The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #707

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707. 16:16 And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. This symbolizes a state of combat, of falsities against truths, and, arising from a love of dominion and preeminence, a mind to destroy the New Church.

To gather together to the place, in this case for battle, means, symbolically, to incite people to use falsities to fight against truths. It is a state of combat, because a place symbolizes the state of something. It springs from a mind to destroy the New Church, because the combat meant is between the former church and a new one, and the intent of the combat is to destroy. What Armageddon symbolizes we will say below.

We were told previously that the dragon went off to make war with the rest of the woman's offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12:17). Also that it was granted the beast from the sea to make war with the saints (Revelation 13:7). Then in this chapter we are told that spirits of demons coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, went away to the kings of the earth to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:13-14). And here now the subject is the battle itself, whose outcome is not described, but only its state, which is symbolized by Armageddon.

[2] Armageddon symbolizes in heaven a love of acclaim, dominion and preeminence, and in Hebrew, too, Aram or Arom symbolizes loftiness, and Megiddo in ancient Hebrew a love in consequence of loftiness, as is apparent from its meaning in Arabic. 1 Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo has the same symbolic meaning in Zechariah 12:11. The subject of that chapter is also the Lord's advent, the end of the Jewish Church then and the beginning of a new one to be established by the Lord, and a conflict, too, between those churches. That is why we find so many times in that chapter the phrase "in that day," and that day symbolizes the Lord's advent, as in no. 704 above. For this to be seen, I will quote the passages:

...in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples... In that day... I will strike every horse with stupor, and its rider with madness... In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a fiery furnace in the woodpile... In that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that there may be a force among them... ...in that day... I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:3-4, 6, 8-9)

And finally:

In that day there shall be... mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. (Zechariah 12:11)

And in the following chapter:

In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem... It shall be in that day that the prophets will be ashamed... and... not put on a robe of coarse hair, so as to deceive. (Zechariah 13:1, 4)

[3] That day symbolizes the Lord's advent and the end of the former church and the beginning of a new one, as said above. But what the valley of Megiddo in that chapter symbolizes cannot be seen unless the series of symbolic meanings there and in the two following chapters in that prophetic book are revealed by disclosure of the spiritual sense; and because this series of meanings has been revealed to me, I will say what it is, but in brief summation. In the spiritual sense Zechariah 12 describes the following:

The Lord will form a new church (verse 1).

The former church will have no doctrine then left in it, and therefore the people will run from it (verses 2, 3).

There will no longer be any understanding of truth, except in people who hold to the Word and will belong to the new church (verse 4).

They will learn the goodness of doctrine from the Lord (verse 5).

By means of the Word's truths the Lord will destroy all falsities then, lest the doctrine of the new church teach anything other than truth (verses 6, 7).

The church will have then a doctrine regarding the Lord (verse 8). He will destroy everyone and everything that stands in opposition to that doctrine (verse 9), and a new church will exist then from the Lord (verse 10).

Each and every part of the church will be in a state of mourning then (verses 10 to 14).

[4] These are the contents of Chapter 12 in the spiritual sense. The contents of the next chapter, Zechariah 13, are as follows:

For the new church there will be a Word, and it will lie open to them (verse 1).

Falsities in their doctrine and worship will be entirely destroyed (verses 2, 3).

The former prophetic or doctrinal teaching will cease, and there will no longer be any falsities in their doctrine (verses 4, 5).

People in the former church will kill the Lord, with the intention of dispersing those who believe in Him (verses 6, 7).

Those of the devastated church will perish, while those of the new church will be purified and taught by the Lord (verses 8, 9).

[5] These are the contents of chapter 13 in the spiritual sense. The contents of chapter 14 are as follows:

The combats of the Lord against evil people and their dispersion (verses 1 to 5).

The absence of any truth then other than Divine truth from the Lord (verses 6, 7).

Divine truth will emanate from the Lord (verses 8, 9).

Truth in the new church will increase, and there will be in it no falsity that accompanies evil (verses 10, 11).

People who fight against those truths will surrender themselves to falsities of every kind (verse 12).

The destruction then of every facet of the church (verses 13 to 15).

People will then turn to worship of the Lord, even from nations that are external and merely natural (verses 16 to 19).

And their intelligence then, springing from the goodness of charity that produces their worship (verses 20, 21).

These are the contents of the three chapters, Zechariah 12 to Zechariah 14, in the spiritual sense, disclosed because they also have as their subject the last state of a former church and the first state of a new church. Moreover, because [in the present verse] we are told that people were to be gathered together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon, it follows that what is said in Zechariah applies equally to the last state of today's church and to the first state of the New Church.

Armageddon symbolizes, as we said, a love of acclaim, dominion and preeminence, for it is because of that love that a conflict arises, and it is because of that love and on its account that there is the mourning described in Zechariah 12:11-14.

Megiddo also has the same symbolic meaning in 2 Kings 23:29-30 and 2 Chronicles 35:20-24, but in the spiritual sense.

Footnotes:

1. Modern scholarship recognizes Armageddon as a combination of the Hebrew har, meaning a mountain or hill, and the place name Megiddo, etymology unknown.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Zechariah 14:2

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2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.