Apocalypse Revealed #379
379. "And made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb." This symbolically means, and by truths have purified those religious beliefs from the falsities accompanying evil, and so have been reformed by the Lord.
Some evils are evils that accompany falsity, and some falsities are falsities that accompany evil. Evils that accompany falsity are found among people who, in accord with their religion, believe that evils do not condemn, provided they orally confess that they are sinners. And falsities that accompany evil are found among people who justify the evils they harbor.
As in no. 378 above, robes here symbolize general truths drawn from the Word, which constitute the people's religious beliefs. They are said to have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb because the color white is predicated of truths (nos. 167, 231, 232), meaning therefore that they used truths to purify their falsities.
This symbolically means also that thus they were reformed by the Lord, because all who have fought against evils in the world and have believed in the Lord are, after their departure from the world, taught by the Lord and led by truths away from the falsities of their religion. And so they are reformed. That is because people who refrain from evils as being sins possess goodness of life, and goodness of life desires truths, and acknowledges and accepts them. But this is never the case with evil of life.
People believe that the blood of the Lamb here and elsewhere in the Word symbolizes the Lord's suffering of the cross. But the suffering of the cross was the final temptation or trial by which the Lord completely overcame the hells and fully glorified His humanity. By these two means He saved mankind (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 12-14, 15-17, and also no. 67 above). Moreover, because by His suffering of the cross the Lord fully glorified His humanity, which is to say, made it Divine, therefore nothing else can be meant by His flesh and blood but the Divinity in Him and emanating from Him - His flesh meaning the Divine goodness of His Divine love, and His blood meaning the Divine truth emanating from that goodness.
[2] Blood is mentioned many times in the Word, and everywhere it symbolizes, in the spiritual sense, either the Lord's Divine truth, which is the same as the Divine truth of the Word, or in an opposite sense, the Divine truth of the Word falsified or profaned, as can be seen from the following passages.
First, that blood symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth or the Divine truth of the Word can be seen from these passages:
Blood was called the blood of the covenant, and a covenant conjoins, a conjunction that the Lord accomplishes by His Divine truth. So, for example, in Zechariah:
By the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the pit... (Zechariah 9:11)
After Moses read the Book of the Law in the hearing of the people, he sprinkled half the blood on the people and said,
This is the blood of the covenant which Jehovah has made with you in accordance with all these words. (Exodus 24:3-8)
Moreover,
(Jesus) took the cup..., and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. ...this is My blood, the blood of the new covenant... (Matthew 26:27-28, cf. Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20)
The blood of the new covenant or testament symbolizes nothing else than the Word, which is called a covenant or testament - the Old Covenant or Testament, and the New Covenant or Testament - thus symbolizing the Divine truth in it.
[3] Since blood has this symbolic meaning, the Lord therefore gave His disciples wine, saying, "This is My blood" - wine symbolizing Divine truth (no. 316). Wine is also on that account called "the blood of grapes" (Genesis 49:11, Deuteronomy 32:14).
This is still further apparent from these words of the Lord:
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will have no life in you... For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (John 6:53-56).
It is clearly apparent that blood here means Divine truth, because the text says that he who drinks has life, and abides in the Lord, and the Lord in him. This is the effect of Divine truth and a life in accordance with it, and an effect confirmed by the Holy Supper, as everyone in the church may know.
[4] Since blood symbolizes the Lord's Divine truth, which is the same as the Divine truth of the Word, and this is the essence of the Old and New Covenants or Testaments, therefore blood was the holiest representative symbol in the Israelite Church, in which every single thing corresponded to something spiritual. So, for example, the people were to take some of the blood of the paschal lamb and put it on the doorposts and lintel of their houses to keep the plague from coming upon them (Exodus 12:7, 13, 22). The blood of the burnt offering was to be sprinkled on the altar, at the base of the altar, on Aaron and his sons, and on their vestments (Exodus 29:12, 16, 20-21).
