![]() ![]() Similarly, everyone in heaven was also once a person on earth there are no “created angels.” ![]() In fact, Swedenborg’s works say that everyone in hell was once a person on earth there are no ruling demons or fallen angels to run things and torture people people tend to torture each other by continually striving to do evil to each other. And when Jesus is tempted in the wilderness (by the devil in some gospels, by Satan in others) He was actually facing the evil desires He had inherited along with his human body from his mother. So when the serpent in Revelation is referred to as “the Devil, and Satan,” it means both of the ruling loves of hell. Specifically, “devil” refers to the love of evil itself, the lowest state of all the hells “Satan” refers to the love of falsity and deceit, a slightly milder but still hellish state. Swedenborg’s works say that both “Satan” and “devil” are spiritual references to hell itself, and to the infernal lusts that exist both in hell and in potential within us. No archangels, no Satan, just a linguistic grenade launched at one of Israel’s great enemies. The trouble with that is that “Lucifer” is a fanciful translation at best most modern scholars render it as “day-star” or “morning star,” and interpret the verses as a reference to the king of Babylon. Not much background is offered, so people long ago seized on Isaiah 14:12-13, which refers to “Lucifer” trying to put his throne “above the stars of God,” being “cut down to earth” and being “fallen from heaven.” That grew into the story of a former archangel whose pride led him to challenge God, who then expelled him from heaven to become the prince of darkness and ruler of hell. Satan and the devil are mentioned frequently in the Bible, with “Satan” used mostly as a name and “the devil” or “devils” used more to describe a type of being.
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