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לו חכמו ישכילו זאת יבינו לאחריתם׃
Apocalypse Revealed # 543
543. She bore a male Child. (12:5) This symbolizes the doctrine of the New Church.
A son in the Word symbolizes doctrinal truth, and also an understanding of and consequent thought about truth and goodness. A daughter, on the other hand, symbolizes the goodness taught by doctrine, and also a willing of and consequent affection for truth and goodness. A male child, moreover, symbolizes truth conceived in the spiritual self and born in the natural one.
The reason for this is that generations and births in the Word symbolize spiritual generations and births, all of which relate in general to goodness and truth (no. 535). For nothing else is begotten and born of the Lord as husband and of the church as wife.
Now because the woman who bore the child symbolizes the New Church (no. 533), it is apparent that the male child symbolizes that church's doctrine.
The doctrine meant here is The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), and also The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, and The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem in Accordance With the Ten Commandments (Amsterdam, 1763). For doctrine means all the truths of doctrine, since doctrine embraces them all. When I was writing these doctrines, followers of the dragon stood about me and with all their fury endeavored to devour them, that is, to extinguish them.
I am permitted to report this new information, because of a truth it happened as I have said. The followers of the dragon who stood about me came from all over the Protestant Reformed Christian world.
[2] Since these and no other are the offspring born of the spiritual marriage, and male offspring are truth and good in the intellect and consequent thought, while female offspring are truth and good in the will and consequent affection, therefore a son in the Word symbolizes truth. To confirm this we will cite some passages from which it can in some measure be seen:
Behold, sons are a heritage from Jehovah, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one's youth. (Psalms 127:3-5)
Make yourself bald and shave yourself, because of your delightful sons..., for they are gone from you. (Micah 1:16)
(I saw two olive trees beside the lampstand,) and he said, "These are the two sons of the olive tree, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth." (Zechariah 4:11, 14)
My tent is destroyed...; my sons have gone from me, and they are no more. (Jeremiah 10:20)
My sons are made desolate because the enemy prevailed. (Lamentations 1:16)
Your sons, (O Jerusalem,) have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets... (Isaiah 51:17-18, 20)
...fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers..., and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezekiel 5:10)
Son will be divided against father, and father against son... (Luke 12:53, cf. Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12)
You have also taken your beautiful vessels of My gold... and made for yourself male images with which you played the harlot. (Ezekiel 16:17)
(Jesus said,) ...the... seeds are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of evil. (Matthew 13:38)
[3] That the Son of Man is the Divine truth in the Word, thus the Lord, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 19-28.
In the passages cited, sons mean people who possess doctrinal truths drawn from the Word, and abstractly, those truths themselves. So, too, elsewhere, as in Isaiah 13:17-18; 14:21-23; 43:6; 49:17, 22; 51:17-18; 60:9; Deuteronomy 32:8.
That daughters symbolize an affection for the church's truth, thus the church in relation to that affection, follows from so many passages in the Word that if I were to quote them, they would fill many pages. Nothing else is meant by daughter of Zion, daughter of Jerusalem, daughter of Judah, and daughter of Israel. See some passages cited in no. 612[1-4] regarding the daughter of Zion. Who cannot see that no actual daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah or of Israel, so often mentioned in the Word, can be meant?
Mark 13
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As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!"
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Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down."
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As he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,
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"Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are all about to be fulfilled?"
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Jesus, answering, began to tell them, "Be careful that no one leads you astray.
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For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and will lead many astray.
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"When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don't be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet.
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For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines and troubles. These things are the beginning of birth pains.
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But watch yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will stand before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them.
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The Good News must first be preached to all the nations.
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When they lead you away and deliver you up, don't be anxious beforehand, or premeditate what you will say, but say whatever will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
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"Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
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You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.
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But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,
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and let him who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take anything out of his house.
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Let him who is in the field not return back to take his cloak.
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But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!
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Pray that your flight won't be in the winter.
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For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.
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Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the chosen ones, whom he picked out, he shortened the days.
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Then if anyone tells you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there!' don't believe it.
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For there will arise false christs and false prophets, and will show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
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But you watch. "Behold, I have told you all things beforehand.
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But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,
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the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.
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Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
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Then he will send out his angels, and will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the sky.
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"Now from the fig tree, learn this parable. When the branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is near;
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even so you also, when you see these things coming to pass, know that it is near, at the doors.
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Most certainly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things happen.
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Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
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But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
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Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don't know when the time is.
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"It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch.
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Watch therefore, for you don't know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;
