520. And the third part [of the waters] became wormwood, signifies that every truth in the understanding and in doctrine became such. This is evident from the signification of "the third part," as being all, here every truth in the understanding and in doctrine, because it is predicated of "the rivers" and "the fountains of waters," which signify the understanding of truth, and doctrine from the Word (that "the third part" signifies all, see above, n. 506; also from the signification of "wormwood," as being truth mixed with the falsity of evil (as was explained in the preceding article). This makes evident that "the third part became wormwood" signifies that every truth in the understanding and in doctrine was mixed with the falsity of evil. Truth is mixed with the falsity of evil when evils of life, which are adulteries, whoredoms, murders, hatreds of various kinds, enmities, injustices for the sake of gain, artful and clandestine thefts and robberies, cunning, deceit, and other like evils are confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, so, too, when falsities of religion are upheld by such means by those who are in the love of self, and thus in the pride of self-intelligence. Truths are then mixed with the falsities of evil, because all things of the Word are truths, but when they are applied and wrested to confirm evils of life and false principles of religion, the truths of the Word are mingled with the falsities of evil, and in this way truths themselves come to be no longer truths, but truths falsified, and these in themselves are falsities. The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, that they may remain truths, must be applied to the confirmation of goods of life and true principles of religion; if they are drawn aside and diverted from this application as their end they are no longer truths, since there is no perception of truth in them. The perception of truth comes from good, not from evil.

[2] For in every part of the Word there is a marriage of good and truth; consequently if good is not in the truths of the Word, as they are perceived, truths are without their consort, and may be applied to any evil cupidities and to any false principles whatsoever, and thus become the falsities of evil. In this way the truths of the Word are falsified by all those who from self-love are in the pride of self-intelligence; for inwardly, evils of every kind from love of self, and thence falsities of every kind from the pride of self-intelligence, have rule, while outwardly, in speech and in preaching, there are truths from the Word which sound like truths to those who are in simple good, but within with the one speaking or preaching these swarm with falsities of every kind. With such the truth of the Word is like a vessel pure and shining, in which are filthy waters that are not seen through the vessel by those who are in simple good, but are plainly seen by the angels of heaven.

172. Concerning what is profane and profanation (discussed above in §169 of the teachings). Profanation is a mingling within us of both goodness and evil and of both truth and falsity: 6348. The only people who can profane what is good and true, or the sacred things taught by the church and the Word, are people who first acknowledged and believed them-especially if they have lived by them-but later relapsed from their faith, ceased to believe these things, and lived for themselves and the world: 593, 1008, 1010, 1059, 3398, 3399, 3898, 4289, 4601, 8394, 10287. People who have true beliefs as children but lose those beliefs as adults commit a mild form of profanation; people, however, who as adults become inwardly convinced of the truth of what they were taught but later turn and deny it commit a severe form of profanation: 6959, 6963, 6971. We also commit profanation if we have true beliefs but live an evil life, or if we live a pious life but disbelieve what is true: 8882. If after heartfelt repentance we relapse into our former evils, we commit profanation, and our latter state is then worse than our former one: 8394. People in the Christian world who pollute the holy contents of the Word through unclean thoughts and speech are committing profanation: 4050, 5390. There are various general categories of profanation: 10287.

[2] We cannot profane holy teachings if we have not acknowledged them, and still less if we have not even known about them: 1008, 1010, 1059, 9188, 10284. People within the church are able to profane holy teachings, but those outside the church are not: 2051. Non-Christians cannot commit profanation, because they are outside the church and do not have the Word: 1327, 1328, 2051, 9021. Jews cannot profane the deeper holy teachings of the Word and the church, because they do not acknowledge them: 6963. That is why deeper truths have not been disclosed to Jews, since if they had been disclosed and acknowledged, they would have been profaned: ¹ 3398, 3489, 6963.

Profanation is what is meant by the Lord's words cited in §169 above:

When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it wanders through dry places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, "I will go back to my house, the house I left. " When the spirit comes and finds the house empty, swept, and decorated for it, then it goes and recruits seven other spirits worse than itself, and they come in and live there, and the latter times of that person are worse than the first. (Matthew 12:43, 44, 45)

The departure of the unclean spirit from the individual means repentance on the part of those who are consumed with evil; its wandering through dry places and not finding rest means that this is what leading a good life feels like for such people; the house that the spirit finds empty and decorated for itself and therefore reenters means that within themselves and their will such people have no goodness; the seven spirits it recruits and with whom it returns mean the evil that becomes joined to their good actions; and their last state being worse than their first means profanation. This is the inner meaning of the words, for the Lord spoke by means of correspondences.

The meaning of the Lord's words to the man he healed at the pool of Bethesda is much the same: "See, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, or else something worse than before may come upon you" (John 5:14). There is this statement as well: "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them" (John 12:40). Their turning and being healed would involve the profanation that happens when truth and goodness are acknowledged and then rejected. This, as just noted, would have happened if Jews had turned and been healed.

[3] The fate of profaners in the other life is the worst of all, since the good and true things that they have acknowledged stay with them, as does what is evil and false, and because these cling to each other their life is torn apart: 571, 582, 6348. That is why the Lord takes the greatest possible care to prevent our committing profanation: 2426, 10287. That is why we are kept far from acknowledgment and faith unless we can remain devoted to them to the end of our lives: 3398, 3402. That is why it is sometimes better for us to be kept in ignorance and in outward worship: 301, 302, 303, 1327, 1328. If we have acknowledged and accepted any goodness and truth in the meanwhile, the Lord hides it away in our deeper reaches: 6595.

[4] To prevent profanation, deeper truths are not revealed until the church is at its end: 3398, 3399. That is why the Lord came into the world and opened deeper truths at a time when the church was utterly in ruins: 3398. See what has been cited on this subject in the booklet Last Judgment Babylon Destroyed 73-74.

[5] In the Word, "Babylon" means the profanation of goodness and "Chaldea" means the profanation of truth: 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304, 1306, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1322, 1326. The general categories of profanation correspond to "the degrees of forbidden relations," ² or detestable types of adultery, listed in the Word: 6348. In the Israelite and Jewish church ³ profanation was represented by "eating blood" [Genesis 9:4], which is why that was so strictly forbidden: 1003.

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