The Bible

 

Daniel 7:26

Study

       

26 και η κρισις καθισεται και την εξουσιαν απολουσι και βουλευσονται μιαναι και απολεσαι εως τελους

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1028

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

1028. For the plague thereof was exceeding great. That this signifies the total destruction of genuine truth, is evident from the signification of the plague of the hail, as denoting the falsification of the Word, according to what was said above. Hence by the plague thereof being exceeding great is signified a more grievous falsification, which is, that the Word is falsified, even to the destruction of all genuine truth. How the Word is falsified even to the destruction of genuine truth, and heaven thereby closed against man, may be seen (n. 719, 778, 888, 914, 916, 950).

Concerning the Precepts of the Decalogue in general:-

[2] It is said by some, that he who sins against one precept of the Decalogue sins also against the rest, thus that he who is guilty of one is guilty of all. But how this agrees with the truth shall be explained. He who transgresses one precept, by assuring himself that it is not a sin, and thus commits it without fear of God, rejects the fear of God, because he is not afraid to transgress the rest of the precepts, although he may not do so in act.

[3] As, for example, whoever does not account frauds and illicit gains, which in themselves are thefts, as sins, neither regards as sins the committing of adultery with the wife of another, the hating of a man even to murder, the lying against him, the coveting his house, and other things belonging to him. For he denies that anything is a sin, when in one precept he casts out the fear of God from his heart. Hence he is in communion with those who similarly transgress the rest of the precepts. He is as an infernal spirit who is in the hell of thieves; and although he is not an adulterer, a murderer, or a false witness, yet he is in communion with such, and may be persuaded by them to believe that such things are not evils, and may also be led to commit them. For he who becomes an infernal spirit by the transgression of one precept, no longer believes it to be a sin to do anything against God, or anything against his neighbour.

[4] But the contrary is the case with those who abstain from the evil of one precept, and shun, and afterwards turn away from it, as a sin against God. Because such fear God, they come into communion with the angels of heaven, and are led by the Lord to abstain from the evils of the other precepts, and to shun them, and at length to turn away from them as sins. And if they happen to have sinned against them, still they repent, and thus by degrees are withdrawn from them.

  
/ 1232  
  

Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 25:1-12

Study

      

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (the same was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.

4 Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear)

5 saying, Return now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore;

6 and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no harm.

7 Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

8 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies: Because you have not heard my words,

9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and [I will send] to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

11 This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 It shall happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says Yahweh, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate forever.