LOVE

Instant salvation by direct mercy is impossible.

The function of faith is to understand - not only what is true, but also what is good.

Faith = truth and goodness.

Do not depend the world and worldly things for knowledge and wisdom: you will be mislead and deceived.  The Word is what unites Heaven and Earth.

Israel = those who seek the Lord.
             the ability to understand
             a spiritual being
             a spiritual church
             the "inner" church - God within
             Children of Israel = regenerate people

For since the beginning of the world
Men have not heard, nor perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
Isaiah 64:4

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared
for those who love Him."
Cor 2:9

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God;
the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people
for Himself, a special treasure above 
all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Deut 7:6

  God is within!  No religion encompasses the Word...none.

 

UNDERSTAND CORRESPONDENCE = UNDERSTAND THE WORD

CORRESPONDENCE

According to Swedenborg, the whole natural world (our reality) is responsive to the spiritual world - in general and in detail.  Whatever arises in the natural world out of the spiritual is called "something that corresponds".

There is a spiritual and natural world within each of us.  The deeper elements, which belong to our minds and relate to our intelligence and volition (our will), constitute our spiritual world. The outer elements, which belong to our bodies and relate to our senses and actions, constitute our natural world.


So our "inner being" is the spiritual, and our "outer being" is the natural.  Everything that happens and comes forth in the outer or natural person does so from the inner or spiritual one.


There is a correspondence of Heaven with everything that is earthly. Absolutely everything in nature, from the smallest to the greatest, is a correspondence.  The reason correspondences occur is that the natural world, including everything in it, arises and is sustained from the spiritual world, and both worlds come from the Divine. Nothing in the natural world can endure independently, but needs something prior, it therefore needs a First (Divine), and if it were seperated from that First, it would perish and disappear.

The fact that everything in this world arises from the Divine and is clothed with the kinds of elements in nature that enable it to be present there, serve some use, and therefore correspond, follows clearly from little things we can observe in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms.  All earthly things are differentiated into three classes that are called "kingdoms"...the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom and the mineral kingdom.

Members of the Animal kingdom are correspondences on the first level, because they are alive.  The Vegetable kingdom are correspondences on the second level because they merely grow.  Mineral kingdom are correspondences on the third level because they neither live nor grow.

Animal Kingdom:  In general, earth's living creatures correspond to affections.

The mild and useful ones to good affections.
The fierce and useless ones to evil affections.

Cattle and calves correspond to affections of the natural mind.
Sheep and lambs correspond to affections of the spiritual mind.
Flying creatures, (species by species), correspond to cognitive activities of either level of the mind.

The reason animals are affections, according to their genre and species, is that they are alive, and the only source of the life of any creature is from affection and is in proportion to it.  Humans are like animals as far as our natural person is concerned, which is why we are compared to them in colloquial usage.  Example, we call a gentle person a sheep or a lamb, a violent one a bear or a wolf, a crafty one a fox or a snake...

Vegetable Kingdom :

A garden corresponds to heaven and means intelligence and wisdom...which is why Heaven is called the Garden of God and a Paradise. 

Trees, species by species, correspond to perceptions and firsthand knowledge of what is good and true.. which yields intelligence and wisdom.  Trees mean perceptions and experiential knowledge.

Fruit: the good we do is compared to fruit.

Food, derived from the vegetable kingdom, correspond to affections for what is good and true because they nourish our spiritual life the way earthly foods nourish our natural life.

Bread: corresponds to an affection for whatever is good. Bread means everything good that nourishes our spiritual life.  Bread is used to mean all foods and means the kind of things that nourish our spiritual life.  Because of this correspondence, the Lord calls Himself the bread if life.  Because of this correspondence too, the most sacred worship in the Christian church is the Holy Supper, in which bread and wine are shared.
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We need to know that it is humankind through which the natural world is united to the spiritual world- and that we are the means of the union.  There is within each of us a natural world and also a spiritual world; so the extent that we are spiritual, we are a means of union.  However, to the extent that we are natural and not spiritual, we are not a means of union.  The Lord's inflow into the world and into the world's gifts within us continues even without our aid, but it does not come into our rational functioning.

The spiritual world (which is heaven), is united to the natural world by means of correspondences; so it is through correspondences that we are given communication with heaven.  When we are absorbed in the knowledge of correspondences we can be in the company of angels through our spiritual or inner person.

