by Emanuel Swedenborg.
Translated by John Ager.
1. The Lord, speaking in the presence of His disciples of the
consummation of the age, which is the final period of the church,{1}
says, near the end of what He foretells about its successive states
in respect to love and faith:{2}
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of
the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the
sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory. And He shall send forth His angels with a trumpet
and a great sound; and they shall gather together His
elect from the four winds, from the end to end of the
heavens (Matt. 24:29-31).
Those who understood these words according to the sense of the letter
have no other belief than that during that latest period, which is
called the final judgment, all these things are to come to pass just
as they are described in the literal sense, that is, that the sun and
moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky, that the
sign of the Lord will appear in the sky, and He Himself will be seen
in the clouds, attended by angels with trumpets; and furthermore, as
is foretold else where, that the whole visible universe will be
destroyed, and afterwards a new heaven with a new earth will come
into being. Such is the opinion of most men in the church at the
present day. But those who so believe are ignorant of the arcana that
lie hid in every particular of the Word. For in every particular of
the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual
and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated
of in the sense of the letter. And this is true not only of the
meaning of groups of words, it is true of each particular word.{3}
For the Word is written solely by correspondences,{4} to the end that
there may be an internal sense in every least particular of it. What
that sense is can be seen from all that has been said and shown about
it in the Arcana Coelestia; also from quotations gathered from that
work in the explanation of The White Horse spoken of in the
Apocalypse. It is according to that sense that what the Lord says in
the passage quoted above respecting His coming in the clouds of
heaven is to be understood. The "sun" there that is to be darkened
signifies the Lord in respect to love;{5} the "moon" the Lord in
respect to faith;{6} "stars" knowledges of good and truth, or of love
and faith;{7} "the sign of the Son of man in heaven" the
manifestation of Divine truth; "the tribes of the earth" that shall
mourn, all things relating to truth and good or to faith and love;{8}
"the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory"
His presence in the Word, and revelation,{9} "clouds" signifying the
sense of the letter of the Word,{10} and "glory" the internal sense
of the Word;{11} "the angels with a trumpet and great voice" signify
heaven as a source of Divine truth.{12} All this makes clear that
these words of the Lord mean that at the end of the church, when
there is no longer any love, and consequently no faith, the Lord will
open the internal meaning of the Word and reveal arcana of heaven.
The arcana revealed in the following pages relate to heaven and hell,
and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at
this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his
life after death, although all these matters are set forth and
described in the Word; and yet many of those born within the church
refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from
that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial,
which especially prevails with those who have much worldly wisdom,
should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in
faith, it has been granted me to associate with angels and to talk
with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and
what is in the hells, and this for thirteen years; so now from what I
have seen and heard it has been granted me to describe these, in the
hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated.
Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what
is meant by the Coming of the Lord.
[REFERENCES TO THE AUTHOR'S ARCANA COELESTIA.]
{Footnote 1} The consummation of the age is the final period of
the church (n. 4535, 10622).
{Footnote 2} The Lord's predictions in Matthew (24 and 25),
respecting the consummation of the age and His coming, and the
consequent successive vastation of the church and the final
judgment, are explained in the prefaces to chapters 26-40 of
Genesis (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757,
3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4424, 4635-
4638, 4661-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071).
{Footnote 3} Both in the wholes and in the particulars of the
Word there is an internal or spiritual sense (n. 1143, 1984,
2135, 2333, 2395, 2495, 4442, 9048, 9063, 9086).
{Footnote 4} The Word is written solely by correspondences, and
for this reason each thing and all things in it have a
spiritual meaning (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709,
1783, 2900, 9086).
{Footnote 5} In the Word the "sun" signifies the Lord in respect
to love, and in consequence love to the Lord (n. 1529, 1837,
2441, 2495, 4060, 4696, 7083, 10809).
{Footnote 6} In the Word the "moon" signifies the Lord in
respect to faith, and in consequence faith in the Lord (n.
1529, 1530, 2495, 4060, 4696, 7083).
{Footnote 7} In the Word "stars" signify knowledges of good and
truth (n. 2495, 2849,4697).
{Footnote 8} "Tribes" signify all truths and goods in the
complex, thus all things of faith and love (n. 3858, 3926,
4060, 6335).
{Footnote 9} The coming of the Lord signifies His presence in
the Word, and revelation (n 3900,4060).
{Footnote 10} In the Word clouds signify the Word in the letter
or the sense of its letter (n. 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752,
8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574).
{Footnote 11} In the Word "glory" signifies Divine truth as it
is in heaven and as it is in the internal sense of the Word (n.
4809, 5922, 8267, 8427, 9429, 10574).
{Footnote 12} A "trumpet" or "horn" signifies Divine truth in
heaven, and revealed from heaven (n. 8158, 8823, 8915); and
"voice" has a like signification (n. 6771, 9926).