The Bible

 

Luke 1:28

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28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #520

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520. And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" This symbolizes celebrations on the part of angels, that heaven and the church had become the Lord's, as they had been from the beginning, and that they had now become those of His Divine humanity, thus that the Lord would reign over heaven and earth as regards both aspects of Him to eternity.

"There were loud voices in heaven" symbolizes celebrations on the part of angels. "Saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,'" means, symbolically, that heaven and the church had become the Lord's, as they had been from the beginning, and now had become those of His Divine humanity. "And He shall reign forever and ever!" means, symbolically, that the Lord would reign over them as regards both aspects of Him.

Loud voices in heaven symbolize celebrations of the Lord for having now taken His great power, as is apparent from verse 17 following, where the substance of those great voices is presented.

The Lord here means the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, and the Christ here means His Divine humanity, which is the Son of God (Luke 1:32, 35).

[2] That the Lord will reign even as regards His Divine humanity is clearly apparent from the following passages:

The Father... has given all things into His (the Son's) hand. (John 3:35)

(The Father has) given (the Son) authority over all flesh... (John 17:2)

(Father,) all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine... (John 17:10)

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18)

In reference to His Divine humanity the Lord also says that the Father and He are one, and that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him (John 10:30, 38; 14:5-12).

Furthermore, if the Lord's humanity is not acknowledged to be Divine, the church perishes, since the Lord cannot then be in man and man in the Lord, as He teaches in John 14:20; 15:4-6; 17:21, 23; and it is this conjunction that makes a person a person of the church, thus that makes the church a church.

[3] The Christ means the Lord's Divine humanity because the Christ is the Messiah, and the Messiah is the Son of God whose coming into the world was awaited by the Jews.

That the Christ is the Messiah is apparent from the following passages:

We have found the Messiah, which, if you translate it, is the Christ. (John 1:41)

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ." (John 4:25)

The reason is that Messiah in Hebrew means Anointed, as does Christ in Greek.

That the Messiah is the Son of God is apparent from the fact that the high priest asked Him whether He was "the Christ (i.e., the Messiah), the Son of God" (Matthew 26:63, Mark 14:61, cf. John 20:31). Also from the following:

...You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. (John 11:27)

(Peter said,) "We believe and acknowledge that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (John 6:69)

That the Lord is the Son of God in respect to His Divine humanity:

(The angel said to Mary,) "You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son... He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest... The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born of you will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:31-32, 35)

And so on in many places elsewhere.

It is apparent from this what is symbolically meant by the statement that the kingdoms have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

John 17

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1 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also Glorify you;

2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

9 I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,

21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 Righteous Father, the world hasn't known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them."