Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 327they are spiritually dead. But how this is to be understood can beseen from what was said above (n. 182) of each life, spiritual andmoral, namely, that moral life apart from spiritual life is the life ofthe love of self and the love of the world, while moral life that isfrom spiritual life is a life of love to the Lord and love towards theneighbor; this life is the life of heaven, but the other life is what iscalled spiritual death. When this is understood (see above, n. 182,)it can be known what is meant here by “being alive and yet beingdead.”[2] That “to live,” or “being alive,” signifies spiritual life in man,and “being dead” deprivation of that life, and damnation, can beseen from many passages in the Word, of which I will cite thefollowing. Thus in Ezekiel:When I shall say unto the wicked, In dying he shall die, and thoushalt not give him warning, nor speak to warn the wicked one from hisevil way, that he may be made alive, the wicked shall die in his iniquity.But if thou shalt give warning to the wicked, and he shall not turn backfrom his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in hisiniquity; yet hast thou delivered thy soul. So if thou shalt give warningto a righteous man that he sin no more, and he sin not, living he shalllive, because he took warning (3:18–21).Here “dying he shall die” is to perish in eternal death, which isdamnation, for it is said of the wicked; and “living he shall live” isto enjoy eternal life, which is salvation, for it is said of those whorepent, and of the righteous.[3] In the same:Ye have profaned Me with My people, to kill the souls that shouldnot die, and to keep alive the souls that should not live, whilst ye lie toMy people, to them that hear a lie (13:19).This treats of the falsification of truth, which is meant by “Ye haveprofaned Me with My people,” and by “ye lie to the people, tothem that hear a lie.” Here “a lie” signifies what is false, and what isfalsified. “To kill the souls that should not die” is to deprive themof the life that comes from truths; and “to keep alive the souls that