481. And he said to me, "Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." This symbolically means that accepting the doctrine from an acknowledgment that the Lord is the Savior and Redeemer is pleasing and agreeable, but acknowledging that He alone is God of heaven and earth, and that His humanity is Divine, is displeasing and vexatious, owing to their falsifications.

To take the little book means, symbolically, to accept the doctrine regarding the Lord. To eat it means, symbolically, to acknowledge the doctrine. To make the stomach bitter means, symbolically, that the doctrine will be displeasing and vexatious owing to falsifications; for bitterness symbolizes truth falsified (no. 411). To be as sweet as honey in the mouth means, symbolically, that the initial acceptance of the doctrine is pleasing and delightful.

In application now to this doctrine, meant by the little book open in the hand of the angel (nos. 469, 472), these particulars mean, symbolically, that accepting it from an acknowledgment that the Lord is the Savior and Redeemer is pleasing and delightful, but that any acknowledgment that He only is God of heaven and earth, and that His humanity is Divine, is displeasing and vexatious owing to falsifications.

The falsifications which cause this doctrine to be perceived as displeasing and vexatious are chiefly these, that people do not acknowledge the Lord to be one with the Father, as He Himself nevertheless taught, and that they do not acknowledge the Lord's humanity to be Divine, which nevertheless is the Son of God (Luke 1:35 ¹ ). And so it may be said that they make God three and the Lord two. Added to these falsifications are the continual falsities flowing from them. From these flows faith alone, and faith alone afterward serves to confirm them.

From these falsities arise such a bitterness and inner repugnance that people after death cannot even pronounce the words Divine humanity from any mental acknowledgment of their meaning, as may be seen in no. 294 above.

Footnotes:

469. He had in his hand a little book open. (10:2) This symbolizes the Word in respect to this point of doctrine there, that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and that His humanity is Divine.

It may be seen in nos. 256, 259, and 295ff. above that the book which the Lamb took from Him who sat on the throne, the seals of which the Lamb loosed (Revelation 5:1, 7; 6:1ff.), means the Word. Consequently the little book in the hand of the angel, who also is the Lord (no. 465), means nothing else here than the Word in respect to some essential in it; and it is apparent from the particulars in this and the following chapter in the spiritual sense, and also from the natural sense in chapter 11, verses 15-17, that the essential is this point of doctrine in the Word, that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and that His humanity is Divine.

[2] The little book is said to be open because this point of doctrine is plainly evident in the Word and is apparent to anyone who reads it, if he pays attention.

This is the subject now because it is the essential doctrine of the New Church. That is because everyone's salvation depends on a conception and acknowledgment of God. For the case is as stated in the Preface, that "heaven in its entirety is founded on a right idea of God, and so, too, the entire church on earth, and all religion in general," inasmuch as "that idea leads to conjunction, and through conjunction to light, wisdom, and eternal happiness."

[3] Now because the Lord is the one God of heaven and earth, therefore no one is admitted into heaven if he does not acknowledge Him, for heaven is the Lord's body. Instead the person remains below and is bitten by serpents, that is, by hellish spirits, from whose bite there is no cure but the one the children of Israel obtained by their looking at the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:1-9). That the bronze serpent means the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity is apparent from the following verses in John,

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)