Title: Daily and Yearly Preparation for Heaven

Topic: Salvation

Summary: The daily sacrifices, weekly sabbaths, and three annual feasts prescribed in the Old Testament are a picture of how to prepare for heaven.

Use the reference links below to follow along in the Bible as you watch.

References:
2 Peter 2:22, 10
Numbers 28:1
Exodus 23:14, 17
Leviticus 23:1, 5, 10, 33
Deuteronomy 16:1, 9, 13-14
Luke 6:1
Acts of the Apostles 2:1; 20:16
Nehemiah 8:13-14
Ezekiel 45:21, 25
Zechariah 14:16
John 7:2, 37

579. Verse 18. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, going out of their mouths, signifies that all the understanding of truth, and the spiritual life therefrom, were extinguished by them. This is evident from the signification of "the third part of men," as being all intelligence, or the understanding of truth, and as spiritual life is from this, that also is involved; from the signification of "to be killed," as being to be extinguished, for when the understanding of truth is extinguished man is spiritually killed see above, n. 315; the "third part," in reference to truths, means all (See above, n. 506); and "man" means the understanding of truth and the perception of good (n. 280, 546); also from the signification of "fire, smoke, and brimstone going out of their mouths," as being the thoughts and reasonings therefrom springing from the love of evil, from the love of falsity, and from the lust of destroying truths and goods by the falsities of evil (See above, n. 578). From this the signification of these words can be seen. This is said of the horses seen in vision, namely, that "out of their mouths went out fire, smoke, and brimstone;" and as the "horses" seen in vision signify the falsifications of the Word by reasonings from fallacies, it is evident that "fire, smoke, and brimstone," signify the things that cause falsification, which are the loves of evil and falsity, and the lusts for destroying the truths and goods of the church. This is effected by the thoughts and by reasonings from fallacies about the sense and understanding of the Word. For when a man thinks from mere fallacies he thinks solely from such things as stand forth at first sight in the sense of the letter, and not from any interior literal sense; consequently he forms the most gross and harsh ideas respecting every doctrine he derives from the Word, as that God is angry, that He punishes, casts men into hell, tempts them, that He repents, and many like things; moreover, he thinks corporeally and materially, and not at all spiritually, about everything he reads in the Word; for this reason his thought is merely sensual, and when it is merely sensual it is solely from the love of self and of the world, and when it is from these it is solely from evils and falsities. When such a man, therefore, is left to himself and thinks from his spirit, he thinks from the affection of these loves, which he conjoins to the things that are in the Word; and when the Divine things of the Word are conjoined to such loves all things therein are adulterated and falsified, for the Divine things of the Word can never be conjoined to anything but celestial love, or with spiritual affection; if conjoined to any other love or any other affection, the higher mind, which is called the spiritual mind, is closed, and the lower mind only, which is called the natural mind, is opened; yea, with those who conjoin the truths of the Word to the affection of the love of self, the natural mind also is closed, and only the ultimate of this mind is opened, which is called the sensual, which clings most closely to the body, and stands forth nearest to the world. Thus does man's spirit become corporeal, and then it can have no lot with the angels, who are spiritual.