In order that there might be a union of heaven with humanity, the Word was written in pure correspondences.  Absolutely everything in it corresponds.  So if we are steeped in the knowledge of correspondences, we would understand the Word in its spiritual meaning and be enabled to know hidden treasures in it that we do not see at all in the literal meaning..

The Word does in fact have a literal and spiritual meaning.  The literal meaning consists of the kind of things that are in our world - while the spiritual meaning consists of the kind of things that are in heaven.

The Sun in Heaven  Our natural world's sun provides light and warmth -the  correspondence is the Lord; His light is the Divine Truth, His warmth is the divine good - that radiates from the Lord like the sun.
Light =  faith = divine truth
Warmth = fire = divine love

The sun = love
The moon = faith 

BUT...everything that is in accord with the Divine Design corresponds to Heaven.
Everything that is contrary to the Divine Design corresponds to Hell.

Everything that corresponds to Heaven reflects what is good and true.
Everything that is contrary to Heaven reflects what is evil and false.

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE - PART 3

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE - PART 3


THE APPLE - THE SNAKE - THE FIG LEAF
Genesis : 3:1 through 3:13

The story of Adam and Eve deals with the stages of the earliest Church.  Driven by the desire for autonomy and self-love, the people began at this point to believe only in facts gained through their physical senses (to see, to touch, to hear).  The snake represents sensory abilities; the woman represents self-love; and the man represents the ability to reason. 

The snake (the senses) persuaded the woman (self-love) to examine closely the tenets of faith in the Lord, to see whether it was true.  This is symbolized by the eating of the tree of knowledge.  The man symbolizes consent on the part of the human being's rational mind ( Genesis -verses 1-6).
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Genesis 3:2, 3  And the woman said to the snake, "We are to eat from the fruit of the tree of the garden; but from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said, "You shall not eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die from it."

Fruit of the tree of the garden = the goodness and truth revealed to the people of the earliest church from the Lord.  Religious knowledge.
The fruit they were not to eat = Religious goodness and truth - that they were not to learn about by themselves (through senses, autonomy).
Not to touch = They were also not to think about religious truth and goodness from themselves. or from their senses, or from the facts they knew.
They would die = Means this is how faith - that is, all wisdom and understanding - would perish.
Tree of the garden = Perception of what is good and true.  This type of goodness and truth, because it is a product of perception, is called "fruit".
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The present verse says that the tree of knowledge was in the middle of the garden, But Genesis 2:9 says that the tree of lives was in the middle, implying the tree of knowledge was not.  Please note that the middle of the garden symbolizes our inner being (core): 

The core of the heavenly people was the tree of lives, which is love and the faith that develops out of love.
The core of the spiritual people (the product of the desire for autonomy accomplished), was the tree of knowledge which was faith alone.

Heavenly people = Their character was such, that good taught them about truth; that is to say, love taught them what belonged to faith.
Spiritual people = Did not learn from love about faith's tenets.  Instead, they learned from truth they acquired from facts about goodness. (Or) From religious knowledge they acquired facts about love...many gained little more than facts.
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Genesis 3:4, 5  And the snake said to the woman, "You are not going to 'surely die,' because God knows that on the day when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and will be like God, knowing good and evil."

If they ate - their eyes would be opened = If they scrutinized the tenets of faith from a sensory or factual standpoint, (from their own minds), they would see clearly that those tenet's were not true.
Being like God, knowing good and evil = means that if they judged good and evil for themselves they would be like God and be able to lead themselves.
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Self love carries with it the desire not to be led by the Lord - but by oneself, to turn to sensory evidence and secular knowledge as the criteria for belief.  What group of people believes more firmly that their eyes are open and that like God they can identify good and evil and also those who admire themselves and boast of a good "secular" knowledge?

Such people want to be recognized as "Gods" (authorities), or as fonts of wisdom.  If you took away their prized "self-hood", they would be nothing.  If you ask whether they know what it is to live with the Lord, they dream up their own fantasies and desires.  If you inquired whether they knew what conscience was, they would describe it as nothing more than their own imaginations at work.

This is their wisdom.  These are the people who have their eyes open; these people who are "gods".  Principles like these are their starting points.  From there they go on to reason about the mysteries of faith.  What is the result but a chasm of darkness - these people, more than any, are snakes that lead the world astray. (Rev 12:9)
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Genesis 3:6  And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating, and that it was appealing to the eyes, and a tree desirable for lending insight.  And she took some of its fruit, and she ate and gave to her husband too, who was with her, and he ate. 

