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Daniel 7:2

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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.

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Rise

  

It is common in the Bible for people to "rise up," and it would be easy to pass over the phrase as simply describing a physical action. But in fact it represents an elevation in spiritual state, moving to a more internal frame of mind closer to the Lord. Often it has to do with understanding a new or important idea; we "rise up" to a state of greater perception and enlightenment. Obviously context is crucial to the exact meaning of the phrase in a given passage -- it matters greatly who it is that is rising up, and why.

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Worlds in Space # 90

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90. The angelic spirits talked with me about how the inhabitants of their world lived. They are not, they said, subjects of kingdoms, but divided into larger and smaller communities, in which they associate those of like character with themselves. They know this instantly from their faces and their speech, and rarely make any mistake about it; so they become friends at once. They also said that they take great pleasure in their meetings, at which they discuss what goes on in their communities; and especially what goes on in heaven, for many of them enjoy open communication with the angels of heaven.

[2] Any in their communities who begin to have wrong thoughts, leading to evil intentions, are banished from them. They leave them by themselves, so that they live pitifully outside their community, among rocks or elsewhere, being no longer looked after by it. Some communities try various methods of bringing them to their senses; but when these attempts prove vain they break off contact with them. By such means they take precautions to prevent the desire to rule or to gain wealth sneaking in; that is to say, they make sure that no one out of a desire to rule gets control of one community, and then many more, and that no one out of a desire for wealth steals their property from others. Each individual there lives content with his own property, and with his own good name, a reputation for being fair and loving his neighbour. This pleasure and peace of mind would be destroyed, if those who think and intend evil were not ejected, and if they did not prudently and severely confront self-love and the love of the world in their earliest stages. It is these loves which are the motives behind empires and kingdoms. In these there are few who do not want to rule and possess other people's property, for there are few who behave justly and fairly from a love of justice and fairness, even fewer who do good out of charity rather than through fear of the law or being deprived of their lives, of wealth, or of good name and reputation for that reason.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.