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Daniel 8:15

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15 Da nu jeg, Daniel, så dette syn, søkte jeg å forstå det; da stod det med én gang foran mig en skikkelse som så ut som en mann.

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Faith # 65

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65. 3. The description of the battle between the ram and the goat in Daniel shows that in the Word, goats mean people who are devoted to a faith divorced from caring. Spiritually understood, everything in Daniel, like everything in Sacred Scripture as a whole (as noted in Sacred Scripture 5-26), is about matters of heaven and the church. This then holds true for what it says in chapter 8 about the battle between the ram and the goat, as follows:

In a vision I saw a ram that had two tall horns, the taller of which rose up behind [the other]. With its horn the ram pushed westward, northward, and southward and became enormous.

Then I saw a goat that came from the west across the surface of the whole earth; it had a horn between its eyes. It charged at the ram in the fury of its strength, broke the ram’s two horns, and cast the ram to the ground and trampled it. The large horn of the goat was broken, and four horns sprang up in its place. A little horn came out of one of them, which grew tremendously toward the south, toward the dawn, and toward the glory, and even to the host of the heavens, and cast down to earth some of the host and some of the stars, and trampled them. The goat even exalted itself toward the Leader of the Host, and took the daily offerings away from him and cast down the dwelling place of his sanctuary, because it cast truth to the ground. And I heard a holy one saying, “How long will this vision last concerning the daily offerings and this destructive sinning, the trampling of the holy place and the host?” And he said, “Until the evening [and] the morning: then the holy place will be set right.” (Daniel 8:2-14)

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

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Divine Providence # 101

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101. However, many people--especially people who have convinced themselves of a faith that is devoid of caring--do not know that they are in hell when they are engaged in evil pursuits. They have no idea what evils really are, because they give no thought to them. They say that they are not under the yoke of the law, which means that the law does not condemn them. They also say that since they cannot contribute anything to their own salvation they cannot rid themselves of anything evil, let alone do anything good on their own.

They are people who given no thought to the evil within themselves and who are constantly engaged in it because of this neglect. I explained in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Doctrine of The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting Faith 61-68 that they are the ones the Lord referred to as "goats" in Matthew 41-46 [Matthew 25:32-33, 41-46], telling them to "Go away from me, cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41).

[2] If we give no thought to the evils within us, that is, if we do not examine ourselves and then refrain from doing them, we wind up inevitably not knowing what evil is and then loving it because of the pleasure it offers us. This is because anyone who does not know about evil loves it, and anyone who neglects thinking about evil is constantly involved in it. People like this are like blind people, people who cannot see, since thought sees what is good and what is evil the way the eye sees what is beautiful and what is ugly. We are caught up in evil if we consider and intend it and if we think it is hidden from God and would be forgiven if it came to light. This is actually thinking that we are free of evil.

If we do then refrain from evil deeds, we do so not because they are sins against God but because we are afraid of the laws and afraid for our reputation. We are still doing them in spirit, though, because it is our spirit that thinks and intends. As a result, whatever we think in our spirit in this world we do after we leave this world when we become spirits.

[3] In the spiritual world where we all arrive after death, no one asks what our faith has been or what our beliefs have been, only what our life has been, whether we are one kind of person or another. They know that the quality of our faith and the quality of our beliefs depend on the quality of our life, because life constructs a belief system for itself and constructs a faith for itself.

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