Here we are in the 21st century. We know that the universe is an enormous place. We're just bursting with scientific knowledge. But how are we doing with the even-bigger ideas? Our human societies seem to be erasing them, or ignoring them - maybe we think we're too busy for them.

Here on the New Christian Bible Study site, we'll buck the trend. We want to explore the big ideas that give us a framework for living better lives. Here's a start on a list of big ideas from a New Christian perspective. For each idea, there is a footnote that lists some references in Swedenborg's theological works:

1. God exists. Just one God, who created and sustains the entire universe in all its dimensions, spiritual and physical. ¹

2. God's essence is love itself. It's the force that drives everything. ²

3. God's essence comes into being, that is, it exists, in and through creation. ³

4. There are levels, or degrees, of creation - ranging from spiritual ones that we can't detect with our physical senses or sensors, to the level of the physical universe where most of our awareness is when we're alive here. ⁴

5. The created universe emanates from God, and it's sustained by God, but in an important way it is separate from God. He wants it to be separate, so that freedom can exist. ⁵

6. God operates from love through wisdom - willing good things, and understanding how to bring them about. ⁶

7. The physical level of creation exists to provide human beings with an opportunity to choose in freedom, with rationality, whether or not to acknowledge and cooperate with God. ⁷

8. God provides all people everywhere, regardless of their religion, the freedom to choose to live a life of love to God and to the neighbor. ⁸

9. God loves everyone. He knows that true happiness only comes when we're unselfish; when we're truly motivated by a love of the Lord which is grounded out in a love of the neighbor. He seeks to lead everyone, but will not force us to follow against our will. ⁹

10. God doesn't judge us. He tells us what's good, and what's evil, and flows into our minds to lead us towards good. However, we're free to reject his leading, and instead opt to love ourselves most. Day by day, we create habits of generosity or of selfishness, and live out a life in accordance with those habits. Those habits become the real "us", our ruling love. ¹⁰

11. Our physical bodies die eventually, but the spiritual part of our minds keeps going. It's been operating on a spiritual plane already, but our awareness shifts - so that we become fully aware of spiritual reality. ¹¹

Footnotes:

526. I have at times talked with angels about this and have said that many people in the world who have lived intent on evil and have talked with others about heaven and eternal life say only that getting into heaven is simply a matter of being let in on the basis of pure mercy. This is true especially of people who make faith the only means of salvation, since from this fundamental tenet of their religion they do not focus on life or on the deeds of love that make up one's life. As a result, they do not focus on the other means the Lord uses to instill heaven into us and render us open to heavenly joy. So since they reject all the actual means, the necessary corollary of their premise is that we enter heaven on the basis of pure mercy, believing God the Father to be moved to it through the intercession of the Son.

[2] Angels have responded that they know this kind of dogma follows necessarily from acceptance of the principle of salvation by faith alone and that this dogma is the head of the others, a head into which no light from heaven can flow, because it is not true. It is therefore the source of the ignorance the church is mired in nowadays - ignorance about the Lord, heaven, life after death, heavenly joy, the essential nature of love and thoughtfulness, and in general about what is good and its union with what is true. This results in ignorance about human life, its source, and its quality. Life is never gained by mere thought, but only by intent and consequent deeds. It is the result of thought to the extent that the thought derives from intent, so it is from faith only to the extent that faith derives from love. Angels grieve that these people do not realize that faith alone cannot exist in anyone because faith apart from its source, which is love, is only information, or for some a secondhand belief that counterfeits faith (see above, 482). This belief is not part of our life but is outside it, since it is separated from us if it is not coherent with our love.

[3] Angels have also said that people who are caught up in this kind of principle concerning the essential means of our salvation cannot help believing in straight mercy because they can tell from natural light and from visual experience that faith by itself does not constitute human life - people who are leading evil lives can think and convince themselves of the same principles. This is why they believe that evil people can be saved just like good ones, provided in the hour of their death they talk about intercession and mercy obtained by it.

The angels kept insisting that they have never yet seen people who lived an evil life accepted into heaven out of straight mercy, no matter how fervently they had spoken in the world from faith, or from the trust that is meant by faith in its primary sense.

[4] When they have asked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, about the apostles, whether they were not accepted into heaven out of straight mercy, angels have answered that none of them was. Each one was accepted on the basis of his life in the world. They should realize where they were. No one had more prestige than anyone else. They said that the reason these individuals were mentioned in the Word with such respect was that they referred in the deeper meaning to the Lord - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the Lord in respect to his divine nature and his divine human nature, David to the Lord as to the regal divine nature, and the apostles to the Lord as to divine truths. The angels do not pay any attention to these individuals when the Word is being read by people on earth because their names do not cross over into heaven. They are conscious of the Lord instead, as just noted. So the Word that is in heaven (described above in 259) never mentions them, since that Word is the inner meaning of the Word that exists in the world. ¹

Footnotes:

806. Whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb. That this signifies [acknowledgment] by all those who have not become spiritual from the Lord by regeneration is evident from the signification of names, as denoting their quality. For by name, in the Word, is signified the quality of a thing and a state, because, in the spiritual world, persons have not names as in the natural world, but every one is named there according to his quality (concerning which see above, n. 676); and from the signification of being written in the book of life of the Lamb, as denoting to be in love and faith in the Lord (concerning which see above, n. 199, 222, 299); thus also to become spiritual by regeneration from Him. For those who are in love and faith in the Lord from the Lord become spiritual, their love and faith being spiritual; and they are also those who are called regenerate, meant by those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb. Hence it is evident, that by names written in the book of life of the Lamb is not meant that their names are there; but that such is their quality, to wit, that they become spiritual by regeneration from the Lord.

