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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

 

True Christian Religion #58

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58. If the current belief about God's omnipotence was correct, so that it extended to doing evil as well as good, surely it would be possible, or rather easy, for God to lift the whole of hell up into heaven, change devils and satans into angels, and in an instant cleanse any irreligious person on earth of his sins, make him new and sanctify him, regenerate him, turn him from a son of wrath into a son of grace, that is, justify him, by the simple attribution and imputation of His Son's righteousness. But God cannot do this by His omnipotence, because it is contrary to the laws of order He has imposed on the universe, and at the same time to the laws of order imposed upon every person; for these demand that both sets should be mutually linked together. The proof of this will be demonstrated later in this book.

It would be the result of that absurd opinion and belief about God's omnipotence, that God could change any person from a goat to a sheep, and at His pleasure transfer him from His left side to His right; at His pleasure He could transform the spirits of the dragon into the angels of Michael; He could endow a person whose understanding resembled a mole's with the eagle's keen vision, in short to make a person a dove instead of a horned owl. All these things God cannot do, because they would be contrary to the laws of His order; yet all the time He wills them and endeavours to effect them. If He could do such things, He would not have allowed Adam to listen to the serpent, and pluck the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and put it in his mouth. He would not, if He could do this, have allowed Cain to kill his brother, David to number the people, Solomon to build shrines for idols, and the kings of Judah and Israel to profane the Temple, as they did so many times. Rather, if God could do this, by the redemption effected by His Son He would have saved the whole human race with no exceptions and wiped out all hell. The ancient gentiles attributed omnipotence of this sort to their gods and goddesses; this is the source of their myths, as that of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who threw stones behind their backs to make men; of Apollo turning Daphne into a laurel-bush; of Diana turning a huntsman into a stag 1 , of another of their deities turning the maidens of Parnassus into magpies. The current belief about the Divine omnipotence is similar, and that is the source from which so many fanatical and heretical ideas have spread to every region of the world where there is any religion.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin has 'hind', but this differs from 'stag' by only one letter.

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

The Bible

 

Revelation 1:12

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12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;