474. And he said to me, These are they who come out of great tribulation.- That this signifies information that they are those who have been in temptations, is evident from the signification of, "he said to me," as denoting information; and from the signification of tribulation, or great affliction, as denoting temptations, of which we shall speak presently. Something shall first be said here concerning the temptations which those undergo in the spiritual world who are in falsities from ignorance, and who are here treated of. Only those undergo temptations there who have lived a good life in the world according to their religion, wherein were falsities of doctrine in which they believed. For by temptations falsities are shaken off, truths are implanted, and thus they are prepared for heaven; for all those who shall come into heaven must be in truths; wherefore so long as they are in falsities they cannot come into heaven. The reason is, that the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord makes heaven, and makes the life of the angels there, therefore falsities, because they are opposed to truths, and because opposites destroy, must first be removed, and they cannot be removed except by temptations.

[2] That temptations perform this use, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, (n. 187-201), where temptations are treated of. The reason why they are let into temptations in the spiritual world after the life in the body, is, that they could not be tempted in the world on account of the falsities of religion in which they were, and which were everywhere dominant. It must be understood, that all those who are let into temptations are saved; but the evil, who are in falsities from evil, are not tempted, for with them truths cannot be implanted, because the evils of their lives offer a hindrance; but truths are taken away from them, and therefore they remain in pure falsities, and are then immersed deeply in hell, according to the quality of evil from which such falsity springs. In a word, those who are about to come into heaven are vastated in regard to their falsities, and those who are about to go into hell are vastated in regard to truths; that is, falsities are removed from those who are about to go to heaven, and truths are taken away from those who are about to go to hell. For no one can enter heaven with falsities, nor hell with truths, because truths from good make heaven, and falsities from evil make hell. The temptations of those whose falsities have to be removed are treated of in many passages in the Word, and especially in David, and are called afflictions, tribulations, and vastations; but there is no need to quote those passages here, since it can be seen without them that tribulations and afflictions, when spoken of in reference to good, mean, in the spiritual sense, temptations.

201. The Lord's spiritual crises. Beyond all others, the Lord suffered the fiercest, most severe spiritual crises; they are barely touched on in the literal sense of the Word but are described extensively in its inner meaning: 1663, 1668, 1787, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2816, 9528. The Lord fought out of his divine love for the whole human race: 1690, 1691, 1812, 1813, 1820. The Lord's love was a love for the salvation of the human race: 1820. The Lord fought from his own power: 1692, 1813, 9937. Through spiritual crises and victories from his own power, the Lord alone became righteousness and merit: 1813, 2025, 2026, 2027, 9715, 9809, 10178. Through crises of the spirit, the Lord united his divine nature, which was within him from conception, to his human nature, and made this latter divine, just as he makes us spiritual through our crises of the spirit: 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286. The Lord's spiritual crises included despair at the end: 1787. Through the spiritual crises he allowed himself to undergo, the Lord gained control over the hells and brought everything there and in the heavens into proper order; and at the same time he glorified his human nature: 1737, 4287, 9528, 9715, 9937. The Lord alone fought against all the hells: 8273. This is why he allowed himself to undergo spiritual crises: 2816, 4295.

The Lord's divine nature could not have undergone spiritual crises, because the hells cannot attack anything divine. That is why the Lord took on a human nature from his mother, a nature that can undergo spiritual crises: 1414, 1444, 1573, 5041, 5157, 7193, 9315. Through his spiritual crises and victories he drove out everything he had inherited from his mother and divested himself of the human nature he had received from her, even to the point that he was no longer her son: 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10830. Jehovah, ¹ who was in him from conception, nevertheless seemed to be absent during his spiritual crises: 1815. This was his state of being humbled: ² 1785, 1999, 2159, 6866. His last spiritual crisis and final victory was in Gethsemane and on the cross, through which he completely overcame the hells and made his human nature divine: 2776, 2813, 2814, 10655, 10659, 10828.

Not eating bread and not drinking water for forty days [Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9] means an entire state of spiritual crisis: 10686. Forty years, forty months, or forty days means a full state of spiritual crisis from beginning to end, and this state is meant by the forty-day duration of the Flood [Genesis 7:4, 17], by Moses' sojourn on Mount Sinai for forty days [Exodus 24:18; 34:28], by the Israelites' sojourn in the wilderness for forty years, ³ and by the forty-day-long crisis the Lord experienced in the wilderness [Matthew 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2]: 730, 862, 2272, 2273, 8098.

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