[2] It has been shown in the preceding article, what the faith is that is accepted by the general body in the church - that God the Father sent the Son in order that by Him there might be propitiation, mercy, redemption, and salvation. Also, that the Son of God bore our iniquities, that He intercedes for us, and that His merit is granted to those who pray for it with trust and confidence; all these are empty phrases, in which there is nothing of truth, according to the opinion of the learned, and consequently nothing of salvation, as has been expounded in an article above. That these are empty phrases in which there is nothing of truth, is evident from the Word, where the reason for the Lord's Advent and His suffering is treated of - that the Lord came into the world to save the human race, which otherwise would have perished in eternal death, and that He saved them by subjugating the hells that infested every man coming into the world and going out of the world, and, also, by glorifying His Human, for thereby He is able to keep the hells in subjection for ever. The subjugation of the hells, and the glorification of His Human, were accomplished by means of temptations admitted into the Human which He had from the mother, and by continual victories obtained therein. His passion in Gethsemane, and on the cross, was the last temptation and full victory.

[3] That the Lord came into the world for these two reasons, and that He thereby saved the human race from eternal death, is evident from this fact, that the hells before the Lord's advent were not in order; consequently there was no equilibrium between hell and heaven; but hell prevailed on its part over heaven. And yet man is placed in the midst between heaven and hell. Wherefore whatever flowed in with man out of heaven before the Lord's Advent was intercepted by hell owing to its superior power. In order, therefore, that the equilibrium which was destroyed might be restored, it pleased the Lord to come into the world, then to accomplish a last judgment and subjugate the hells. By this means the Lord secured to Himself the power of saving men who have faith and love in Him and from Him.

These things could not have been effected unless the Lord had assumed the Human. The reason is, that God brings about such results from primaries by means of ultimates; for to act from primaries by means of ultimates is to act in fulness. The very strength of the Divine power is in ultimates; consequently it belongs to the Lord in His Human, because this is in the ultimate. This was one reason why the Lord came into the world. The other reason was, that He might glorify His Human, that is, make it Divine; for by this and no other means He is able to keep the hells for ever in subjection, because He thereby acts eternally from primaries by means of ultimates, and thereby in fulness; for thus His Divine operation extends to ultimates in the world; otherwise, it would reach only to the first in heaven, and mediately by them, and by the next following to the last, who are men. If therefore these should give way - as was the case immediately before the Lord's Advent - the Divine operation among men would be at an end, and consequently they would have no means of salvation. The Lord's Divine operation by means of the Human assumed in the world is called His immediate influx even to ultimates.

[4] These are the two means whereby man has salvation, which is called redemption. The reason why this was called redemption by His blood was, that the subjugation of the hells, and also the glorification of the Lord's Human, could be effected only by means of temptations admitted into Himself from the hells, the last of which temptations was the passion of the cross.

From these things it is now evident, that the Lord did not come into the world to propitiate the Father and move Him to mercy, nor to carry our iniquities and thereby take them away, nor that we might be saved either by the imputation of His merit, or by intercession, or by immediate mercy, consequently not that we might be saved by a faith in those things, still less by the confidence inspired by that faith, because such confidence confirms things that are not true, thus that do not belong to that faith. He who knows why the Lord came into the world, and why all are saved who believe and do the things that He taught by Himself, and also by the Father in Him, and not by the Father separate from Him, may see clearly, that many of the things which the rulers of the church teach concerning redemption are to be understood in a way different from their explanation of them.

[5] That the Lord subjugated the hells, He Himself teaches when the passion of the cross was at hand, in these words in John:

"Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (12:31).

Again:

"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (16:33).

And in Luke:

"Jesus said, I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven" (10:18).

And in Isaiah also it is written:

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, marching in the multitude of his strength, mighty to save? Mine arm hath performed salvation for me: therefore he became to them a Saviour" (63:1, 5, 8, see also 59:16-21).

Because the Lord subjugated the hells, therefore He gave the seventy disciples "power over demons" (Luke 10:17-19). That the Lord also glorified His Human, and that the passion of the cross was the last temptation and full victory by which glorification was effected, is also taught by Him in John:

"After" Judas "was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God shall glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him" (13:31, 32).

Again:

"Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee" (17:1, 5).

Again:

"Now is my soul troubled; Father, glorify thy name; and a voice came out of heaven, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again" (12:27, 28).

And in Luke it is written:

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?" (24:26).

These things are said concerning His passion. To glorify is to make Divine.

It is now evident that unless the Lord had come into the world, and been made man, and, by this means, delivered from hell all those who believe in Him and love Him, no mortal could have been saved. Thus it is to be understood that without the Lord there can be no salvation. This now is the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation.