The Bible

 

Genesis 1:5

Study

       

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

Commentary

 

Resurrection, the first

  

'The first resurrection,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part of resurrection, which is salvation and eternal life. There is only one resurrection to life. A second does not happen, and is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 6; Apocalypse Revealed 851; Revelation 20:5-6)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #549

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

549. The angelic state is such that everyone communicates his own blessedness and happiness to others, for in the next life all affections and thoughts are communicated and perceived faultlessly. Each individual therefore communicates his own joy to all others, and so do all to each individual. Consequently each individual is so to speak the focal point of all. This is the heavenly form. The more there are to constitute the Lord's kingdom therefore, the greater the happiness, for this grows in proportion to the increase in numbers. This is why heavenly happiness is indescribable. Such communication of all with individuals and of individuals with all exists when one loves another more than himself. But if anyone wishes to better himself rather than others, self-love reigns which communicates nothing of itself to others but the idea of self, which is a most foul idea. And when this is perceived that person is instantly separated and expelled.

  
/ 10837  
  

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