The Bible

 

Genesis 1:26

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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #34

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34. Love and faith cannot possibly be separated for they constitute one and the same thing. This is why, when first the [great] lights are dealt with and they are taken to be one, it is said [using a singular verb with a plural noun], 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens'. Let some marvels relating to this be mentioned here. Since celestial angels possess from the Lord that kind of love, they possess by virtue of that love every cognition of faith, and by virtue of that love the kind of life and light of understanding that almost defies description altogether. On the other hand spirits who without love have a knowledge of the doctrinal matters concerning faith live such cold lives and are in such dull light that they cannot approach even the outer gateway to heaven before running off in the opposite direction. Some claim to have believed in the Lord, but they have not lived according to His teaching. The Lord refers to these people in Matthew as follows,

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does My will. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and so on. Matthew 7:21-22-end.

[2] From this is clear that those who have love have faith as well, and so heavenly life, whereas those who claim to have faith and yet have none of the life inherent in love do not. The life of faith devoid of love is like sunlight devoid of warmth, as is the case in wintertime when nothing grows and every single thing is inactive and dies off. But faith deriving from love is like the sunlight in springtime when everything grows and blossoms, for it is the warmth of the sun that brings it out. It is similar with spiritual and celestial things, which are normally represented in the Word by the things found in the world and on earth. An absence of faith, and faith devoid of love, are also compared by the Lord to winter where He foretold the close of the age in Mark,

Pray that your flight may not happen in winter, for those will be days of affliction. Mark 13:18-19.

'Flight' means the final period, also the time when a person dies; 'winter' is life which is destitute of love, 'days of affliction' his wretched condition in the next life.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3061

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3061. 'O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham' means of the Divine itself, which is the Father, with the Divine Human, which is the Son, that is to say, communication of these. This is clear from what has been stated and shown several times above, namely the following:

'Jehovah God' is the Lord's Divine itself, which is called the Father, while 'Abraham' represents His Divine Human, 2833, 2836.

Jehovah in the Old Testament Word is the Lord Himself, see 1736, 1815, 2921.

The Most Ancient Church before the Flood, and the Ancient Church after the Flood, meant by 'Jehovah' none other than the Lord, 1343, 1676, 1990, 2016, 3035.

Within the Lord exists the Trinity of the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine Holy proceeding, and these are one, 1999, 2149, 2156, 2288, 2329, 2447.

The entire Trinity within the Lord is Jehovah, 2156, 2329; and every single thing in the Lord is Jehovah, 1902, 1921.

The Lord is one with the Father, and no other is meant in heaven by the Father, 14, 15, 1725, 1729, 1733, 1815, 2005, 2018, 2025, 2803, 3038.

The Lord constitutes the whole of heaven since He is its All; from Him comes the whole of innocence, peace, love, charity, mercy, and conjugial love, as do all Good and Truth; Moses and the Prophets, and so the Word in every detail, have reference to Him; and all the religious observances of the Church were representative of Him, 2751.

As to the Divine Human the Lord is called the Son, 2628.

The Lord's Divine Human was not only conceived but also born from His Divine Essence, which is Jehovah, 2798.

Thus as to the Human the Lord became Jehovah, and Life from Himself, 1603, 1737

[2] The Lord has existed from eternity, as is quite clear from the Word, see 2803, even though He was born at a particular point in time. For He it was who spoke through Moses and the Prophets (having also appeared to many) in whose writings it is said that He was Jehovah. But this very deep arcanum cannot be revealed to anyone except to those who possess Divine perception, and so to scarcely any apart from members of the Most Ancient Church, who were celestial and possessed such perception. From these people I have heard that Jehovah Himself was the Lord as regards the Divine Human whenever He came down into heaven or flowed in by way of heaven, for heaven resembles one human being as to all its members, and for that reason is also called the Grand Man, 684, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3021. The Divine itself within heaven or the Grand Man was the Divine Human, and was Jehovah Himself clothed in that manner with the Human.

[3] But when the human race had become such that the Divine itself clothed as the Divine Human could no longer exert any influence on it, that is, when Jehovah could no longer reach down to mankind in that way because it had moved so far away, Jehovah, who is the Lord as regards the Divine Essence, came down and took upon Himself the Human, which was by conception Divine, but by birth from the virgin was like that of any other human being. But what He received from the virgin He cast out, and by Divine means made Divine the Human that had been born. From this Human made Divine proceeds all that is holy. Thus the Divine Human has come into being as an Essence by itself which fills the whole of heaven and causes those to be saved who previously could not be saved. This now is the Lord, who alone as to the Divine Human is Man, and from whom everyone has it to be [truly] human, 49, 288, 477, 565, 1894.

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