427. And it was given them not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. (9:5) This symbolically means that owing to the Lord's Divine providence it was impossible for them to take away from those without the faith accompanying charity their faculty for understanding and willing truth and good, but only to be able for a short time to induce a mental numbness.

Its being given them means, symbolically, that it was owing to the Lord's Divine providence, as said just above. Their being unable to kill the men lacking the seal of God means, symbolically, that it was impossible for them to take away from those without the faith accompanying charity their faculty for understanding and willing truth and good; for if this faculty were to be taken away from a person, it would kill him spiritually. To torment for five months means, symbolically, to induce a mental numbness for a short time. The number five symbolizes a little something or for a short time, and to torment means, symbolically, to induce a mental numbness, because this is the symbolic meaning of a scorpion (no. 425), and of torment like the torment of a scorpion, as said next in no. 428.

That the faculty of understanding truth and willing it, or rationality and freedom, cannot be taken away from a person, is something we showed many times in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 73 74, 82-86, 92-99, 138-149, 322.

[2] "Five months" means, symbolically, a little something or for a short time because this is the symbolic meaning of the number five. For periods of time, whether they be hours, days, weeks, months, or years, do not signify a period of time, but a state, and numbers define its character (nos. 4, 10348, 947).

That the number five symbolizes something, and also a little, can be seen from the following passages:

A thousand shall flee... at the threat of five... (Isaiah 30:17)

Five... shall chase a hundred... (Leviticus 26:8)

(Jesus said that) the kingdom of heaven (is like) ten virgins..., five (of whom) were prudent, and five foolish. (Matthew 25:1-2)

The ten virgins symbolize all in the church. Five of them symbolize a part or some.

The like is symbolically meant by the numbers ten and five in the parable in which minas were given to some servants with which to do business, and one of them used his mina to earn ten minas, and a second used his to earn five (Luke 19:13-20). Ten minas symbolize much, and five minas a little. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 17:6; 19:18, Matthew 14:15-21.

139. The reason no one is reformed in a state of fear is that fear takes away our freedom and rationality, or our "freeness" and our "reasonableness." Love opens the inner reaches of the mind, but fear closes them; and when they are closed, we do very little actual thinking, being conscious then only of what is impinging on our feelings or our senses. All the fears that beset our minds are like this.

[2] I have already explained [104] that we have inner and outer processes of thought. Fear can never occupy our inner thought processes. These are always in freedom because they are in our life's love. Fear can occupy our outer thought processes, though, and when it does, it closes off the inner thought processes. Once they are closed, we are no longer able to act freely and rationally, so we cannot be reformed.

[3] The fear that occupies our outer thought processes and closes in the deeper ones is primarily a fear of losing rank and losing wealth. The fear of outward civil and ecclesiastical penalties does not close them in, because these laws prescribe penalties only for people who speak and act contrary to the civil principles of the state and the spiritual principles of the church, not for people who think contrary to those principles.

[4] A fear of punishments in hell actually does occupy our outer thought processes, but only for a moment or a few hours or days. Before long, our thinking is released back into its own freedom because of our inner thinking, the thinking proper to our spirit and our life's love, the thinking we call the thought of the heart.

[5] However, a fear of the loss of position and profit does occupy our outer thought processes, and when it does it closes off our inner thinking from above, from any inflow from heaven. This makes it impossible for us to be reformed. The reason is that from birth, our life's love is a love for ourselves and for the world. Love for ourselves and love of rank are a unity, and love for the world and love of wealth are a unity. So when we have rank or wealth, we justify for ourselves whatever means promote our rank and our wealth, because of our fear of losing them. These means may be both civil and ecclesiastical, from either domain. We do the same if we do not yet have rank and wealth but covet them, though in this case it is from a fear of losing reputation on their account.

[6] I have just mentioned that the fear occupies our outer thought processes and closes off the inner ones from above, from any inflow from heaven. We say that the inner thinking is closed when it is wholly identified with the outer thinking, because then it is not functioning on its own, but is governed by the outer.

Since love for ourselves and love for the world are hellish loves and are the wellsprings of everything evil, we can see the intrinsic quality of the inner thinking of people for whom those are their life's loves, people in whom those loves are in control. It is full of compulsions to all kinds of evil.

People are unaware of this if they are fanatically convinced of their own religion because they are afraid of losing their own eminence and splendor, especially if their religion involves their being revered as demigods--and as rulers in hell at the same time. They can be on fire for the salvation of souls even though the fire is a hellish one. Since this fear especially robs us of our essential freedom and our essential rationality, which are heavenly in origin, we can see that it blocks us from any possibility of reformation.