Apocalypse Revealed # 704
704. That perform signs to go away to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. This symbolizes assertions that their falsities are true, and efforts to stir up all those throughout the church who are caught up in the same falsities to attack the truths of the New Church.
To perform signs is to testify and also to assert that something is true, as may be seen in nos. 598, 599 above, here that their falsities are true. Kings of the earth and of the whole world symbolize people who are caught up primarily in falsities springing from evil, here all who are caught up in the same falsities throughout the church. For kings symbolize people impelled by truths that spring from goodness, and in an opposite sense people impelled by falsities springing from evil (no. 483). The earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), and so likewise does the world (no. 551). To go away to gather them to battle means, symbolically, to stir those people to fight or attack; for war symbolizes a spiritual war, which is one of falsity against truth and of truth against falsity (nos. 500, 586). It is to attack the truths of the New Church because it is called the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and that day symbolizes the Lord's advent and a new church then. That this is the symbolic meaning of the great day there will be seen below.
We are told that the spirits of demons would do this, because the spirits of demons symbolize lusts to falsify truths and to reason on the basis of falsities, as just said in no. 703 above.
It is apparent from this that spirits of demons performing signs to go away to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, symbolize assertions by the people meant by the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, as described in nos. 701, 702 above, that their falsities are true, and efforts to stir up all those throughout the church who are caught up in the same falsities to attack the truths of the New Church.
[2] That the great day of God Almighty symbolizes the Lord's advent and a new church then, is clear from many passages in the Word, as from the following:
Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:11)
...in that day... Israel... will depend on Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. (Isaiah 10:20)
In that day a Root of Jesse... shall the Gentiles seek, and His resting place shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11:10-11)
In that day... eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 17:7, 9)
They will say in that day: "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, to set us free." (Isaiah 25:9)
...My people shall know My name...(and) in that day, I am He who speaks: "Behold, it is I." (Isaiah 52:6)
Alas! ...great is (the day of Jehovah, and) there is none like it. (Jeremiah 30:7)
Behold, the days are coming... when I will make a new covenant... and the city shall be built for Jehovah... (Jeremiah 31:27, 31, 38)
In those days... I will cause to grow up to David a righteous Branch... (Jeremiah 33:15)
(They will not) stand in battle on the day of Jehovah. (Ezekiel 13:5)
In that day Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the children of your people... In that day... shall be delivered everyone who is found written in the book. (Daniel 12:1)
...in that day... you will call Me "My Husband."... In that day I will make a covenant for them... ...in that day I will hear... (Hosea 2:16, 18, 21).
Behold, I am sending you Elijah... before the coming of the great... day of Jehovah. (Malachi 4:5)
Jehovah... will save them in that day, as the flock of His people. (Zechariah 9:16)
In that day Jehovah will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:8)
Behold, the day of Jehovah is coming... It shall be one day which is known to Jehovah... In that day Jehovah shall be one and His name one... In that day there shall be a great tumult... In that day "Holiness to the Lord" shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. (Zechariah 14:1, 4, 6-9, 13, 20-21)
There are many other passages in addition to these in which "the day of Jehovah" means the Lord's advent and a new church from Him then, as in the following: Isaiah 4:2; 19:16, 18, 21, 24; 22:20; 28:5; 29:18; 30:25-26; 31:7; and elsewhere.
Since the end of an age or final period of a former church is the time when the Lord's advent takes place and a new church begins, therefore the day of Jehovah in many places symbolizes the end of a previous church, and we are told that then there will be rumors, tumult, and wars. 1 See the passages collected in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 4, 5.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. E.g., Matthew 24:6
Leviticus 26
1
Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3
If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4
Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5
And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6
And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7
And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8
And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9
For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10
And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11
And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
13
I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
15
And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
16
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17
And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
18
And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
19
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20
And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21
And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
22
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.
23
And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
24
Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
25
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26
And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27
And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
28
Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
30
And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
31
And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
32
And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34
Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35
As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
36
And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
37
And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38
And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39
And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
41
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
42
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43
The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44
And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
45
But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
46
These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
