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

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #54

  
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54. III. THE THIRD STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS DECLINE FROM TRUE REPRESENTATIVE WORSHIP INTO IDOLATRY, AND THEN WAS ITS VASTATION, OR EVENING. Some notable things were adduced above respecting the difference between representative worship and idolatrous worship, from which it may be plainly seen, that, so long as the types, figures and signs, which were seized upon by the senses of the body as objects of religion by the men of the Noachian and Israelitish Churches, were not at the same time regarded from a higher, or interior, idea, nearly approaching to a spiritual one, truly representative worship easily declined with them into idolatry. As for example: If, in reference to the tabernacle, they did not think at the same time of heaven and the Church, and of God's dwelling-place in these; concerning the bread of faces (or shewbread) therein, they did not think at the same time of the heavenly bread for the nourishment of the soul; concerning the incense and the burning of it upon the golden altar there, they did not think at the same time about worship from faith and charity, that this is what ascends to Jehovah as a grateful odour; about the lights in the lamps of the golden candlestick, when lighted, they did not think at the same time of the enlightenment of the understanding in the objects of their religion; and about the eating of the holy things, so that they did not at the same time think about the appropriation of heavenly foods, and also about the holy refreshment of their spirits from the performance of the sacrifices: and in like manner with the other things. It is hence manifest, that, if the man of the representative Church did not at the same time look upon the things belonging to that worship with a rational spirit enlightened by heavenly light from the Lord, but only with a rational spirit informed by the natural light (lumen) of the world from self, he could easily be carried away from genuine representative worship into idolatrous worship, and so be vastated; for vastation is nothing else but a turning aside, decline and falling away from representative to idolatrous worship; which two kinds of worship are alike as to external appearance, but not as to internal appearance.

[2] On account of this proneness to fall away from one worship which in itself was heavenly, into another which in itself was infernal, the interior things of the Church and of religion-namely, concerning heaven and hell, the resurrection, and the life of their spirits after death, and, also, the immortality of their souls, regeneration, and, in short, the interior things respecting faith and charity; -could not be revealed before the Lord's Advent, and then by light from Him, inasmuch as they would have looked upon them scarcely otherwise than as one looks at birds over the head, or meteors in the air. And, further, they would have covered them over so thickly with the mere fallacies of the senses, that, moreover, not a single vestige of the spiritual things revealed would have been visible, except as much as the tip of the nose in respect to the face, or a fingernail in respect to the hands. They would also have so distorted them, that they would have appeared in the presence of the angels no otherwise than like a sea-monster dressed out in a cloak, a mitre on the head, and with a face, after being shaved and painted, like that of an ape-whose face is destitute of hair: and they would also have appeared before the angels like a statue fitted with movable joints and hollowed out; which, some accomplice being introduced into it, would walk about, act and speak, and at length cry out to the superstitious multitude, "Prostrate yourselves; call upon me; behold me, your tutelar deity, your protector, to whom belongs holiness and divine a power." [3] Could the ideas of the thought of these concerning the spiritual things of the Church be superior to the ideas of thought of Nicodemus, who was a teacher, on regeneration, which was that of the whole man being re-born in his mother's womb? for he said:

How can a man be born anew? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb?

To whom the Lord answered,

Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?... If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I shall tell you more than heavenly things? (John 3:3-4, 9-10, 12).

They would have raved in like manner, if interior things, which in their essence are spiritual, concerning faith and charity, and also the life after death, and respecting the state of heaven and hell, had been disclosed to them. Wherefore, to open the internal sight of their mind or spirit, as to its higher region, which alone heavenly light illuminates, before the coming of the Lord-who came into the world as "the Light," as He Himself says (John 1-4; 8:12; 12:35-36, 46) - was as impossible as it is to make a horse fly and turn it into Pegasus, or a stag run in the air, or a calf upon the waters; yea, as it would be to convert an agate into a ruby, a crystal into a diamond, or to put a vein of silver into a common stone, or to make a laurel-tree produce grapes, a cedar olives, a poplar and an oak pears and apples; therefore, also, as impossible as to infuse the intelligence of the learned Oedipus into the listening Davus.

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

The Bible

 

John 1:4-5

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4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.