Apocalypse Revealed #940
940. 22:5 There shall be no night there: They have no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. This symbolically means that in the New Jerusalem there will be no falsity in its faith, and the people in that church will not acquire their concepts of God from any natural sight, namely from their own intelligence, or out of a desire for glory springing from conceit, but they will acquire those concepts from the Lord alone in a state of spiritual light from the Word.
There being no night there has the same symbolic meaning as verse 25 in chapter 21, which says, "Its gates shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there," which symbolically means that the New Jerusalem continually receives into it people who possess truths that spring from the goodness of love from the Lord, because it has no falsity in its faith (no. 922).
The people's having no need of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, has the same symbolic meaning as verse 23 in chapter 21, which says, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its lamp," which symbolically means that people of the New Church will not be caught up in self-love and their own intelligence so as to possess a natural sight only, but from the Word's Divine truth will possess a spiritual light from the Lord alone (no. 919). Only instead of the moon there, the verse here says a lamp, and instead of the sun there, the verse here says the light of the sun, and a lamp, like the moon, symbolizes the natural sight of one's own intelligence, and the light of the sun symbolizes a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit.
[2] But we must briefly explain what we mean by a natural sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit:
A natural sight may be due to a desire for glory springing from conceit, or it may be due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit. A sight out of a desire for glory springing from conceit is found in people caught up in a love of self and so in evils of every kind. If they do not do those evils for fear of losing their good name, and if they also condemn them as being destructive of morality and the public good, still they do not regard them as sins. Such people possess a natural sight due to a desire for glory springing from conceit; for a love of self in the will becomes conceit in the intellect, and this conceit, owing to that love, is capable of raising the intellect even into the light of heaven. Such a capability is granted to a person in order for him to be human and to be capable of being reformed.
I have seen and heard many absolute devils who, when they heard them or read them, understood secrets of angelic wisdom as well angels themselves. Yet as soon as they returned to their self-love and their accompanying conceit, not only did they not understand any of those secrets, but they had the opposite sight in the light of the affirmation of falsity in them.
On the other hand, a natural sight due to a desire for glory that does not spring from conceit is present in people who find a delight in useful endeavors out of a genuine love for the neighbor. Their natural sight is also a rational sight that has inwardly in it a spiritual light from the Lord. The desire for glory in them comes from the brilliance of the light flowing in from heaven, where everything is radiant and harmonious, for all useful endeavors in heaven shine. From them arises a gratification in the ideas of their thoughts which they perceive as a glorious one. The glory enters through the will and its goods into the intellect and its truths and presents itself in them.
Revelation 16
1
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2
And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
3
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
4
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5
And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7
And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8
And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
10
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11
And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
12
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
13
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21
And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
