The Bible

 

Genesis 1:8

Study

       

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second 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

 

Charity #90

Study this Passage

  
/ 215  
  

90. V. MAN IS THE SUBJECT OF CHARITY, AND SUCH AS IS THE CHARITY WITH HIM SUCH A SUBJECT OF IT HE IS; AND SUCH IS THE CHARITY HE EXERCISES TOWARDS THE NEIGHBOUR. 1

Let these things be explained in this order:

1. Man was created to be a form of love and wisdom.

2. At this day, for a man to be man, he ought to be a charity in form.

3. A man ought to be a charity in form, not from himself but from the Lord; thus he is a receptacle of charity.

4. A man is a form of charity of such a quality as, with him, good of the will is conjoined to truths of the understanding.

5. Whatever proceeds from such a man derives from that form that it is a likeness of it; thus it is charity.

6. The neighbour can be loved from what is not charity; and yet this, regarded in itself, is not loving the neighbour.

7. He is loving the neighbour, who loves him from the charity in himself.

Footnotes:

1. In the MS. this heading has been deleted. Cf. 4a in the "Order and Arrangement" in number 1a, and V in "The sections in their series" in number 199.

  
/ 215  
  

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