1. Prólogo del Autor

Cuando el Señor, ante Sus discípulos, habla de la consumación del siglo, por lo cual se entiende el último período de la vida de la iglesia, al final de la predicción acerca de los sucesivos estados de la misma con respecto al amor y a la fe, dice así:

Luego... después de la aflicción de aquellos días el sol se oscurecerá y la luna no dará su lumbre, y las estrellas caerán del cielo y las potencias del cielo serán conmovidas, y entonces aparecerá la señal del Hijo del Hombre en el cielo y entonces lamentarán todas las tribus de la tierra, y verán al Hijo del Hombre venir en las nubes del cielo con potencia y grande gloria, y enviará sus ángeles con trompeta y magna voz, y juntará sus escogidos de los cuatro vientos, del extremo de los cielos hasta el extremo de ellos (Mateo 24:29-31).

Él que toma estas palabras en el sentido literal cree que todo cuanto expresan según la descripción en ese sentido se verificará en el postrer tiempo llamado el último juicio, es decir, no solamente que el sol y la luna se oscurecerán y que las estrellas caerán del cielo, así como que la señal del Señor aparecerá en el cielos y que verán a Él en las nubes y también a los ángeles con trompetas, sino que también según la predicción en otro lugar, el mundo visible entero perecerá y que luego aparecerá un nuevo cielo con una nueva tierra. En esta creencia está hoy día la mayor parte en la iglesia. Pero los que así creen no conocen los arcanos que están ocultos en cada detalle del Verbo; porque en cada detalle del Verbo hay un sentido interior, el cual no expresa cosas naturales y mundanas como las que se hallan en el sentido literal, sino espirituales y celestiales, y esto no tan sólo con respecto a la significación de una pluralidad de palabras, sino también con respecto a cada palabra en particular, porque el Verbo es compuesto de puras correspondencias, a fin de que haya sentido interior en cada detalle. La índole de este sentido se puede conocer por todo cuanto con respecto al mismo se ha dicho y manifestado en "Arcana Coelestia, " lo cual también puede verse en compendio en la explicación de "El Caballo Blanco, " del cual se habla en el Apocalipsis. Según este sentido deben entenderse las cosas que en el lugar arriba indicado dijo el Señor acerca de Su venida en las nubes del cielo. Allí, el "sol" que se oscurecerá significa el Señor con respecto al amor, la "luna" el Señor con respecto a la fe, las "estrellas" los conocimientos del bien y de la verdad o sea del amor y de la fe la "señal del Hijo del Hombre en el cielo" la aparición de la Divina verdad; las "tribus de la tierra, " que lamentarán, todo cuanto pertenece a la verdad y al bien o sea a la fe y al amor; " la venida del Señor en las nubes del cielo con potencia y gloria, " Su presencia en el Verbo y la revelación; por "nubes" se significa el sentido literal del Verbo, y por "gloria" el sentido interior del Verbo; por "ángeles con trompeta y potente voz" se significa el cielo de donde procede la Divina verdad. Por esto es evidente que por aquellas palabras del Señor se entiende que al final de la iglesia, cuando ya no quede amor alguno y por ello tampoco fe alguna, abrirá el Señor Su Verbo con respecto a su sentido interior, y revelará los arcanos del cielo. Los arcanos que en lo siguiente serán revelados se refieren al cielo y al infierno así como a la vida del hombre después de la muerte. El hombre de la iglesia hoy día apenas sabe cosa alguna acerca del cielo y del infierno, ni de su vida después de la muerte, por más que todas estas cosas se hallan consignadas en el Verbo; hasta hay muchos, nacidos dentro de la iglesia, que las niegan, diciendo en su corazón: "¿Quién ha venido de allí y las ha contado?" Con el fin, pues, de que semejante negación, la cual reina principalmente entre aquellos que tienen mucho de la sabiduría del mundo, no contamine y corrompa también a los de sencillo corazón y de sencilla fe, me ha sido otorgado estar con los ángeles, y hablar con ellos como hombre con hombre y así como ver las cosas que hay en el cielo y también las que hay en el infierno, y esto por espacio de trece años, siéndome ahora permitido referirlas por oídas y vistas, esperando que así la ignorancia será iluminada y la incredulidad disipada. La razón por la cual tal inmediata revelación tiene lugar actualmente es que esta revelación es lo que se entiende por "la venida del Señor."

