The Bible

 

Genesis 1:6

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6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #749

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749. And through the word of their testimony, signifies and through the confession and acknowledgment of the Divine in His Human. This is evident from the signification of "the word of testimony," as being the confession of the Lord, and the acknowledgment of the Divine in His Human (See above, n. 392, 635, 649). That this is "the word of testimony" is evident from the following passages in Revelation:

The angel said unto John, I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).

And after the angel had so said:

A white horse was seen upon which One sat who was called "the Word of God," and also "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:13, 16).

From this it can be seen that "the word of their testimony" signifies the confession and acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord's Human. Those who are in this acknowledgment are also in the acknowledgment that the Lord's Human is Divine, for the Divine itself cannot dwell elsewhere than in what is Divine from itself. But because the scholars amongst us cannot easily comprehend this, they separate in their thought the Divine from the Human of the Lord, and place the Divine without or above it; nevertheless, this is contrary to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, which is called the Athanasian or Nicene Confession, which is that the Divine took to itself the Human, and that they are not two but a united Person, just the same as soul and body.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1297

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1297. 'And let us burn them thoroughly' means the evils that stem from self-love. This is clear from the meaning of 'to burn, a burning, fire, sulphur, and bitumen' in the Word, where they have reference to evil desires, chiefly to those that belong to self-love, as in Isaiah,

Our holy house, and our splendour, where our fathers praised You, has been made into a blaze of fire, and all our pleasant places have been made into a waste. Isaiah 64:11.

In the same prophet,

Conceive chaff, bring forth stubble. Your wind is a fire that will consume you. Thus the peoples will be burnings of lime; [like] thorns cut down they will be burned in the fire. Isaiah 33:11-12.

And there are many other examples besides these. 'Burning' and 'fire' have reference to evil desires because they possess similar characteristics.

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