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

 

The Lord #62

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62. The New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation Means a New Church

In the Book of Revelation we find a description of the state of the Christian church as it would be at its close and as it now is. We are told that those people from that church who were meant by the false prophet, the dragon, the whore, and the beasts were cast into hell. After this-after the completion of the Last Judgment, that is-it says the following:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Then I, John, saw the holy city Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God.” The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And he said to me, “Write, because these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:1-3, 5)

The new heaven and the new earth that John saw after the first heaven and the first earth had passed away do not mean a new sky like the one we can see with our eyes, full of air and stars, or a new earth for us to live on, but a new kind of church in the spiritual world and a new kind of church in this earthly world.

[2] Because the Lord, when he was in this world, made a new kind of church in both the spiritual and the earthly worlds, it says similar things in the prophets, namely, that a new heaven and a new earth were going to come into being at that time, as we find in Isaiah 65:17; 66:22, and elsewhere -which cannot therefore be understood to refer to the sky that we can see with our eyes and the earth that we live on.

“The spiritual world” means the world where angels and spirits live, and “the earthly world” means the world where we are living. On the recent founding of a new kind of church in the spiritual world and the eventual founding of a new kind of church in the earthly world, there is some information in the booklet Last Judgment and more in the supplement to that work.

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

The Bible

 

Revelation 21:1

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1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.