957. Till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be consummated, signifies until evils and falsities have been rejected, and those who are in them cast into hell. This is evident from the signification of "being consummated," as meaning to be ended, but here to be rejected; also from the signification of "the seven plagues," as being all the evils and falsities that have devastated the church (see above, n. 949); also from the signification of "the seven angels," as being manifestation (see n. 949). Thus "till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be consummated" signifies until the evils and falsities that are made manifest are rejected. These words signify also until those who are in evils and falsities have been cast into hell, because they relate to the time before the Last Judgment was accomplished, and before the good had been separated from the evil, and the good had been raised up into heaven and the evil cast into hell, thus before the new heaven and new earth had been established. That "no one was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be consummated" signifies that until that time the Word was in obscurity before the understanding. [2] But this arcanum must be more fully explained. The Divine truths that lie interiorly stored up in the Word could not be made manifest until after the Last Judgment had been accomplished; and for the reason that before that judgment the hells had prevailed, while since that judgment the heavens prevail; and man is placed in the middle between the hells and the heavens; consequently so long as the hells prevail the truth of the Word is either perverted or despised or rejected; but the reverse takes place when the heavens prevail. From all this it can be seen why Divine truths are now first disclosed and the spiritual sense of the Word revealed. This, then, is the meaning of the statement that the Word was in obscurity in regard to the understanding of it until those who were in evils and falsities had been cast into hell.
(Continuation respecting the First Commandment)
[3] The idea of God is the primary of all ideas; for such as this idea is such is man's communication with heaven and his conjunction with the Lord, and such is his enlightenment, his affection of truth and good, his perception, intelligence, and wisdom; for these are not from man but from the Lord according to conjunction with Him. The idea of God is the idea of the Lord and His Divine, for no other is the God of heaven and the God of earth, as He Himself teaches in Matthew:
All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth (28:18). But the idea of the Lord is more or less full and more or less clear; it is full in the inmost heaven, less full in the middle, and still less full in the ultimate heaven; therefore those who are in the inmost heaven are in wisdom, those who are in the middle in intelligence, and those who are in the ultimate in knowledge. The idea is clear in the angels who are at the center of the societies of heaven; and less clear in those who are round about, according to the degrees of distance from the center. [4] All in the heavens have places allotted them according to the fullness and clearness of their idea of the Lord, and they are in correspondent wisdom and in correspondent felicity. All those who have no idea of the Lord as Divine, like the Socinians and Arians, are under the heavens, and are unhappy. Those who have a twofold idea, namely, of an invisible God and of a visible God in a human form, also have their place under the heavens, and are not received until they acknowledge one God, and Him visible. Some in the place of a visible God see as it were something aerial, and this because God is called a spirit. If this idea is not changed with them into the idea of Man, thus of the Lord, they are not accepted. But those who have an idea of God as the inmost of nature are rejected, because they cannot help falling into the idea of nature as being God. All nations that have believed in one God, and have had an idea of Him as Man, are received by the Lord. From all this it can be seen who those are that worship God Himself and who those are that worship other gods, thus who live according to the first commandment of the Decalogue and who do not.
Revelation 16
1. And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the vials of the anger of God into the earth. 2. And the first went forth and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there came an evil and noxious sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast and that adored his image. 3. And the second angel poured out his vial into the sea; and it became blood as of one dead; and every living soul in the sea died. 4. And the third angel poured out his vial into the rivers and into the fountains of the waters; and they became blood. 5. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Thou art just, O Lord, who art, and who wast, and art holy, because Thou hast judged these things. 6. For they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7. And I heard another out of the altar saying, Yea, O Lord God Almighty, true and just are Thy judgments. 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and it was given him to scorch men with fire. 9. And men were scorched with great heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who hath authority over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom became dark, and they gnawed their tongues for distress. 11. And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their distresses and their sores; and they repented not of their works. 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared. 13. And I saw out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14. For they are spirits of demons, doing signs, to go away unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15. Behold, I come as a thief; happy is he that is awake and keepeth his garments, that he may not walk naked and they see his shame. 16. And he gathered them together into a place called in Hebrew Armageddon. 17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. 18. And there were voices, and lightnings, and thunders, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, such an earthquake, so great. 19. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the wrath of His anger. 20. And every island fled, and the mountains were not found. 21. And great hail, as of the weight of a talent, cometh down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
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