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 #710

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710. 'Enter, you and all your house, into the ark' means things that constitute the will. This is clear from what has just been stated. In the previous chapter, which dealt with things of the understanding, verse 18 reads differently, namely 'You shall enter into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you'. That 'a house' means the will and what constitutes the will is clear from various places in the Word, as in Jeremiah,

Their houses will be turned over to others, their fields and wives together. Jeremiah 6:11.

Here both 'houses' and 'fields and wives' refers to things of the will. In the same prophet,

Build houses and dwell in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Jeremiah 29:5, 28.

Here 'building and dwelling in houses' has to do with the will, 'planting gardens' with the understanding. The same applies in other places. And frequently 'the house of Jehovah' stands for the Church where love is the chief thing. 'The house of Judah' stands for the celestial Church, 'the house of Israel' for the spiritual Church, because 'a house' means the Church. Consequently the mind of the member of the Church, which has within it things of the will and those of the understanding, that is, of charity and of faith, is meant by 'a house'.

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

Commentary

 

#72 What If Jesus Had Not Come? What Is Total Damnation?

By Jonathan S. Rose

Sodom and Gomorrha, 1920, By Henry Ossawa Tanner - oceansbridge.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27501181

Title: A Christmas/Winter Solstice Poem (Noah, Total Damnation)

Topic: First Coming

Summary: An exploration of what it would have been like if Jesus had not come into the world: failure of heaven, end of the world of spirits, extinction of the human race, and finally dissolution and scattering of hell.

This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.

References:
Genesis 6:5-18; 7:15-23; 8:15-22
Luke 13:31-33
John 16:33; 17:1-4

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Spirit and Life Bible Study broadcast from 12/21/2011. The complete series is available at: www.spiritandlifebiblestudy.com