Apocalypse Revealed # 134
134. "'To teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality.'" This symbolically means, in consequence of which faith the truths of the church are falsified.
To teach and seduce the Lord's servants means, symbolically, to teach and seduce people who can be and are willing to be instructed in truths from the Word. That servants of the Lord are what people governed by truths are called may be seen in nos. 3 and 128 above; and to commit sexual immorality means, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the Word. To commit sexual immorality has this symbolic meaning because every particular of the Word contains a marriage of good and truth, and this marriage is broken when goodness is divorced and estranged from truth.
To be shown that every particular of the Word contains a marriage of good and truth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 80-90. It is because of this that to commit sexual immorality means, symbolically, to adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths. Moreover, because this is spiritual licentiousness, therefore people who have employed their own reason to falsify the Word become sexually licentious people when they enter the spiritual world after death. And something as yet unrecognized in the world is the fact that people who have affirmed faith alone to the exclusion of any works of charity are prompted by the lust of an adultery of a son with his mother. In the spiritual world I have often perceived them to be impelled by the lust of so unspeakable an adultery. Remember this and inquire into it after death, and you will be convinced. I have not dared to reveal this previously, because it offends the ears.
[2] This adultery is symbolized by the adultery of Reuben with Bilhah, his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22), inasmuch as Reuben symbolizes that faith. Therefore he was cursed by his father Israel, and the birthright was subsequently taken from him. For in prophesying concerning his sons, his father Israel said of Reuben,
Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength... Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father's bed, then defiled it. He went up to my pallet. (Genesis 49:3-4)
And therefore the birthright was taken from him:
...Reuben (was) the firstborn of Israel..., but because he defiled his father's pallet, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph... (1 Chronicles 5:1)
We will see in the explanation of Revelation 7:5 that Reuben represented truth arising from good or faith springing from charity, and afterward truth divorced from good or faith divorced from charity.
[3] That references to sexual licentiousness in the Word symbolize adulterations of good and falsifications of truth can be seen from the following passages:
...when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he said, "What peace, as long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are many?" (2 Kings 9:22)
The harlotries of Jezebel do not mean any acts of licentiousness, but her deeds, as cited in no. 132 above.
Your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms... (Numbers 14:33)
The person who has regard to mediums and soothsayers, to go whoring after them..., I will cut him off... (Leviticus 20:6)
(Do not) make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, (lest) they go whoring after their gods... (Exodus 34:15).
(Jerusalem,) you trusted in your own beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, (so that) you poured out your harlotries on everyone passing by... You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very carnal neighbors, and multiplied your acts of harlotry... You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable, (with whom) you played the harlot... You multiplied your harlotry as far as... Chaldea... The adulterous woman, who in place of her husband takes strangers. All men give payment to their harlots, but you made your payments to them all, (that they may) come to you from all around for your harlotries... Therefore, harlot, hear the word of Jehovah. (Ezekiel 16:15-16, 26, 28-29, 32-33, 35ff.)
Jerusalem there is the Israelite and Jewish Church. Its harlotries mean adulterations and falsifications of the Word. And because Egypt symbolizes the knowledge of the natural self, Assyria reasoning on the basis of it, Chaldea the profanation of truth, and Babel the profanation of good, therefore the passage says that it played the harlot with them.
[4] ...two women, the daughters of one mother, committed harlotry in Egypt; in their youth they committed harlotry... (One,) my subject, played the harlot, and she doted on her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians... She committed her harlotries with them... (Yet) she has not given up her harlotries in Egypt....
(The other) became more corrupt in her loving than she, and in her harlotries more corrupt than her sister's harlotries... She increased her harlotries... She loved (Chaldeans).... Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and they defiled her with their harlotry. (Ezekiel 23:2-3, 5, 7-8, 11, 14, 16-17ff.)
The two daughters of the same mother are likewise the Israelite and Jewish Church, whose adulterations and falsifications of the Word are described here, as above, by harlotries.
