1. Prefazione dell’Autore

Il Signore parlando ai suoi discepoli della fine dei tempi, cioè nell’ultimo periodo della chiesa, ¹ dice, all’avvicinarsi della predetta fine, in merito al successivo stato di amore e fede: ²

Subito dopo l’afflizione di quei giorni il sole si oscurerà e la luna non darà il suo splendore, e le stelle cadranno dal cielo, e le potenze dei cieli saranno scosse. Ed allora apparirà nel cielo il segno del Figlio dell’uomo; ed allora tutte le tribù della terra faranno cordoglio, e vedranno il Figliuolo dell’uomo venire sulle nuvole del cielo con gran potenza e gloria. E manderà i suoi angeli con gran suono di tromba a radunare i suoi eletti dai quattro venti, da un capo all’altro dei cieli. (Matteo 24:29-31)

Coloro che si soffermano sul mero significato letterale di queste parole, hanno la convinzione che alla fine dei tempi, quando vi sarà il giudizio universale, tutte queste cose avranno luogo, così come sono descritte nel senso letterale, cioè che il sole e la luna si oscureranno e le stelle cadranno dal cielo, e che il segno del Signore apparirà nel cielo, ed egli stesso sarà visto sulle nubi, con gli angeli e con le trombe al seguito; inoltre è predetto in altri passi che l’intero universo sarà distrutto, e poi sorgerà un nuovo cielo e una nuova terra. Tale è la convinzione della maggior parte degli uomini nella chiesa, nel presente. Ma coloro che sono in questa fede ignorano i segreti che sono nascosti in ogni minimo dettaglio della Parola; in realtà in ogni singolo vocabolo della Parola vi è un significato interiore che concerne le cose spirituali e celesti anziché le cose naturali e mondane, così come appaiono nel senso letterale. E questo è vero non solo per il significato di gruppi di parole, ma per ciascuna parola. ³ Perché la Parola è scritta esclusivamente per corrispondenze ⁴ , affinché vi possa essere un significato interiore in ogni singolo particolare di essa. Quale sia questo significato lo si può vedere da tutto ciò che è stato scritto al riguardo in Arcana Coelestia [pubblicato nel 1749-1756]; e dalle citazioni attinte da quell’opera, nell’illustrazione del Cavallo Bianco [dell’Apocalisse, pubblicato nel 1758] cui si fa riferimento nell’Apocalisse.

È in conformità di quel significato spirituale, che deve essere inteso l’avvento del Signore dal cielo, sulle nuvole, di cui al passo sopra citato. Ivi il sole che si oscura significa il Signore quanto all’amore; ⁵ la “luna” si riferisce alla fede; ⁶ le stelle indicano la conoscenza del bene e della verità, o dell’amore e della fede; ⁷ il “segno del Figlio dell’uomo nel cielo” indica la manifestazione della Divina verità; le “tribù della terra” significano tutte le cose concernenti la verità ed il bene, o la fede e l’amore; ⁸ “l’avvento del Signore sulle nuvole del cielo, in gloria e potenza,” significa la sua presenza nella Parola e la sua rivelazione; ⁹ le “nuvole” significano il senso letterale della Parola, ¹⁰ e la “gloria” il senso interiore della Parola; ¹¹ gli “angeli con gran suono di tromba” indicano il cielo quale sorgente della Divina verità. ¹² Tutto questo chiarisce cosa deve intendersi con queste parole del Signore, vale a dire che alla fine della chiesa, quando non vi sarà più alcun amore, e quindi alcuna fede, il Signore svelerà il significato interiore della Parola e rivelerà i segreti del cielo. I segreti rivelati nelle seguenti pagine riguardano il cielo e l’inferno, nonché la vita dell’uomo dopo la morte. L’uomo della chiesa attualmente ha una scarsa conoscenza del cielo e dell’inferno, o della sua vita dopo la morte, sebbene questi argomenti siano contemplati e descritti nella Parola; ciò nondimeno molti di quelli nati in seno alla chiesa, negano queste cose, dicendo nel loro intimo, “Chi mai è venuto da quel mondo e ha confermato queste cose?” Per evitare che questo atteggiamento negazionista, invalso specialmente presso quelli pervasi dalla saggezza mondana, possa contaminare e traviare le persone semplici nel cuore e nella fede, mi è stato concesso di essere associato agli angeli e di parlare con loro, come tra uomo e uomo, e anche di vedere come sono i cieli e gli inferni, e questo da tredici anni, ormai; quindi, adesso posso descrivere ciò che ho visto è udito, nell’auspicio che l’ignoranza possa essere illuminata, e l’incredulità, dissipata. Le presenti rivelazioni sono estese ora perché questo deve intendersi per la venuta del Signore.

