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Vervolg Over Het Laatste Oordeel # 28

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28. Men zag de Heer in een schitterende witte wolk met de engelen en hoorde daaruit een geluid als van bazuinen; dit was een teken dat de voorspelling gaf van de bescherming van de engelen van de hemel door de Heer en van de verzameling van de goeden uit alle streken; want de Heer brengt aan niemand verderf, maar beschermt alleen de Zijnen en trekt hen terug uit de gemeenschap met de bozen; na hun terugtrekking, komen de bozen in hun lusten en storten zich daaruit in boosheden van allerlei aard.

Men zag daarop allen die zouden vergaan, in hun geheel als een grote draak, met een staart in bochten uitgestrekt en naar de hemel gericht en in de hoogte zich op verschillende wijzen buigend, alsof hij de hemel wilde verwoesten en naar omlaag trekken, maar die poging was ijdel; want de staart werd neergeworpen en de draak, die toen ook scheen opgeheven, viel omlaag.

Mij werd het gegeven deze voorstelling te aanschouwen, opdat ik zou weten en bekendmaken wie er door de draak in de Openbaring worden verstaan; namelijk dat door de draak worden verstaan allen die het Woord lezen, predikingen aanhoren, aan de heilige dingen van de Kerk deelnemen, maar geen acht slaan op de boze begeerten, waarmee zij vervuld zijn en innerlijk denken aan: diefstal en bedrog, overspel en ontucht, haat en wraak aan leugen en laster en dus in hun geest als duivels leven en naar het lichaam als engelen.

Dezen waren het, die de wezenlijke draak vormden, maar zij, die de staart vormden, waren degenen, die in de wereld in een geloof afgescheiden van de naastenliefde hadden geleefd en aan de eerstgenoemden gelijk waren wat hun overdenkingen en voornemens betreft.

  
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Last Judgment (Posthumous) # 168

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168. [168.] 34. The dragon's battle with Michael afterward was as follows, for it lasted several days. A hand appeared stretched out by the Lord over the heavens. In the western zone toward the north was seen as though the great back of a dragon, raised toward the heaven above the central area. A great number of angels therefore appeared. Followers of the dragon were at the entrance there, and the angels spoke with them about the Lord and about the goods of charity and so of faith. All then turned in their direction to hear what they were saying, and followers of the dragon were forced into thinking about the Lord and about faith alone as they had in the world, most of whom then had no Divine idea of the Lord, nor any idea of charity and works. The angels debated with them wisely on the subject, but in vain - even going on to say that all the angels in the heavens feel the same way, but still in vain. And finally after the battle, when the followers of the dragon wished to reply further, but only off the subject or apart from the truth, and could not, they were sentenced to be cast down from every place where their kind existed. When they said, however, that they would resist, the Lord was seen descending from the sun as though in a white cloud, and He pronounced the judgment that all found to be of such a character be separated and banished; and they were cast down then successively and by turns according to their connection with societies of heaven, a great number of them toward the western zone - thousands of them then appearing as one. I felt within me a severe collision of truth and falsity, which was a state of temptation or trial.

The whole western zone was full of such people who had been cast down from the heavens, and the earth then seemed to open, and they were cast down and covered by a mist. They were all the kind of people who never refrained from thinking and willing evil - only from doing evil because of one fear or another. This took place on April 11, 1757.

Followers of the dragon appeared from the southern zone to the western one along a curved line in the outline of a tail. Those to the south there were ones who were experts in their degrees of justification and had affirmed these in themselves.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.