Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 1074

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1074. Also those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful, signifies that those that are in love to the Lord, in love towards the neighbor, and in the faith of charity, have the truth respecting the Lord's Divine authority and the Divine holiness of the Word. This is evident from the signification of the "called," as being in reference to the Lord those who are in love to the Lord; also from the signification of the "chosen," as being those who are in love towards the neighbor; also from the signification of the "faithful," as being those who are in the faith of charity. That this is the meaning of "the called, the chosen, and the faithful," is evident from the Word where "the called, the chosen, and the faithful," are mentioned; and also from the fact that the angels of the third heaven, who are in love to the Lord, are called the "called," the angels of the second heaven, who are in love towards the neighbor, are called the "chosen," and the angels of the first heaven, who are in the faith of charity, are called the "faithful." And since in the Lord's church on earth there are those who belong to the third, the second, and the first heaven, and who therefore become after death angels of those heavens, so "the called, the chosen, and the faithful," mean all those in the kingdoms under the dominion of the Pope who ascribe to the Lord the power of saving men, and ascribe to the Word alone Divine holiness and inspiration, and in these two doctrines recede from the vicarship of the Pope.

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[2] As the Divine truth, when passed from the Lord Himself through the three heavens down to men in the world, was written and became the Word in each heaven, therefore the Word is the union of the heavens with each other, and the union of the heavens with the church in the world. For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in the perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are; consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens with the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord's Divine and the holiness of the Word when he reads it; and so far as such a man loves wisdom, he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished, and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63). The water that I will give you shall become a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:14). Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Work for the food that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27). Such is the Word.


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