The Bible

 

Genesis 1:18

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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #13

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13. Not all people who are being regenerated reach this state. Some, indeed the majority nowadays, reach only the first. Some reach merely the second, others the third, fourth, or fifth. Seldom do any reach the sixth, and hardly anybody at all reaches the seventh.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Providence #20

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20. People who are involved in evil and in truth at the same time can be compared to eagles that soar high overhead but plunge down if they lose their wings. Something like this happens to people after death, when they become spirits, if they have understood, discussed, and taught truths but have never turned to God in their lives. Their comprehension lifts them on high; and sometimes they get into heaven and pretend to be angels of light. However, when they are deprived of their truths and dismissed, they plunge into hell. Eagles mean predatory people who have intellectual vision, and wings mean spiritual truths.

I mentioned that these are people who never turn to God in their lives. "Turning to God in our lives" simply means thinking that some particular evil action is a sin against God and therefore not doing it.

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