The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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

 

258 - The Heaven Project

By Jonathan S. Rose

Title: The Heaven Project

Topic: Salvation

Summary: Heaven is the ultimate purpose behind creation. It is an infinite and eternal project involving ever increasing numbers, variety, and connections, to embody God with greater and greater resolution. Yet it also gives us more and more peace.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Psalms 126
Matthew 10:29-30; 13:23, 47
Mark 10:29
Genesis 1:27-28; 13:16; 22:17
Isaiah 9:6-7
Job 8:7; 15:15
1 Kings 8:27
Luke 16:13-16
John 14:2-3; 12:24
Romans 12:1-5
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27
Psalms 132:8-14

Play Video
Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 4/13/2016. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Spiritual Experiences #155

  
/ 6110  
  

155. About Speech and the understanding of things, with Angels

1. ) I have spoken with spirits around me about the speech of angels and their understanding of matters which the spirits are extremely interested in knowing about. Having been taught by experience, I said that the angels' speech cannot be perceptible to us, because it contains countless elements almost simultaneously, which would have to be unfolded extensively in a sequence and in many roundabout ways; and that it is not portrayable to us except by forms virtually beyond our grasp and my powers of description, whirling around together in gyrating motions, following the varying pattern of more inward forms. About these forms as they were shown to me, I have spoken elsewhere [191a-92a].

2. ) Meanwhile, there is a form of speech, or of very many speaking at the same time, which, when it falls into the lower orb, does not appear the same, but sometimes quite different, for the most part turning into pictorial symbolism like that of the Prophets, which consequently more inwardly contains heavenly, and therefore hidden, matters. There is a reactive understanding with the angels, that is, arising from these symbolic displays, which, when exhibited through our mental images, are transformed into heavenly subjects that angels can understand, so that the earthly paradise can pass over into the heavenly one.

3. ) It was also shown to me how angels, from facts of nature alone properly joined together, have understood a series of very lofty, heavenly matters. Yet this cannot happen with the angels except through the mercy of God the Messiah. 1747, the 21st of August (old calendar).

4. ) Such gyrating motions I have sometimes been able, by the Divine mercy of God the Messiah, to feel come over me vividly, and I was able to gather therefrom that myriads of such more inward mental images could compose one material one, we may call it, 1 in which such a countless number of elements are contained that a person in the world could never believe it, much less comprehend it. In every more inward mental image, in its turn, [are contained countless elements], but in an incalculably greater degree of perfection.

Now this form, and consequently the influence of God the Messiah through angels, and from them through spirits, upon human minds, becomes disturbed when a person lives in a contrary order, especially when one wants to go into the mysteries of religion by means of knowledge that has been called up by the love of self and the world, and therefore by cupidity. From this there arises a confusion or disturbance like that among the Babylonians building the tower, when their lips were confounded [Gen. 11:4-9], 2

5. ) affirming the absence of God the Messiah from humanity, even though all things are nevertheless ordered in such a way that they may be restored to a semblance of some heavenly form. This can take place in countlessly many ways. For no matter what abstruseness, entanglement, jumble, comes to exist in the lower realm or world, it can nevertheless be brought back to order by God the Messiah; otherwise mankind would perish and not be able to understand anything. On this account there is still a spiritual influence enabling them to exercise their reason. The door from the heavenly Paradise to the earthly one is said to be opened when one is acting from what is higher, that is, according to order - which also is "to turn the face toward." About the Babylonic confounding [of the lip] and the opening of the heavenly Paradise.

Footnotes:

1. The meaning is not that "material" is the wrong term, but it is being used in the sense of "an idea with man in the material world." -tr.

2. This paragraph and the first half of the next is emphasized in the original by the word "Obs." written four times in the margin.

  
/ 6110  
  

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