634. "If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand." This symbolizes people who acknowledge and accept the doctrine of justification and salvation by faith alone, affirm it, and live in accordance with it.

To worship the beast means, symbolically, to acknowledge that faith (no. 580). To worship its image means, symbolically, to acknowledge and accept that doctrine (no. 603). To receive its mark on the forehead or hand means, symbolically, to accept the doctrine with love and faith and to affirm it in oneself (nos. 605, 606); and because people who confirm themselves in that doctrine with love and faith also live in accordance with it, this too is meant.

[2] There are three steps in the acceptance of that doctrine, which are meant by the words here. The first step is to acknowledge that doctrine. The second step is to affirm it in oneself. And the third step is to live in accordance with it. To acknowledge it involves thought. To affirm it in oneself involves understanding. And to live in accordance with it involves the will.

There are people who have taken the first step who nevertheless have not progressed to the second or third. There are people who have taken the first and second steps who have nevertheless not progressed to the third. But people who have taken the third step, which is to live in accordance with that doctrine - these are the people of whom the following declarations are made in verses 10 and 11.

To live in accordance with that doctrine is to make evil of no account, thinking that evil does not condemn because works of the law do not save, but only faith. It is also to make goodness of no account, thinking to oneself that no one can do good of himself without its being merit-seeking. People who avoid evils, therefore, only on account of civil and moral laws, and not on account of Divine laws, are people who do good only for the sake of themselves and of the world, thus out of a love of self and not for the Lord's sake, and so not out of a love of the neighbor.

[3] These are the people of whom the following declarations are made in verses 10 and 11, because nothing condemns that enters only into the thought and understanding. But what enters into the will does condemn, since it enters the life and becomes permanent; for nothing can enter the will unless it becomes a matter of love, and love is a person's life.

These are also people who do not examine themselves, recognize their sins, and repent, and for that reason are damned. For at heart they say, "What need is there for examining, recognizing and acknowledging sins and for repentance, when faith alone encompasses them all?"

I have seen many such people in the spiritual world who avoided evils and practiced goods solely because of civil and moral law and not at the same time spiritual law, and they were cast into hell.

525. "And Your wrath has come, and the time to judge the dead." This symbolizes the destruction of and the last judgment on those people who were without any spiritual life.

Your wrath symbolizes a last judgment (no. 340), thus their destruction. This is the symbolic meaning of the Lord's wrath because it appears to people as though the Lord casts people into hell out of anger, when in fact an evil person casts himself into hell. Indeed, the case is similar to that of an evildoer who blames his punishment on the law, or on the fire that burns him if he sticks his hand into it, or on the sword held out in the hand of someone protecting himself if he is pierced through when he rushes upon the blade. Such is the case with everyone who sets himself against the Lord and out of anger rushes upon those whom the Lord protects.

The dead who were to be judged mean, in a universal sense, people who have died and departed from the world, but in a strict sense, they mean people who are without any spiritual life. It is the latter who are spoken of in terms of judgment (John 3:18; 5:24, 29). That is because people who possess spiritual life are called the living. Spiritual life is present only in people who turn to the Lord and at the same time refrain from evils as sins.

[2] People who are without any spiritual life are those meant in the following passages:

They joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. (Psalms 106:28)

...the enemy persecutes my soul...; he has made me dwell in darkness, like the world's dead. (Psalms 143:3)

To hear the groaning of the prisoner, (and) to release those appointed to die... (Psalms 102:20)

I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, when you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die... (Revelation 3:1-2)

These are the people meant by the dead because their death means spiritual death. Consequently, the slain also mean people who have died that same death (nos. 321, 325, and elsewhere).

Those who have died and departed from the world are meant by the dead in the following places:

The dead were judged according to... the things which were written in the books. (Revelation 20:12)

The rest of the dead did not live again... (Revelation 20:5)

That is because the first death there means the natural death that is a passing on from the world, while the second death means spiritual death, which is damnation.