Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. I (1750)

"Lord, and Lord, and you say well; for so I am," (John 13:13). And the disciples, after the resurrection, called Him Lord.

15. In the whole Heaven they know no other Father than the Lord, because He is one, as He Himself said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Philip says to Him, 'Show us the Father.' Jesus says to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How then do you say, "Show us the Father"? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me'" (John 14:6, 8, 9, 10, 11).

16. Vers. 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth: "The beginning" is called the most ancient time; through the prophets, it is often called the "days of antiquity" or the "days of eternity." The beginning also involves the first time when a person is being regenerated, for then he is born anew and receives life. Regeneration itself is therefore called the new creation of man. "To create," "to form," and "to make," almost everywhere in the prophetic books, signify to regenerate, with differences. As in Isaiah: "Everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yes, I have made him" (43:7). Therefore, the Lord is called Redeemer, Former from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet: "I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King" (43:15). In David: "The people created shall praise Jah" (Psalm 102:18). In the same: "You send forth Your spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground" (Psalm 104:30). That "Heaven" signifies the internal man, and "Earth" (before regeneration) the external, may be seen from what follows.

17. Vers. 2. And the Earth was emptiness and void, and darkness was upon the face of the abyss, and the Spirit of God was moving upon the face of the waters. A person before regeneration is called an empty and void Earth, or even humus, into which nothing of good or truth has been sown. "Emptiness" is where there is no good, and "void" is where there is no truth. Hence "darkness," or the stupor and ignorance of all things of faith in the Lord, and consequently of the things of spiritual and celestial life. This person is described by the Lord through Jeremiah: "My people are foolish, they have not known Me; they are silly children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they do not know. I saw the Earth, and behold, it was emptiness and void; and to the heavens, and there was no light" (4:22, 23, 25).

18. The "faces of the abyss" are the person’s desires and consequent falsities, from which and in which he is entirely immersed. Because he has no light, he is like an abyss, or something confused and obscure. Such persons are also called "abysses" and "depths of the sea" throughout the Word, which are dried up or laid waste before a person is regenerated. As in Isaiah: "Awake according to the days of antiquity, the generations of the eternities! Is it not You who dries up the sea, the waters of the great abyss, and makes the depths of the sea a path, that the redeemed may pass over? Let the redeemed of Jehovah return" (51:9, 10, 11). Such a person, when viewed from Heaven, appears like a black mass in which there is nothing of life.