1. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, we find the Lord talking to his disciples about the close of the age, the last time of the church. ¹ At the end of his prophecies concerning the sequence of states of its love and faith ² he says:

Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Human-born One will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will lament. And they will see the Human-born One coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens all the way to the other end. (Matthew 24:29-31)

When people understand these words according to their literal meaning, they can only believe that all these things are going to happen just as this meaning describes them, at that end of time called the Last Judgment. This does not mean only that the sun and moon will be darkened and that the stars will fall from heaven, that the sign of the Lord will appear in heaven, and that he will be seen in the clouds with angels blowing trumpets. It also includes matters prophesied elsewhere, statements that the whole visible world is going to be destroyed and that afterward a new heaven and a new earth will come into being.

Many people in the church these days are of this opinion. However, people who believe such things are not aware of the hidden depths that lie within the details of the Word. There is in fact spiritual meaning in these details, for they intend not only the outward and earthly events that we find on the literal level but spiritual and heavenly events as well. This holds true not just for the meaning of phrases but even for each word. ³

The Word is in fact written in pure correspondences ⁴ so that there may be deeper meaning in the details. Questions about the nature of this meaning can be resolved by all the things I have set forth about it in Secrets of Heaven. A selection of these may be found also in my explanation of the white horse in the Book of Revelation. It is in this deeper sense that we are to understand what the Lord said in the passage just cited about coming in the clouds of heaven. The sun that will be darkened means the Lord in respect to love, ⁵ the moon means the Lord in respect to faith. ⁶ The stars mean insights into what is good and true, or into love and faith. ⁷ The sign of the Human-born One in heaven means the appearing of divine truth. The wailing tribes of earth mean all the elements of what is true and good, or of faith and love. ⁸ The Lord's coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory means his presence in the Word, and revelation. ⁹ The clouds refer to the literal meaning of the Word ¹⁰ and the glory to the Word's inner meaning. ¹¹ The angels with a trumpet and a loud voice mean heaven, which is where divine truth comes from. ¹²

This enables us to see what these words of the Lord mean. They mean that at the end of the church, when there is no longer any love and therefore no longer any faith, the Lord will open the Word by disclosing its deeper meaning and will reveal the heavenly contents hidden within it. The particular hidden contents to be disclosed in the pages that follow have to do with heaven and hell and with our own life after death.

Church people these days know practically nothing about heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there are descriptions of everything available to them in the Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever come back to tell us about it.

To prevent this negative attitude - especially prevalent among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly wisdom - from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been enabled to see what is in heaven and in hell, a process that has been going on for thirteen years. Now I am being allowed therefore to describe what I have heard and seen, in the hopes of shedding light where there is ignorance, and of dispelling skepticism.

The reason this kind of direct revelation is taking place today is that this is what the Coming of the Lord means.

Footnotes:

8426. 'At evening you will know that Jehovah has brought you out of the land of Egypt' means that at the end of a former state comes the revelation that they have been delivered. This is clear from the meaning of 'at evening' as the end of a former state, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'knowing' as being revealed, for what Jehovah causes a person to know is called revelation; and from the meaning of 'bringing out' as delivering, as often before, at this point from the molestations that are meant by 'the land of Egypt', 7278.

[2] The reason why 'at evening' means the end of a former state is that changes of state in the next life resemble the times of day in the world, that is to say, morning, midday, evening, and night or twilight, then morning again. It should be recognized that in the spiritual world changes of state are forever taking place, which all who are there pass through, the purpose of it all being that they may continue unceasingly to be made more perfect. For without changes of states, that is, without variations constantly following one another in sequence, those who are there cannot be made more perfect. The changes of states which follow one another in sequence, resembling the times of day and seasons of the year, are never exactly the same when they come round again, but are varied. The beginning of each state corresponds to morning on earth, and also in the Word is meant several times by 'morning'. The end of each state however corresponds to evening, and is also called 'evening' several times in the Word. When it is morning they are in a state of love; when it is midday they are in a state of light or truth; but when it is evening they are in a state that is dim so far as truths are concerned and rather cool so far as good is concerned, since it is a state in which the delight belonging to natural love rules them. This delight is what is meant by 'the selav' which the people received in the evening, and good is what is meant by 'the manna' which they received every morning.

