Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 409because those who are in spiritual love or in charity and faiththerefrom, are in intelligence; while those who are in celestial love,or in love to the Lord, and in the perception of truth therefrom, arein wisdom. “That no one take thy crown” signifies lest intelligenceshould perish, since evils and falsities therefrom take away man’sintelligence; for intelligence pertains to truth, and this is taken awayfrom man by evil spirits when he is in evils, because he is thenassociated with them; and what is thus taken away perishes.219. Verse 12. He that overcometh I will make him a pillar in thetemple of My God, signifies that those who are steadfast will be inDivine truth in heaven. This is evident from the signification of“overcoming,” as being to be steadfast in the genuine affection oftruth (see above n. 128); here in faith from charity, since that faithis treated of in what is written to the angel of this church (seeabove, n. 203); also from the signification of “pillar” as beingDivine truth sustaining; also from the signification of “the templeof God” as being in the highest sense, the Lord’s Divine Human,and in the relative sense, the Lord’s spiritual kingdom, thus theheaven that constitutes that kingdom (of which presently). “A pillarin the temple” means Divine truth sustaining, because “temple”signifies heave”, and heaven is heaven from the Divine truth thatproceeds from the Lord; for by heaven all angels are meant, becauseheaven is made up of angels, and front them is called heaven; andangels are angels in the measure in which they receive the Divinetruth that proceeds from the Lord; and for this reason angels in theWord also signify Divine truths (see above, n. 130, 200). Now asheaven is Divine truth, and “temple” signifies heaven, it followsthat all things of the temple signify such things as pertain to Divinetruth, and that the “pillars” therein signify Divine truths sustaining.Divine truths sustaining are in general lower truths, because thesesustain the higher; for there are lower and higher Divine truths, asthere are lower and higher heavens. (There are degrees of these, onwhich see in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 38, 208, 209, 211.)The heavens that belong to a lower degree sustain those that belongto a higher degree; here, therefore, by the Lord’s making him thatovercometh “a pillar in the temple” is meant that such will be in alower heaven. They who are in the faith of charity are also in thelower heaven, which is called the spiritual heaven; while those who