The Bible

 

Genesis 1:25

Study

       

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.

Commentary

 

Resurrection, the first

  

'The first resurrection,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part of resurrection, which is salvation and eternal life. There is only one resurrection to life. A second does not happen, and is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 6; Apocalypse Revealed 851; Revelation 20:5-6)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1121

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1121. I have learned from members' of the Most Ancient Church about their state of perception - that they had a perception of everything that was a matter of faith, almost as the angels did with whom they were in communication. The reason they had it was that their interior man, which is the spirit, was joined - also by means of internal breathing - to heaven, and that love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour have heaven within them. Thus man is joined to the angels through their very life itself which consists in such love. They said that because they abided in love to the Lord and in love towards the neighbour they had the law inscribed within them. That being so whatever the laws dictated was in keeping with their perception and whatever the laws forbade was contrary to that perception. Nor did they doubt that all human laws, like Divine laws, are based on love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and regard these as their foundation. Since they had this foundation in them from the Lord they could not help knowing all that arises from it. They also believe that all people living in the world today who love the Lord and the neighbour have this law inscribed within them as well, and are acceptable citizens everywhere on earth just as they are in the next life.

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