[3] All this goes to show what 'the evening' means - the end of the state of whatever the subject may be; consequently it may mean the end of a state of the Church. But see what has been shown already about the meaning of 'the evening':

In the next life there are changes of state, just as in the world there are changes of times and seasons, 5672, 5962, 6110.

'Evening' is the end of a former Church, and 'morning' the beginning of a new one, 2323, 7844; therefore 'evening, and 'morning' mean the Coming or arrival of the Lord, 7844.

In heaven there is evening and twilight before morning, but no night; night occurs in hell, 6110.

7844. 'between the evenings' means a last and first state. This is clear from the meaning of 'evening' as a state of falsity and also a state of ignorance of truth; for the shade of evening is falsity and also ignorance of truth. All the times of day, like all the seasons of the year, mean in the spiritual sense alternating states involving truth and good, 5672, 5962, 6110. The end of them and the beginning of them is the evening; consequently when it says 'between the evenings' it implies all those states. At this point therefore 'between the evenings' means the state of deliverance of those governed by truth springing from good, and the state of damnation of those governed by falsity arising from evil, states which are meant by the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt when the firstborn there were killed. The fact that all this is called 'the evening' is clear from the following in Moses,

You shall sacrifice ¹ the Passover in the evening when the sun goes down, at the fixed time of your departure from Egypt. Deuteronomy 16:4, 6.

[2] From this it is evident that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the deliverance of those represented by the children of Israel is meant by 'between the evenings'. From that beginning the state moves on for them towards morning, which is a raising to heaven. It is evident too that the end of the state of molestations and the beginning of the state of the damnation of those represented by the Egyptians is meant by 'between the evenings'. But these people's state moves on towards night, which is a casting into hell. The casting of the latter into hell is represented by being drowned in the Sea Suph, while the raising of the former to heaven is represented by being led into the land of Canaan.

[3] In the Word the expression 'the evening' is used in various places, and by it is meant a last phase of a Church and also a first phase of it - a last one with those among whom the Church is coming to an end, and a first with those among whom it is just beginning. This explains why 'the evening' primarily means the Lord's Coming, for that was the time of the end of the former Church and of the beginning of the new. The first state of the new Church is also called 'the evening' since a member of the Church starts with light that is dim and advances to that which is clear, and this for him is the morning.

[4] The fact that the Lord's Coming into the world is meant by 'the evening' and 'the morning' is clear in Daniel,

I heard a holy one speaking, For how long is this vision, the continual [burnt offering], and the transgression, and the treading down of the sanctuary and the host? And he said to me, Up to the evening [when it is becoming] morning two thousand three hundred times, for then the sanctuary will be made correct. Daniel 8:13-14.

Here it is self-evident that 'the evening' is used to mean the last phase when the Church had been completely laid waste and the Lord came into the world, and 'morning' to mean light and the rise of a new Church from Him.

[5] A similar prophecy appears in Zechariah,

There will be one day, which will be known to Jehovah, not day nor night, because around evening time there will be light. Zechariah 14:7.

In Zephaniah,

Let there at length be a territory for the remnant of the house of Judah; they will pasture on them. In the houses of Ashkelon they will find rest in the evening, when Jehovah their God will visit them, and return their captives. ² Zephaniah 1:7.

'The evening' stands for the first state of an arising Church. Since 'the evening' meant the last state of an old Church and the first of a new, Aaron and his sons were commanded to cause a lamp to burn ³ from evening until morning before Jehovah, Exodus 27:20-21.

[6] The fact that 'the evening' is the last state of the Church, when dense falsity reigns because there is no faith, and dense evil because there is no charity, is evident in Jeremiah,

Woe to us, ⁴ for the day goes away, for the shadows of evening are set at an angle! Jeremiah 6:4.

In Ezekiel,

I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died at evening. Ezekiel 24:18.

'Wife' stands for the Church. In David,

At dawn it will flourish and shoot up, ⁵ at evening one will cut it down, it will wither. Psalms 90:6.

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