Good for eating = intense desire +
Appealing to the eyes = delusion +
Desirable for lending insight = sensual pleasure =
...= these three are properties of our self hood (or the woman).
Her husband eating = the rational mind's consent
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Human self hood is everything evil and false that wells up out of self-love and materialism.  It is a tendency not to believe in the Lord or his Word but in ourselves and to think that what we do not grasp on a sensory or factual basis is nothing.  The result of these tendencies is nothing but evil and falsity, which cause us to see everything backwards - evil things as good, good things as evil, false things as true, and true things as false.  We call hatred love, darkness light, death life.  The Word refers to these type of people as "blind".
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Genesis 3:7  And the eyes of both were opened and they realized that they were naked. And they sewed together the leaf of the fig tree and made loincloths for themselves. 

Their eyes opened = that the inner voice caused them to realize and admit that they were naked...that they now lived in evil and no longer in the innocence they had before.
Opening one's eyes = many verses in the Word - the eyes mean intellect and so an inner dictate issuing from it.
To be naked = Left to their own devices (autonomy)..they no longer retain any understanding or wisdom (that is, faith) and so are stripped of truth and goodness...as a result, they live in evil.
Sew leaves together = to make excuses
Fig tree = earthly good  - Grapevine = spiritual good
Make loincloths for themselves = is to feel shame
...In summary: they had earthly good in place of earlier innocence, that it hid their evil, and since they had just earthly goodness -they felt shame.
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Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God going alone in the garden at the breeze of the day.  And the human hid himself, as did his wife, from Jehovah God's face, in the middle of the tree of the garden.

Voice of Jehovah = the Word itself, teachings of faith, conscience, (or an alertness to what is inside us).
Voice of Jehovah God, going alone in the garden = an inner dictate, which (the people) dreaded.  The inner call was the trace of perception they kept.
The breeze of the day = the era when the church still retained a trace of perception.
Hiding themselves from Jehovah God's face = fearing the inner dictate, as those who are conscious of their evil do.
Middle of the tree of the garden = where they hid symbolizes earthly good.
Middle = deepest core
Tree = perception (since the people had very little perception left, the word is used in the singular, as if only one tree were left.
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Genesis 3:11,12,13  And he said, "Who pointed out to you that you were naked? You ate from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat, didn't you?"  And the human said, "the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."  And Jehovah God said to the woman, "Why have you done this?"  And the woman said, "The snake deceived me and I ate."

...Anyone can see that Jehovah God did not talk to a snake and that in fact there was no snake.  Nor did He talk to the sensory part of the mind , as symbolized by the snake.  Rather, other things are involved-- people perceived that they had been deceived by their senses, and because they loved themselves, they were eager to know whether the things they heard about the Lord and about faith in Him were true.  Only then would they be willing to believe.

Self and material love was the reigning evil. It is the evil of not believing the Lord or the Word but trusting oneself and one's senses.  The result is the absence of faith, and when faith is absent, so is love for others - a situation that leads to ALL falsity and evil.

People who make sensory evidence and factual knowledge the standard for belief tumble into doubt and denial - They also subject themselves to every kind of craving.  When we believe in something false, we also act on falsity; and when we believe anything spiritual or heavenly to be impossible, we believe that only what belongs to the flesh and the world exists.  So then we love whatever promotes our self-interest or worldly advantage, and our false premise leads to evil cravings and outright wickedness.

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE PART 2

ADAM AND EVE PART 2 
Wife - Marriage - The Snake   

(Genesis 2:23 - 3:1) 
Taken directly from Swedenborg's "Secrets of Heaven" #151 -191
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Genesis 2:23 And the human said, "This time, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh.  This is why she will be called "wife" because she was taken from man."

Bone from one's bones and flesh from one's flesh = the sense of autonomy of our outer being.  The desire for autonomy belongs to our outer self.
Bone = autonomy without much life
Flesh = autonomy with life
Man = our inner being
Wife = because our inner being is intimately coupled with the outer being -- wife represents the desire to rule ourselves.
This time = means that the desire to rule ourselves has been accomplished, because our state has changed.

