Spiritual Meaning of REVELATION 19:10
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AR 818. Verse 10. And I fell down before his feet to adore him; and he said to me, See thou do it not; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; adore God, signifies that the angels of heaven are not to be adored and invoked, because there is nothing Divine in them; but that they are associated with men as brethren with brethren, with those who worship the Lord, and thus that, in consociation with them, the Lord alone is to be adored. "I fell down before His feet to adore Him, and He said unto me, See thou do it not, adore God," signifies that no angel of heaven is to be adored and invoked, but the Lord alone. "I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren," signifies that the Divine does not belong to an angel, but that He is associated with man as brother with brother. By "having the testimony of Jesus" is signified that he is in like manner in conjunction with the Lord, through the acknowledgment of the Divine in His Human, and through a life according to His commandments. That this is signified by "having the testimony of Jesus" will be seen in the following paragraph. That the angels of heaven are not superior to men, but that they are their equals, and that they are therefore equally the Lord‘s servants, as men are, is because all the angels have been men, born in the world, and not any of them were created immediately; as may be evident from the things which are written and shown in the work on Heaven and Hell, published at London, 1758. They indeed excel men in wisdom; but this is for the reason that they are in a spiritual state, and thence in the light of heaven, and not in a natural state, and so in the light of the world, as men are upon earth. But as far as any angel excels in wisdom, so far he acknowledges that he is not above men, but like them; on which account there is not any conjunction of men with the angels, but there is consociation with them. Conjunction is given with the Lord alone. But how conjunction with the Lord, and consociation with the angels, by the Word, are effected, see the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (Sacred n. 62-69).

AR 819. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, signifies that the acknowledgment that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and at the same time a life according to His commandments, is in the universal sense the all of the Word and of doctrine therefrom. By "the testimony of Jesus" is signified the Lord’s attestation in heaven, that man is His, and thus that he is in heaven one among the angels there: and because that attestation cannot be given to any others but to those who are in conjunction with the Lord, who acknowledge Him as the God of heaven and earth, as he teaches in (Matt. 28:18), and at the same time live according to His commandments, especially according to the commandments of the Decalogue, these two things are therefore signified by "the testimony of Jesus," see above (n. 6, 490). By that testimony is "the spirit of prophecy," is signified that it is the all of the Word and of doctrine therefrom; for the Word in the universal sense treats only of the Lord, and of life according to His commandments. Hence it is, that the Lord is the Word; for He is the Word, because the Word is from Him, and treats of Him alone, and teaches solely how He is to be acknowledged and worshiped; and these are the commandments of the Word, which are called Divine truths, according to which one must live, that he may be able to come into conjunction with the Lord. That the Word treats of the Lord alone, and that it is thence that the Lord is called the Word, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord (L n. 1-7, 8-11, 19-28, 37-44): and in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (Sacred n. 80-90, 98-100). This is also what the Lord says, that:--

Author:  E. Swedenborg (1688-1772).

Design:  I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002.

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