Apocalypse Explained #578
578. And out of their mouths went forth fire, and smoke, and brimstone.- That this signifies thought and reasonings therefrom springing from the love of evil, and from the love of falsity, and from the lust (concupiscentia) of destroying truths and goods by means of the falsities of evil, is evident from the signification of the mouth as denoting thought and reasoning therefrom of which we shall speak in the explanation of the 19th verse; and from the signification of fire, as denoting the love of self, and the love of evil thence (see above, n. 504, 539); and from the signification of smoke, as denoting the dense falsity springing from the love of evil (see above, n. 494, 539); and from the signification of brimstone, as denoting the lust of destroying the truths and goods of the church by means of the falsities of evil.
[2] That this is the signification of brimstone, is evident from the Word where it is mentioned, as in Moses:
"Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire" (Genesis 19:24).
And in Luke:
"On the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" (17:29, 30).
The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, mean those who are in the falsities of evil from the love of self; and since the falsities of evil from that love destroyed them, therefore it rained brimstone and fire, brimstone, from the lust (concupiscentia) of destroying the church by means of the falsities of evil, and fire because that lust burst forth from the love of self. That this would be the case when the Son of man should be revealed, signifies, that then also the falsities of evil from the love of self would destroy the church. Rain of such a kind also appears in the spiritual world, when the evil, who are in falsities from that love, are cast down into hell.
[3] So again, in Moses:
What shall your sons "and the stranger say when they shall see the plagues of this land and its sicknesses? The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor germinates, nor doth any grass grow thereon, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim" (Deuteronomy 29:22, 23).
These are the curses with which the sons of Israel were threatened if they did not keep the precepts and statutes, and if they worshipped other gods; and because then the church would become vastated and destroyed by the falsities of evil, and the evils of falsity, hence it is said that then the whole land [should be] brimstone, salt, burning, the land denoting the church. By its not being sown, nor germinating, nor any grass growing thereon, is signified, that there should be no more any reception or production of truth from good.
[4] Again, in Isaiah:
"For Tophet is prepared from yesterday; yea, for the king it is prepared; he shall descend into a deep and wide [place]; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it" (30:33).
Tophet here signifies the hell where the direful and cruel love of destroying all the truths and goods of the church reigns, especially the savage desire of destroying the goods of innocence. That dreadful hell originates in the falsities of evil, and is signified by, he shall descend into a deep and wide [place]. The king, for whom it is prepared, signifies the infernal falsity itself. The pile thereof is fire and much wood signifies evils of every kind which pertain to that love. And because that hell burns from the lust of destroying, it is said that "the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it." For there, as soon as they hear the truths of the church from any one, and perceive its goods, they are inflamed with the frenzy of destroying and annihilating them.
[5] Again, in the same prophet:
"The day of the vengeance of Jehovah, the year of retribution for the controversy of Zion. And the torrents thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch; It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall ascend for ever" (34:8, 10).
The day of the vengeance of Jehovah, and the year of retribution for the controversy of Zion, signifies the coming of the Lord, and the last judgment then wrought by Him. By the torrents turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone, is signified the hell into which those, who are in the falsities of evil, and in the evils of falsity, are cast. The evil of infernal love, and its punishment, are signified by the pitch burning night and day, and not quenched; and the dire falsity from that evil is signified by the smoke ascending for ever.
[6] Again, in Ezekiel:
"I will contend with" Gog "with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, an overflowing rain, and hailstones, fire and brimstone" (38:22).
Gog means those who place all worship in a holy and pious external, and not in that which is internal, when yet external is according to the quality of internal worship; and it is said that "Jehovah shall rain upon them an overflowing rain, and hailstones, fire, and brimstone," which signifies falsities and evils destroying all the truths and goods of the church; fire and brimstone denote the evils of falsity, and the falsities of evil, both being diabolical.
[7] Again in David:
"Upon the wicked" Jehovah "shall rain snares, fire and brimstone; and the wind of storms shall be the portion of their cup" (Psalm 11:6).
These words signify, that the impious are destroyed by their own evils of falsity, and by their own falsities of evil, which destroy in them all the truths of the church. Snares, fire, and brimstone, denote the evils of falsity, and the falsities of evil; and the wind of storms which shall be the portion of their cup, signifies the destruction of all truth. That it does not mean that [Jehovah], shall rain fire and brimstone upon the wicked is clear, for it is also said that snares shall rain upon them; fire and brimstone therefore must mean such things as are wholly destructive of the truths and goods of the church.
[8] Similarly in Job:
"Brimstone shall be scattered upon the habitation of the wicked" (18:15);
for brimstone means such falsity of evil as destroys every thing of the church in man; this is falsity from the evil of the love of self such as prevailed with those who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is said of the brimstone, not only that it destroyed the cities and the inhabitants, but also the plain and that which springeth up in the field. That which sprouteth in the field signifies the truth of the church springing up (Genesis 19:25). The signification of fire and brimstone in the following passages in the Apocalypse is similar:
"If any man worship the beast and his image, he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone" (14:9, 10).
Again:
"The beast, and the false prophet were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (19:20).
"The devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are" (20:10).
"Murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (21:8).
Deuteronomy 29
1
These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2
Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;
3
the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:
4
but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
5
I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoes have not grown old on your feet.
6
You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
7
When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them:
8
and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.
9
Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10
You stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,
11
your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;
12
that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day;
13
that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14
Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,
15
but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day
16
(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;
17
and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);
18
lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
19
and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry."
20
Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
21
Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.
22
The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick;
23
[and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24
even all the nations shall say, "Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?"
25
Then men shall say, "Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
26
and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them:
27
therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;
28
and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day."
29
The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
