The Bible

 

Genesis 2

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1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

The Last Judgement #20

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20. Anyone who has learned about God's order can also understand that man was created so as to become an angel, because in him order reaches its ultimate stage (see 9 above). In this stage something of the wisdom of heaven and the angels can be formed, and it can be reconstituted and multiplied. God's order never stops half-way, and forms anything there without the ultimate stage; for it is not in its fullness and perfection unless it goes to the ultimate. But when it is there, then it takes shape and uses the means at its disposal there to reconstitute and extend itself, which it does by reproduction. The ultimate is therefore the seed-bed of heaven.

This too is what is meant by the description of man and his creation in the first chapter of Genesis:

God said, Let us make 1 man in our image, according to our likeness. And God created man in His image, in the image of God did He create him. Male and female He created them; and God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1:26-28.

Creating in the image of God and in the likeness of God means conferring on him the whole of God's order from first to last, and so making him an angel as regards the interiors of his mind.

Footnotes:

1. [Reading faciamus as AC for faciemus (We shall make).]

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #875

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875. For the hour of his judgment is come. That this signifies the separation of those who live according to Divine truths, from those who do not live according to them, is evident from the signification of hour, as denoting state, in this case the last state of the church, of which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of judgment, as denoting the separation of the good from the evil; consequently, of those who live according to the Lord's Divine truths from those who do not. For the latter are evil, but the former are good. That the separation of these is signified by the Last Judgment, is evident from the things set forth in the small work concerning The Last Judgment. That it is the separation of those who live according to Divine truths, from those who do not live according to them, is evident from the passages in the Word where the Last Judgment is treated of, as in Matthew 25, where the separation of the sheep from the goats is described. The sheep are those who have done good, and the goats those who have not done good. Also from the passages in the Word where it is said that every one shall be judged according to his works, that is, according to his life:

As in Matthew 16:27; John 5:29; Apoc. 14:13; 20:12, 13; 22:12; and elsewhere. See also above (n. 785).

The reason why it is called the hour of judgment is, that hour signifies not only time but also state, like day, week, month, year, and time in general; as may be seen above (n. 571, 610, 664, 673, 747, 761). And concerning the signification of hour in particular, see above (n. 194, 488, 673).

Hour and day are so often mentioned in the Word because of the spiritual sense which is in every part of it. For while man thinks of hour and day, and thence of time, the angels, who are in the spiritual sense of the Word, think of state. The reason is, that angels have no idea of time, because they have no days, weeks, months, and years, such as are in the world; but they have changes of state, by which they measure things successive; concerning which see the work on Heaven and Hell 162-169), where time in heaven is treated of.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.