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Daniel 8

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1 In the third year of the reign of king Baltasar, a vision appeared to me. I Daniel, after what I had seen in the beginning,

2 Saw in my vision when I was in the castle of Susa, which is in the province of Elam: and I Saw in the vision that I was over the gate of Ulai.

3 And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a ram stood before the water, having two high horns, and one higher than the other, and growing up. Afterward

4 I saw the ram pushing with his horns against the west, and against the north, and against the south: and no beasts could withstand him, nor be delivered out of his hand: and he did according to his own will, and became great.

5 And I understood: and behold a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and he touched not the ground, and the he goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

6 And he went up to the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the gate, and he ran towards him in the force of his strength.

7 And when he was come near the ram, he was enraged against him, and struck the ram: and broke his two horns, and the ram could not withstand him: and when he had cast him down on the ground, he stamped upon him, and none could deliver the ram out of his hand.

8 And the he goat became exceeding great: and when he was grown, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns under it towards the four winds of heaven.

9 And out of one of them came forth a little horn: and it became great against the south, and against the east, and against the strength.

10 And it was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them.

11 And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength: and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary.

12 And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.

13 And I heard one of the saints speaking, and one saint said to another, I know not to whom that was speaking: How long shall be the vision, concerning the continual sacrifice, and the sin of the desolation that is made: and the sanctuary, and the strength be trodden under foot?

14 And he said to him: Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days: and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

15 And it came to pass when I Daniel saw the vision, and sought the meaning, that behold there stood before me as it were the appearance of a man.

16 And I heard the voice of a man between Ulai: and he called, and said: Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

17 And he came and stood near where I stood: and when he was come, I fell on my face trembling, and he said to me: Understand, O son of man, for in the time of the end the vision shall be fulfilled.

18 And when he spoke to me I fell flat on the ground: and he touched me, and set me upright,

19 And he said to me: I will shew thee what things are to come to pass in the end of the malediction: for the time hath its end.

20 The ram, which thou sawest with horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians.

21 And the he goat, is the king of the Greeks, and the great horn that was between his eyes, the same is the first king.

22 But whereas when that was broken, there arose up four for it: four kings shall rise up of his nation, but not with his strength.

23 And after their reign, when iniquities shall be grown up, there shall arise a king of a shameless face, and understanding dark sentences.

24 And his power shall be strengthened, but not by his own force: and he shall lay all things waste, and shall prosper, and do more than can be believed. And he shall destroy the mighty, and the people of the saints,

25 According to his will, and craft shall be successful in his hand: and his heart shall be puffed up, and in the abundance of all things he shall kill many: and he shall rise up against the prince of princes, and shall be broken without hand.

26 And the vision of the evening and the morning, which was told, is true: thou therefore seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.

27 And I Daniel languished, and was sick for some days: and when I was risen up, I did the king's business, and I was astonished at the vision, and there was none that could interpret it.

   

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True Christian Religion # 851

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851. I foresee that many readers of the accounts of experiences which come at the end of the chapters will think that they are fictions of the imagination. But I declare in truth that they are no fictions, but things I have truly seen and heard; and not things seen and heard in some state of mental somnolence, but in full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to show Himself to me, and to send me to teach the doctrines of His new church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation. For this purpose He opened the interiors of my mind or spirit, thus allowing me to be with angels in the spiritual world and at the same time with people in the natural world; and this has continued now for twenty-seven years.

Would anyone in the Christian world have known anything about heaven and hell if it had not been the Lord's pleasure to open the sight of someone's spirit, and show and teach him?

[2] It is quite plain that things of the kind described in the accounts of experiences are to be seen in the heavens from the similar things seen and described by John in Revelation, as well as those seen and described by the prophets in the Old Testament Word.

Examples in Revelation are: his seeing the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands; seeing a tabernacle, a temple, an ark and an altar in heaven; the book sealed with seven seals and its opening, and the horses coming out of it; the four creatures around the throne; the twelve thousand chosen from each tribe; the locusts coming up out of the abyss; the woman giving birth to a male child, and fleeing into the desert because of the dragon; the two beasts coming up, one from the sea and one from the land; the angel flying in mid-heaven holding the everlasting gospel; the sea of glass mixed with fire; the seven angels having the seven last plagues; the bowls which they poured out on the earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the throne of the beast, the Euphrates and the air; the woman seated upon the scarlet beast; the dragon cast out into a lake of fire and brimstone; the white horse; the great dinner; the new heaven and the new earth; the holy Jerusalem coming down from heaven, with the description of its gates, its wall and the foundations of the wall; also the river of the water of life, and the trees of life which bear fruit every month; and many things besides which were all seen by John, while he was in his spirit in the spiritual world and in heaven.

There are also the things seen by the Apostles after the Lord's resurrection, as well as those seen by Peter (Acts 11) and seen and heard by Paul. There are too the experiences of the Old Testament prophets. For instance, Ezekiel saw four creatures, which were the Cherubim (Ezekiel 1, 10); a new temple and a new earth, and an angel measuring them (Ezekiel 40 to Ezekiel 48); he was carried away to Jerusalem and saw abominations there, and also to Chaldaea (Ezekiel 8, 11).

[3] Likewise it happened to Zechariah to see a man riding a horse among the myrtles (Zechariah 1:8-11); four horns, and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 2); a flying scroll and an ephah (Zechariah 5:6); four chariots between the two mountains, and their horses (Daniel 7:1-8; 7:13-14); the battles of the ram and the he-goat (Daniel 8; 9). Likewise Elisha's lad saw chariots and horses of fire around Elisha, and he saw them when his eyes had been opened (2 Kings 6:17).

From these and many other passages in the Word it is established that the things which come into existence in the spiritual world have been seen by many people before and after the Lord's coming. What is surprising then if it happens when a new church is beginning, or the New Jerusalem is coming down from heaven?

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