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John 2

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1 On the third day two people were going to be married at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there:

2 And Jesus with his disciples came as guests.

3 When they had not enough wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.

4 Jesus said to her, Woman, this is not your business; my time is still to come.

5 His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.

6 Now six pots of stone, every one taking two or three firkins of water, were placed there for the purpose of washing, as is the way of the Jews.

7 Jesus said to the servants, Make the pots full of water. And they made them full to the top.

8 Then he said to them, Now take some, and give it to the master of the feast. So they took it to him.

9 After tasting the water which had now become wine, the master of the feast (having no idea where it came from, though it was clear to the servants who took the water out) sent for the newly-married man,

10 And said to him, Every man first puts out his best wine and when all have had enough he puts out what is not so good; but you have kept the good wine till now.

11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and let his glory be seen openly; and his disciples put their faith in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they were there not more than two or three days.

13 The time of the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

14 And there in the Temple he saw men trading in oxen and sheep and doves, and he saw the changers of money in their seats:

15 And he made a whip of small cords and put them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and the oxen, sending in all directions the small money of the changers and overturning their tables;

16 And to those who were trading in doves he said, Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a market.

17 And it came to the minds of the disciples that the Writings say, I am on fire with passion for your house.

18 Then the Jews put this question to him: What sign of authority have you to give us, seeing that you do these things?

19 And Jesus said to them, Send destruction on this Temple and I will put it up again in three days.

20 The Jews said, The building of this Temple took forty-six years; and you will put it up in three days!

21 But his words were about that holy building which was his body.

22 So when he had come back again from the dead, the memory of these words came back to the disciples, and they had faith in the holy Writings and in the word which Jesus had said.

23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, a great number of people came to have faith in his name, after seeing the signs which he did.

24 But Jesus did not have faith in them, because he had knowledge of them all.

25 He had no need for any witness about man; for he himself had knowledge of what was in man.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed #796

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796. 18:23 "The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore." This symbolically means that those caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

The light of a lamp symbolizes enlightenment by the Lord and a consequent perception of spiritual truth. That is because the light means the light of heaven, which is the light angels have, and people, too, as regards their intellect, because the light in its essence is Divine wisdom. For it emanates from the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world, which in its essence is the Divine love in Divine wisdom, and the only light that can emanate from it is the light of Divine wisdom, and the only warmth the warmth of Divine love. The reality of this is something we showed in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom, nos. 83-172.

Since that light comes from the Lord, and the Lord is omnipresent in it and by means of it, therefore it is the means of all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth, a perception that those people have who love Divine truths spiritually, that is, who love Divine truths because they are true, thus because they are Divine. Plainly this is what it is to love the Lord. For the Lord is omnipresent in that light, inasmuch as Divine love and wisdom do not exist in space, but are present wherever they are received, in accordance with their reception.

[2] That people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion are without any enlightenment and so without any perception of spiritual truth, can be seen from the fact that they have no love for any spiritual light. For as we said, spiritual light originates from the Lord, and the only people who can receive and accept that light are people conjoined with the Lord, and conjunction with the Lord is achieved solely by an acknowledgment and worship of Him, and at the same time by a life in accordance with His commandments from the Word. An acknowledgment and worship of the Lord and reading the Word bring about the Lord's presence, but it is these two things combined at the same time with a life in accordance with His precepts that bring about a conjunction with Him.

The opposite is the case in Roman Catholicism. The Lord is acknowledged in it, but without His having any dominion, and the Word is acknowledged without its being read. Instead of the Lord they worship the Pope, and instead of the Word they acknowledge papal bulls, and live according to those bulls, and not according to the commandments in the Word. The bulls, moreover, have as their goal the dominion of the Pope and his ministers over heaven and the world, while the commandments in the Word have as their goal the dominion of the Lord over heaven and the world. These two goals are as diametrically opposed to each other as heaven and hell.

We have said this much for it to be known that people caught up in the Roman Catholic religion because of its doctrine and a life in accordance with it are without the least light of a lamp, that is to say, without any enlightenment from the Lord and so without any perception of spiritual truth.

[3] That the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and perception of spiritual truth is apparent from the following:

He was the true light which enlightens every person coming into the world. (John 1:4-12)

This in reference to the Lord.

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world... Whoever does the truth comes to the light... (John 3:19, 21)

Jesus said..., "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you... While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may be children of light." (John 12:35-36)

(Jesus said,) "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)

(Jesus said,) ."..I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)

(Simeon said,) ."..my eyes have seen Your salvation..., a light for revelation to the Gentiles...." (Luke 2:30-32)

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; upon those sitting in the region and shadow of death, light has arisen. (Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 9:2)

I have given You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

The city (New Jerusalem) has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23, cf. 22:5)

It is apparent from this that the Lord is the light that produces all enlightenment and the consequent perception of spiritual truth. And because the Lord is the light, the Devil is darkness. The Devil is also the love of exercising dominion over all the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord, and over the Lord Himself; and to the extent it achieves that dominion, it darkens, extinguishes, sets on fire and burns up the Divine sanctities belonging to the Lord.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.