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

 

Marriage #72

  
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72. The examination of spirits by means of conjugial love

The spirits recently arrived in the spiritual world are examined above all to see if they are hostile to conjugial love. They are brought to places where the sphere of conjugial love passes by, or to chaste married couples. If they then change countenance and show annoyance, and even more if they then have lascivious thoughts, still more if they speak lasciviously, then it is a sign that they are of an infernal disposition; but if they are then glad and happy it is a sign that they are of a heavenly disposition. This is the test whether they belong to heaven or to hell; those who are hostile to conjugial love belong to hell, those who are in favour of it, to heaven.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6368

Study this Passage

  
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6368. 'From the plunder you have gone up, my son means that through the celestial the Lord accomplishes the deliverance of many from hell. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up from the plunder' as deliverance from hell, dealt with below; and from the representation of Judah, to whom 'my son' refers here, as the Divine celestial, dealt with in 6363. The reason 'going up from the plunder' means deliverance from hell is that left to himself a person is in hell, for his will and thought, when they spring wholly from himself, are nothing but evil and derivative falsity, which tie him so firmly to hell that he cannot be torn away except by force. This tearing away and deliverance is what is called 'the plunder'; and because that is effected by the power of the Lord's Divine Good, it is said that through the celestial the Lord accomplishes the deliverance of many from hell.

[2] But it should be recognized that no one can be torn away and delivered from hell unless during his lifetime spiritual good, that is, charity that comes through faith, has existed in him; for unless that good coming through faith has been present in him, there is nothing that can receive the good which flows in from the Lord. Instead that good from Him flows straight through, without being able to become fixed anywhere. Consequently those lacking spiritual good cannot be torn away and delivered from hell. For all the states that a person has attained during his lifetime remain with him in the next life and are developed more fully. Good states with the good remain and are filled out with good, and by means of them those people are raised into heaven; and evil states with the evil remain and are filled with evil, and by means of them these people sink down into hell. This is what is meant by the saying that as a person dies, so he remains. From this it is evident who those people are who can be delivered from hell by the Lord through the Divine celestial.

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