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

8622. 'That I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven' means that that falsity is to be completely removed, so that it may no longer engage in conflict. This is clear from the meaning of 'blotting out the memory' as removing, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Amalek' as those who are steeped in falsity arising from interior evil, dealt with in 8593.

[2] The reason why 'blotting out the memory of Amalek' means removing the falsity that arises from interior evil is that it can be removed, but cannot be blotted out, since it is the falsity residing with hellish genii who live forever, 8593. These genii are however removed by the Lord so that they do not flow into those who belong to the spiritual Church, the reason for this being that they do not flow, as hellish spirits do, into thoughts belonging to the understanding, nor thus into ideas belonging to faith, but into affections belonging to the will, consequently into feelings belonging to charity. And they do this so secretively that not a trace of what comes from them is ever apparent. If therefore they were to flow into a member of the spiritual Church he could not possibly be saved, because they would pervert and utterly warp his affections for what is true and good. This is why those hellish genii are removed so that they do not have any contact with those who belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

[3] Furthermore it should be recognized that a member of the spiritual Church has a new will implanted in the understanding part of his mind, 895, 927, 1023, 1043, 1044, 2256, 4328, 4493, 5113. This will would be completely destroyed by those genii if they were allowed to flow in. They would also enter into and open up again the hereditary evils of the old will, even though they have been closed off. Regarding the closing off of them, see 986, 1667, 2308. Those hellish genii are removed in this way to prevent them from flowing in. Their falsity, which is falsity arising from interior evil, is evil - evil whose nature is such that it cannot flow into the understanding part of the mind, only into the will part. This being so, and because the new will of a member of the spiritual Church has been planted in the understanding part, as stated above, they have consequently been removed from flowing into it. To this end the Lord also controls things in such a way that the entire power of understanding in these genii is laid waste.

[4] After death people become genii like these if they have had doing harm to their neighbour constantly in mind, allowing such ideas to delight their thinking, and have also inflicted harm, but secretively and through others, taking the utmost care to prevent anyone from knowing that they had initiated it. In other respects they were to outward appearances unassuming, polite, and seemingly friendly; they were also seemingly Christian in speech, and in life too. They were however hypocrites, and inwardly were treacherous tigers.

986. That 'the fear of you and the dread of you' means the lordship of the internal man - 'fear' having regard to evils and 'dread' to falsities - becomes clear from the state of a regenerate person. A person's state prior to regeneration is one in which the evil desires and the falsities that belong to the external man predominate all the time, which gives rise to conflict. But once he has been regenerated the internal man rules over the external, that is, over his desires and falsities. When it is the internal man that rules, the person has a fear of evils and a dread of falsities, for both evils and falsities are contrary to conscience, and to act contrary to conscience is abhorrent to him.

[2] It is not however the internal man that fears evils and dreads falsities, but the external; hence the statements at this point about the fear of you and the dread of you being upon every beast of the earth and every bird of the air ¹ , that is, over all evil desires meant by 'beast' and over falsities meant by 'bird of the air'. ¹ This fear and this dread are seemingly the person's own, but the reality is this: As stated already everybody has at least two angels with him through whom he has communication with heaven, and two evil spirits through whom he has communication with hell. When the angels rule, as is so with a regenerate person, the evil spirits who are present dare not do anything contrary to what is good and true, for they are at that time held in bonds. And when they do try to do anything evil or to utter what is false - that is, to activate it - some hellish kind of fear and dread instantly overtakes them. This fear and this dread are what a person feels within himself for things that are contrary to conscience. This also is why, as soon as he does or utters anything contrary to conscience, he runs into temptation and the gnawings of conscience, that is, into a kind of hellish torment.

[3] On the point that fear has reference to evils and dread to falsities, the situation Is this: The spirits that reside with a person are less afraid of practising evil deeds than of uttering falsities, the reason being that a person is born again and receives a conscience by means of truths of faith, and consequently spirits are not allowed to activate falsities. Indeed nothing but evil is present with every one of them, so that they are immersed in evil; their whole nature, and consequently everything they attempt is evil; and since they are immersed in evil and their own life within them consists in evil, their performance of evil is ignored when they are serving some use. But they are not permitted to utter anything false, for the reason that they may learn what is true, and in so doing may be corrected, so far as possible, to perform some inferior kind of service. But more concerning these matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be mentioned later on. It is similar with a regenerate person, for his conscience is formed from truths of faith. Consequently his conscience is a conscience for what is right. For him the very evil of life lies in falsity because falsity is the reverse of the truth of faith. But with the member of the Most Ancient Church who had perception it was different. He perceived evil of life as evil, and falsity of faith as falsity.

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