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For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
The Meaning of the Book of Revelation: the Four Horsemen
За Jonathan S. Rose, Curtis Childs
Transparency is needed to sort things out. Before big change happens, God first reveals what’s really going on.
In the Book of Revelation - the last book of the Word - the apostle John describes a series of apocalyptic visions that he experienced during his exile on the Isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea.
In one of these visions, he saw four horsemen, the first riding a white horse, the second a red horse, the third a black, and the fourth - named Death - riding a pale horse. These "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" - oft-pictured - are described in Revelation 6:1-8.
What do these horses, and their riders, represent? What do they have to do with us, today? Watch as Curtis Childs and Jonathan Rose explore the hidden Bible meaning of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation, in this video from the Swedenborg and Life Series, from the Swedenborg Foundation.
Plus, to go straight to the source, follow the links below to the places in "Apocalypse Revealed" where Swedenborg explained the inner meaning of this famous Bible story. A good place to start would be Apocalypse Revealed 298.
(Посилання: Apocalypse Explained 315; Apocalypse Revealed 262-263, 301, 306, 314, 316, 320, 322-323)
This video is a product of the Swedenborg Foundation. Follow these links for further information and other videos: www.youtube.com/user/offTheLeftEye and www.swedenborg.com
Heaven and Hell #73
73. THEREFORE EACH ANGEL IS IN A COMPLETE HUMAN FORM
In the two preceding sections it has been shown that heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. This is the case for the reason that heaven is a communion, for it communicates all it has with each one, and each one receives all he has from that communion. An angel is a receptacle, and by virtue of this, a heaven in least form, as was also shown above in the appropriate section. A man, too, so far as he receives heaven, is also a receptacle, a heaven and an angel (see above 57). This is described in the Revelation as follows,
He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is of an angel. Revelation 21:17.
"Jerusalem" 1 there is the Lord's Church, and, in a higher sense, heaven; the "wall" 2 is the truth that is a defence against the assault of falsities and evils; the "hundred and forty-four" are all truths and goods in the complex; 3 the "measure" 4 is the quality; a "man" is one in whom are all goods and truths in general and particular, that is, in whom is heaven, and as it is from these that an angel also is a man, it is said, the "measure of a man" which is that of an angel. This is the spiritual sense of the words. Without that sense, who could understand that the wall of the Holy Jerusalem is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel? 5
Примітки:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] "Jerusalem" is the Church (Arcana Coelestia 402, 3654, 9166).
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] A "wall" is truth defending against the assault of falsities and evils (Arcana Coelestia 6419).
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] "Twelve" stands for all truths and goods in the complex (Arcana Coelestia 577, 2089, 2129-2130, 3272, 3858, 3913).
Likewise "seventy-two", and "a hundred and forty-four", since 144 comes from 12 multiplied into itself (Arcana Coelestia 7973).
All numbers in the Word signify things (Arcana Coelestia 482, 487, 647-648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 5265).
Multiplied numbers have a like signification as the simple numbers from which they arise by multiplication (Arcana Coelestia 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973).
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] "Measure" in the Word signifies the quality of a thing in respect of truth and good (Arcana Coelestia 3104, 9603).
5. [Swedenborg's footnote] In regard to the spiritual or internal sense of the Word see the explanation of THE WHITE HORSE in the Apocalypse, and the Appendix to THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE.
