New Christian Bible Study

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Precepts of the Decalog #1

/ 1  

1. THE PRECEPTS OF THE DECALOGUE 1

After the The Last Judgment had been completed, a New Church meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation was promised.

1. Explain the whole of chapter 21. Then chapter 22:1-5.

2. Elsewhere in the Word, Jerusalem means the Church, as in the following places: 2

Isaiah 1:1, 4:4, 9:1.

2:2, 3:8, 5:3, 7:1, 10:10-12, 32, 22:10, 31:5, 33:20, 36:2, 7, 20, 37:10, 32, 40:2, 41:27, 44:26, 28, 52:1-2, 9, 62:1, 7, 64:10, 65:18, 66:10, 20.

27:13, 30:19.

2:3, 3:1.

4:3, 24:23, 28:14, 31:9, 65:19, 66:13.

5:3, 7:14, 22:21.

11:9, 51:17, 52:1-2, 62:6.

Daughter of Jerusalem: Lamentations 2:13, 15, Micah 4:8, Zephaniah 3:14, Zechariah 9:9.

Jeremiah 1:3, 15, 2:2, 3:17, 4:3, 10-11, 5:1, 6:1, 7:17, 34, 8:5, 9:11, 11:6, 13, 13:9, 14:2, 16, 17:19, 21, 26, 27, 19:7, 13, 22:19, 23:14, 15, 25:18, 26:18, 27:3, 20, 21, 31:2, 32:2, 44, 33:10, 13, 16, 34:19, 35:11, 36:9, 37:5, 12, 38:28, 39:8, 40:1, 44:2, 6, 9, 13, 17, 21, 51:50, 52:12, 13, 14.

4:16, 6:6, 34:1, 7, 19, 3:4.

27:18, 29:25, 34:8, 35:11.

24:1, 27:20, 29:1, 2, 4, 20.

4:5, 15:4, 34:6, 3:1, 3.

4:4, 8:1, 11:2, 9, 12-13, 13:13, 17:20, 25, 18:11, 19:3, 25:2, 32:32, 35:13, 17, 42:18.

4:14, 6:8, 13:27, 15:5, 52:29.

Lamentations 1:7, 8, 17, 2:10, 4:12.

Ezekiel 4:1, 7, 5:5, 8:3, 9:4, 8, 13:16, 14:22, 16:2-3, 17:12, 21:2, 20, 22, 22:19, 23:4, 33:21, 36:38.

24:2, 26:2.

4:16, 12:10.

11:15, 12:19, 15:6.

Daniel 1:1, 6:10, 9:2, 12, 16, 25.

5:2, 3, 9:7.Joel 3:1, 6, 16-17, 20.

Amos 2:5.

Obadiah 1:11, 20.

Micah 1:1, 5, 9, 12, 3:10, 12, 4:2.

Zechariah 1:12, 14, 16-17, 19, 2:2, 4, 12, 3:2, 7:7, 8:3-4, 8, 15, 12:2-3, 6, 14:4, 10-11, 17.

12:2, 9, 14:2, 12, 16.

14:8, 14, 9:10.

8:20, 12:6, 11, 14:21, 12:5, 7-8, 10, 13:1.

Malachi 3:4, 2:11.

Zephaniah 1:4, 12, 3:16.

Psalms 51:18, 79:1, 3, 122:3, 6, 125:2, 128:5, 137:6, 7, 147:12.

68:29, 135:21.

102:21, 116:19, 122:2, 137:5, 147:12.

3. Something about those matters which come before this in the Revelation - such as the dragon, the scarlet beast, and the destruction of them.

4. About the The Last Judgment. Already described, it is to be described further.

5. Why a New Church is established when the The Last Judgment has been completed.

6. Not before, to prevent holy things from being profaned.

7. It was promised at that time that the spiritual sense of the Word was to be disclosed; the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord alone is the Word.

8. About His Coming at that time.

9. Therefore heaven has been opened to me.

II. It is now the end of the Church, and at the present time there are few that have any religion.

1. That the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord is the only God Who rules heaven and earth, and therefore that God is One as to His person and essence, in Whom is the Trinity, is unknown; yet all religion is based upon knowledge of God, and upon the adoration and worship of Him.

2. That faith is nothing else but truth is unknown, nor is it known whether that which men call faith is the truth or not; take certain things from the small work 3 concerning the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

Say what the faith of the present day is... then the degrees of justification; whether they are truths can be determined from what follows.

If this is indeed faith, there is no need of truths, nor of charity, nor even of any knowledge of them.

What charity is, is unknown.

Neither are evil and good known.

III. After death every man is still a man; he is then what his love is; and his love is that life which awaits everyone for ever.

1. Everybody is examined after death to reveal the nature of his love.

2. Every spirit is what his affection is.

3. The whole of heaven is divided into societies according to the variety in affections found there, and the whole of hell according to the variety in lusts.

4. The nature of man's affection and that of his thought are alike.

IV. The devil dwells with man in the evil, and the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord in the good, things of his life.

V. Shunning evils is doing good, and this is religion itself.

1. Some things about combats and temptations.

2. Shunning evils involves nothing less than putting the devil to flight; in as much as a man does this, he is conjoined to the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord and heaven is opened, and that for so long as he is not in hell.

VI. The man who is shunning evils because they are sins has faith; and the limits he reaches in shunning evils determines the amount of faith he has.

Some truths have to do with faith, others with life; in so far as the truths that have to do with life become part of one's life, truths that have to do with faith become part of one's faith, no more and no less.

Enumerate the truths that have to do with faith, which are otherwise matters of knowledge and are not faith.

About the Anglican Exhortation 4 before the Holy Supper, and also that of the Swedes: then from 'Impediments or Stumbling blocks of the Impenitent'. 5

Therefore there are two tables, and they are called a Covenant; in so far as one is done by man the second is laid open.

VII. The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue sum up all things of religion.

1. Further matters about the holiness of the Decalogue.

RECAPITULATION

A recapitulation on the seven articles; nobody can deny that they are religion itself.

Footnotes:

1. Editor's Note: This outline was drafted by Swedenborg, in Latin, in 1763. It wasn't published by Swedenborg, but has been published posthumously. Several English translations have been made, including one by John Chadwick in 1975, published by the Swedenborg Society in London. It is used here with their permission. This online version includes links to the Bible text, and to other texts of Swedenborg's works. It also includes some corrections to the scanned text of the 1975 translation. In addition, the editors for New Christian Bible Study Project editors have replaced Roman numbers with Arabic numbers, and have placed all footnotes at the end of the passage. Periods have been placed after numerals in numbered lists. The remaining footnotes were made by Dr. Chadwick.

2. i.e. DOCTRINA NOVAE HIEROSOLYMAE DE DOMINO which was being prepared at the same time, and was published in the same year as the work for which De Praeceptis Decalogi was an initial draft.

3. Nordenskjold omitted from his copy the Scripture references which follow. In the Autograph all have been carefully deleted except the heading Filia Hierosolymae and the titles Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, Sacharias, Zephanias, and David.

4. See Doctrine of Life 5, True Christian Religion 772, Apocalypse Explained 250[4], 885[3], for quotations from this 'Exhortation'.

5. See Divine Providence 258[5], Apocalypse Explained 885[5] for quotations from this Appendix to the Lutheran Psalm Book. The Appendix was omitted from the revised edition of the latter published in 1819, and from subsequent editions.

/ 1  

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

The Bible

 

Daniel 9

Study

   

1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14 Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

   

The Bible

 

Psalms 102:21

Study

       

21 that men may declare the name of Yahweh in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

©2024 New Christian Bible Study Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed from newchristianbiblestudy.org