[5] The blood of the Lamb has a like symbolism in the following verses in the book of Revelation:
...war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon... And they overcame it by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony... (Revelation 12:7, 11)
For no one can think that Michael and his angels overcame the dragon with anything other than the Lord's Divine truth in the Word. Angels in heaven, indeed, cannot think of any blood, nor do they think of the Lord's suffering, but of His Divine truth and resurrection. Consequently, when a person thinks about the Lord's blood, angels perceive His Divine truth, and when a person thinks about the Lord's suffering, they perceive His glorification, and then only His resurrection. I have been granted to know the reality of this by much experience.
[6] That blood symbolizes Divine truth is apparent also from these verses in the book of Psalms:
(God) will save the souls of the needy... Precious shall be their blood in His sight. And they shall live, and He will give them the gold of Sheba. (Psalms 72:13-15)
The blood, precious in the sight of God, stands for Divine truth among those people. The gold of Sheba is the resulting wisdom.
In Ezekiel:
Gather together... to My great sacrifice... on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall... drink the blood of the princes of the earth... You shall... drink blood till you are drunk at My sacrifice which I am sacrificing for you... (Thus) I will set My glory among the nations. (Ezekiel 39:17-21)
Blood here does not mean blood, because the statement is that they will drink the blood of the princes of the earth and that they will drink blood till they are drunk. But the true meaning of the word emerges when blood is understood to mean Divine truth. The subject there, too, is the Lord's church, which He would establish among gentiles.
[7] Second, that blood symbolizes Divine truth can be clearly seen from its opposite meaning, in which it symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word falsified or profaned, as is apparent from these passages:
He who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil... (Isaiah 33:15)
You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; Jehovah abhors the bloody and deceitful man. (Psalms 5:6)
...everyone recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord has... rinsed away (her) blood... from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of purification. (Isaiah 4:3-4)
...on the day you were born... I saw you trampled in your blood, and I said to you in your blood, "Live!" ...I washed you and rinsed away the blood upon you... (Ezekiel 16:5-6, 9, 22, 36, 38)
They wandered blind in the streets; they have defiled themselves with blood, and what they cannot touch, they touch with their garments. (Lamentations 4:13-14)
The garment is polluted with blood. (Isaiah 9:5)
Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent... (Jeremiah 2:34)
Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings... (Isaiah 1:15-16)
...your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken a lie... They make haste to shed innocent blood. (Isaiah 59:3, 7)
...Jehovah is coming out... to visit the iniquity... of the earth; then the earth will disclose her blood... (Isaiah 26:21)
...as many as received Him, to them He gave the ability to be children of God..., who were born, not of blood... (John 1:12-13)
In (Babylon) was found the blood of prophets and saints... (Revelation 18:24)
...the sea... became as the blood of a dead man... ...the springs of water... became blood. (Revelation 16:3-4. Cf. Isaiah 15:9, Psalms 105:29)
The like is symbolized by the rivers, ponds, and pools of water in Egypt being turned into blood (Exodus 7:15-25).
...the moon (shall be turned) into blood, before the coming of the great... day of Jehovah. (Joel 2:31)
...the moon became... blood. (Revelation 6:12)
In these places and many others, blood symbolizes the truth of the Word falsified, and also profaned. But this can be seen more clearly when these passages in the Word are read in context.
So, then, since blood in an opposite sense symbolizes the truth of the Word falsified or profaned, it is apparent that blood in a true sense symbolizes the truth of the Word not falsified.
Apocalypse Revealed #68
68. CHAPTER 2
1. "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
2. I know your works, your labor, and your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have explored those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;
3. and you have endured and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.
4. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first charity.
5. Remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent.
6. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.'
8. "And to the angel of the church of the people of Smyrna write, 'These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and is alive:
9. I know your works, and tribulation, and poverty, and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
10. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.'
12. "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword:
13. I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
15. Thus you have also those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
16. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.'
18. "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
19. I know your works, and charity and ministry, and faith, and your patience, and your works, and the last more than the first.
20. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, that you allow the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
21. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
22. Behold, I am casting her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless she repents of her deeds.
23. I will kill her sons with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to his works.
24. Yet to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.
25. Still, hold fast what you have till I come.
26. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.
27. He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels, as I also have received from My Father;
28. and I will give him the morning star.
29. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
THE SPIRITUAL MEANING
The Contents of the Whole Chapter
To the churches in the Christian world: to people there who regard primarily doctrinal truths and not goods of life, those meant by the church of Ephesus, nos. 73-90.
To those there who are engaged in good endeavors as regards life, and caught up in falsities as regards doctrine, those meant by the church of the people of Smyrna, nos. 91-106.
To those there who place everything of the church in good works and not anything in truths, those meant by the church in Pergamum, nos. 107-123.
And to those there who possess a faith springing from charity, as well as to those who possess a faith divorced from charity, those meant by the church in Thyatira, nos. 124-152.
These are all called to the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem.
The Contents of the Individual Verses
| Verse Contents | Spiritual Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1. "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, | To people and concerning people who regard doctrinal truths primarily, and not goods of life: |
| 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, | The Lord, the source of all truths by means of the Word, |
| who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: | the source of all enlightenment for people who are part of His church. |
| 2. I know your works, | The Lord sees all a person's inner and outer qualities simultaneously, |
| your labor, and your patience, | their effort and perseverance, |
| and that you cannot bear those who are evil. | that they cannot endure to have evils called goods, or the converse. |
| And you have explored those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; | They have examined what in the church are called goods and truths, which nevertheless are evils and falsities. |
| 3. and you have endured and have patience, | Their perseverance with them. |
| and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. | Their effort and work in acquiring for themselves the constituents of religion and its accompanying doctrine. |
| 4. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first charity. | But this is against them, that they do not hold goods of life in first place. |
| 5. Remember therefore from where you have fallen | A calling to mind of their going astray, |
| and repent and do the first works, | in order to turn the state of their life around. |
| or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent. | Otherwise it is certain that enlightenment will not be granted for them to continue to see truths. |
| 6. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. | Owing to their truths they know this and therefore do not wish works to be merit-seeking. |
| 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. | Anyone who understands these things, let him obey what the Divine truth of the Word teaches those who will be members of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. |
| To him who overcomes | To him who fights against evils and falsities and is reformed, |
| I will give to eat from the tree of life, | an assimilation of the goodness of love and charity from the Lord, |
| which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.' | inwardly in the truths of wisdom and faith. |
| 8. "And to the angel of the church of the people of Smyrna write, | To people and concerning people who as to life are engaged in good endeavors, but as to doctrine are caught up in falsities: |
| 'These things says the First and the Last, | The Lord, that He alone is God, |
| who was dead, and is alive: | that He has been disregarded in the church and His humanity not acknowledged to be Divine, even though in respect to it, too, He alone is life and the only source of eternal life. |
| 9. I know your works, | The Lord sees all those people's inner and outer qualities simultaneously, |
| and tribulation, and poverty, | that they are caught up in falsities and so are not engaged in good practices, |
| and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, | their false speaking in saying that they have among them goods of love, when in fact they do not, |
| but are a synagogue of Satan. | because as to doctrine they are caught up in falsities. |
| 10. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. | Do not despair when you are infested by evils and attacked by falsities. |
| Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, | Their goodness of life will be infested by evils emanating from hell, |
| that you may be tested, | through falsities assailing them. |
| and you will have tribulation ten days. | This will continue the whole time. |
| Be faithful until death, | Their reception of truths until their falsities are removed. |
| and I will give you the crown of life. | They will then have eternal life, their reward for overcoming. |
| 11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. | The same here as before [verse 7]. |
| He who overcomes | He who fights against evils and falsities and is reformed |
| shall not be hurt by the second death.' | will not later succumb to evils and falsities from hell. |
