The Bible

 

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

 

The Last Judgement #41

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41. So long as a person lives in the world, he cannot see what the Lord's church on earth is like, much less how it turned from good to evil in the course of time. This is because a person takes an external view while he lives in the world, and can only see what is plain to his natural man. What a church is like from a spiritual point of view, that is, from the point of view of its internals, cannot be seen on earth. But in heaven it can be seen as in bright daylight, since the angels think spiritually and also see spiritually, so that they see only what is spiritual. Moreover, all the people are gathered there who have been born in the world from the beginning of creation, as was shown above, and all are there divided into communities differing in the kinds of good of love and faith they have (see HEAVEN AND HELL 41-50). So it is that the states of a church and how it progresses are clearly to be seen by the angels in heaven.

[2] Now because Revelation in its spiritual sense describes the state of the church as regards love and faith, no one can know what lies hidden within its whole narrative, unless it has been revealed to him from heaven, and he has been allowed to know the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. I can declare with assurance that all the details there, down to the individual words, contain a spiritual sense, which provides a full description of everything to do with the church as regards its spiritual state from beginning to end. Since every single word in it has some spiritual meaning, none can be omitted without changing the train of ideas in the internal sense. That is why at the end of Revelation we read:

If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away 1 his share in the book of life and in the holy city, and in what is written in that book. Revelation 22:19.

[3] It is much the same with the books of the Old Testament Word. In those each subject and each word contains an internal or spiritual sense; so neither there can any word be taken away. That is why by the Lord's Divine providence those books have been kept intact down to the last jot from the time when they were written by the care taken by many scribes who counted even the smallest details in them. This provision by the Lord was to guard the holiness which each jot, letter and word in them possesses.

Footnotes:

1. [The first edition has 'may God take away', but this is probably a printer's error; the usual form occurs in AR and this agrees with the Greek.]

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Revelation 15

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1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.