss. Spiritual love gets this quality from the Lord's divine love, which is like this in infinite measure.

It then follows that divine love (and therefore divine providence) has the goal of a heaven made up of people who have become angels and are becoming angels, people with whom it can share all the bliss and joy of love and wisdom, giving them these blessings from the Lord's own presence within them. He cannot help doing this, because his image and likeness is in us from creation. His image in us is wisdom and his likeness in us is love; and the Lord within us is love united to wisdom and wisdom united to love, or goodness united to truth and truth united to goodness, which is the same thing. (See the preceding section for a description of this union.)

[3] However, people do not know what heaven is in general or in groups of people and what heaven is in particular or in an individual. They do not know what heaven is in the spiritual world and what it is in the physical world, either; and yet it is important to know about these matters. Consequently, I want to shed some light on this, in the following sequence.

1. Heaven is union with the Lord.

2. Our nature from creation enables us to be more and more closely united to the Lord.

3. The more closely we are united to the Lord, the wiser we become.

4. The more closely we are united to the Lord, the happier we become.

5. The more closely we are united to the Lord, the more clearly we seem to have our own identity, and yet the more obvious it is to us that we belong to the Lord.

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