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Question 2: Do you think you can be of some special use to the Swedenborgian organizations?
Answer:
There are many reasons why I am sure that it has pleased the Lord to choose me to function as Benjamin in the spiritual sense. My history and many events are proofs of this as you can see from the preceding chapter. My character has been unusual since my childhood. I am not a very social personality but an independent person who hardly cares about what others think about me. This has permitted me to develop in a way only a few people dare to do. To love the truth more than my own personal interest has always been typical of me. I am a Finn and we Finns are individualistic people. It is not by chance that many of the world’s best Formula drivers, rally drivers and ski jumpers are Finns. I am not submissive to social pressure and this is the essential point in facing strong temptations. Neither do I care if other people do not like me. I do know that the spiritual function of Benjamin is irritating, and my texts can even shock some people.
I realize that my most important function is to disclose infernal tendencies in the New Church, also in science, history, culture and social life. I do not expect that the New Church people will receive me with enthusiasm. People of our planet are very prone to believe or to respect authorities, but I am dominated by intuition or perception. I detest blind faith. There is blind faith in many things other than in religions. Especially in science and in history there are ridiculous assumptions which are believed to be absolute truths, but which are absolute nonsense, such as denying the existence of ethers, the theories of relativity, the assumption that man is a descendant of apes, the belief that in our solar system there are human beings only on our earth, that six million Jews were killed in WW II, etc. I will explain some of these stupidities later.
People of our planet are sensuous and according to Swedenborg they are related to the natural and external sense in the Grand Man (Earths in the Universe, 122). The result is that most people also think sensuously, or their thinking is near to their speech, that is, they are thinking with words. This is one reason why all kinds of stupid scientific theories prevail on this planet. My process of regeneration has been towards intuitive thinking or towards perception. The perception is thinking without words. I have had periods in my life when I have drunk a lot of alcohol. This has been of Providence because it has prepared my brain, and especially my cerebellum, to receive influx from the spiritual-celestial heaven. I do not recommend anybody to drink too much alcohol, but alcohol has a noble significance or correspondence: it corresponds to the wisdom of conjugial love like wine corresponds to the spiritual truth (Conjugial Love, 145). I can read texts in eight languages, but I do speak fluently only my mother tongue, Finnish. I have difficulties to speak and write well foreign languages because this part of my brain is not my best developed part and words hamper my intuitive thinking. Nevertheless, I am studying English every day and can speak it moderately well. I am sorry that the English in my answers is sometimes incorrect. I am grateful if some native speaker is interested in correcting it.
My writings show if I can be of some use to the New Church. I can understand and disclose the spiritual-celestial sense in some places in the Word and this can be of great use to the New Church because this sense refers to the present-time events. Swedenborg explains the spiritual-celestial sense only in some places (the words Benjamin, Bethlehem and Ephrata). My temptations of over 45 years prove that I know the mechanism of spiritual, celestial and spiritual-celestial temptations. Temptations are different in different times. The present people are of different genius compared with the people of old and even of Swedenborg’s time; also Europeans are different from Asians etc. The knowledge of the quality of temptations as they are in our days can be useful to New Church people.
I do not need any authority, honour or prestige. I want that everyone uses his or her own understanding in evaluating my writings. My only motive is this: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven”. (Matthew 6: 9, 10). My only aim is to produce some use to the New Church by disclosing infernal influx, especially from the Jewish hells which dominate our planet. However, I know that the present New Church organizations have failed to be the Lord’s Wife, that is, the Holy Jerusalem as a whole in spite of the fact that some individuals have been exceedingly regenerated. Anyway, the Swedenborgian Churches and other organizations have done an enormous preliminary work in publishing books in English for the now started New Holy Jerusalem.
To begin my work, I will disclose briefly the spiritual-celestial sense of the numbers 1260 (Revelation, 12: 6), 1290 and 1335 (Daniel, 12: 11, 12) because these numbers refer to the New Holy Jerusalem (Revelation, 21: 2, 3).
Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
This refers to the first period of the New Church (Swedenborgian). The woman refers to the Church and the wilderness refers to its being among a few. Number 1260=7·5·3·3·2·2.
Number 7 refers to the holy state of that church, that is, it is instituted by God Himself with help of His servant Emanuel Swedenborg.
