THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 98-99)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Series —
(pt. 98-99)
NO ONE CAN SHUN EVILS AS SINS
SO AS TO BE INWARDLY AVERSE TO THEM
EXCEPT BY MEANS OF COMBATS AGAINST THEM

The Christian Church is called the church militant, and it cannot be called militant except as against the devil, and thus against the evils that are from hell. Hell is the devil. And the temptation that the man of the church undergoes is this warfare.

Battlings against evils, which battlings are temptations, are treated of in many places in the Word. They are meant by these words of the Lord:—
• I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit (John 12:24).

And also by these:
• If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it (Mark 8:34-35).

The "cross" means temptation (as also in Matt. 10:38; 16:24; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:27).

By his "life" is meant the life of man's Own (as also in Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Luke 9:24; and especially in John 12:25), which is also the "life of the flesh that profiteth nothing" (John 6:63).

In regard to battlings against evils, and victories over them, the Lord speaks in the Revelation to all the churches:—
• To the church in Ephesus: To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).
• To the church in Smyrna: He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death (Rev. 2:11).
• To the church in Pergamos: To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it (Rev. 2:17).
• To the church in Thyatira: He that overcometh, and that keepeth My words unto the end, to him will I give power [potestas] over the nations; and the morning star (Rev. 2:26, 28).
• To the church in Sardis [He that overcometh shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels (Rev. 3:5).
• To the church in Philadelphia:] He that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, of the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and My new name (Rev. 3:12).
• To the church in Laodicea: He that overcometh I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne (Rev. 3:21).

(LIFE 98-99)