21. 1. People who live lives based on falsity with evil intent and people who live lives based on falsity without evil intent; and also the nature of false beliefs that accompany evil intent and of false beliefs that do not. There are many kinds of falsity-as many as there are kinds of evil-and there are many sources of things that are evil and of the falsities that they engender: 1188, 1212, 4729, 4822, 7574. Falsity that comes from evil, or evil-based falsity, is one thing; evil that comes from falsity, or falsity-based evil, which leads in turn to further or secondary falsity, is another: 1679, 2243. From just one false idea, especially if it is taken as a first principle, further false ideas flow in an unbroken series: 1510, 1511, 4717, 4721. There are falsities that are the result of cravings arising from our love for ourselves and for the world, ¹ and there are falsities that are the result of misleading sensory impressions: 1295, 4729. There are falsities that arise from what our religion has taught us and there are falsities that arise from our ignorance: 4729, 8318, 9258. There is falsity that contains some good and there is falsity that contains no good: 2863, 9304, 10109, 10302. There are also things that have been falsified: 7318, 7319, 10648. Everything evil has something false accompanying it: 7577, 8094. The falsity accompanying the cravings that arise from love for ourselves is truly evil; it is the worst kind of falsity: 4729.

[2] Evil is heavy and falls into hell of its own accord, but this is not true of falsity unless it comes from evil: 8279, 8298. Good turns into evil and truth into falsity as they fall from heaven into hell because this is like coming into a dense and polluted atmosphere: 3607. The hells are surrounded by evil-based falsities, which look like storm clouds and unclean waters: 8137, 8146, 8210. The things that are said by the people who are in the hells are falsities that come from evil: 1695, 7351, 7352, 7357, 7392, 7699. Left to their own devices, people intent on evil cannot think anything but falsity: 7437. More on evil that comes from falsity (2408, 4818, 7272, 8265, 8279) and falsity that comes from evil (6359, 9304, 10302).

[3] Every falsity is something we can convince ourselves of, and when we have done so it seems to us to be the truth: 5033, 6865, 8521, 8780. We should therefore make sure something is true before convincing ourselves of it: 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521. We should be particularly careful not to convince ourselves of falsity in matters of religion because this leads to false convictions that remain with us after death: 845, 8780. How damaging false convictions are: 794, 806, 5096, 7686.

[4] What is good cannot flow into truth as long as we are intent on evil: 2434. To the extent that we devote our lives to what is evil and the falsity that goes with it, to that extent what is good and what is true are moved away from us: 3402. The Lord takes the greatest care to prevent truth from being joined to what is evil and prevent the falsity that comes from evil from being joined to what is good: 3110, 3116, 4416, 5217. If these pairs are mixed, the result is profanation ² :6348. Truths put an end to falsities and falsities put an end to truths: 5207. Truths cannot be accepted on any deep level as long as skepticism reigns: 3399.

[5] Examples showing how truths can be falsified: 7318. Why evil people are allowed to falsify truths: 7332. Evil people falsify truths by bending and applying them to an evil purpose: 8094, 8149. Truth is said to have been falsified if it has been used to support evil, which happens mainly through deception and superficial appearances: 7344, 8602. The evil are allowed to attack truth but not to attack what is good; they are allowed to distort truth by various interpretations and applications: 6677. Truth that has been falsified for an evil purpose is in opposition to what is true and good: 8062. Falsified truth used for evil purposes smells terrible in the other life: 7319. More on the falsification of truth: 7318, 7319, 10648.

[6] Some false religious beliefs harmonize with what is good and some do not: 9258. False religious beliefs that do not clash with what is good do not lead to evil except in people who are intent on evil: 8318. False religious beliefs are not held against people who are intent on doing good, but they are held against people who are intent on doing evil: 8051, 8149. Truths that are not genuine and even falsities can be associated with genuine truths for people who are intent on doing good, but not for people who are intent on doing evil: 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298. The way things appear in the literal meaning of the Word sets elements that are true beside elements that are false: 7344. False beliefs are rendered true and softened by what is good because they are used for and deflected toward what is good, and the evil is put aside: 8149. The false religious beliefs of people who are intent on doing good are accepted by the Lord as if they were truths: 4736, 8149. Any act of goodness whose character has been shaped by false religious belief is accepted by the Lord if it was done in ignorance and innocence, and if the aim behind it was good: 7887. The truths we possess are outward guises of what is true and good, guises deeply stained with misleading appearances, but if our lives are focused on doing what is good the Lord adjusts them toward genuine truths: 2053. Falsities containing something good can be found in people who are outside the church and therefore ignorant of the truth and also in people in a church where there are false teachings: 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 3778, 4189, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256. Falsities in which there is nothing good are more harmful for people within the church than they are for people outside the church: 7688. What is true and good is taken away from evil people in the other life and given to the good, in keeping with the Lord's words "To those who have, more will be given, and they will have abundance; but from those who do not have, even what they have will be taken away" [Matthew 25:29]: 7770.

각주:

10109. 'And they shall eat those things containing what has been expiated' means the making of good their own by those who have been purified from evils and consequent falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with above in 10106; and from the meaning of 'what has been expiated' as that which has been purified from evils and consequent falsities, dealt with in 9506. The words 'purified from evils and consequent falsities' are used because falsities as well as truths exist with those ruled by evil, and also falsities as well as truths exist with those who are governed by good. The falsities present with those ruled by evil are falsities of evil, and the truths present with them are falsified truths, which are dead. But the falsities present with those governed by good are accepted as truths, for those falsities are tempered by the good and put to good and useful purposes, and the truths present with them are the truths of good, which are alive. Regarding both kinds of falsity and truth, see what has been shown in 2243, 2408, 2863, 4736, 4822, 6359, 7272, 7437, 7574, 7577, 8051, 8137, 8138, 8149, 8298, 8311, 8318 (end), 9258, 9298.

