Här är vi på 2000-talet. Vi vet att universum är en enorm plats. Vi spricker bara av vetenskaplig kunskap. Men hur har vi det med de ännu större idéerna? Våra mänskliga samhällen verkar radera dem eller ignorera dem - kanske tror vi att vi är för upptagna för dem.

Här på webbplatsen New Christian Bible Study, kommer vi att utveckla trenden. Vi vill utforska de stora idéerna som ger oss en ram för att leva bättre liv. Här är en början på en lista med stora idéer ur ett nytt kristen perspektiv. För varje idé finns det en fotnot som listar några referenser i Swedenborgs teologiska verk:

1. Gud existerar. Bara en Gud, som skapade och upprätthåller hela universumet i alla dess dimensioner, andliga och fysiska. ¹

2. Guds väsen är kärleken själv. Det är kraften som driver allt. ²

3. Guds väsen blir till, det vill säga att den existerar, i och genom skapelsen. ³

4. Det finns nivåer eller grader av skapelse - allt från andliga som vi inte kan upptäcka med våra fysiska sinnen eller sensorer, till nivån i det fysiska universum där det mesta av vår medvetenhet är när vi lever här. ⁴

5. Det skapade universum härstammar från Gud, och det upprätthålls av Gud, men på ett viktigt sätt är det separerat från Gud. Han vill att det ska vara separat så att friheten kan existera. ⁵

6. Gud fungerar från kärlek genom visdom - villiga goda saker och förståelse för hur de ska åstadkommas. ⁶

7. Den fysiska skapelsenivån finns för att ge människor en möjlighet att välja i frihet, med rationalitet, oavsett om man erkänner eller samarbetar med Gud eller inte. ⁷

8. Gud ger alla människor överallt, oavsett religion, frihet att välja att leva ett kärleksliv till Gud och till grannen. ⁸

9. Gud älskar alla. Han vet att sann lycka bara kommer när vi är osjälviska; när vi verkligen motiveras av en kärlek till Herren som är grundad i en kärlek till grannen. Han strävar efter att leda alla, men kommer inte att tvinga oss att följa mot vår vilja. ⁹

10. Gud dömer oss inte. Han berättar vad som är bra och vad som är ont, och flyter in i våra sinnen för att leda oss mot det goda. Men vi är fria att avvisa hans ledande och istället välja att älska oss själva mest. Dag för dag skapar vi vanor av generositet eller själviskhet och lever ut ett liv i enlighet med dessa vanor. Dessa vanor blir de verkliga "oss", vår härskande kärlek. ¹⁰

11. Våra fysiska kroppar dör så småningom, men den andliga delen av våra sinnen fortsätter. Det har redan fungerat på ett spirituellt plan, men vår medvetenhet förändras - så att vi blir fullt medvetna om den andliga verkligheten. ¹¹

Fotnoter:

11. (iv) THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY NATIONS AND PEOPLES HAVE FORMED VARYING IDEAS OF THE NATURE OF THAT ONE GOD, AND CONTINUE TO DO SO.

The first reason is that knowledge about God, and consequently acknowledgment of God, is impossible without revelation, and that knowledge about the Lord and consequently the acknowledgment that 'in Him all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily' can only come from the Word, which is the crown of revelations. Because revelation has been granted, a person is able to go to meet God and be acted upon by Him, and so from being natural become spiritual. The revelation of early ages spread throughout the world, and was perverted by natural men in many ways. This is the origin of the divisions, dissensions, heresies and schisms which have affected religions.

The second reason is that a natural man cannot form and apply to himself any perception of God, but only of the world. This is why it is one of the principles of the Christian Church that the natural man is opposed to the spiritual and they fight each other. This too is why those who have learned the existence of God from the Word [or] another revelation have differed and still do concerning the nature of God and His oneness.

[2] For this reason those whose mental vision has been dependent upon the bodily senses, and have none the less wished to see God, have made for themselves images of gold, silver, stone and wood, so that in these forms as visible objects they could worship God. This is why also others whose religion led them to reject such images, made themselves images of God out of the sun, the moon and the stars and various terrestrial objects. But those who thought their intelligence above the common herd, yet remained natural men, were led by the immensity of God and His omnipresence in creating the world to acknowledge nature as God, in some cases in its inmost, in others in its outermost forms. Some, in order to maintain a distinction between God and nature, thought up some extremely universal principle, which they called 'the Being of the Universe'; and because they know nothing more about God, this Being becomes for them a mere concept, which is meaningless.

