Apocalypse Revealed (Whitehead) n. 892

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892. And murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, signifies all those who make no account of the commandments of the Decalogue, and do not shun any evils therein mentioned as sins, and therefore live in them. What is signified by these four commandments of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not kill," "thou shalt not commit adultery," "thou shalt not steal," and "thou shalt not testify falsely," in their threefold sense, natural, spiritual, and celestial, may be seen in The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem (n. 62-91); therefore it is unnecessary to explain them here; but instead of the seventh commandment, which is, "Thou shalt not steal," are here mentioned "sorcerers and idolaters;" and by "sorcerers" are signified they who inquire after truths, which they falsify in order to confirm falsities and evils, as they do who take up this truth, that no one can do good from himself, and by it confirm faith alone, for this is a species of spiritual theft. What "sorcery" further signifies may be seen above (n. 462). By "idolaters" are signified they who establish worship, or are in worship, not from the Word, thus not from the Lord, but from their own intelligence (n. 459); as also they have done who, from a single saying of Paul, falsely understood, and not from any word of the Lord, have fabricated the universal doctrine of the church, which likewise is a species of spiritual theft; by "liars" are signified they who are in falsities from evil (n. 924).


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