The Bible

 

Genesis 1:4

Study

       

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Commentary

 

Seven Practices of Peace - Part 6 of 7 – Loving

By Todd Beiswenger


To continue browsing while you listen, play the audio in a new window.

"Loving" sounds easy, but at this point in the process it isn't about just going out and loving the things you love right now. Instead, this is about acting on the new loves you have cultivated during the first 5 stages of the creation process. That the whole point of this: becoming born again and being a new, better, happier you.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 044, 63; Divine Love and Wisdom 1; Genesis 1:24-31)

Commentary

 

Earth

  
by Brita Conroy

Earth" is a general word that can be thought of as a container for other more specific words, as ground, field, or garden. Each of these means a person in an ascending series as that person learns truths from the Bible, thinks about them, and tries to apply them to life. The series represents the way of becoming good and wise. "Earth" and "ground" are terms that can go either way, as in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:4-8) there was both good ground and bad ground, but "field" and "garden" mean minds that are regenerating towards good. "Earth" in the Bible can mean a person or a group of like-minded people as in a church. But it refers specifically to the external of the person's mind, or of the general thought of the group. If heaven and earth are mentioned together, then both the internals and externals of the mind are meant – something to note when reading the creation story.

In Revelation the word "earth" is used both as a ground level as we use it in its natural sense and also as the sense of a group. The action in this book takes place in the great middle zone of the spiritual world, where people first go and where they are sorted out. There are both evil people and good there, and sometimes at the end of a church the evil can have great influence before a great judgment comes. This level of the spiritual realm is called the "earth" to which the dragon was cast down (Revelation 12:9) and to which the stars fell (Revelation 12:4). The "earth" that swallowed the dragon’s flood means those still-sincere people within the church who discounted the flood of the dragon's falsities (Revelation 12:15).