Number 5 refers to its being among a few.
3·3 refers to its truth multiplied and 2·2 to its goodness multiplied or the Heavenly Doctrine in which there is truths and goodness in abundance.
1260 as a whole means the same as a time and times and half a time or the foundation of the New Holy Jerusalem or the Swedenborgian Church in the end of the days. At this period (Nova Hierosolyma) there are no celestial temptations, and the worship is external.
And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.
This refers to the second period of the New Church. The daily sacrifice is taken away means that external worship is now ceased in this New Church (Apocalypse Explained, 700: 35) and replaced by internal worship. The abomination of desolation means that this New Church is devastated by the Dragonist teachers.
1260+30=1290, 30=5·6.
Number 5 refers to a few.
Number 6 refers to temptation.
Number 30 refers that there is temptations with a few at this period.
1290=43·5·3·2
Number 43 means temptations. It is a prime number and refers to Psalm 43 which means a period of temptations.
Number 5 refers to its being still among a few.
Number 3 refers to a full period when temptations will be completed.
Number 2 refers to conjoining. This Church is beginning to conjoin to the heavens.
1290 as a whole means the second period of the New Church at which there is no external worship but internal and there are celestial temptations but not a full conjunction to heavens (Tabernaculum Dei). The abomination of desolation means that the first Swedenborgian Church (Nova Hierosolyma) is devastated. It is under control of the Dragonists, that is, the ones who believe but do not follow the instructions of their religion. They break the first commandment of the Decalogue, that is, make the world more important than God.
Blessed is he who waits and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days (Daniel 12).
This refers to the third and last period of the New Church. 1290+45=1335. The number 45 means conjunction (Arcana Coelestia, 2269). This is the very beginning of the New Holy Jerusalem because now good is conjoined to truth and heaven to church. The word Blessed means that these people have the Covenant with the Lord in their internal part. The word waits means the regeneration process leading to this Covenant.
1335=89·5·3.
The number 89 refers to the Psalm 89. This Psalm treats the conjunction of the heaven with the New Church and also disclosing the sins of the Jewish Church and of the Jewish nation and their menace to the New Church (38-45, 49-51). The numbers 5·3 mean the spiritual of the celestial because 5 means here internal or spiritual truth from celestial (3). That spiritual of the celestial is meant by the number five is expressed in Genesis 43: 34: Then he took servings to them from before him, but Benjamin's serving was five times as much as any of theirs. So they drank and were merry with him. The conjunction here mentioned is expressed in Genesis 45: 14: Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Here the role of Benjamin as a conjunction is clear: neck signifies conjunction. That the spiritual-celestial truth is five times brighter than the spiritual-natural truth also is obvious. The number 3 also means that this New Holy Church is eternal. That there are temptations in this Church it is meant by ”Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants-- How I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples, With which Your enemies have reproached, O Lord, With which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed.” (Psalm 89: 50, 51). But these are not crucial for the Church but belong to individuals’ regeneration process. If a member of this Church fails to obey the Law there will still be eternal union with the Lord and this Church: “If his sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments, If they break My statutes And do not keep My commandments, Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” (Psalm 89: 30-37).
The third period is the last period of the New Holy Jerusalem because it is eternal. It does not have a fourth period like other churches on this planet because it is conjoined to the Lord through Benjamin eternally. This last period is signified in Psalm 89: 27-29: “Also I will make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. My mercy I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall stand firm with him. His seed also I will make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven.” Now this New Church has begun as a Wife of the Lord and will be increasing to its fullness.
That the Jewish impact on our planet will be destroyed is meant by these words in the spiritual-celestial sense: “But You have cast off and abhorred, You have been furious with Your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of Your servant; You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. You have broken down all his hedges; You have brought his strongholds to ruin. All who pass by the way plunder him; He is a reproach to his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries; You have made all his enemies rejoice. You have also turned back the edge of his sword, And have not sustained him in the battle. You have made his glory cease, And cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth You have shortened; You have covered him with shame.” (Psalm 89: 38-45). “And He has brought on them their own iniquity, And shall cut them off in their own wickedness; The Lord our God shall cut them off .” (Psalm 94: 23). | 