[5] So, too, in the following passages:
...you have played the harlot with many lovers... You have profaned the land with your harlotries and your wickedness... Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and... played the harlot... Treacherous Judah... went and played the harlot also. So that... by the report of her harlotry she defiled the land; ...she committed adultery with stone and wood. (Jeremiah 3:1-2, 6, 8-9)
And elsewhere:
Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see... if you can find a man... who executes judgment and seeks the truth... I satiated them, and they committed harlotry and came by troops into the harlots' house. (Jeremiah 5:1, 7)
I have seen your adulteries... your neighings, the wickedness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! You will not be made clean... (Jeremiah 13:27)
I have seen a horrible obstinacy in the prophets of Jerusalem: they commit adultery and walk in a lie. (Jeremiah 23:14)
...they have committed folly in Israel, have committed adultery..., and have spoken (My) word in My name falsely... (Jeremiah 29:23)
...they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into disrepute... They committed harlotry..., because they have forsaken Jehovah. Harlotry... enslaved (their) heart... ...your daughters commit harlotry, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. (Hosea 4:7, 10-11, 13)
I know Ephraim..., (that) he has (altogether) committed harlotry, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 5:3)
I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: Ephraim committed harlotry there, (and) Israel is defiled. (Hosea 6:10)
Israel there is the church, and Ephraim is its understanding of the Word, from which and in accordance with which the church is formed. Therefore Ephraim is said to have committed harlotry and Israel to be defiled.
[6] Since the church had falsified the Word, the prophet Hosea was commanded to take himself a harlot as a wife, as follows:
...take yourself a woman of harlotries and children of harlotries, for the land has committed great harlotry behind Jehovah. (Hosea 1:2).
Again:
...love a woman who is loved by a companion and is an adulteress... (Hosea 3:1)
Since the Jewish Church was such as described, therefore the Lord called the Jewish nation an adulterous generation (Matthew 12:39; 16:4, Mark 8:38); and in Isaiah, the offspring of an adulterer (Isaiah 57:3).
In Nahum:
Woe to the bloody city! Full of lying... The multitude of the slain... because of the multitude of the harlotries of the harlot..., who sells nations through her harlotries... (Nahum 3:1, 3-4)
[7] Since Roman Catholicism adulterates and falsifies the Word more than any others in the Christian world, it is therefore called Babylon, the Great Harlot, and the following things are said of it in the book of Revelation:
Babylon... has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her harlotry. (Revelation 14:8)
(Babylon has made) all the nations (drink) of the wine of the wrath of her harlotry, and the kings of the earth have committed harlotry with her... (Revelation 18:3)
(The angel said,) "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot... with whom the kings of the earth committed harlotry. (Revelation 17:1-2)
...He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. (Revelation 19:2)
It is apparent from this now that to commit adultery and to commit sexual immorality mean, symbolically, to adulterate and falsify the goods and truths of the Word.
Matthew 12
1
At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
2
But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."
3
But he said to them, "Haven't you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;
4
how he entered into the house of God, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
5
Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?
6
But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.
7
But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.
8
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
9
He departed there, and went into their synagogue.
10
And behold there was a man with a withered hand. They asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" that they might accuse him.
11
He said to them, "What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won't he grab on to it, and lift it out?
12
Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day."
13
Then he told the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.
14
But the Pharisees went out, and conspired against him, how they might destroy him.
15
Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,
16
and commanded them that they should not make him known:
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that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,
18
"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations.
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He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
20
He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.
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In his name, the nations will hope."
22
Then one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, was brought to him and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.
23
All the multitudes were amazed, and said, "Can this be the son of David?"
24
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."
25
Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
26
If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
27
If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
28
But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
29
Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.
30
"He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn't gather with me, scatters.
31
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
32
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.
33
"Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.
34
You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
35
The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.
36
I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
37
For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
38
Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."
39
But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.
40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41
The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.
42
The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.
43
But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn't find it.
44
Then he says, 'I will return into my house from which I came out,' and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
45
Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation."
46
While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.
47
One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you."
48
But he answered him who spoke to him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"
49
He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers!
50
For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."
