16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The most ancient times of all are called 'the beginning', and are throughout the Prophets referred to as 'days of antiquity' and also 'days of eternity'. 'The beginning' also embodies within it that first Period when a person is being regenerated, for at that time he is being born anew and receiving life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a new creation of man. Almost everywhere in the prophetical sections 'to create', 'to form', and 'to make' mean to regenerate, though each of these verbs has a different shade of meaning, as in Isaiah,

Every one who is called by My name - I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, I have also made him. Isaiah 43:7

This is why the Lord is called Redeemer, One who forms from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet,

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Isaiah 43:15.

In David,

A people to be created will praise Jah. Psalms 102:18.

In the same author,

You send forth Your Spirit; they are created; and You renewest the face ¹ of the ground. Psalms 104:30.

'Heaven' means the internal man, and 'earth' the external man prior to regeneration. This will be seen further on.

Footnotes:

6600. I have been shown quite plainly that a person's thought, also that of spirits, and of angels too, radiates into numerous communities in the spiritual world, but that the thought of one person does so in a different manner from that of another. So that I might have sure knowledge of this I have been allowed to talk to some of the communities to which my own thought has penetrated. And from this I have been able to know what was flowing into my thought and which community it came from as well as the location and the essential nature of that community, and to know all this in such a way that I could not be mistaken. The extension of the thoughts and affections of man, spirit, or angel into different communities is what determines how much ability he has to understand and perceive.

[2] How amply the thoughts and affections of a person in whom the good of charity and of faith are present extend into the communities of heaven depends on the degree to which those forms of good, and also genuine good resides with him; for all these kinds of good are in harmony with heaven and therefore flow spontaneously far and wide into it. There are nevertheless some communities into which an affection for truth, and others into which an affection for good reaches. An affection for truth reaches communities consisting of spiritual angels, and an affection for good reaches communities consisting of celestial angels. But on the other hand the thought and affection of those who are under the influence of evil and falsity extend into hellish communities; how far they extend likewise depends on the degree to which evil and falsity reside with them.

[3] It has been stated that the thought and affection of man, spirit, and angel radiate into communities round about, and that understanding and perception arise from this. But it should be recognized that this was a statement only of what seems to happen, since no inflow of thoughts and affections takes place into those communities, only from them, and indeed by Way of the angels and spirits present with a person. For as has been shown at the ends of previous chapters, all influx takes place from what is more internal; thus among the good it is an influx from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven, and among the evil it is an influx from hell.