Ancient Churches Lexicon Entry:
Evil Desires
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It was evil desires (cupidities) belonging to the will, and their consequent persuasions of falsity, that destroyed the Most Ancient Church (AC 1587). The descendants of the Most Ancient Church acquired evil desires in their will through their heredity (AC 661). These same people had also inherited a will and an understanding that were joined and made one. Therefore, when evil desires began to take possession of their will part, not only did the will become utterly perverted, but the understanding did as well (AC 927). And when they immersed the doctrinal things of faith in these evil desires, they produced persuasions of falsity that extinguished all truth and good and prevented the operation of remnants (AC 660). Thus they became the Nephilim (AC 640). Once the Nephilim had conceived these dreadful persuasions they could not withdraw from them, regardless of how much they were instructed by others and shown the falsity of them (AC 736). As a result, they became totally possessed by evil spirits, whose influx was not unlike a flood (AC 660). Because both parts of the mind had been ruined, the Nephilim could not be restored (AC 927). After the Flood, with the people of the Ancient Church, the Lord separated the will from the understanding. These people were reformed first of all with regard to the things of their understanding, so they would be protected from the evil desires that were in their will by heredity (AC 640, AC 645).
See also:
Antediluvians, Disposition,
Doctrine, The Fall ,
Flood, Hereditary Evil,
Influx,
Persuasions, Posterities,
Reformation, Remnants,
Will and Understanding
Passages relating to Evil Desires and the Ancient Churches:
AC 570; AC 593; AC 601; AC 635; AC 640; AC 645; AC 660; AC 661; AC 704;
AC 726; AC 736; AC 756; AC 807; AC 927; AC 933; AC 1063; AC 1280; AC 1295;
AC 1587; SE 4096
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