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Daniel 7

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1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream; he told the sum of the matters.

2 Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens broke forth upon the great sea.

3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another.

4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till its wings were plucked; and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon two feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.

5 And behold, another beast, a second, like unto a bear, and it raised up itself on one side; and [it had] three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and they said thus unto it: Arise, devour much flesh.

6 After this I saw, and behold, another, like a leopard, and it had four wings of a bird upon its back; and the beast had four heads; and dominion was given to it.

7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceeding strong; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

8 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another, a little horn, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

9 I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit: his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was flames of fire, [and] its wheels burning fire.

10 A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

11 I beheld therefore, because of the voice of the great words that the horn spoke; I beheld till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given up to be burned with fire.

12 As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away; but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven [one] like a son of man, and he came up even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom [that] which shall not be destroyed.

15 As for me Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the certainty of all this. And he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things:

17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, [that] shall arise out of the earth.

18 But the saints of the most high [places] shall receive the kingdom, and they shall possess the kingdom for ever, even to the ages of ages.

19 Then I desired to know the certainty concerning the fourth beast, which was different from them all, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet;

20 and concerning the ten horns that were in its head, and the other that came up, and before which three fell: even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth speaking great things, and whose look was more imposing than its fellows.

21 I beheld, and that horn made war with the saints, and prevailed over them;

22 until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most high [places]; and the appointed time arrived, and the saints possessed the kingdom.

23 He said thus: The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

24 And as to the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall arise ten kings; and another shall arise after them; and he shall be different from the former, and he shall subdue three kings.

25 And he shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High [places], and think to change seasons and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and a half time.

26 And the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

27 But the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high [places]. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

28 So far is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my countenance was changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart.

   

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Apocalypse Explained # 988

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988. Verse 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the beast, signifies the state of the church manifested as to the doctrine of faith. This is evident from the signification of "the angel pouring out the vial," as being the state of the church manifested (as above); also from the signification of "the throne of the beast," as being the doctrine of faith. "The throne of the beast" signifies the doctrine of faith because "throne" signifies the church as to the truth that reigns therein, and "the beast" signifies such faith as exists in that church, therefore "the throne of the beast" signifies the church as to the doctrine of faith. This follows also from what is said before, that "the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun," which signifies the state of the church manifested as to love (See above n. 981; consequently the vial poured out by this angel upon the throne of the beast signifies manifestation of the state of the church as to faith, since love and faith are what constitute the church, but only when they are one and not two. But "the throne of the beast" means such faith as there is at this day in that church, which is faith separated from the goods of life.

[2] The doctrine of faith is meant by "the throne of the beast," because "throne" means in the highest sense heaven and the church as to the Divine truth; and in the Christian Church the Divine truth is called faith; which was not done in the ancient churches, in which they did not know what faith is since faith involves something that is not understood and yet must be believed as if it were truth. Nearly everything of the church and of its doctrine at the present day is such; as for instance, what must be believed about the trinity, that there are three Persons of the Divinity, that the Lord was born from eternity, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from them, and that this proceeding is a Person which is God by Himself, and yet that there are not three but one, and thus that there is a trinity in the unity, and a unity in the trinity; furthermore, that faith is saving apart from its life, which is from the goods of charity or from good works; that to one who has been justified by faith alone, all works even such as are evil are pardoned, and the law does not condemn him, since the Lord has taken away the condemnation by the fulfilling of the law and by the passion of the cross; and that man will be saved when this is merely believed.

[3] There are many other things that must be believed as truths which are said to be matters of faith because whether they are true or not cannot be seen; as what is said about free will, about the faith of infants, about the flesh and blood in the Holy Supper, also about the life of man after death, and the Last Judgment, which are called things to be believed although the understanding sees in them mere paradoxes that transcend all faith; as that man after death is a shadowy or airy something, a formless phantom of ether that does not see, hear or speak, and thus is either flying in the air or is in a somewhere awaiting the judgment, which is to come with the destruction of the entire universe, both the visible heaven, the sun, moon and stars, and also the earth; and then all things of the body left in the world by death are to come together again and clothe the soul, and thus man's senses will be restored; with other like things. As these cannot fall into the understanding they cannot be called truths, but must be called faith. Such is the faith that is meant by "the throne of the beast."