10125. 'And you shall anoint it' means consecration to represent the Divine Good of Love from the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'anointing' as consecration to represent the Lord in respect of the Divine Good of Divine Love from His Divine Human, dealt with in 9474, 9954, 10019, at this point from the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church; for the subject is the influx and reception of Him there. Whatever represents the Lord also represents Him as He is present with people of the Church and with angels of heaven, and so represents heaven and the Church, since people who have the Church within them constitute the Church in general, and angels who have heaven within them constitute heaven in general. Not that those people regarded in themselves constitute the Church, only the Lord present with them does so. Nor therefore do the angels regarded in themselves constitute heaven, only the Lord present with them. For the Lord does not dwell in anything that is a person's or an angels's own, only in what is His with them. So it is that when the words 'the Church and heaven' are used, what is Divine and the Lord's with those who are there is meant. From all this it is evident how the statements that the Lord is the All in all of heaven and the Church and that the Lord Himself is heaven and the Church ought to be understood. This is also evident from the teaching known and accepted in the Christian world that all the good of faith and love comes from God and none at all from man, and that whatever comes from man's own self is not good. For this reason also no one has any merit or any righteousness by virtue of what is his own.

[2] These matters have been stated in order that people may know what is meant by 'the Lord as He exists in heaven and in the Church', thus what heaven and the Church are, and consequently in what way the altar and the anointing of it were representative of the Lord. All the objects that were going to represent the Lord and the Divine things that came from the Lord were anointed - the altar, the tent of meeting, the tables within it, the lampstand, the ark, Aaron himself, his sons, and their garments. And when they had been anointed they were called holy, not because the oil imparted any holiness but because when anointed they would represent the Divine things from the Lord, which alone are holy. The reason why oil was employed for this purpose was that oil was a sign of the good of love, and the Divine Good of Divine Love is the Divine Himself, for He is the Essential Being (ipsum Esse) of all things. So in order to represent that Good, consecration was effected by the use of oil. The Divine Himself, the Essential Being of all things, was within the Lord alone, for He was conceived from Jehovah; and everyone derives the being (esse) of his life, called his soul, from his father. From this it is clear that the Divine Good of Divine Love was within the Lord's Humanity as a father's soul is within his child. With the human being nothing possesses life except the soul. The body without the soul has no life; indeed the whole body is fashioned by the soul in its own image, to bring the soul into a condition suitably adapted to the functions it performs on the lowest levels of order, that is, in the world. These facts about the human being lead to the conclusion that the Essential Being within the Lord's Humanity was Jehovah, or the Divine Good of Divine Love, the Being of life, and that this Being makes everything which exists from it a likeness of itself. Thus the Lord, acting from the Divine [Being] that was within Him and so was His, also made His Human into the Divine Good of Divine Love.

[3] Furthermore the Athanasian Creed which hands down the faith accepted in the Christian world states,

As body and soul is one man (homo), so Divine and Human in the Lord is one Christ ¹ .

Anyone therefore who knows about the union of soul and body in the body, and about the image of the soul in the body, can have some conception of the union of the Divine and Human within the Lord, and of the image of the one in the other. And from this he would recognize that the Divine, called the Father, and the Human, called the Son, were one, also that each was in the other, that is, the Father was in Him and He in the Father, according to the Lord's words in John 10:30; 14:10-11. But since there is no awareness at the present day of what the soul is, and scarcely any awareness that it is derived from the father, that the body is an image of it, and that the two are one, as prior and posterior are, or as being and manifestation of that being are, mankind has separated the Divine from the Human within the Lord, dividing them into two natures. As a consequence of this no other idea has been formed of the Lord's Humanity than of its being like anyone else's humanity. But in fact anyone else's soul from his father is finite and has evil within it owing to heredity, whereas the Lord's soul, being derived from Jehovah, was infinite and was nothing other than the Divine Good of Divine Love; and therefore His Human after glorification was not like anyone else's.

[4] For the same reason the Lord took up into heaven His entire Humanity that had been glorified, that is, had been made Divine by Him; He left nothing of it in the tomb, which is different from what happens with anyone else. The fact that the Lord glorified His actual body right down to the last and lowest constituents of it, which are its bones and flesh, the Lord also made plain to the disciples, saying,

See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me having. Luke 24:39.

And yet He came in through closed doors, and after He had revealed Himself became invisible, John 20:19; Luke 24:31.

These things have been stated in order that people may know that the Lord alone in respect of His Human was Jehovah's Anointed. He was not anointed with oil however but with the Divine Good of Divine Love, which 'oil' is the sign of and which 'anointing' represented, see 9954.

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