[3] Is there anyone who cannot grasp that things known about God are mirrors held up to God? Those who know nothing of God see Him not in a mirror held up to their eyes, but in a mirror turned back to front, which is covered with quicksilver or a black composition that does not reflect an image but blots it out. Belief in God comes into man by the front door, that is, from the soul into the higher regions of the understanding. But knowledge about God comes in by the back door, because it is absorbed by the understanding from the revelation of the Word by means of the bodily senses. The two paths leading in meet in the midst of the understanding; there, natural belief, which is merely a strongly held opinion, becomes spiritual, that is to say, a real acknowledgment. So the human understanding is like an exchange where currencies are changed.

25. After his life in the world everyone lives for ever. This is evident from the fact that he is then no longer natural but spiritual; and a spiritual person once separated from the natural stays in the same state for ever, since a person's state cannot change after death. Moreover every person's spiritual side is linked with the Divine, since it can think about and also love the Divine, and be acted upon by all the influences coming from the Divine, much as the church teaches. The spiritual side can as a result be linked to the Divine by willing and thinking, the two faculties of the spiritual man which make up his life. Thus a link can be made with the Divine which can never die, for the Divine is present with him and links him to Itself.

[2] Man has also been created so as mentally to be a model of heaven. The form of heaven derives from the Divine itself, as was shown in HEAVEN AND HELL (The Lord's Divine makes and forms heaven, 7-12, 78-86); man was created so as to be a model of heaven on the smallest scale (57); heaven taken all together resembles a single human being (59-66). Hence an angel has a perfect human form (73-77). An angel is a human being in his spiritual aspect.

[3] I have had a number of conversations with angels on this subject. They were extremely surprised that there are very many among those reputed intelligent in the Christian world, and believed to be intelligent by other people, who have totally rejected any idea that their life is not subject to death, but believe that the soul of a human being is dispersed after death like that of an animal. They fail to perceive the difference in the way human beings and animals live. Human beings have thoughts that can rise above themselves, and they can think about God, heaven, love, faith, spiritual and moral good, truths and such matters, thus rising to the Divine itself, and being linked to Him by all these means. Animals, however, cannot rise above their natural level so as to entertain such thoughts. As a result their spiritual side cannot be separated from their natural after death, ¹ and live on by itself as a human being's can. That too is the reason why an animal's life ² is dispersed together with its natural life.

[4] The angels said that the reason why many so-called intelligent people in the Christian world do not believe their life is immortal is that at heart they deny the existence of the Divine and acknowledge Nature in His place. Those who think from such premises cannot imagine how they can live for ever by being linked with the Divine, and consequently that the condition of human beings is any different from that of animals; for when they banish the idea of the Divine from their thoughts, they also banish that of eternity.

[5] They went on to say that every individual has a highest or most inward degree of life, something highest and inmost on which the Lord's Divinity primarily and most closely acts, and from which He controls the remaining interiors belonging to the spiritual and natural man and arranged in ordered sequence in them. They called this highest or most inward part the Lord's entrance into man and His truest abode with man. It is this highest or most inward part which gives man his humanity and sets him apart from dumb animals, which lack it. This is why men can, unlike animals, have their interiors, which belong to their minds and characters, raised by the Lord to Himself. Thus they can believe in Him, feel love for Him, and receive intelligence and wisdom and speak rationally.

[6] When asked whether those who deny the existence of the Divine and the Divine truths which link a person's life with the Divine Himself none the less live on for ever, they said that these had the ability to think and will, and thus to believe and love what proceeds from the Divine equally with those who acknowledge Him; and that this ability to think and will enables them equally to live for ever. They added that this ability results from that highest or most inward part everyone possesses which was mentioned just above. I have demonstrated at length that even those in hell have this ability, which enables them to reason and speak against Divine truths. This is why every person, irrespective of what sort of person he is, lives for ever.

[7] Because after death everyone lives for ever, no angel or spirit can think about death; in fact, they do not know what it is to die. Whenever therefore death is mentioned in the Word, the angels understand it as damnation, which is death in the spiritual sense, or the continuation of life and resurrection. ³ These remarks are intended as confirmation that all people who have ever been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are alive, some in heaven and some in hell.

Fotnoter: