Selection from Apocalypse Revealed ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
And I will give power unto my two witnesses . . . Revelation 11:3Those who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, and who are conjoined to Him by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue.
The reason why these are here meant by "the two witnesses," is, because these two are the two essentials of the New Church.
That the first essential, that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, is "a testimony," and consequently, that they are "witnesses" who confess and acknowledge it in the heart — the good of life, or good in act; consequently all in the aggregate who are in that good. These "testify," that is, see, acknowledge, receive from the heart in the light, and confess the truths of the Word, especially that truth therein that the Lord's Human is Divine (from Apocalypse Revealed 6); and likewise from the following passages:-
I am the fellow servant of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10).
The angels of Michael overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of His testimony: and the dragon went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who kept the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev 12:11, 17).
The souls of them that were smitten with the axe for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God (Rev. 20:4).These are they who acknowledged the Lord. This is called "the testimony of Jesus," because the Lord testifies it from His Word, thus from Himself; on which account He is called:
The Faithful and True Witness (Rev. 1:5; 3:14).And He says:
I testify of Myself, and My testimony is true; because I know whence I come, and whither I go (John 8:14).Also:
When the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall testify of Me (John 15:26).That the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, which is also the Holy Spirit, is the proceeding Divine, and that this is the Lord Himself, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord (n. 46-54.)
Now because the Lord Himself is the Witness, therefore those also are meant by "witnesses" who testify this from the Lord, as John did:
Jesus said, Ye sent unto John, and he was a witness to the truth; yet I receive not testimony from man (John 5:33-34).
John came for a testimony, that he might testify concerning the light: he was not the Light, but that he might testify of the Light. The Word, which was with God, and which was God, was the true Light (John 1:1-14, 34).That the second essential of the New Church, which is conjunction with the Lord by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue, is "a Testimony," is manifest from the fact that the Decalogue is called "the Testimony;" as in these passages:
Thou shalt put into the ark the Testimony which I will give thee (Exod. 25:16).
Moses put the Testimony into the Ark (Exod. 40:20).
The mercy-seat which is over the Testimony (Lev. 16:13).
Leave the staffs of the tribes before the Testimony (Num. 17:4. Besides other places, as Exod. 25:22; 31:7, 18; 32:15; Ps. 78:5; 132:12).Something shall here be said concerning conjunction with the Lord by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue.
There are two tables upon which those precepts are written, one for the Lord, the other for man.
• The first table, teaches that many gods are not to be worshiped, but one
• The second table, that evils are not to be done
Therefore, when one God is worshiped, and man does not do evils, conjunction takes place; for so far as a man desists from evils, that is, does the work of repentance, so far he is accepted by God, and does good from Him.
But who now is the one God?
A trine or triune God is not one God when this trine and triune is in three Persons; but He, in whom the trine or triune is in one Person, is one God, and that God is the Lord. Entangle the ideas as far as you can, yet you will never be able to extricate the idea that God is one, unless He is also one Person. That this is so, the whole Word teaches, both in the Old Prophetic, and in the New Apostolic Word.
(from Apocalypse Revealed 490)