1010. (Verse 16) And gathered them into a place called, in the Hebrew, Armageddon. That this signifies a state of combat from falsities against truths, arising from the love of self with the men of the church, is evident from the signification of gathering them together into a place, namely, to battle, as denoting to dispose them for combat from falsities against truths. The reason why a state of combat is denoted is, that place signifies the state of a thing; and the reason why it is from falsities against truths is, that it is meant that the dragon gathered them together. For in chapter 12 it is said:
That the dragon went to make war with the rest of the seed of the woman, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (ver. 17).
And concerning the beast ascending out of the sea in chapter 13:
That it was given him to make war with the saints and to overcome them (ver. 7).
And here now the place where they were to be gathered together and enter upon the battle is named.
It is believed that by Armageddon is meant Megiddo, where Josiah, king of Judah, fighting against Pharaoh, was overthrown (see 2 Kings 23:29, 30; 2 Chron. 35:20-24; and also Zech. 12:11). But what is there signified by Megiddo, in the spiritual sense, is not yet known, therefore it shall be stated. By Armageddon is signified the love of honour, rule, and super-eminence. This love is also signified by Megiddo in the old Hebrew tongue, as is evident from the signification of that word in Arabic. Nor is anything else meant by Armageddon in the heavens; for all the places mentioned in the Word signify things and states.
[2] The reason why the love of honour, rule, and super-eminence denotes the last state of the church, when falsities are about to fight against truths is, that this love is about to rule in the church at its end; and when this love rules then also falsity from evil rules and overcomes truth. For this love more than all others extinguishes the light of heaven, and induces the darkness of hell; for that love is the very proprium of man. And a man cannot by any power be drawn away from his proprium and raised towards heaven as long as this love rules. And the proprium in which this love altogether immerses a man is nothing but evil and falsity. That a man from this love is in thick darkness as to all things of heaven and the church, consequently, in utter falsities, does not appear to the man who is in it, because their natural light (lumen) appears to be so bright that spiritual light is extinguished; but that bright light is the result of a false light (lumen), for it is enkindled by the love of glory, thus, by the love of self-intelligence, which intelligence, seen in heaven, is insanity and foolishness. When, therefore, this love rules in the church, it is all over with it; for neither the understanding of truth, nor the will of good any longer exists with any one. For honour, rule, and super-eminence afford the highest pleasure, and are felt as the greatest good, and the latter are the end for the sake of which all other things are considered. And, in this case, all goods and truths, as well civil and moral as spiritual, serve as means that are loved only for the end and according to the degree in which they serve it. And if they do not serve, they are accounted as vile and rejected. So also with respect to all uses, civil, moral, or spiritual. It is otherwise when uses are regarded as the end, and a man does not attribute glory and honour to his own person, but to the uses themselves, according to their excellence. Then honour, rule, and super-eminence are the means, and they are esteemed only so far as they are serviceable to uses as means. From these things the meaning of Armageddon is in some measure evident.
[3] It has also been shown me to the life, that this love has vastated the church, and adulterated all its goods and truths, not only in the kingdoms of Babylon, but in all other kingdoms. For almost every one at this day, when he comes, after death, into the spiritual world, takes with him from the natural world the desire to be honoured, to rule, and to be above others, and there are very few who love uses for the sake of uses. For their desire is, that uses may serve, and that honour, which is not a use, may command; and when this rules, which, separated from use, is nothing, no lot or inheritance can be given them in the heavens, where uses alone rule. For the kingdom of the Lord is a kingdom of uses. For when these rule, then the Lord rules, because uses are goods, and all good is from the Lord. This now is the state of the church made manifest as to things rational; this state is signified by the sixth angel pouring out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and is the subject now treated of.
Continuation concerning the Sixth Precept:-
[4] Thus far concerning adulteries. What adultery is shall now also be stated. Adulteries are all the whoredoms that destroy conjugial love. The whoredom of a husband with the wife of another, or with any woman, whether she is a widow, a virgin, or a harlot, is adultery, when this is done from disgust, or from aversion to marriage. So also the whoredom of a wife with a married man, or with a single man, when this is done for a similar reason. Also the whoredoms of any man, not married, with the wife of another, and of any woman, not married, with the husband of another, are of adultery, because they destroy conjugial love, by turning their minds from marriage to adultery. The delights of varieties, although with harlots, are also the delights of adultery; for the delight of variety destroys the delight of marriage.
The delight of the defloration of virgins without marriage as the end is also the delight of adultery; for those who are in that delight afterwards desire marriage only for the sake of defloration, which being accomplished, they loathe marriage.
In a word, all whoredom which destroys what is conjugial, and extinguishes its love, is adultery, or pertains to adultery. What, however, does not destroy what is conjugial, nor extinguish the love thereof, is fornication gushing forth from a certain instinct of nature towards marriage, which from various causes cannot yet be entered into.
