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Spiritual Values
Last modified: Monday, 12 March 2007, 02:06:17 UTC
The operators of the NewEarth Swedenborg BBS derive their values and mission from ideas revealed in the Bible and in the spiritual writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Freedom and rationality are the gifts from God that make us human. Freedom of expression in religious and political matters is not only a civil right, but a religious value. Civil and moral laws are derived from spiritual laws, and are legitimate to the exact extent that they uphold and defend spiritual values, such as human freedom and rationality.
Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:4,5
Attributed to Moses
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:18
Attributed to Moses
Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neigbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:30,31
From the Word people learn that all doctrine is based on these two commandments, that the Lord is to be loved above everything else, and the neighbor as themselves. When these two commandments are the end in view the Word is in that case opened up, for all the Law and all the Prophets, that is, the whole of the Word, hangs on them, as does everything from them, and so everything has reference to them. And being in that case governed by the primary teachings concerning truth and good people receive light in each particular thing they see in the Word. For the Lord is present with them at that time by means of angels and is teaching them even though they are not directly aware of it, and is also guiding them into the life of truth and good.
Arcana Coelestia 3773
Emanuel Swedenborg
And God spoke all these words, saying,
I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves.
You shall not have other gods before My face.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness [of things] which are in the heavens above, and which are on the earth beneath, and which are in the waters under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I am Jehovah your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons,* on the third and on the fourth [generations] of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands who love Me and keep My commandments.
You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain; for Jehovah will not render him innocent who takes His name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work; and the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work - you, nor your son, nor your daughter; your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your beast, nor your sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
Honour your father and your mother, in order that your days may be prolonged on the land which Jehovah your God gives you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not answer as witness of a lie against your neighbour.
You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.
Exodus 20:1-17
Attributed to Moses
The literal sense of the Ten Commandments contains general instructions on doctrine and life; but their spiritual and celestial senses contain universal instructions.
It is well known that the Ten Commandments are called in the Word the Law par excellence, because they contain everything concerning doctrine and life, not only everything which concerns God, but also everything which concerns man. That is why the law was written on two tablets, one dealing with God, the other with man. It is also well known that the whole of doctrine and life relate to love to God and love towards the neighbour. The whole of these loves is contained in the Ten Commandments. This is the teaching of the whole Word, as is evident from these words of the Lord:
Jesus said, You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. The law and the prophets depend upon these two commandments. Matt. 22:35-37, 40.
The law and the prophets mean the whole Word. And further:
A lawyer testing Jesus said, Master, what must I do to inherit everlasting life? And Jesus said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? And he in answer said, You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself. And Jesus said, Do this, and you will live, Luke 10:25-28.
Now since love to God and love towards the neighbour are the whole of the Word; and since the first tablet of the Ten Commandments contains in summary form the whole of love to God, and the second tablet contains the whole of love towards the neighbour, it follows that they contain the whole of doctrine and life. A look at the two tablets makes it plain that they are so linked that God from His tablet has man in view, and man in his turn from his has God in view. Thus there is a reciprocal viewing, such that on God's part He never fails to keep man in view and perform the actions needed for his salvation; and if a person accepts and does the things laid down in his tablet, the link becomes reciprocal. Then, as the Lord's words promised to the lawyer, 'Do this, and you will live.'
True Christian Religion 287
Emanuel Swedenborg
This was written in the late 18th century. It should not be taken as a reflection on the English or Italian peoples, but as reflecting the spiritual effects of the political systems that existed then in those countries.
I have spoken with the English about their acumen, inquiring into the reason for this characteristic in them, that when they hear truths from one worthy of belief among them, they then see those truths and thus readily conform themselves to them, and why it is that in them a snowy whiteness appears over their natural element, and I learned that it is owing to the light of heaven from which they have their intelligence. The same characteristic is found among the Dutch, except that in them that snowy whiteness does not appear, but instead a certain firmness on the border between the spiritual and natural mind, and therefore they are slower to accept.
I was told that the reason for the light appearing in the English is their way of life, which differs from that of all other nations. To enable me to perceive this to be the reason, a comparison was made with present-day Italians, whose system of government is totally contrary to that of the English. In England people have the freedom to speak and write about both political and spiritual matters, but absolutely no freedom to employ guile and cunning in order to deceive others, or to conspire to murder, or to rob and kill; and if they do so, they receive no clemency. The opposite, however, is true in the case of Italians today. People there have the freedom to deceive by cunning and guile, and also to kill-a freedom they derive from the existence of so many places of refuge and of dispensations-but they have absolutely no freedom to speak or write about church or political matters there on account of the Inquisition. As a result the Italian people retain matters of that sort inside them, and thus a fire, which is one of smoldering hatred, vengeance and savagery, a fire like that which after a conflagration lies hidden for a long time beneath the ashes and consumes.
But not so the English people, because they are allowed to speak and write freely. Therefore such a fire is not concealed within but instantly dies down, and the people are kept in the practice of honesty and justice by their not being permitted to deceive, rob or kill, since no dispensation is available then, nor anywhere a place of refuge.
Last Judgment (posthumous) 5
Emanuel Swedenborg
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