The Bible

 

Genesis 1:28

Study

       

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #357

Study this Passage

  
/ 432  
  

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.

  
/ 432  
  

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