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

 

Job 38:8

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8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1092

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1092. I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, signifies the Divine proceeding from the Lord in heaven and in the world. This is evident from the signification of "an angel coming down out of heaven," as being the Lord as to the Divine proceeding, for in the internal sense an angel means not an angel, but either the Lord or something pertaining to the Lord (See n. 130, 302, 593, 910), here the Lord, because it is said that "he had great authority, and the earth was lightened by his glory," which means the power and presence of the Divine truth now in heaven and in the world; for it is now made clear that Babylon has been destroyed, and when she has been destroyed there is an accession of power and light to the Divine that proceeds from the Lord. The reason of this will be explained hereafter.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] This is the doctrine respecting God that is accepted in the whole Christian world, because it is from a council. But before that doctrine is examined, a certain arcanum respecting the state of man's faith and love in this world, and afterwards in the other world into which he comes after death shall be disclosed; for until this has been disclosed man can have no other idea than that everyone, whatever his faith may have been, can by the Divine mercy be admitted into heaven and saved, which is the source of the erroneous belief of the Babylonish race, that man has heaven from the good pleasure of the Pope, and by the favor of his vicars.

[3] The arcanum is this, that all the thoughts of man pour themselves forth into the spiritual world in every direction, much the same as rays of light from a flame. As the spiritual world consists of heaven and hell, and as heaven as well as hell consists of innumerable societies, the thoughts of man must needs pour themselves forth into societies; spiritual thoughts, which relate to the Lord, to love and faith in Him, and to the truths and goods of heaven and the church, into heavenly societies; but merely natural thoughts, which relate to self and the world and the love of these, and not at the same time to God, into infernal societies.

[4] That there is such an extension and determination of all man's thoughts has not been known heretofore, because it has not been known what heaven is and what hell is, thus that they consist of societies, consequently that there is an extension of man's thoughts into another world than this natural world, into which the sight of his eyes extends. Thus it is the spiritual world into which thought extends, and the natural world into which sight extends, because the thought of the mind is spiritual while the sight of the eye is natural. That all thoughts of man extend into the societies of the spiritual world, and that without such extension no thought is possible, has been made so evident to me by the experience of many years that I can with all faith affirm it to be true.

[5] In a word, man is in the spiritual world with his head as he is in the natural world with his body, head meaning here his mind, which consists of understanding, thought, will, and love, and body here meaning his senses, which are seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch. And as a man is in the spiritual world as to his head, that is, as to his mind, so he is either in heaven or in hell; and where the mind is there the whole man with the head and body is when he becomes a spirit. Moreover, man is wholly such as his conjunction is with the societies of the spiritual world, such an angel as his conjunction is with the societies of heaven, and such a devil as his conjunction is with the societies of hell.

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