The Bible

 

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.

The Bible

 

Genesis 11:7

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7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #121

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121. (iii) THE LORD THUS REDEEMED NOT ONLY MEN, BUT ALSO ANGELS.

This follows from the statement in the previous section that without the Lord's redemption neither could the angels have continued to exist. To the reasons given above the following may be added.

(1) At the time of the Lord's first coming the hells had grown to such a height that they filled the whole world of spirits, which lies midway between heaven and hell. Thus the hells had not only thrown into confusion what is called the lowest heaven, but they had even attacked the middle heaven, which was being plagued in a thousand different ways, and but for the Lord's protection would have been destroyed. Such an assault by the hells is what is meant by the tower built in the land of Shinar, the top of which reached to heaven. This attempt was stopped by the confusion of tongues, and its builders were scattered; the city was called Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) The meaning of the tower there and the confusion of tongues has been explained in ARCANA CAELESTIA, published in London. 1

[2] The reason why the hells had grown to such a height was that at the time when the Lord came into the world, the whole globe had utterly alienated itself from God by the worship of idols and the practice of magic; and the church established among the Children of Israel, and at a later period among the Jews, had been totally destroyed by falsifying and adulterating the Word. All of both these parties came after death into the world of spirits, where they ended by so growing and multiplying that they could not be dislodged from there except by God Himself coming down, and then using the strength of His Divine arm. A description of how this took place was given in the short book THE LAST JUDGMENT published in London in 1758. This event was accomplished by the Lord during His time on earth. A similar act has been performed by the Lord at the present time, since, as stated above, now is His second coming, foretold throughout Revelation, in Matthew (24:3, 30), in Mark (13:26), in Luke (21:27), in the Acts of the Apostles (1:11) and elsewhere. The difference is that at His first coming the growth of the hells was due to worshippers of idols, sorcerers and falsifiers of the Word, but at His second coming it was due to the so-called Christians, both those who had been tainted with nature-worship and those who had falsified the Word by convincing themselves of their fictitious faith in three Divine Persons from eternity, and the Lord's passion as being the real act of redemption. These are the people meant by 'the dragon and his two beasts' in Revelation (chapters 12-13).

[3] (2) The second reason why the Lord redeemed the angels too is that not only every man, but also every angel, is held back from evil by the Lord and kept in a state of good. For no one, whether angel or man, is of himself in a state of good, but all good is from the Lord. Thus when the angels' footstool, which they have in the world of spirits, was snatched away, they suffered the same as someone sitting on a chair when the platform it stands on is removed. The angels are not pure in the sight of God, as is shown by the prophetical parts of the Word, and also from Job, as well as from the fact that there is no angel who was not previously a man. These statements confirm what was said in the statement of faith of the new heaven and the new church set out both in universal and particular terms placed at the beginning of this book:

The Lord came into the world to take hell away from men, and He did this by fighting against hell and winning victories over it. In this way He subdued it and made it subject to His command.

Also the following passage:

Jehovah God came down and took upon Himself human form so as to reduce to order everything in heaven, [in hell] and in the church. For at that time the power of the devil, that is, of hell, was stronger than the power of heaven, and on earth the power of evil was stronger than the power of good, so that utter damnation stood threateningly at the gates. This impending damnation was removed by Jehovah God by means of His Human, and thus He redeemed angels and men.

These passages show that without the Lord's coming no one could have been saved. The situation to-day is similar. So unless the Lord comes into the world again, no more can anyone be saved (see above2-3).

Footnotes:

1. Volume 1 (1749), 1283-1328.

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