565. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and it went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (12:17) This symbolizes the hatred ignited in those people who believe themselves wise because of their arguments in support of the mystical union of the Divine and the human in the Lord and in support of justification by faith alone, against those who acknowledge the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth and the Ten Commandments as law to be lived, and their attacking new converts with the intention of leading them astray.

All of this is contained in these few words, because they follow in sequence from those of the preceding verse, where we are told that the earth helped the woman, and opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth, which means, symbolically, that their reasonings flowing from falsities came to nothing (no. 564), and accordingly that they tried in vain to destroy the New Church. The dragon's being enraged with the woman symbolizes, therefore, hatred ignited and a longing for vengeance seething against the Church. The rage or wrath of the dragon symbolizes hatred (no. 558). To make war means, symbolically, to attack and assail with reasonings flowing from falsities (no. 500).

The rest of her offspring or seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ means newcomers who accept the doctrine regarding the Lord and the Ten Commandments. What the testimony of Jesus Christ is may be seen in nos. 6 and 490 above.

[2] The dragon here means people who believe themselves wise because of their arguments in support of the mystical union of the Divine and the human in the Lord and in support of justification by faith alone, because they pride themselves on their wisdom and know how to reason. From that pride or conceit then springs hatred, and from that hatred rage and a longing for vengeance against people who do not believe as they do. By the mystical union, also called a hypostatic union, we mean their fictions regarding the influx and operation of the Lord's Divinity into His humanity as though into another entity, their not knowing that God and man, or the Divine and the human in the Lord, are not two persons, but one, united like soul and body, in accordance with the doctrine accepted throughout the Christian world which has its name from Athanasius. But this is not the place to cite their fictions regarding the mystical union, as they are absurd.

[3] That the offspring or seed of the woman here means people of the New Church, who possess its doctrinal truths, can be seen from the symbolic meaning of offspring in the following passages:

Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants among peoples. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the offspring whom Jehovah has blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)

...they are the offspring of the blessed of Jehovah... (Isaiah 65:23)

...as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me..., so shall your offspring... remain. (Isaiah 66:22)

Offspring that will serve Him shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation... (Psalms 22:30)

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and the offspring (of the woman). (Genesis 3:15)

Does the one seek the offspring of God? (Malachi 2:15)

Behold, the days are coming..., (when) I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man... (Jeremiah 31:27)

If he makes His soul a guilt offering, he shall see his offspring... (Isaiah 53:10)

Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east... (Isaiah 43:5-6)

...you shall break out to the right and to the left, and your offspring will inherit the nations... (Isaiah 54:3)

I had planted you a noble vine, the offspring of truth. How then have you turned before Me into the offshoots of an alien vine? (Jeremiah 2:21)

Their fruit You shall destroy from the earth, and their offspring from among the children of men. (Psalms 21:10)

...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom... (Matthew 13:38)

The offspring or seed of Israel has the same symbolic meaning, because "Israel" is the church (Isaiah 41:8-9; 44:3). So likewise the seed of the field, in many places, because a field symbolizes the church.

On the other hand, the offspring or seed of evil people has an opposite meaning (Isaiah 1:4; 14:20; 57:3-4).

565. [repeated]. Then I stood on the sand of the sea. ¹ (12:18) This symbolizes John's spiritual state now natural, like that of people in the first or lowest heaven.

The sand of the sea symbolizes that state, because the sea symbolizes the external component of the church. We call this state spiritually natural, like the state of people in the first or lowest heaven.

John had previously been up above in heaven when he saw the dragon, its battle with Michael, its being cast down, and its pursuing the woman. But now that the dragon has been cast down, and it continues to be dealt with in the following chapter, John was conveyed down in spirit in order to see the further events involving the dragon beneath the heavens and describe them. In that state he saw the two beasts, one rising up out of the sea and the other coming up out of the earth, which he could not have seen from heaven, since it is not granted to any angel to look down from heaven into lower regions, though if he wishes, he may descend.

It should be known that a place in the spiritual world corresponds to the inhabitants' state, for no one can be anywhere else than where his state of life is found. And because John now stood on the sand of the sea, it follows that his state was now a spiritually natural one.

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