59. The reason only edible and green plants are mentioned here as food for the natural man is this: While a person is being regenerated and becoming spiritual he is involved constantly in conflict, which is why the Lord's Church is called militant. For before regeneration started, evil desires were in control, since the whole person consisted entirely of evil desires and resulting falsities. During the process of regeneration his desires and falsities cannot be done away with instantly, since that would amount to destroying the whole person; indeed he has not acquired any other life for himself. So for a long time evil spirits are left with him to activate his desires, and so release them in countless ways. Indeed the spirits are left there to do this in order that those desires may be turned by the Lord towards something good, and in this way the person may be reformed. In the hour of conflict evil spirits are present who absolutely hate everything that is good and true, that is, every element of love and faith in the Lord - elements that alone are good and true because they contain eternal life. These evil spirits leave a person with no other food than that which is compared to edible and green plants. But the Lord gives him a food as well that is compared to the plant yielding seed and to the tree in which there is fruit. These are periods of peace and calm attended by their forms of delight and happiness. This cycle occurs repeatedly.

[2] If the Lord did not protect man moment by moment, and in every shortest instant, he would immediately perish, for there is such murderous hatred reigning in the world of spirits against all forms of love and faith in the Lord as to defy description. I can positively declare that this is so, because for several years now, although still in the [physical] body, I have also been in the next life in the company of spirits. I have been surrounded by evil spirits, even the worst of them, sometimes by thousands, who have been allowed to pour out their venom and molest me in every possible way, but who nevertheless could do no harm to the tiniest hair on my head, so well did the Lord protect me. From all these years of experience I have become thoroughly informed about the character of the world of spirits and also about the conflict which people who are being regenerated must inevitably undergo if they are to attain the happiness of eternal life. But because nobody from just a general description can be so well informed as to have a faith free from doubt, these matters in the Lord's Divine mercy will therefore be noted in greater detail later on.

6765. 'And he said to the one in the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?' means a rebuke, deploring that one person should wish to destroy another's faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'the one in the wrong' as a person who does not uphold the truth of faith and yet is within the Church (for within the Church there are those who uphold the truth of faith and there are those who do not, as the existence of various heresies goes to prove; and those who subscribe to heresy, that is, who do not uphold the truth of faith, are meant here by 'the one in the wrong'); from the meaning of 'striking' as destroying, as above in 6758; and from the meaning of 'companion' as a person who upholds the truth of faith. For when 'the one in the wrong' means a person who does not uphold the truth of faith, 'companion' means one who does uphold it. The word 'companion' is used, not 'brother', even though both of them were Hebrews, because they were hostile to each other. The fact that this is a rebuke is self-evident. What all this implies is that when a person is being regenerated he is sent into battles against falsities. During these the Lord maintains him in truth, but in what he has convinced himself to be the truth; and this is what is used in the battles against falsity. Even that which is not the real truth can be used, provided that it is such as can in some way be joined to good. And it is joined to good through innocence, for innocence is the means which enables that conjunction to be effected. This explains why people within the Church who have accepted any teaching whatever can be regenerated, though those who are in possession of real truths are in a better position than others.