The Bible

 

Genesis 1:1

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From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #357

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357. I need to add that I have seen people in the spiritual world who, on the basis of their observations of the world, had decided in favor of nature to the point of becoming atheists. In spiritual light, their intelligence seemed to be open downward and closed upward because in thought they were looking down to the earth and not up to heaven. The upper surface of their sensory functioning, which is the lowest level of intelligence, seemed to have a kind of covering on it. For some people, it flashed with hellfire, for some it was black as soot, and for some it was leaden and corpselike. Beware of decisions in favor of nature, then. Decide for Divinity: there is no lack of material.

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

Commentary

 

Vessels of wood, brass, iron and marble

  

In Revelation 18:12, as some of the merchandise that no one buys, the vessels signify external knowledges of church matters which inform the outer degree of one's natural mind. (Apocalypse Revealed 775)