The Philistines play a large role in the Bible as one of the longest-standing and most bitter rivals of the people of Israel, clashing with them in repeated wars. The Philistines were a remnant of the Ancient Church, or church of Noah, but had turned the deep wisdom of that church into a worship that focused solely on knowledge of religious ideas and the details of ritual, with no concept of putting religious ideas to work in living a good life. People would be esteemed for their knowledge, no matter how evil they might be in their lives. This was a particularly attractive trap for the people of Israel, who lived in a state of obedience to a long list of spiritually meaningful rules. It was easy for them to forget about the “obedience” part and focus instead on the “rules” part, which made them akin to the Philistines. This is also a threat to us in our own lives. We need to remember that simply knowing a lot and believing the right things will not make us good people -- we have to use that knowledge to treat other people in a loving, caring way.

In 1 Samuel 5,6, this signifies people in faith separated from charity. (Divine Providence 326[12])

In Jeremiah 47:2, 3, this represents people who hold false ideas, and reason about spiritual things from them. (Arcana Coelestia 705) Philistia signifies this religion. (Arcana Coelestia 727)

327. 3. It is our own fault if we are not saved. Even on first hearing it, any rational person accepts the truth that evil cannot come from what is good, and that good cannot come from what is evil, since they are opposites. This means that nothing but good comes from what is good, and nothing but evil comes from what is evil. Once we admit this truth, we also admit that good can be turned into evil, not by the goodness itself but by the evil that receives it. Every form changes what it receives into something of its own nature (see 292 above).

Since the Lord is goodness in its very essence, or goodness itself, then, we can see that evil cannot flow from the Lord or be brought forth by him, but that it can be turned into evil by a recipient subject whose form is a form of evil. In respect to our claim to autonomy, we are this kind of subject. This apparent autonomy of ours is constantly receiving good from the Lord and constantly changing it to suit the nature of its own form, which is a form of evil. It therefore follows that it is our own fault if we are not saved.

Evil does come from hell, of course, but since our insistence on autonomy accepts evil as its own and thereby incorporates it into itself, it makes no real difference whether you say that the evil is from ourselves or that it is from hell. I need to say, though, where this incorporation of evil has come from, even to the point that religion itself is dying. I will do so in the following sequence. (a) Every religion eventually wanes and comes to completion. (b) Every religion wanes and comes to completion by inverting the image of God within us. (c) This happens because of the constant increase of hereditary evil from generation to generation. (d) The Lord still provides that everyone can be saved. (e) He also provides that a new church will take the place of the earlier one that has been razed.