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

Bilješke:

154. The reason the Lord created the universe and everything in it by means of the spiritual world's sun is that this sun is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom, and as explained above (52-82), everything comes from divine love and wisdom.

There are three components of everything that has been created, no matter how large or how small it is: a purpose, a means, and a result. There is nothing created that lacks these three components. In the largest instance, the universe, these three components arise in the following pattern: the purpose of everything is in that sun that is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom; the means of everything is in the spiritual world; and the result of everything is in the physical world. I will describe below [167-172] how these three components occur in both first and last forms.

Since there is nothing created that lacks these three components, it follows that the universe and everything in it has been created by the Lord by means of the sun where the purpose of everything resides.

4538. 'God said to Jacob' means the perception which the kind of natural good that 'Jacob' now represents received from the Divine. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in historical descriptions in the Word as perceiving, dealt with in 1602, 1791, 1815, 1822, 1898, 1919, 2061, 2080, 2238, 2260, 2619, 2862, 3395, 3509, so that 'God said' means perception received from the Divine; and from the representation of 'Jacob' in the highest sense here as the Lord as regards natural good. Jacob's representation in the Word has been shown in previous sections; but because it is varying, his representation must be discussed briefly here.

[2] In the highest sense 'Jacob' represents in general the Lord's Divine Natural. But the Lord's Natural, when He glorified it, was different at the beginning of the process of glorification from what it was during this and at the end of it; and this is why Jacob's representation was varying. That is to say, at the beginning of the process the Lord's Natural as regards truth is represented by him, during that process the Lord's Natural as regards the good of truth, and at the end of it as regards good. For the Lord's glorification advanced from truth to the good of truth, and finally to good, as shown many times in what has gone before. The end of the process being the subject at present, 'Jacob' represents the Lord as regards natural good. See what has been shown already about these matters, that is to say, about Jacob's representation in the highest sense - how at the beginning of the process he represents the Lord's Divine Natural as regards truth, 3305, 3509, 3525, 3546, 3576' 3599, during it the Lord's Divine Natural as regards the good of truth, 3659, 3669, 3677, 4234, 4273, 4337. But now he represents the Lord's Divine Natural as regards good, for the reason, as stated, that it is the end of the process.

[3] Such was the process which took place when the Lord made His Natural Divine. A similar process also takes place when the Lord regenerates man, for when the Lord made His Human Divine He was pleased to do things in the same sequence as He does when He makes man new. This explains why it has been stated frequently that man's regeneration is an image of the Lord's glorification, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402. When the Lord makes man new He first of all supplies him with the truths of faith, for without the truths of faith he does not know who the Lord is, what heaven is, or what hell is; he does not even know of their existence, let alone of the countless things which have to do with the Lord, His kingdom in heaven, and His kingdom on earth, which is the Church. Nor does he know the identity or nature of the opposite of these, namely the things of hell.

[4] Until he does know these things no one can know what good is. The word 'good' is not used to mean the public good or the good of the individual, for one can learn in the world about these through laws and regulations and through reflection on human customs and habits, which is why gentiles outside the Church know such things too. 'Good' is a word used to mean spiritual good, which in the Word is called charity, and this good in general implies willing and doing to another that which is good not for any selfish reason but out of delight and affection for doing it. This good is spiritual good, which no one can possibly arrive at except through the truths of faith, which are taught by the Lord through the Word and regular preaching of the Word.

[5] Once a person has been supplied with the truths of faith he is then gradually led by the Lord to will the truth, and from willing it to putting it into practice. This truth is called the good of truth, for that good is truth present in will and action and is called the good of truth because truth which has been a matter of doctrine now becomes a matter of life. When at length the person takes delight in willing good and so putting it into practice, it is no longer called the good of truth, but simply good. For now he is regenerate, and it is no longer truth leading him to will and do what is good, but good moving him to will and put truth into practice. And the truth now practiced by him is also so to speak good, since that truth derives its essential being from that in which it originates - in good. From all this one may see what is meant by the statement that in the highest sense 'Jacob' represents the Lord's Natural as regards good, and one may see where that representation has its origin. The reason why 'Jacob' here represents this good is that the subject now in the internal sense is further advances, that is to say, advances made into more interior parts of the natural, which are meant by 'Israel', 4536. No one who is being regenerated by the Lord can be led to those more interior things until the truth present with him has become good.