Footnotes:

114. Who was dead and is alive. That this signifies that He is rejected, and yet that eternal life is from Him, is evident from the signification of being dead, when said of the Lord, as denoting to be rejected (concerning which see above, n. 83), and from the signification of being alive, as denoting that eternal life is from Him in (concerning which see also above, n. 84). The Lord is said to be rejected when He is not approached and worshipped, and also when He is approached and worshipped only as to His Human, and not at the same time as to the Divine. At this day therefore He is rejected by those within the church who do not approach and worship Him, but pray to the Father to have compassion on them for the sake of the Son, although no man, or angel, can ever approach the Father, and worship Him directly, the Divine being invisible, with which no one can be conjoined in faith and love. For that which is invisible cannot come into the thought, nor, consequently, into the affection of the will; and what does not come into the thought, does not enter into the faith, for what pertains to faith must be an object of thought. So also what does not enter into the affection of the will, does not enter into the love, for the things which pertain to the love must affect a man's will, as all a man's love resides in the will (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 28-35). But the Divine Human of the Lord can be thought of and enter into the faith, and thence into the affection of the will, or into the love.

[2] It is therefore evident, that there can be no conjunction with the Father unless from the Lord, and in the Lord. This the Lord Himself teaches very clearly in the Evangelists.

In John:

"No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath brought him forth to view" (1:18).

Again:

"Ye have neither heard the Father's voice at any time, nor seen his shape" (5:37).

In Matthew:

"Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (11:27).

In John:

I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (14:6).

Again:

"If ye know me, ye know my Father also; he that seeth me seeth the Father"; (Philip) "believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (14:7-11);

and that the Father and the Lord are one (10:30, 38).

Again:

"I am the vine, ye are the branches; without me ye can do nothing" (15:5).

[3] It is therefore evident, that the Lord is rejected by those within the church who approach the Father directly, and pray to Him to have compassion for the sake of the Son; for these cannot but think of the Human of the Lord, as of the human of another man, thus they cannot think of His Divine in the Human, and still less of His Divine united with His Human as the soul is conjoined with the body, according to the doctrine universally received in the Christian world (see above, n. 10 and 26).

Who is there in the Christian world, that acknowledges the Divine of the Lord that desires by this acknowledgment to separate His Divine from His Human? Nevertheless, to think of the Human alone, and not at the same time of the Divine in the Human, is to regard them as separate, which is not to think of the Lord, or of both as one person, although the doctrine received in the Christian world is, that the Divine and Human of the Lord make not two persons but one person.

[4] Those who constitute the church at this day do, indeed, think of the Divine of the Lord in His Human, when they speak from the doctrine of the church; but it is quite otherwise when they think and speak within themselves apart from doctrine. But let it be known, that a man is in one state when he thinks and speaks from doctrine, and another when he thinks and speaks apart from it. When a man thinks and speaks from doctrine, he thinks and speaks from the memory of his natural man; but when he thinks and speaks unfettered by doctrine, his thought and speech are then from his spirit. For to think and speak from the spirit, is to think and speak from the interiors of one's mind, therefore, what he then speaks is his real faith. The state of a man also after death is such as were the thought and speech of his spirit within himself unfettered by doctrine, and not such as were his thought and speech from doctrine, if the latter has not become one with the former.

