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

 

True Christian Religion #761

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761. The final period of the Christian church is absolute night, in which the previous churches ended, as can be established from the Lord's prediction about it in the Gospels and in Daniel. A passage from the Gospels states that they would see the abomination of desolation, and there would be great affliction such as had not been since the beginning of the world up to now, and would not be in the future; and that unless those days were shortened, no flesh could be saved; and finally the sun would be darkened, the moon would not give its light, and the stars would fall from the sky (Matthew 24:15, 21-22, 29). This period is also called night elsewhere in the Gospels, as in Luke:

On that night there will be two in one bed; one will be received, the other left behind, Luke 17:34.

And in John:

I must do the work of Him that sent me. The night will come, when no one will be able to work, John 9:4.

[2] Since all light departs in the middle of the night, and the Lord is the true light (John 1:4ff; John 8:12; 12:35-36, 46), He said to the disciples when He went up into heaven:

I am with you until the ending of the age, Matthew 28:20.

Then He leaves them for the new church. There is further proof in Daniel for this final period of the church being absolute night, in which the previous churches ended, in this passage:

Finally upon the bird of abominations desolation, to the point of ending and cutting off; it shall be poured drop by drop upon devastation, Daniel 9:27.

It is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew 24:15 that this is a prediction of the end of the Christian church. It is also clear from this passage of Daniel about the fourth kingdom, that is, the fourth church, represented by the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw:

As you saw iron mixed with common clay, so will people intermingle by means of human seed; but they will not hold together, one with another, just as iron does not with clay, Daniel 2:43.

Human seed there is the truth of the Word.

[3] It is also clear from this passage about the fourth church represented by the fourth beast coming up out of the sea:

I saw in visions of the night, and there was the fourth beast, dreadful and frightening; it will devour the whole earth and trample it and crush it, Daniel 7:7, 23.

This means that it would put an end to all the truth of the church. Then it would be night, because the truth of the church is light. There are many similar predictions about this church in Revelation, especially chapter 16, where it speaks of the bowls of God's wrath being poured out upon the earth. These mean the falsities which will then swamp and destroy the church. There are many similar passages in the Prophets, as for example:

Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, thick darkness and no brilliance? Amos 5:18, 20; Zephaniah 1:15.

Also:

On that day Jehovah will look down on the earth, and behold, darkness, and the light will become dim in its ruins, Isaiah 5:30; 8:22.

The day of Jehovah is that of the Lord's coming.

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