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Daniel 12

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1 På den tid skal Mikael stå frem, den store fyrste som verner om ditt folks barn, og det skal komme en trengselstid som det ikke har vært fra den dag noget folk blev til, og like til den tid. Men på den tid skal alle de av ditt folk bli frelst som finnes opskrevet i boken.

2 Og de mange som sover i jordens muld, skal våkne op, somme til evig liv og somme til skam og evig avsky.

3 Men de forstandige skal skinne som himmelhvelvingen skinner, og de som har ført de mange til rettferdighet, skal skinne som stjernene, evindelig og alltid.

4 Og du, Daniel, gjem disse ord og forsegl boken inntil endens tid! Mange skal granske den, og kunnskapen skal bli stor.

5 Så fikk jeg, Daniel, i mitt syn se to andre som stod der, en på den ene elvebredd og en på den andre elvebredd.

6 Og en av dem sa til den mann som var klædd i linklær, og som stod ovenover elvens vann: Hvor lenge vil det vare før disse underfulle ting er til ende?

7 Og jeg hørte hvad den mann sa som var klædd i linklær, og som stod ovenover elvens vann; han løftet sin høire hånd og sin venstre hånd op mot himmelen og svor ved ham som lever evindelig: En tid og tider og en halv tid*, og når det hellige folks makt er fullstendig knust, skal alle disse ting fullendes. / {* DNL 7, 25.}

8 Og jeg hørte det, men forstod det ikke, og jeg sa: Herre! Hvad er det siste av disse ting?

9 sa han: Gå bort, Daniel! For disse ord skal være gjemt og forseglet inntil endens tid.

10 Mange skal bli renset og tvettet og prøvd; men de ugudelige skal bli ved å være ugudelige, og ingen ugudelig skal forstå det; men de forstandige skal forstå det.

11 Og fra den tid det stadige offer blir avskaffet, og den ødeleggende vederstyggelighet blir stilt op, skal det gå tusen, to hundre og nitti dager.

12 Salig er den som bier og når frem til tusen, tre hundre og fem og tretti dager.

13 Men gå du din ende i møte! Du skal hvile og stå op til din lodd ved dagenes ende.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Sacred Scripture #61

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61. I have been granted the opportunity to talk with any number of individuals after their death who had believed they were going to shine like stars in heaven because, they said, they had revered the Word, had read it through time and again, and had gained much from their reading that served to support the dogmas of their faith. All this led to their being celebrated as scholars, which in turn led them to believe they would become Michaels and Raphaels.

[2] However, many of them were examined to find out what love had inspired their study of the Word, and it turned out that for some it was self-infatuation, a desire to look important in the eyes of the world and therefore be revered as leaders in the church, while for others it was worldliness and a desire for wealth. When they were asked what they had learned from the Word, it turned out that they knew nothing that was really true. All they knew was distorted truth, which is essentially false. They were told that this was because they themselves and the world were their goals - or were what they loved the most, which amounts to the same thing - and not the Lord and heaven. If ourselves and the world are our goals, then when we read the Word our minds are stuck on ourselves and the world. This means that our thinking is constantly focused on our self-importance, which is in darkness with respect to everything that has to do with heaven. People in this state cannot be lifted out of their self-infatuation by the Lord and thus raised up into heaven’s light, so they are not open to any inflow from the Lord through heaven, either.

[3] I have seen them let into heaven, but when it was found that they were lacking in truths, they were expelled. Even so, they retained the prideful conviction that they were worthy.

It worked out otherwise for individuals who studied the Word from a desire to know what was true because it was true and because it could be put to use in their lives not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of their neighbor. I have seen them raised up into heaven and therefore into the light of divine truth there; and at the same time they have been lifted up into angelic wisdom and into its happiness, which is eternal life.

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