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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #796

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796. 18:23 "The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore." This symbolically means that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

The light of a lamp symbolizes enlightenment by the Lord and a consequent perception of spiritual truth. That is because the light means the light of heaven, which is the light angels have, and people, too, as regards their intellect, because the light in its essence is Divine wisdom. For it emanates from the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world, which in its essence is the Divine love in Divine wisdom, and the only light that can emanate from it is the light of Divine wisdom, and the only warmth the warmth of Divine love. The reality of this is something we showed in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 83-172.

Since that light comes from the Lord, and the Lord is omnipresent in it and by means of it, therefore it is the means of all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth, a perception that those people have who love Divine truths spiritually, that is, who love Divine truths because they are true, thus because they are Divine. Plainly this is what it is to love the Lord. For the Lord is omnipresent in that light, inasmuch as Divine love and wisdom do not exist in space, but are present wherever they are received, in accordance with their reception.

[2] That people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion are without any enlightenment and so without any perception of spiritual truth, can be seen from the fact that they have no love for any spiritual light. For as we said, spiritual light originates from the Lord, and the only people who can receive and accept that light are people conjoined with the Lord, and conjunction with the Lord is achieved solely by an acknowledgment and worship of Him, and at the same time by a life in accordance with His commandments from the Word. An acknowledgment and worship of the Lord and reading the Word bring about the Lord's presence, but it is these two things combined at the same time with a life in accordance with His precepts that bring about a conjunction with Him.

The opposite is the case in Roman Catholicism. The Lord is acknowledged in it, but without His having any dominion, and the Word is acknowledged without its being read. Instead of the Lord they worship the Pope, and instead of the Word they acknowledge papal bulls, and live according to those bulls, and not according to the commandments in the Word. The bulls, moreover, have as their goal the dominion of the Pope and his ministers over heaven and the world, while the commandments in the Word have as their goal the dominion of the Lord over heaven and the world. These two goals are as diametrically opposed to each other as heaven and hell.

We have said this much for it to be known that people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without the least light of a lamp, that is to say, without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

[3] That the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and perception of spiritual truth is apparent from the following:

He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. (John 1:4-12)

This in reference to the Lord.

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world... Whoever does the truth comes to the light... (John 3:19, 21)

Jesus said..., "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you... While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light." (John 12:35-36)

(Jesus said,) "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)

(Jesus said,) ."..I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)

(Simeon said,) ."..my eyes have seen Your salvation..., a light for revelation to the Gentiles...." (Luke 2:30-32)

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; upon those sitting in the region and shadow of death, light has arisen. (Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 9:2)

I have given You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

The city (New Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23, cf. 22:5)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth. And because the Lord is the light, the Devil is darkness. The Devil is also the love of exercising dominion over all the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, and over the Lord Himself; and to the extent it achieves that dominion, it darkens, extinguishes, sets on fire and burns up the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord.

  
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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.

The Bible

 

John 12:35

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35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.