Apocalypse Revealed # 204
204. "'So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, it shall come to pass that I vomit you out of My mouth.'" (3:16) This symbolizes their profanation and consequent separation from the Lord.
To be vomited out of My mouth means, symbolically, to be separated from the Lord, and to be separated from the Lord is consequently to be in neither heaven nor hell, but in a place apart, bereft of human life, surrounded by nothing but hallucinations. The reason is that they have mixed truths with falsities, and goods with evils, thus holy things with profane ones, to the point that these cannot be separated in them. And because a person cannot be prepared then to be in either heaven or hell, every bit of his rational life is eradicated, with only the lowest capacities of his life remaining, and when these have been separated from his life's interior capacities, they are nothing but hallucinations.
For more on the state and lot of such people, see Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 226-228 231, which should suffice to give a concept of them.
They are said to be vomited out because after death everyone comes first into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and is there prepared; and this world corresponds to the stomach, in which everything ingested is prepared, either to become blood and flesh or to become excrement and urine. The first have a correspondence with heaven, the latter with hell. But whatever is vomited out of the stomach is matter not separated, but mixed together.
Because of this correspondence we find vomiting out and vomit mentioned in the following passages:
(Drink and make drunk) that your uncircumcised foreskin may be exposed. The cup... of Jehovah will come around to you, so that a disgraceful vomit is upon your glory. (Habakkuk 2:15-16)
Make (Moab) drunk..., that (he) may applaud in his vomit... (Jeremiah 48:26)
...all tables are full of vomit thrown up... To whom will he teach knowledge? (Isaiah 28:8-9)
So, too, elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 25:27, Leviticus 18:24-25, 28.
The reason lukewarm water induces vomiting is owing also to the correspondence.
Revelation 3
1
"And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: "He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: "I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
2
Wake up, and keep the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.
3
Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If therefore you won't watch, I will come as a thief, and you won't know what hour I will come upon you.
4
Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
5
He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
7
"To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: "He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says these things:
8
"I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn't deny my name.
9
Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
10
Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11
I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.
12
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
13
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
14
"To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: "The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Head of God's creation, says these things:
15
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
16
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
17
Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
18
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
19
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.
21
He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.
22
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies."