[4] Who cannot see that by such a faith a man may be induced to believe mere absurdities and falsities, provided they are set up as dogmas by those placed in authority and are confirmed by others who for various reasons prefer to live in blind obedience? For by fallacies and sophistries, falsities, even infernal ones, can be so confirmed as to appear like truths, for instance, that infernal falsity that nature is everything; that whatever appears is ideal; that there is little difference between man and beast, that they die a like death and do not live after death; that the Word is not holy; and other like things; from which it is clear that all blindness in spiritual things has been induced by the faith of the present day, which was begun and brought to its densest darkness by the Babylonish nation; and although the Reformed, who separated from that nation, came forth from that thick darkness into some light by reading the Word they did not come into a light that enabled them to see truths as the ancient people did, and for the reason that they separated faith from the life, and it is from the life that a man has light, and not from any faith separated. All this makes clear what is meant by "the throne of the beast," the same as before by:

The throne that the dragon is said to have given to the beast (Revelation 13:2, see above, n. 783.

Also by the throne of Satan (Revelation 2:13).

"Thrones" signify false doctrinals in other passages in the Word, as in Ezekiel:

All the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and shall cast away their mantles and they shall be clothed with terrors (Ezekiel 26:16).

In Haggai:

I will overthrow the throne of the Kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the nations (Haggai 2:22).

And in Daniel:

I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit (Daniel 7:9).

(Continuation respecting the Sixth Commandment)

[5] How holy in themselves, that is, from creation, marriages are can be seen from the fact that they are seminaries of the human race; and as the angelic heaven is from the human race they are also the seminaries of heaven; consequently by marriages not only the earths but also the heavens are filled with inhabitants; and as the end of the entire creation is the human race, and thus heaven, where the Divine Itself may dwell as in its own and as it were in itself, and as the procreation of mankind according to Divine order is accomplished through marriages, it is clear how holy marriages are in themselves, that is, from creation, and thus how holy they should be esteemed. It is true that the earth might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages, but not heaven; and for the reason that hell is from adulteries but heaven from marriages. Hell is from adulteries because adultery is from the marriage of evil and falsity, from which hell in the whole complex is called adultery; while heaven is from marriages because marriage is from the marriage of good and truth, from which heaven in its whole complex is called a marriage, as has been shown above in its proper article. That is called adultery where its love reigns, which is called the love of adultery, whether it be within matrimony or out of it, and that is called marriage where its love reigns, which is called conjugial love. Whether the earth might be filled with inhabitants by fornications and adulteries as well as by marriages will be further considered in the following article.

[6] When procreations of the human race are effected by marriages in which the holy love of good and truth from the Lord reigns, then it is on earth as it is in the heavens, and the Lord's kingdom on earth corresponds to the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. For the heavens consist of societies arranged according to all the varieties of celestial and spiritual affections, from which arrangement the form of heaven springs, and this preeminently surpasses all other forms in the universe. There would be a like form on the earth if the procreations there were effected by marriages in which love truly conjugial reigned; for then, however many families might descend in succession from one head of a family, there would spring forth as many images of the societies of heaven in a like variety. Families would then be like fruit-bearing trees of various kinds, forming as many different gardens, each containing its own kind of fruit, and these gardens taken together would present the form of a heavenly paradise. This is said in the way of comparison, because "trees" signify men of the church, "gardens" intelligence, "fruits" goods of life, and "paradise" heaven. I have been told from heaven that with the most ancient people, from whom the first church on this globe was established, which was called by ancient writers the golden age, there was such a correspondence between families on the earth and societies in the heavens, because love to the Lord, mutual love, innocence, peace, wisdom, and chastity in marriage then reigned; and it was also told me from heaven that they were then inwardly horrified at adulteries, as at the abominable things of hell.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

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White

  

'White' relates to truths, because it originates in the light of the sun.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 167)