Apocalypse Explained #1093
1093. Having great authority, signifies which has omnipotence, as in the heavens so upon the earth. This is evident from the signification of "great authority," as being, in reference to the Lord, omnipotence. "Great authority" here signifies omnipotence because according to the idea that man has of angels, great authority can be predicated of an angel, but not omnipotence; but when the Lord as to His Divine proceeding is meant by an angel, then "great authority" means omnipotence. Moreover, omnipotence belongs to the Lord because He is the God of heaven and the God of the earth, and by the Divine that proceeds from Him as a sun heaven and earth were created, and by it heaven with the earth is held together and subsists. The Divine proceeding is what is called in John, "the Word that was with God and that was God, by which all things were made that have been made, and by which also the world was made" (John 1:1, 2, 10). The Lord's omnipotence as in the heavens so upon the earth, is what is meant by "the great authority of the angel," because it is added, that "the earth was lightened by his glory;" for when the Last Judgment upon those who are meant by "the harlot or Babylon" was accomplished, the darkness that was interposed between heaven and earth was removed. But more upon this below.
(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)
[2] From what has been said it is clear that the thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that if there were no extensions there would be no thoughts. For man's thought is like the sight of his eyes; if sight had no extension out of itself, either there would be no sight or there would be blindness. But it is a man's love that determines his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies; for the entire heaven is arranged into societies, generally, particularly, and most particularly, according to all the varieties of affections belonging to the love; while on the other hand, hell is arranged into societies according to the cupidities of the love of evil, which are opposite to the affections of the love of good.
[3] Man's love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like rays of light therefrom. If the love is good, the thoughts, which are like rays, are truths. If the love is evil, the thoughts, which are like rays, are falsities. Thoughts from a good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven; while thoughts from an evil love, which are falsities, tend towards hell and conjoin themselves with homogeneous societies, that is, with societies of like love, and adapt themselves to them, and ingraft themselves into them, and so intimately that the man is wholly one with them.
[4] Through love to the Lord man is an image of the Lord. The Lord is the Divine love; and in heaven before the angels He appears as a sun. From that sun light and heat proceed; the light is the Divine truth and the heat is the Divine good. From these two is the whole heaven, and from them are all the societies of heaven. The Lord's love in a man who is an image of Him is like the fire from that sun, from which fire also light and heat proceed; the light is the truth of faith and the heat is the good of love; both of these are from the Lord, and both are implanted in the societies with which the man's love acts as one. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God is evident from Genesis (Genesis 1:26); and he is an image and likeness of the Lord by means of love, because by means of love he is in the Lord and the Lord is in him (John 14:20, 21). In a word, not the least thought can exist unless it finds reception in some society, not in the individuals or angels of the society, but in the affection of love from which and in which that society is; and for this reason the angels are not aware of the influx at all, and such influx in no way disturbs the society.
[5] From all this the truth is clear that while man is living in the world he is in conjunction with heaven and also in consociation with angels, although both men and angels are unconscious of it. They are unconscious of it because man's thought is natural and an angel's thought is spiritual, and these make one only by correspondence. Because man is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell by means of the thoughts of his love, so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does immediately after death, his character is known merely by the extensions of his thoughts into societies; and thus everyone is explored; and he is reformed by the admissions of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and is condemned by the immersions of his thoughts in the societies of hell.
Exodus 21
1
"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
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If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
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If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
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But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'
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then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
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"If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.
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If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.
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If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.
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If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
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If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
12
"One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,
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but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
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If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
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"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
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"Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
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"Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
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"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;
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if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
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"If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
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Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.
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"If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.
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But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
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eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
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burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
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"If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
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If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
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"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
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But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
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If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.
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Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
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If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
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"If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it,
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the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
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"If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.
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Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
