He Came as a Thief in the Night

Jesus said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake" (Matthew 5:11). Just this fate transpired with Stephen the martyr, of whom we read that "they" -- that is, stirred-up members of the local synagogue -- "suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God" (Acts 6:11). Of course Stephen had been doing no such thing, and indeed, "all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it has been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). They knew full well, in other words, that Stephen was innocent. In the Writings we read that angels bluntly asked certain devils, "Why do you infest the good?" (TCR570). The devils replied, "We cannot do otherwise... It is as if a frenzy takes hold of us when we see any angel, and perceive the Divine sphere of the Lord about him" (ibid). Indeed,

In <<Leviticus>> we read, "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not" (10:1). As we also read in <<Secrets of Heaven>>, this "'strange fire' is all the love of self, and all the cupidity of these loves" (AC934:3). Let us consider this same episode from another angle, with imagery drawn from the book of<<Ezekiel>>, so that your spiritual rationality can assess the inner congruence of these scriptural episodes and arrive at an understanding beyond and inclusive of them both. We read of Ezekiel that he was "brought... in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh towards the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy" (Ezekiel 8:3). We read of this "inner gate that looketh towards the north"

We read in <<Heaven and Hell>> that "the men of old time had an idea of the Divine as human", "saw Him as a man but nevertheless adored Him as the God of the universe; calling Him the God of heaven and earth, and Jehovah" (HH84). Among the people who saw God in human form were "Manoah and his wife", the parents of Samson, of whom we read, "Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God" (ibid; Judges 14:22). His wife however replies, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a meat offering at our hands"; for the angel of the Lord had just recently risen to Heaven on the rising flames of that very offering (Judges 14:23; Judges 14:20). She also makes the rational observation that the angel of the Lord would not have imparted special instructions if there were to be no opportunity to implement them (Judges 14:23). Such special instructions recur whenever the Divine Human makes

In Matthew 5:10 we read, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled". Blessed (say the Writings in harmony with the Lord) are those in an affection for good and those in an affection for truth. But let us look at this spiritual hunger and thirst, these affections for good and truth, from another angle. In <<Revelation>> Christ says, "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely", which is the customary truth; and here is its associated good: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (21:7). You never have to look far for that bread and wine. The Lord specifically uses the term "overcometh", which signifies victory, and indeed a series of victories, over temptation. It signifies, in modern parlance, gradual spiritual improvements in mental or external behaviour occasioned by ceasing to pour gasoline on the fires of evil lusts, yearnings, or cravi