161. Internal Meaning of Ezekiel, Chapter 38

1-2 Those who are in the mere sense of the letter of the Word, and in a worship therefrom which is external without an internal, are meant by Gog. (2)

3-7 Everything and all things of that worship will perish. (2)

8-16 That worship will possess the church, and will vastate it, and it will thus be in externals without internals. (2)

17-19 The state of the church will therefore be changed. (2, 7)

20-23 And the truths and goods of religion will perish in consequence, and falsities will succeed in their place. (2)

3636. It is an entirely general and all-embracing law that the Lord is the Sun of heaven and that this is the source of all the light in the next life; that nothing at all from the light of the world is visible to angels and spirits, that is, to beings in the next life; and also that the light of the world which comes from the sun is to angels nothing else than thick darkness. From the Sun of heaven, or the Lord, comes not only light but also warmth; but these are spiritual light and spiritual warmth. The light that strikes their eyes is seen as light but it holds intelligence and wisdom within it since it is the outward manifestation of these. And the warmth is experienced by their senses as warmth but has love within it since it is the outward manifestation of that love. This being so, love is called spiritual warmth and is also the producer of the warmth which man's life possesses, while intelligence is called spiritual light and is also the producer of the light which his life possesses. From this all-inclusive correspondence all other correspondences are derived, for every single thing has regard to good which belongs to love and to truth which belongs to intelligence.