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Revelation 22

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1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst Come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1202

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1202. And he hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand signifies the deliverance of those that are in Divine truths from the Lord by the casting out of the Babylonians. This is evident from the signification of "avenging at her hand," as being to deliver from those who are meant by "Babylon" as a "harlot," also from the signification of "the blood of servants," as being violence done to those who are in truths from the Lord, "blood" being violence done, and "servants" those who are in truths from the Lord. Why such are called "servants" may be seen above (n. 6, 409).

(Continuation)

[2] The difference between men and beasts is like that between wakefulness and dreaming, or between light and shade. Man is both spiritual and natural, while a beast is not spiritual but natural. Man has a will and an understanding, and his will is a receptacle of the heat of heaven, which is love, and his understanding is a receptacle of the light of heaven, which is wisdom. But a beast does not possess a will and an understanding, but in place of a will it has affection, and in place of an understanding it has knowledge.

[3] With man the will and the understanding are capable of acting as one or not acting as one; for a man can think from his understanding what does not belong to his will, for he can think what he does not will, and conversely. But with a beast affection and knowledge make one and cannot be separated; for a beast knows what belongs to its affection and is affected by what belongs to its knowledge. And because with a beast these two faculties, called knowledge and affection, cannot be separated, a beast could not destroy the order of its life. Hence it is born into all the knowledge belonging to its affection. With man it is otherwise. His two faculties for life, which are called the understanding and the will, can be separated, as has been said, therefore he has the ability to destroy the order of his life by thinking contrary to his will and willing contrary to his understanding, and in this way he has destroyed it. For this reason man is born into mere ignorance, that he may be led out of it into order through knowledges by means of his understanding.

[4] The order into which man was created is to love God above all things and the neighbor as himself; and the state into which man has come since he destroyed that order is loving himself above all things and the world as himself. Since man has a spiritual mind, which is above his natural mind, and his spiritual mind is able to contemplate such things as pertain to heaven and the church, as well as such things as pertain to the state in respect to morals and laws, and all these have reference to truths and goods, which are called spiritual, moral, and civil, with the natural things pertaining to knowledges, and also have reference to their opposites, which are falsities and evils, for this reason man is able both to think analytically and draw conclusions and also to receive influx through heaven from the Lord, and become intelligent and wise. This no beast is capable of. What a beast knows is not from any understanding, but is from the knowledge that belongs to its affection, which is its soul. Knowledge belonging to affection must be in everything spiritual, because the spiritual that proceeds from the Lord as a sun is light united to heat, or wisdom united to love, and knowledge is of wisdom, and affection is of love, in the degree that is called natural.

[5] Because man has both a spiritual mind and a natural mind, and his spiritual mind is above his natural mind, and the spiritual mind is such as to be able to contemplate and love truths and goods in every degree, either conjointly with the natural mind or abstracted from it, it follows that the interiors of man belonging to each mind are capable of being raised up by the Lord to the Lord and of being conjoined to Him; and this is why every man lives eternally. This is not so with beasts. A beast does not possess any spiritual mind, it has only a natural mind; and therefore its interiors, which belong solely to knowledge and affection, cannot be raised up by the Lord and conjoined to Him, and for this reason a beast does not live after death.

[6] A beast indeed is led by a sort of spiritual influx falling into its soul; but since its spiritual is incapable of being elevated it can only be determined downwards, and can look only to such things as belong to its affection, which have reference solely to what pertains to nourishment, habitation, and propagation; and it can know these only from the knowledge pertaining to its affection by means of light, odor, and taste. Because man is able by virtue of his spiritual mind to think rationally, he is also able to speak, for to speak belongs to thought from the understanding, which is able to see truths in spiritual light. But a beast, which has no thought from understanding, but only knowledge from affection, is only able to utter sounds, and to vary the sound of its affection according to its appetites.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Revelation 19

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1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:

2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.

4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.