Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 224truths, and that these were saved, but not the others. After deathevery man is instructed by angels, and those who see truths, andfrom truths falsities, are received. For the power to see truthsspiritually is then given everyone, and those see them who have notconfirmed themselves in falsities, but those who have confirmedthemselves do not want to see truths, and if they do see them theyturn their backs on them, and then either ridicule or falsify them.94. Let us illustrate this by an example. In many places in theWord, anger, wrath, and vengeance are attributed to the Lord, andit is also said that he punishes, that he casts into hell, that hetempts, and many other such things. He who believes all this insimplicity, and on that account fears God and takes care not to sinagainst him, is not condemned for that simple belief. But the manwho confirms himself in these ideas to such a degree as to believethat anger, wrath, revenge, thus things that are of evil, exist in theLord, and that from anger, wrath, and revenge he punishes a manand casts him into hell, is condemned, because he has destroyed thegenuine truth that the Lord is love itself, mercy itself, and gooditself, and that one who is these cannot be angry, wrathful, andrevengeful. These things are attributed to the Lord because such isthe appearance. So with many other things.95. That many things in the sense of the letter are apparenttruths, having genuine truths hidden within them, and that it is nothurtful to think and speak in accordance with such truths, but thatit is hurtful to confirm them to such a degree as to destroy thegenuine truth hidden within, may be illustrated by an example innature, which is presented because what is natural teaches andconvinces more clearly than what is spiritual.[2] To the eye the sun appears to revolve round the earth dailyand also annually, and therefore in the Word the sun is said to riseand set, thus make morning, noon, evening, and night, and alsomaking the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, andthus days and years; when yet the sun stands motionless, for it is anocean of fire, and it is the earth that revolves daily, and is carriedround the sun annually. The man who in simplicity and ignorance