The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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.

The Bible

 

Acts 4:24

Study

       

24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4225

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

4225. In the first place it must be stated who are within the Grand Man and who are outside it. All who are governed by love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and who from their hearts do good to him in the measure that good is present in him, and who have a conscience of what is just and fair, are within the Grand Man, for they abide in the Lord and are consequently in heaven. Not so all who are governed by self-love and love of the world and therefore by their own very evil desires. These do good solely because laws require them to do it; they do it for the sake of personal position, worldly wealth, and reputation resulting from these. Thus they are ruthless interiorly, and being selfish and worldly-minded they are steeped in hatred of and revenge against their neighbour, and take delight in his injury when he does not favour them. These are outside the Grand Man; indeed they are in hell. They do not correspond to any organs or members within the body but to various defects and diseases induced into them, which too will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described from experience later on.

[2] Those outside the Grand Man, that is, outside heaven, cannot enter it since their lives are contrary to it. Indeed if they do gain any kind of entrance, as some on occasions do who during their lifetime have learned to impersonate angels of light (their entry into heaven being sometimes permitted to let them see what they themselves are really like), they are admitted no further than the first part of the way in, that is, no further than the part where those people are gathered who are still simple and have not yet been fully taught. Such people who come in impersonating angels of light are able to remain there for barely a few moments because the life there is that of love to the Lord and of love towards the neighbour. And because nothing there corresponds to their own life they are scarcely able to breathe; for spirits and angels too are beings who breathe, see 3884-3893. As a consequence those impersonating angels start to experience pain, because the act of breathing is directly related to one's freedom to live in one's own way; and what is remarkable, they are at length scarcely able to move but become such as are weighed down, inwardly seized with anguish and torment, as a result of which they cast themselves away from there headlong, even into hell where breathing and freedom of movement return to them. And this is why in the Word life is represented by movement.

[3] The breathing of those who are within the Grand Man however is free when the good of love is alive in them. Yet they are distinguishable any one from another according to the nature and the amount of that good; and this is the origin of so many heavens, which in the Word are called 'rooms', John 14:2. And anyone present in his own heaven leads the life that is his own and has the whole of heaven flowing into him. Everyone there is a focal point of all influxes, and because of that he experiences most perfect equilibrium, doing so in accordance with the amazing form heaven takes, which is received from the Lord alone, with much variety from person to person.

  
/ 10837  
  

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