Apocalypse Revealed #435
435. And their teeth were like lions' teeth. This symbolically means that matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.
Teeth symbolize the lowest elements of the natural self's life, which are called sensual, as discussed in no. 424 above. These sensual elements are of two kinds, one having to do with the will, the other with the intellect. Sensual elements having to do with the will are symbolized by women's hair, as said just above in no. 434; and sensual elements having to do with the intellect are symbolized by teeth. The latter, which is to say, sensual people caught up in falsities by conviction, appear to themselves to have power over everything, so that they cannot be overcome. Therefore the locusts' teeth, which symbolize such sensual elements, were like lions' teeth - a lion symbolizing power (no. 241).
That teeth symbolize the lowest elements of a person's life - those elements called sensual - and that when these are divorced from the interior levels of the mind, they are caught up in nothing but falsities and attack truths and destroy them, can be seen from the following passages:
With my soul I lie down among lions...; their teeth are a spear and arrows... (Psalms 57:4)
O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth! Turn aside the molars of the young lions... (Psalms 58:6)
...a nation has come up against My land, strong..., its teeth the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:6)
...O Jehovah..., You have broken the teeth of the impious. (Psalms 3:7)
...a beast (came up from the sea), terrible, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, which had huge iron teeth; it was devouring and breaking in pieces... (Daniel 7:3, 7).
Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. (Psalms 124:6)
Since sensual people do not see any truth in its own light, but reason and argue about everything as to whether it is so, and since these altercations in the hells sound outside the hells like the gnashing of teeth, which regarded in itself is a colliding of falsity and truth, it is apparent what the gnashing of teeth symbolizes in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and Luke 13:28; and in some measure what to gnash with the teeth symbolizes in Job 16:9, Psalms 35:15-16; 37:12; 112:10, Micah 3:5, and Lamentations 2:16.
2 Peter 3:9-17
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The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
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Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness,
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looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
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But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
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Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his sight.
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Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;
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as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
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You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
