Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 881

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881. For she hath given all nations to drink of the wine of the anger of her whoredom, signifies the adulteration of all things of the good of heaven and the church by direful falsities of evil. This is evident from the signification of "wine," as being truth from good, and in the contrary sense falsity from evil (see above, n. 376); also from the signification of "anger," as being evil in the whole complex, and thus hatred against good and truth, and the desire to destroy them (see above, n. 693, 754); also from the signification of "whoredom," as being the falsification of truth (see above, n. 141, 161); also from the signification of "giving all nations to drink," as being to adulterate goods, for "to give to drink" signifies to imbue, and "nations" signify those who are in the good of love and of life, and in the sense abstracted from persons, goods. (That "to drink" and "to give to drink" signify to imbue and to appropriate, may be seen above, n. 617; and that "nations" signify those who are in the good of love and of life, and in the abstract sense the goods of the church, n. 175, 331, 625.) "To give all nations to drink" here signifies to adulterate the goods of the Word and thus of the church, because "the wine of the anger of whoredom" signifies the falsification of truth; and truth falsified adulterates good. But in what way all the truths of the Word are falsified and thus all its goods adulterated will be told in the explanation of chapters 16 and 17, where Babylon is treated of. From all this it can now be seen that "to give all nations to drink of the wine of the anger of her whoredom" signifies the adulteration of all things of the good of heaven and the church by direful falsities of evil. They are called falsities of evil because all falsities arising from the love of ruling for the sake of self and self-eminence are falsities of evil, and are direful according to that love.


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