Ezechiele 23:15
To many Protestant and Evangelical Italians, the Bibles translated by Giovanni Diodati are an important part of their history. Diodati’s first Italian Bible edition was printed in 1607, and his second in 1641. He died in 1649. Throughout the 1800s two editions of Diodati’s text were printed by the British Foreign Bible Society. This is the more recent 1894 edition, translated by Claudiana.
Apocalypse Revealed #601
601. Telling those dwelling upon the earth to make an image of the beast that was injured by the sword and lived. This symbolically means that the clergy induce people in the church to accept as doctrine that faith is the only means of salvation, because no one can do good of himself without its being merit-seeking, and because no one can fulfill the law and in that way be saved.
Those dwelling upon the earth mean people in the Protestant Reformed Church, as in no. 600 above. The image symbolizes the doctrine of that church, as explained below. And the image of the beast that was injured by the sword and lived symbolizes this tenet of the doctrine, that faith is the only means of salvation, because no one can do good of himself without its being merit-seeking, and because no one can fulfill the law and in that way be saved (see nos. 576, 577ff. above).
[2] Every church appears to the Lord as a person. If it is governed by truths from the Word, it appears as an attractive person. But if it is caught up in truths falsified, it appears as a hideous person. The church appears as it does in keeping with its doctrine and in keeping with its life in accordance with that doctrine. It follows from this that a church's doctrine presents an image of the church.
This can also be seen from the fact that every person embodies his own goodness and truth or his own evil and falsity. It is this and nothing else that makes a person human. Consequently it is doctrine and a life in accordance with it which produces the image of a person in the church - the image of an attractive person if the doctrine and his life in accordance with it conform with the Word's genuine truths, but the image of a hideous person if they accord with the Word's truths falsified.
[3] In the spiritual world, moreover, a person appears as a kind of animal, but it is his affection that so appears at a distance. People impelled by truths and goods from the Lord look like lambs and doves, while those caught up in falsified truths and adulterated goods look like owls and bats. People possessing a faith divorced from charity look like dragons and goats. Those caught up in falsities springing from evil look like basilisks 1 and crocodiles. And those who are of this character and yet have affirmed the teachings of the church look like fiery flying serpents.
It can be seen from this that the church's doctrine and a life in accordance with it are meant by the image of the beast which the people made for those dwelling upon the earth.
[4] But what eventually became of those who worshiped the image of the beast may be seen in Revelation 14:9-11; 19:20, cf. 20:4.
Images have similar symbolic meanings in the spiritual sense in Exodus 20:4-5, Leviticus 26:1, Deuteronomy 4:16-18, Isaiah 2:16, Ezekiel 7:20; 16:17; 23:14-16.
Among the ancients, idols and carved images were symbols of their religious faith. Consequently they symbolize doctrinal falsities and evils (no. 459).
അടിക്കുറിപ്പുകൾ:
1. Legendary serpents or dragons, whose breath and glance were said to be lethal. Formerly identified in English translations of the Latin Vulgate with the cockatrice, and retained as such in the King James Bible.
Revelation 20
1
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
2
He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
3
and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
4
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5
The rest of the dead didn't live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.
7
And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison,
8
and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9
They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them.
10
The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11
I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
12
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13
The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
14
Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15
If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
