1045. This discussion has dealt with the spiritual person (or the spiritual church) who has been reborn. The discussion that follows focuses on all people in general and then on those who can be reborn in particular.
Secrets of Heaven #17
17. Genesis 1:2. And the earth was void and emptiness, and there was darkness on the face of the abyss, and the Spirit of God was constantly moving on the face of the water.
Before regeneration a person is called the void, empty earth, and also soil in which no seed of goodness or truth has been planted. 1 Void refers to an absence of goodness and empty to an absence of truth. The result is darkness, in which a person is oblivious to or ignorant of anything having to do with faith in the Lord and consequently with a spiritual or heavenly life. The Lord portrays such a person this way in Jeremiah:
My people are dense; they do not know me. They are stupid children, without understanding. They are wise in doing evil but do not know how to do good. I looked at the earth, and there — void and emptiness; and to the heavens, and these had no light. (Jeremiah 4:22-23, 25)
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg seems to have in mind Christ's parable of the sower and the seed, in which individuals are likened to ground on which the "seed" of the word is sown (Mark 4:3-20). See §29:2. [RS]