| 12. "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, | To people and concerning people who place everything having to do with the church in good works, and not anything in doctrinal truths: |
| 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: | The Lord in relation to doctrinal truths from the Word, by which evils and falsities are dispelled. |
| 13. I know your works, | The same here as before [verses 2, 9]. |
| and where you dwell, [where Satan's throne is]. | Their life in darkness, |
| And you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, | even though they have religion and worship in accordance with it, |
| even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. | at a time when all truth has been extinguished by falsities in the church. |
| 14. But I have a few things against you, | Against them are the following: |
| because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. | that they have among them people who perform hypocritical works, by which the worship of God in the church is defiled and adulterated; |
| 15. Thus you have also those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. | that they have among them also people who make works deserving of merit. |
| 16. Repent, | They should guard themselves against such works. |
| or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. | If they do not, the Lord will contend with them from the Word. |
| 17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. | The same here as before [verses 7, 11]. |
| To him who overcomes | The same here as before [verses 7, 11]. |
| I will give to eat of the hidden manna. | An assimilation of the good of celestial love then, and thus a conjunction of the Lord with those who perform works. |
| And I will give him a white stone, | Truths supportive of and united to good. |
| and on the stone a new name written, | Thus they will have a quality of good that they did not have before, |
| which no one knows except him who receives it.' | which is not apparent to anyone, because it is engraved on their life. |
| 18. "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, | To people and concerning people who are governed by a faith arising from charity, and so are engaged in good works; and also to people and concerning people who are governed by a faith divorced from charity, and so are engaged in evil works. |
| 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, | The Lord in respect to the Divine wisdom of His Divine love. |
| and His feet like fine brass: | Natural Divine good. |
| 19. I know your works, | The same here as before [verses 2, 9, 13]. |
| and charity and ministry, | The spiritual affection called charity, and the practice of it. |
| and your faith and patience, | Truth and their effort to acquire it and teach it. |
| and your works, and the last more than the first. | The growth of these from an affection for spiritual truth. |
| 20. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, | These are the things that follow: |
| that you allow the woman Jezebel, | that they have among them people in the church who divorce faith from charity, |
| who calls herself a prophetess, | and who make faith the only doctrine of the church, |
| to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality | in consequence of which faith the truths of the church are falsified. |
| and eat things sacrificed to idols. | The defilement of worship and profanations. |
| 21. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. | Those who confirm themselves in that doctrine do not turn back from it, even if they see things contrary to it in the Word. |
| 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, | Therefore they must be left to their doctrine with its falsifications and be sorely infested by falsities, |
| unless she repents of her deeds. | if they refuse to turn back from divorcing faith from charity. |
| 23. I will kill her sons with death, | Truths from the Word will all be turned into falsities, |
| that all the churches may know that I am He who searches the reins and hearts. | so that the church may know that the Lord sees the quality of truth and the quality of good in everyone, |
| And I will give to each one of you according to his works. | and gives to everyone according to the charity and its accompanying faith present in his works. |
| 24. Yet to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, | To those in whose case the doctrine of faith is divorced from charity, and to those in whose case the doctrine of faith is combined with charity, |
| and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, | who do not understand the interior constituents of their tenets, which are nothing but falsities: |
| I will put on you no other burden. | Only let them guard themselves against those people, |
| 25. Still, hold fast what you have till I come. | so that they may retain the few things that they know from the Word about charity and its resulting faith, and live according to them, until the Lord's advent. |
| 26. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, | Those who are in fact governed by charity and its resulting faith, and continue to be governed by them to the end of their life, |
| to him I will give power over the nations. | will overcome the evils in themselves that come from hell |
| 27. He shall rule them with a rod of iron; | by truths drawn from the literal sense of the Word and at the same time by rational considerations from a natural sight, |
| they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels, | as being of little or no account. |
| as I also have received from My Father; | And this owing to the Lord, who, when He was in the world, acquired for Himself all power over the hells, by virtue of His Divinity that He had in Him. |
| 28. and I will give him the morning star. | Intelligence and wisdom then. |
| 29. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'" | The same here as before [verses 7, 11, 17]. |
