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.

Commentary

 

Resurrection, the first

  

'The first resurrection,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part of resurrection, which is salvation and eternal life. There is only one resurrection to life. A second does not happen, and is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 6; Apocalypse Revealed 851; Revelation 20:5-6)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #729

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729. 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whoredoms and Abominations of the Earth. This symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion such as it is interiorly, which is concealed, that from its origin, springing from a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, it defiled and profaned things having to do with the Word and so with the church.

To be written on the forehead means, symbolically, to be deep-seated in the love, for the forehead symbolizes the love (nos. 347, 605). Mystery means symbolically that it is inwardly concealed. Babylon the Great symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion and its whole character, as said in no. 717 above. Whoredoms symbolize adulterations of the Word's goodness and truth (nos. 719-721), and also defilings of them, as in no. 728 just above. Abominations symbolize profanations of the church's sanctities, as also in no. 728 above. The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285). Consequently the mother of whoredoms and abominations of the earth symbolizes the origin of these.

Now because these words were written on her forehead, and to be written on the forehead means, symbolically, to be deep-seated in the love, and because the love in Roman Catholics is a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over everything connected with the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, therefore the symbolic meaning is as stated.

[2] It can be seen from this that "on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of the Whoredoms and Abominations of the Earth," symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion such as it is interiorly, which is concealed, that from its origin, springing from a love of exercising dominion from a love of self over the sanctities of the church and over heaven, thus over everything connected with the Lord and His Word, it defiled and profaned things having to do with the Word and so with the church.

That their love is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the church is something people know from the jurisdiction they claim they have over people's souls and over everything connected with their worship. They know that it is a love of exercising dominion over heaven from the power they have appropriated of loosing and binding, and thus of opening and closing. 1 They know that it is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the Lord from the Vicariate, by which they attribute to themselves all that is the Lord's. They also know that it is a love of exercising dominion over everything connected with the Word from their reserving its interpretation for themselves alone.

We say that their love of exercising dominion comes from a love of self because possible also is a love of exercising dominion from a love of performing useful services. These two loves are diametrically opposite each other. That is because a love of exercising dominion from a love of self is diabolical, for it has regard for self only and for the world in the service of self. In contrast, a love of exercising dominion from a love of performing useful services is heavenly, for it has regard for the Lord, from whom emanate only useful endeavors, and useful endeavors to it are to do good to the church for the salvation of souls. This latter love consequently abhors a love of exercising dominion from a love of self.

Footnotes:

1. The Lord said to His disciples, "... whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19; 18:18

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.