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Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

De Verbo (The Word) #13

Studere hoc loco

  
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13. XIII. How far indirect revelation made by means of the Word is superior to direct revelation by means of spirits.

It is believed that a person could be more enlightened and wiser, if he had direct revelation by talking with spirits and angels, but the reverse is true. Enlightenment by means of the Word follows an internal path, but enlightenment by means of direct revelation follows an external path. The internal path is through the will into the intellect, the external path is through the hearing into the intellect. A person is enlightened by the Lord by means of the Word to the extent that his will is governed by good. But by hearing he can be taught and so to speak enlightened, even though his will is governed by evil. What enters the intellect of a person who is governed by evil is not inside him, but outside, being only in the memory and not expressed in the way he lives. What is outside him and not expressed in the way he lives little by little disappears, if not earlier, at any rate after death. For a will governed by evil either rejects or chokes it, or falsifies and profanes it. For the will controls the way a person lives, and continually acts upon the intellect, and it looks upon what the intellect has from memory as extraneous.

On the other hand the intellect does not act upon the will, but only indicates how the will ought to act. If therefore someone knew from heaven all that the angels can ever know, or if he knew everything there is in the Word, and everything in all the teachings of the church, and in addition what the church fathers wrote and the councils laid down, and yet his will was governed by evil, he would still after death be regarded as knowing nothing, because he does not wish what he knows. Since evil hates truth, the person himself then rejects those things, and in their place adopts falsities which agree with the evil in his will.

[2] Moreover, no spirit or angel is given permission to teach anyone on this earth about Divine truths; but it is the Lord Himself who teaches each person by means of the Word. How much he is taught depends upon how far he receives in his will good from the Lord, and he receives the more, the more he shuns evils as sins. Also each person is in the company of spirits as regards his affections and the thoughts they inspire. In this company he is as one with them, so that spirits speaking with people draw on his affections to speak and are guided by them. A person cannot speak with other spirits, unless the communities to which he belongs are first removed. This happens only by reforming his will.

Since a person is in the company of spirits who share his religion, the spirits who speak with him confirm all the religious principles he has adopted. So the spirits of the Enthusiast sect confirm all the details of Enthusiast belief the person has adopted; Quaker spirits all the details of Quaker belief, Moravian spirits all the details of Moravian belief, and so on. This leads to confirmations of falsity which can never be eradicated. These facts make it plain that indirect revelation by means of the Word is superior to direct revelation by means of spirits. As regards myself, I was not allowed to learn anything from the lips of a spirit or angel, but only from the lips of the Lord.

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

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Apocalypse Explained #113

Studere hoc loco

  
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113. These things saith the First and the Last, signifies the Lord, who governs all things from the Divine Human, from firsts by means of ultimates. This is evident from the signification of "the First and the Last," as being, in reference to the Lord, His ruling all things from firsts by means of ultimates (See above, n. 41). That it is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human who here and in what follows speaks to the angels of the churches, can be seen from the preceding chapter, where similar things are said of the Son of man; and the Son of man is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human (See above, n. 63). This is clearly shown by bringing the passages together; for example, the Son of man is described in the preceding chapter as seen:

In the midst of the golden lampstands, having in his right hand seven stars (Revelation 1:13, 16).

These same things introduce what is written to the angel of the Ephesian Church in these words, "These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands" (verse 1).

[2] In the preceding chapter the Son of man is described thus:

I am the First and the Last; and the Living One; and I became dead; and behold I am alive unto the ages of the ages (Revelation 1:17-18).

These things here introduce what is written to the angel of the church of the Smyrneans, in these words; "These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive" (verse 8). In the preceding chapter the Son of man is described, that there was seen:

Out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth (Revelation 1:16).

This introduces what is written to the angel of the church Pergamum, in these words:

These things saith He that hath the sharp two-edged sword (Revelation 2:12).

In the preceding chapter the Son of man is described, that He was seen to have:

Eyes as a flame of fire; and feet like unto burnished brass, as if glowing in a furnace (Revelation 1:14-15).

These things introduce what is written to the angel of the church in Thyatira, in these words:

These things saith the Son of God, that hath His eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto burnished brass (Revelation 1:18).

[3] Similar things introduce what is written to the angels of the other three churches (of which in the following chapter). From this it can be seen that it is the Son of man who says the things that are written to the churches; and as by the "Son of man" the Lord in respect to the Divine Human is meant (as was shown above, n. 63, it follows that all that is written to the churches is from the Lord's Divine Human; and from this it also follows that the Divine Human is the All in all things of the church, as it is the All in all things of Heaven. So here by His being "the First and the Last" is signified that the Lord from His Divine Human governs all things from firsts by means of ultimates. (That the Lord in respect to the Divine Human is the All in all things of heaven, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell 7-12 n. 78-86, and the rest there. And as the Lord is the All in all things of heaven, He is also the All in all things of the church, for the church is the kingdom of the Lord on the earth.) This I can affirm, that no one who is within the church, and does not acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human, can enter heaven. To acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in His Human is to think of His Divine when thinking of His Human. That it must be so thought of is because the whole heaven is from His Divine Human (as may be seen shown in the work on Heaven and Hell, from beginning to end; and above in the explanation of Revelation, n. 10, 49, 52, 82).

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