The condition (accomplishment of autonomy ..to rule ourselves), changed because of our desire for autonomy, which belongs to the outer being. No longer could people perceive the distinction between their inner and outer beings; for them it was as if the inner and outer were one. 
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Genesis 2:24  Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Leaving his father and mother = leaving the inner being behind, as it is the inner being that gives birth to the outer being.
To cling to one's wife = is to have an inner being within our outer being.
They are one flesh = means the two coexist there...Prior to this "condition" the inner being was spirit, as was the outer being, through it's connection with the inner....Now, however, they become flesh.

All laws ordaining what is true and right flow from heavenly origins, or from the structure of the inner life of a person who belongs in heaven. Heaven, taken as a whole, is a heavenly person because the Lord alone is a heavenly person.  He is the totality of each and everything in heaven and in the heavenly individual.
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The law for marriage- the heavenly marriage is the source and pattern for all marriages on earth.  All things display something like marriage or coupling within them, like the match of truth and goodness, or of evil and falsity, because the intellect (man) is married to the will (woman).  In other words...the ideas of the intellect are married to the intentions of the will. 

 The heavenly marriage allows for one Lord, one heaven, or one church with the Lord as head...The resulting law for marriage is that there must be one man (our inner being) and one wife (outer being)
Marriage:
Man and Wife - our inner being within our outer being headed by the Lord
                     - our self hood - when inner and outer beings are joined.
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Genesis 2:25  And they were both naked, the human and his wife, and did not blush.

They were naked and did not blush = means they were innocent; the Lord introduced innocence into their self hood to keep them from being objectionable.
Human self hood alone is evil - but when infused by the Lord with charitable love and innocence, it becomes lovely.
Love for our fellow humans and innocence are what excuse self-centeredness, or a person's evil and falsity.
Unembarrassed nakedness = innocence
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Genesis 3:1 And the snake was crafty above every wild animal of the field that Jehovah God had made; and it said to the woman, "Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The snake = our senses, which we trust.
The wild animal of the field = means every emotion in our outer self
The woman = self hood
The snake's words, "Did God really say, You may not eat from any tree?" = For the first time..they experienced doubts.  They began to disbelieve what had been revealed - unless they could see and feel that it was so.

Snakes was their word for a person's sensory abilities.  Sense impressions rise directly out of the body, just as snakes lie directly on the ground.  False logic concerning the mysteries of faith, when it sprang from sense impressions was called "snake venom".  In ancient times, people who put more trust in what they learned through the senses than in what had been revealed were called "snakes".

Sense oriented people, or those who believe only what their senses tell them, deny spirit exists because they cannot see it.  Scholars, philosophers, or anyone who analyzes the question of spirit on the basis of the senses denies spirit exists...and when they deny its existence, they believe absolutely nothing that is said about spirit or spiritual things. 

But if you ask the simple at heart, they say they know it exists because the Lord said they would live after death.  They do not snuff out their rational capacity; instead they make it a living thing by means of the Lord's Word. 


                                         

THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE Part 1-

Reference Emanuel Swedenborg's "Secrets of Heaven" #94 through #151

Genesis 2:7 through Genesis 2:22

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Gen 2:7  - God formed a human from dirt in the ground and breathed into the humans nostrils the breath of lives, and the human was made into living soul...

Formed a human, dirt from the ground = to form our "outer self"
Breath of lives = to put life into our love and faith.
Human made into a living soul = our outer self has also been brought to life.

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**According to Swedenborg - we are composed of an "inner being" and outer being"..depending on our perception or understanding that distinguishes between them could determine how close our union with the Lord can be.

Heavenly people's state is like - that their inner being is distinguished from their outer being.  Heavenly people can tell what belongs to the inner and what belongs to the outer being. They can also tell how the Lord uses the inner being to regulate the outer.

Because of the earliest people's desire for autonomy (which belongs to the outer being).  They no longer could perceive the distinction between inner and outer beings...for them, it was as if the inner and outer being were one...and this is the result of the desire from autonomy.
(From Secret's of Heaven #159)

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Genesis 2:8 And Jehovah planted a garden in Eden, on the east, and he put in it the human he had formed...

Garden = intelligence  (Human Being--the earliest church)
Eden = Love...
East = the Lord
So the garden on the east of Eden symbolizes the intelligence of heavenly people, which comes to them from the Lord. The Lord enters into understanding, reason and knowledge by way of love and the convictions of love.

- - Love is our Conduit to the Lord
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Genesis 2:9 And Jehovah God caused to sprout from the ground every tree desirable in appearance and good for food, and the tree of lives in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge and good and evil.