[2] Since 'eating the holy things containing what has been expiated' means the making of good their own by those who have been purified from evils and consequent falsities, anyone unclean was strictly forbidden to eat of those things; for uncleanness means defilement by evils and consequent falsities. For the situation is that as long as a person is steeped in evils and consequent falsities good cannot by any means be made his own. This is because evil comes up from hell and good comes down from heaven, and where hell is heaven cannot be, since they are diametrically opposed to each other. Therefore to make a place for heaven - that is, for good from heaven - hell, that is, evil from hell, must be removed. From this it may be seen that good cannot by any means be made a person's own as long as he is ruled by evil. By making good his own the implanting of good in the will should be understood, for good cannot be said to have been made a person's own until it becomes part of his will. A person's will is the actual person, and his understanding also, to the extent that it derives from the will. For what is part of the will forms part of the person's love and consequently his life, since what a person wills he loves and calls good, and also when it is done by him it is felt to be such. The situation is different with those things which are part of the understanding but not at the same time part of the will. It should also be recognized that when a person is said to make good his own, no more should be understood than his ability to receive good from the Lord, an ability he is endowed with through regeneration. Consequently good as it exists with a person is not that person's; rather it is the Lord's with him. And he is maintained in it to the extent that he allows himself to be withheld from evils. The impossibility for good to become a person's own, that is, for it to be transmitted to him, as long as he is ruled by evil was the reason for the prohibition which prevented one who was unclean from eating the flesh and the bread of a sacrifice; for that eating represented making good one's own, as stated above.

[3] Those who were unclean were forbidden on pain of death to eat from holy offerings, as is clear in Moses,

Everyone who is clean shall eat flesh. The soul who eats the flesh of sacrifices while uncleanness is on him shall be cut off from his people. The soul who touches anything unclean - the uncleanness of a human being or an unclean beast or any unclean creeping thing whatever - and eats of the flesh of the eucharistic sacrifice shall be cut off from [his] people. Leviticus 7:19-21.

All those outward kinds of uncleanness represented inward kinds, which are a person's evils; and they are evils present in his will, having been made his own by the life he actually leads.

[4] This matter is described further elsewhere in Moses,

Any man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper or suffers a discharge shall not eat of the holy things until he has been made clean. Whoever has touched anything made unclean by a corpse ¹ , [or any] man who has had an emission of semen ² , or [any] man who has touched any creeping thing by which he is defiled, or [has touched] a person by whom any one is defiled, as to all his uncleanness - the soul who has touched that thing shall be unclean until evening and not eat of the holy things. But when he has washed his flesh with water, and the sun has gone down, he shall be clean; and afterwards he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread. No outsider shall eat what is holy; a stranger staying with a priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat what is holy. If the priest buys a soul - a buying with his silver - [that soul] may eat of it, and one who is born in his house; these shall eat of his bread. When a priest's daughter has married a man, an outsider, she shall not eat of the heave offering of holy things. But if the priest's daughter has been made a widow or divorced and has no seed, and has indeed returned to her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's bread. Leviticus 22:1-16.

All these rules, it is plainly evident, serve to mean more internal considerations, that is, they imply the transmission of holy things to those in a receptive state of mind, who then make those things their own. The rule that no outsider could eat the holy things meant, not those who do not acknowledge the Lord within the Church, thus not those with whom none of the Church's truth and good exists. The rule that no stranger or hired servant could eat them meant, neither those with whom natural good exists devoid of the good of faith, nor those who do good for the sake of reward. The rule that those bought with silver and those born in the house could eat them meant, those who have been converted, and those with whom the Church's truth and good exists as the result of faith and love. The rule that a priest's daughter married to a man who was an outsider could not eat them meant that the good which had not been wedded to the Church's truths [but to something other] could not make the holy things of the Church its own. The rule however that a widow or a divorcee who had no seed could eat them meant that good can be made one's own after the removal of things which do not belong to the Church, provided that no notions have been hatched or born out of that union that have become an integral part of one's faith. The fact that such considerations are meant is evident from the internal sense of these specific rules.

[5] But hereditary evils do not prevent anyone from making good his own. This consideration too is described in Moses,

No man of the seed of Aaron in whom there is a blemish shall approach to offer the bread of God - no man who is blind, lame, mutilated, or [has a limb] too long; none who has a broken foot or hand, is a hunchback, is bruised, has a defect in his eye, has scabs, has warts, or has a crushed testicle. He shall not approach to offer the bread of his God; but he shall eat the bread of God from among the most holy and the holy things. Leviticus 21:17-23.

These defects, as has been stated, serve to mean hereditary evils, some specific evil being meant by each particular defect. The reason why these men should not offer bread or approach the altar as priests was that if they did so the people would catch sight of those imperfections or ills, and in what was caught sight of some representation would take shape, none of which would happen if those defects remained hidden. For although a priest, Levite, or the people were unclean inwardly, they were nevertheless called clean and also thought to be sanctified, provided that outwardly they were washed and looked clean.

각주: