< Back to Articles

The Creation Story

Creation Story In the creation story, God creates light on the first day. However, it wasn’t until the fourth day that God created the sun. New Church Perspective The story of creation is a parable of each one of us being created anew. The light created on the first day is the first dawn of spiritual consciousness in each one of us, when we ‘see the light’ and know that there is such a thing as truth. Light is the symbol of truth. The birth of the sun and moon on the fourth day are symbolic of the birth of love and faith in our lives.

God’s Character

God’s Character The God of the Old Testament is seen as fierce and angry. However, the God of the New Testament is a God of love and peace. New Church Perspective God is our Father. Just as a good parent can correct and guide us in seemingly angry ways, so it can seem to us that sometimes God is angry with us. But we know that good parents, like our Divine Father, work from love. The anger is only an appearance. He is never angry with us, nor does He punish us. God loves us with His whole heart all of the time.

Trinity

At times in the Bible, Jesus and God are one, and at other times there seems to be a separation. The New Church teaches that God is one (Mark 12:32, Isaiah 44:6, Zecheriah 14:9). Out of love and concern for the human race and the state of humanity at that time, God took on a physical human body conceived of the Divine and born of the virgin Mary. Within the human of Jesus was the Divine itself. Throughout His lifetime Jesus gradually got rid of what was merely human and took on more and more of the Divine from His soul until He made His external human completely Divine. God is one, within whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord God, the Savior Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18). Just as we all have a soul, a body and the actions of our life (and are one person) so it is with Jesus Christ. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are names given for the soul, body and activity of the one God.

Marriage

The New Church teaches about marriage in Heaven. In the Bible, Jesus seems to say that there is no marriage after death. “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.” (Matt 22:30; Luke 20:35-36) In the work Heaven and Hell, this issue is commented on: “In the heavens there are spiritual weddings that should not be called weddings but unions of minds, because of the union of the good and the true. On earth, though there are weddings, because they concern not only the spirit but the flesh as well...” This enables us to know what is meant by the Lord’s words about marriages in Luke 20:35-36 (Heaven and Hell 382b). Jesus knew that people thought of marriage as a legal agreement and knew very little about the spiritual love that can exist between married partners.