Could there be reasons for the humble, vulnerable beginnings of Jesus’s life?

In this video from his Swedenborg and Life web series, host Curtis Childs and featured guests explore how the Divine design may have been at play from the very beginning of Christ's life.

(რეკომენდაციები: Apocalypse Explained 706 [12]; Luke 2:8-12; The Word 7; True Christian Religion 89, 90, 96, 766)

705. CHAPTER 12.

1. AND a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman encompassed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

2. And she being with child, cried out, travailing, and in pain to bring forth.

3. And there was seen another sign in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems.

4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them unto the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, that when she had brought forth he might devour her child.

5. And she brought forth a male child, who is to tend all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and his throne.

6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and sixty days.

7. And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.

8. And they prevailed not; and their place was not found any more in heaven.

9. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which seduceth the whole world; he was cast out unto the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

10. And I heard a great voice saying in heaven, Now is come the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ, because the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before God day and night.

11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.

12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to those that inhabit the earth and the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great anger, knowing that he hath but a short time.

13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast out to the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the male child.

14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth, after the woman, water as a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the river.

16. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

17. And the dragon was wroth against the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

18. And I stood upon the sand of the sea.

EXPLANATION.

Verses 1, 2. And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman encompassed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child, cried out, travailing, and in pain to bring forth.

"And a great sign was seen in heaven," signifies Divine testification concerning the future church, and the reception of its doctrine, and as to those by whom it will be assaulted; "a woman encompassed with the sun," signifies the church with those who are in love to the Lord, and thence in love towards the neighbour; "and the moon under her feet," signifies faith with those who are in charity; ["and upon her head a crown of twelve stars," signifies the wisdom and intelligence of those of that church through doctrinals and the knowledges of all things of truth and good from the Word.] ¹ "And she being with child," signifies doctrine in its birth from the good of celestial love; "cried out, travailing in birth, and in pain to bring forth," signifies non-reception by those who are in the church, and the resistance of those who are in faith separated from charity.

სქოლიოები:

49. THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

I have dealt with the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom and shown that these two make up the Divine Essence. I now proceed to the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God, because these three emanate from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, much as the power and presence of the sun are felt in every single part of this world by means of its heat and light. The heat from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God, is in its essence Divine Love, and its light is in its essence Divine Wisdom. Hence it is plain that just as infinity, immensity and eternity are properties of the Divine Being (Esse), so omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are properties of the Divine Essence. However, these three properties of the Divine Essence have up to now not been understood, through ignorance of the ways in which they proceed, that is, the laws of order. They need therefore to have light shed upon them by the following series of propositions.

(i) Omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are properties of the Divine Wisdom resulting from the Divine Love.

(ii) The omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of God cannot be recognised except through a knowledge of order, and these facts about order: that God is order, and that He introduced order into the universe and all its parts simultaneously with its creation.

(iii) God's omnipotence proceeds and works in the universe and all its parts in accordance with the laws of His order.

(iv) God is omniscient, that is, He perceives, sees and knows down to the tiniest detail everything that happens according to order; and from these things also what happens contrary to order.

(v) God is present everywhere from first to last in His order.

(vi) Man was created to be a form for Divine Order.

(vii) Man has from Divine Omnipotence power against evil and falsity, and from Divine Omniscience wisdom about good and truth, and from Divine Omnipresence is in God, to the extent that he lives in accordance with the Divine order.

These propositions must now be discussed one by one.