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

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #11

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11. God is the essential person. Throughout all the heavens, the only concept of God is a concept of a person. The reason is that heaven, overall and regionally, is in a kind of human form, and Divinity among the angels is what makes heaven. Further, thinking proceeds in keeping with heaven's form, so it is not possible for angels to think about God in any other way. This is why all the people on earth who are in touch with heaven think about God in the same way when they are thinking very deeply, or in their spirit.

It is because God is a person that all angels and spirits are perfectly formed people. This is because of heaven's form, which is the same in its largest and its smallest manifestations. (On heaven being in a human form overall and regionally, see Heaven and Hell 59-87 [59-86], and on thought progressing in keeping with heaven's form, see 203-204 there.)

It is common knowledge that we were created in the image and likeness of God because of Genesis 1:26-27 and from the fact that Abraham and others saw God as a person.

The early people, wise and simple alike, thought of God only as a person. Even when they began to worship many gods, as they did in Athens and Rome, they worshiped them as persons. By way of illustration, here is an excerpt from an earlier booklet.

Non-Christians--especially Africans--who acknowledge and worship one God as the Creator of the universe conceive of that God as a person. They say that no one can have any other concept of God. When they hear that many people prefer an image of God as a little cloud in the center, they ask where these people are; and when they are told that these people are among the Christians, they respond that this is impossible. They are told, however, that Christians get this idea from the fact that in the Word God is called a spirit; and the only concept they have of spirit is of a piece of cloud. They do not realize that every spirit and every angel is a person. However, when inquiry was made to find out whether their spiritual concept was the same as their earthly one, it turned out that it was not the same for people who inwardly recognized the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.

I heard one Christian elder say that no one could have a concept of a being both divine and human; and I saw him taken to various non-Christians, more and more profound ones. Then he was taken to their heavens, and finally to a heaven of Christians. Through the whole process people's inner perception of God was communicated to him, and he came to realize that their only concept of God was a concept of a person--which is the same as a concept of a being both divine and human.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9789

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9789. 'For their generations among the children of Israel' means eternity for the spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'generations' as eternity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the children of Israel' as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 9340, thus also the spiritual kingdom. For the Lord's spiritual kingdom in heaven is the spiritual heaven; on earth it is the spiritual Church. The reason why 'generations' means eternity is that in the internal sense generations of faith and charity are meant, 613, 2020, 2584, 6239, 9042, 9079, and so things of heaven and the Church, which things are eternal. Also the children of Israel, to whom the word 'generations' applies, mean the Church, 9340. The fact that eternity is meant by 'generations' is evident from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,

My righteousness will exist to eternity, and My salvation from generation to generation. 1 Awake as in the days of old, the generations of eternity. 2 Isaiah 51:8-9.

In the same prophet,

I will make you an eternal magnificence, 3 a joy of generation after generation. Isaiah 60:15.

In the same prophet,

Its smoke will go up to eternity. From generation to generation it will be laid waste; no one will pass through it for ever and ever. 4 Isaiah 34:10.

In David,

The counsel of Jehovah will stand to eternity, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. 5 Psalms 33:11.

In the same author,

I will praise Your name to eternity and forever. 6 Generation to generation will praise Your works. Psalms 145:2-4.

In the same author,

They will fear You with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation. 7 Psalms 72:5.

In Moses,

This is My name to eternity, and this is My memorial from one generation to another. 8 Exodus 3:15.

There are very many other places besides these. When it says that things will exist 'to eternity' and from 'generation to generation', 'eternity' has regard to the Divine Celestial or Good, and 'generation' to the Divine Spiritual or Truth. For in the Word, especially the prophetic part, two expressions that have reference to one and the same thing are very frequently used, as in the places quoted above in which eternity and generation to generation occur. They are used because of the heavenly marriage that is present in every single part of the Word. The heavenly marriage is a marriage of good and truth, or the Lord and heaven joined together, see the places referred to in 9263.

Footnotes:

1. literally, to generations of generations

2. literally, the days of antiquities, the generations of eternities

3. literally, a magnificence of eternities

4. literally, into perpetuity of perpetuities

5. literally, to what is eternal and perpetual

6. literally, generation and generation

7. literally, from the generation of generations

8. literally, into generation and generation

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