[5] Man has two states as to faith and love, one while he is in doctrine, and another when he is unfettered by it, but the state of his faith and love apart from doctrine saves him, and not the state of his speech concerning faith and love derived from doctrine, unless the latter has become one with the former. Man does not know this, although to think and speak from doctrine concerning faith and love, is to speak from the natural man and its memory, is evident from this circumstance alone, that both the evil and the good can think and speak in this way when they are with others. And it is for this reason that evil equally with good prelates, or prelates who have no faith equally with those who have faith, can preach the gospel, to all appearance with a similar zeal and affection. The reason is, that, in such case, a man, as stated, thinks and speaks from his natural man and its memory; but to think from the spirit is not to think from the natural man and its memory, but from the spiritual man, and from the faith and affection of this man. From this alone it is evident, that there are two states pertaining to man, and that the former state just referred to does not save him, but the latter. For after death a man is a spirit, therefore such as he was in the world as to his spirit, such does he remain after his departure out of the world.

[6] Moreover, that there are two states pertaining to the man of the church, it has been granted me to know from much experience; for after death a man can be brought into either state, and also is actually brought into both; many, when they have been brought into the former state, have spoken like Christians, and from their speech were believed by others to be Christians, but as soon as they were brought back into the latter state, the state of their own spirit, they then spoke like diabolical spirits, and in complete opposition to what they had spoken before (see the work Heaven and hell, n. 491-498, and n. 499-511).

[7] From these considerations it also is evident how it is to be understood that the Lord is repudiated at this day by those who are within the church, that is, that from doctrine indeed the Divine of the Lord must be acknowledged and believed equally as the Divine of the Father; for the doctrine of the church teaches, that, "as is the Father, so also is the Son, uncreate, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, God, Lord, neither of them greater or less, before or after the other" (see the creed of Athanasius). Notwithstanding this, however, they do not approach and worship the Lord as Divine, but they worship the Divine of the Father, as is the case when they pray to the Father that He may have compassion on them for the sake of the Son. When they use these words, they do not in the least think of the Divine of the Lord, but of His Human separate from the Divine, thus of His Human as similar to that of another man. They then think not of one God, but of two, or three. To think in this way of the Lord, is to repudiate Him; for not to think of His Divine in conjunction with His Human, which nevertheless are not two persons but one person, and make a one as soul and body, is by separation to exclude the Divine.

[8] I have occasionally talked with spirits who, whilst they lived in the world, were of the Popish religion, and I inquired whether they ever thought in the world concerning the Lord's Divine? They said that they had thought on the subject as often as they were in doctrine with insight, and that then they acknowledged His Divine to be equal with that of the Father, but apart from doctrine, they thought of His Human alone, and not of His Divine. They were asked why they say that the power, which belonged to the Human of the Lord, was given Him by the Father, and not by Himself, since they acknowledged His Divine to be equal to that of the Father? They then turned away, without answering; but they were told that the reason was, that they arrogated to themselves all His Divine power; which they could not have done, unless they had separated the Divine from the Human. That the Lord is repudiated by them, every one may conclude from this circumstance, that they worship the Pope as the Lord, and that they no longer ascribe any power to the Lord.

[9] I will here relate a great scandal uttered by the Pope who was called Benedict XIV. He declared openly that he believed, when he lived in the world, that the Lord had no power, because He had transferred it all to Peter, and thence to his successors; adding that he believed that the Romish saints have more power than the Lord, because they retain it from God the Father, but that the Lord abdicated it entirely, and conferred it on the Popes; but that still He must be worshipped, because without such worship the Pope would not be worshipped with sanctity. But this Pope, because he arrogated to himself what was Divine, even after death, was, after some days, cast into hell.