Trees = different kinds of perception (when having to do with "heavenly people") Perception is an inner feeing for whether a thing is true and good - a feeling that can only come from the Lord. (Spiritual people have no perception - but conscience).
Tree of lives = love and the faith it leads to
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil = faith based on evidence from the senses...secular knowledge.
Middle of the garden = In the will - from the inner self

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Genesis 2:10  And a river was issuing from Eden to water the garden; and from there it parted and became four headwaters.

River from Eden = wisdom born of love
To water the garden = is to give the gift of intelligence or understanding.
Rivers = all aspects of wisdom...things that would stimulate growth.  Although wisdom and understanding seem to reside in us...they belong to the Lord alone.
Gold = the goodness that belongs to wisdom or love (the ark, the Temple, the golden table, the lampstands, the utensils, and Aaron's garments had this symbolism).

**From Swedenborg, "People should be aware though, that the only wisdom comes from love and so from the Lord, and the only intelligence comes from faith and, so again, from the Lord.  What is more, all good comes from love, and so from the Lord, and all truth comes from faith, and so from the Lord.  When these things do not come from love and faith and so from the Lord, they are counterfeit, even though they bear the same names as the real entities." (#112)

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Genesis 2:15  And Jehovah God took the human and put the human in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to guard it.

Garden of Eden = everything in a heavenly person..they acknowledge, because they perceive, that absolutely everything is the Lord's...Wisdom Understanding, Reason, and Knowledge are not ours...but the Lord's.
Cultivating the garden and guarding it = the person is free to enjoy all those things-but not to claim personal possession of them...because they are the Lord's.

***Heavenly people can perceive that everything is the Lord's.
***Spiritual people do not perceive, but acknowledge it, but only in speech, because they learned it from the Word. 
***Worldly and body-centered people do not agree or accept the idea; they claim as their own any ability they discover inside themselves, and if they lose it, they consider it completely destroyed. ( Secrets of Heaven #123).
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Genesis 2:16-17  And Jehovah God commanded the human concerning it, saying, " From every tree of the garden you are definitely to eat...."But from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, because on the day on which you eat from it you will surely die.

To eat from every tree = to depend on perception (the Lord) in order to know and recognize what is good and true.
(People are allowed to depend on any perception they receive from the Lord...to tell them what is true and good...but NOT on themselves or the world around them (The tree of knowledge of good and evil). 
-In other words, when inquiring into religious mysteries, they are NOT to rely on "sense" impressions or facts: and that to do so would be the death of their heavenly quality. (#126-128)
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Following verses deal with later generations of the earliest church, who strove for autonomy...
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Genesis 2:18 And Jehovah God said, "It is not good for the human to be alone.  Let me make him an aid that seems to be his".

Being alone = being discontent with the Lord's leading and desiring to be led by oneself and the world.
An aid that seems to be his = a sense of autonomy, later referred to as the "rib" from which the woman was built (Gen 2:22)

***In carnal, materialistic people- their sense of autonomy is the all-in-all.  They know nothing else.  If it (sense of autonomy), died, they would think they had died.
***Spiritual people know and admit that the Lord is the life of all things, that he is the giver of wisdom and understanding and so of thought and action, but they do not really believe it.
*** Heavenly people ackowledge that the Lord is the life of all and the giver of thought and action because they perceive that it is so, and they have no desire at all for autonomy.  Yet even though they do not seek autonomy, the Lord gives it to them.  This autonomy and selfhood is directly bound up with their ability to perceive what is good and true and with their happiness. (#141)

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Genesis 2:21  And Jehovah God made slumber fall on the human, and he went to sleep, And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

Rib (Chest bone) = means part of our identity, which is hardly alive and yet is our very own, so we love it tenderly.
Bone= because they are minimally alive- they represented attributes that are of relatively little value....also human selfhood.  Human selfhood is in fact nothing more than a dead trifle, even though it seems to its owner to be significant and indeed all-important.
Slumber = a state brought over us to make it seem to us as if we have autonomy.  This state is like sleep because in it we have no idea that we do not live, think, speak and act on our own; but when we begin to realize how much this view is, we are toused from our sleep and wake up.
Flesh = Attributes that have a living quality.  (#147)
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Genesis 2:22 And Jehovah God built a woman out of the rib that he took from the human and brought her to the human.

