The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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

 

Marriage #71

  
/ 126  
  

71. Conjugial love makes man be love

Man is created to be love and consequently wisdom, since the Lord is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. It is by creation that man is an image and likeness of the Lord,Genesis 1:26-27; and this could not happen without true conjugial love. By this man's all can be turned into love, for in marriage either may love from the heart the body too, and thus dispose the soul and consequently everything to the form of love. This is not otherwise possible; the inmost and the outermost there make one and bring about that form, which is the form of heaven.

  
/ 126  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2380

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2380. 'They shut the door' means that He also denies all access to them. This is clear from the meaning of 'a door' as that which lets a person in, 2356, 2357, 2376, and so means access; and therefore 'strutting the door' means denying access. In the next life such access is denied by separating those who are good from those who are evil, so that the good may not be invaded by spheres of false persuasions or by evil desires, for that which emanates from hell cannot penetrate to heaven. But in this life access is denied by false assumptions and persuasions being rendered powerless among those governed by good. The angels present with them immediately turn aside any falsity that is a product of evil or any evil that is a product of falsity the moment it is imparted to them whether in the words coming from an evil man or in the thought coming from an evil spirit or genius. They bend it towards some truth and good in which such persons have been confirmed. This they do however much bodily affliction people may suffer, for angels consider the body to be nothing in comparison with the soul.

[2] As long as a person remains engrossed in bodily things his ideas and perception are general and obscure, 2367, so much so that he hardly knows whether the good that flows in from charity is present with him or not. And an added reason why they are general and obscure is that he does not know what charity is or what the neighbour is. But let it be made known who such people are. All those have the good of charity present with them who possess conscience, that is, who are unwilling to depart at all from what is just and fair, good and true - the grounds for their unwillingness being that itself which is just and fair, good and true, for this is a product of conscience. Also, because of this, these people think and desire for the neighbour that which is good without any repayment to themselves, even if he is unfriendly towards them. These are the people with whom good flowing from charity is present, whether they are outside the Church or inside. Those inside the Church revere the Lord and gladly listen to and carry out the things He has taught.

[3] On the other hand people who are immersed in evil have no conscience. They have no concern for what is just and fair except insofar as they are thereby able to earn a reputation of seeming to have such a concern. As for what the good and truth that affect spiritual life may be, they have no knowledge; indeed they reject it as no life at all. What is more, they think and desire for the neighbour that which is evil, and they also actually do it even to a friend, if he does not show them favour, and they take delight in doing so. If they do anything good it is for the sake of some repayment. Such people inside the Church deny the Lord secretly; and they do so openly to the extent that their position, gain, reputation, or life are not jeopardized.

[4] But it should be recognized that there are some people who imagine that good does not exist with them when in fact it does, and some who imagine that good does exist with them when in fact it does not. The reason some imagine that good does not exist with them when in fact it does is that when they reflect on the good present with themselves the angels in whose community they are at that time immediately instill the thought that good is not present. They do this to prevent such persons claiming good as their own and to divert any thought of self-merit and so of superiority to others. Otherwise they would sink into temptations.

[5] But the reason why some imagine that good does exist with them when in fact it does not is that when they reflect on it the evil genii and spirits whose company they are in immediately instill the thought that good does exist with them; for the evil confuse good with delight. Indeed it is suggested that whatever good they have done to others for reasons of self-love and love of the world is good that ought to be rewarded, even in the next life; and that being so, they have earned more merit than all others, whom they despise in comparison with themselves; indeed they consider everyone else to be worthless. And what is remarkable, if they thought any differently from this they would sink into temptations in which they would go under.

  
/ 10837  
  

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