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

 

Arcana Coelestia #21

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21. Verses 4-5 And God saw that the light was good; and God made a distinction between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

The light is called good, because it comes from the Lord, who is good itself. 'The darkness' is those things which were there prior to the person's new conception and birth. They were seen as light, because evil was seen as good, and falsity as truth. But in reality they are darkness and things proper to that person which are lingering on. All things that are the Lord's, being things of light, are compared to the day, and all that are man's own, being those of thick darkness, are compared to the night, as is done many times in the Word.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10370

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10370. 'And the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath [throughout] their generations' means that the truly essential thing of the Church is the acknowledgement of the union of the Divine itself within the Lord's Human, and that this acknowledgement must be present in every single part of worship. This is clear from the meaning of 'keeping the sabbath' as thought which is holy and goes on unceasingly regarding the union of Divinity itself to the Lord's Human, dealt with above in 10356, and so also acknowledging it, for thinking without acknowledging and believing is not spiritual thinking; from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as the Church, dealt with in the places referred to in 9340; from the meaning of 'observing the sabbath' as worshipping that union in a holy way and so worshipping the Lord's Divine Human, since that union resides within His Human; and from the meaning of 'the generations of the children of Israel' as in every single thing of the Church, dealt with in 10282. From all this it is evident that 'the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath [throughout] your generations' means maintaining the acknowledgement of Divinity itself within the Lord's Human in every single part of worship. The reason why this is the essential thing of the Church and consequently of its worship is that the salvation of the human race depends solely on that union. For the sake also of this union the Lord came into the world; and therefore also that is what the whole Word in its inmost sense deals with and what the religious observances of the Church established among the children of Israel represented and meant spiritually.

[2] The Lord Himself teaches in a number of places that the salvation of the human race depends on that union, consequently that the acknowledgement of it is the essential thing of the Church and of its worship, for example in John,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life. John 3:36.

See also John 3:15-16; 6:40; 11:25-26; 20:31. 'The Son' is the Lord's Divine Human. The reason why those who do not in faith acknowledge the Lord do not have eternal life is that this acknowledgement is made by the whole of heaven; for the Lord is Lord of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew,

All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matthew 28:18.

Therefore heaven is closed to those who do not acknowledge Him; and those who do not acknowledge Him in the world - that is, those within the Church - do not acknowledge Him in the next life. Such is a person's condition after death.

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