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

 

Spiritual Experiences #5378

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5378. I heard and saw up to many myriads let down from heaven there, first toward the north, then toward the west, and lastly toward the south. In a word, an enormous multitude was heard. And it was said that they were those who have lived piously and thought about God, yet not about the Lord except as a human being like themselves and not about Him as God. And in addition there were those who had thought only about the Father and about the Lord otherwise than one ought. In a word, they were those who had always directed their thought to God the Father so that He would save them on account of the Son. And when they did think about the one God, they did not think about the Lord at the same time. So they had not worshiped the Lord, when yet the Father cannot be approached except through Him, since He is the way [John 14:6], and no one comes to the Father except through Him [ibid.]. And also no one can see the Father [John 6:46] unless He makes Him known, as He himself says in John 1:18 and elsewhere. In a word, they had not had the Lord in their life of piety, when nevertheless without the Lord there is no salvation. Those who are like this, however much they think about God, still cannot be led, for they still think indeterminately and have no connection with the Lord, who nevertheless is the God of heaven and earth. Nor were they able to think about God in any human, thus definite, form. As a result their thought collapses into something nonexistent, or rather, they do not think about the Trinity, when yet this must be thought about when thinking about God. Because they passed by the Lord and are then in oblivion, that is to say, engaged in no thought about the Divine itself, however much the church openly teaches this; their thought about the Lord sinks from the Divine, which is nothing to them, into the likeness of a common man, thus not into someone to whom they could direct their thoughts. Rather their mental picture about Him would be like that of a mere man, and not God. Because of this such spirits could not be together with the angels and heaven. Therefore they were let down from there to the number of many thousands.

  
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Thanks to the Academy of the New Church, and Bryn Athyn College, for the permission to use this translation.