Building = reconstructing what has fallen down.
Rib = a sense of self devoid of life
Woman = a sense of self brought to life by the Lord.
Bringing her to the human = giving people a sense of self (brought to life by the Lord).

***You can see that the woman did not come from the rib of man and that these words involve deeper meanings.  The fact that woman symbolizes selfhood is indicated by her being the one who was deceived (Gen 3:1-6), since nothing ever deceives us besides our self absorption or, what is the same, love for ourselves and for the material world. (#151)

Next -- Adam and Eve Part 2 - Marriage - Innocence - The Snake

LOVE TRUTH, GOODNESS AND FAIRNESS ABOVE ALL OTHERS

A true Christian ?   To be a true Christian...before you can call on the LORD, before you can "represent"...before the Most High knows your name...you must:

Love with all your heart and soul :  truth (honesty) , goodness, fairness

Without these simple concepts (that equal LOVE), in your heart, as your first LOVE  - above all others...HE will not know thee. HE WILL NOT KNOW THEE.

You may hear others say HIS NAME, AND PRAY IN HIS NAME, with great fanfare and use HIS NAME and tout and judge others using HIS NAME...please know that they use HIS NAME in vain...and blaspheme.

If you are one of the three or four people who read this... please know...HE IS CALLING THEE...and that you are LOVED beyond anything you could imagine...you are one of HIS CHILDREN... HEAR HIS CALL....release your mind of all and love: ...honesty, goodness and fairness...and then you will "hear" and open your eyes..to HIS calling.  GODSPEED

INTENTIONS AND THOUGHTS = LOVE AND FAITH

Heaven's quality is made up of everything that belongs to love.  Faith too is heavenly when it comes from love.  Charity is a heavenly thing.  All the good inspired by charity is heavenly.

We are our love or intention. Love is what makes us who we are; faith does so only to the extent that it arises from love -- and deeds and works come from both.  The nature of deeds and works is entirely determined by the nature of the thought and intent from which they stem, and apart from such thought and intent (Love and Faith), they are not deeds and works but only lifeless motions.

Since deeds and works are matters of intention and thought.   It amounts to the same thing whether you talk about our love or our intentions; whether you talk about faith or about our thoughts.

We come into heaven if our love is heavenly and spiritual and into hell if our love is carnal and worldly without any heavenly and spiritual dimension.

Heavenly love is loving what is good, honest and fair because it is good honest and fair...and doing it because of that love.  If we love these things for their own sakes and do and live them, we are also loving the Lord above all because they come from Him.  We are also loving our neighbor, because these things are our neighbor who is to be loved.  Deuteronomy 6

Carnal love is loving what is good and honest and fair not for their own sakes, but for our own sake, because we can use them to gain prestige, position and profit.  In this case, we are not focusing on the Lord and our neighbor within what is good and honest and fair-- but on ourselves and the world, and we enjoy deceit.

When the motive is deceit, then whatever is good and honest and fair is actually evil and dishonest and unfair...and that is what we love within.  The pleasures of carnal love are contempt for others, hostility, hatred and vengefulness.

Faith does not stay with us unless it comes from a heavenly love.  There is no faith and there can be none for people who are engrossed in carnal and worldly love.  There is only information, or a secondhand belief that something is true because it serves their own love. 

Simply believing the truth or the Word is not faith; but faith is loving what is true from a heavenly love and intending and doing it from a deep affection.

Faith without heavenly love is like the light of winter in which everything on earth lies dormant, bound by ice and buried in snow because there is no warmth (love) to the light.

Love in action (whether heavenly or carnal) is the work and the deed.  All works and deeds are matters of moral and civic life and therefore focus on what is honest and right (moral) and what is fair and equitable (civic).  The works and deeds of our moral and civic life are heavenly if we do them from heavenly love, because things we do from a heavenly love we do from the Lord, and everything we do from the Lord is good.

The works and deeds of our moral and civic life are hellish if they come from carnal love, since whatever we do from this type of love (which is love for ourselves and the world), we do for ourselves, and whatever we do for ourselves is intrinsically evil.

An individual's pleasure stems from our dominant love, for only things that feel pleasant to us are the ones we love; so the most pleasant of all is what we love above all.   All pleasures overall go back to one love that is universally dominant - in heaven, a love for the Lord, -- and in hell, a love for oneself.

Female - Intentions - Will - Love     {
Male - Thoughts - Intellect - Faith   {  = MARRIAGE


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