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.

Fotnoter:

1408. The events described here and in what follows took place in history as they are recorded, yet the historical events as described are representative, and every word carries a spiritual meaning. This is so in all of the historical parts of the Word, not only in the Books of Moses but also in those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, all of which books contain nothing else than historical narratives. But although they are historical narratives in the sense of the letter, in the internal sense there are arcana of heaven lying hidden there. These arcana cannot possibly be seen as long as the mind keeps its eye fixed on the historical details, nor are they disclosed until the mind removes itself from the sense of the letter. The Word of the Lord is like a body that has a living soul within it. The things that belong to the soul are not apparent as long as the mind is fixed on those of the body, so much so that it scarcely believes it possesses a soul, even less that it will be alive after death. But as soon as the mind departs from bodily things, those belonging to the soul and to life show themselves; and in this lies the reason not only why bodily things must die before a person can be born anew or be regenerated, but also why the body must die so that he can enter heaven and behold heavenly things.

[2] The same applies to the Word of the Lord Its bodily parts are the things that constitute the sense of the letter, and when the mind is fixed on these the internal things are not seen at all. But once the bodily parts so to speak have died, the internal for the first time are brought to view. All the same, the things constituting the sense of the letter are like the things present with man in his body, namely the facts belonging to the memory which come in through the senses and which are general vessels containing interior or internal things. From this one may recognize that the vessels are one thing and the essential elements within the vessels another. The vessels are natural, and the essential elements within the vessels are spiritual and celestial. In the same way the historical narratives of the Word, as with each individual expression in the Word, are general, natural, indeed material vessels that have spiritual and celestial things within them. These things never come into sight except through the internal sense.

[3] This may become clear to anyone simply from the fact that many matters in the Word have been stated according to appearances, indeed according to the illusions of the senses, such as that the Lord is angry, punishes, curses, slays, and many other such statements, when in fact the internal sense contains the reverse, namely that the Lord is never angry or punishes, still less curses or slays. All the same, no harm at all is done to people who in simplicity of heart believe the Word as they find it in the letter so long as they are leading charitable lives, the reason being that the Word teaches nothing other than this - that everyone ought to live in charity with his neighbour and to love the Lord above all things. People doing this are in possession of the internal things, and thus with them the illusions acquired from the sense of the letter are easily dispersed.

2136. Genesis 18

1. And Jehovah appeared to him in the oak-groves of Mamre, and he was sitting at the tent door, as the day was getting warmer.

2. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, three men standing over him. And he saw, and ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed down towards the ground. ¹

3. And he said, My Lord, if now I have found grace in your eyes, do not, I beg of you, pass from over your servant.

4. Let now a little water be taken, and [all of you] wash your feet, and recline under the tree.

5. And I will take a piece a bread, that you may refresh yourselves; ² after that you may pass on, for this is why you have passed over to your servant. And they said, Do as you have spoken.

6. And Abraham hastened towards the tent to Sarah, and said, Take quickly three measures of meal of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes.

7. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a young bull, ³ tender and good, and gave it to the servant, and he hastened to make it ready.

8. And he took butter and milk, and the young bull, ³ which he made ready, and set it before them. And he stood before them under the tree, and they ate.

9. And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

10. And he said, I will certainly return to you about this time next year, ⁴ and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. And Sarah heard it at the tent door, and this was behind him.

11. And Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; ⁵ and it had ceased to be with Sarah in the way it is with women.

12. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have this pleasure, and my lord being old?

13. And Jehovah said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I really, in truth, bear a child, and I have grown old?

14. Will anything be too wonderful for Jehovah? At the set time I will return to you, about this time next year, ⁴ and Sarah will have a son.

15. And Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And He said, No, but you did laugh.

16. And the men rose up from there and looked towards the face of Sodom; and Abraham went with them, to send them on their way.

17. And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I am doing?

18. And Abraham will certainly become a great and numerous nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

19. For I know him that he will command his sons, and his house after him, and they will keep the way of Jehovah to do righteousness and judgement, in order that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which He has spoken concerning him.

20. And Jehovah said, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great, and their sin has become extremely grave.

21. I will go down now, and I will see whether they have brought it to a close according to the cry of it which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.

22. And the men looked from there and went towards Sodom; and Abraham still stood before Jehovah.

23. And Abraham drew near and said, Will You also destroy the righteous and the wicked?

24. Perhaps there may be fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city. Will You also destroy and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous persons who are in the midst of it?

25. Far be it from You to do such a thing as to make the righteous die with the wicked, so that the righteous will be as the wicked; far be it from You; will not the Judge of the whole earth execute judgement?

26. And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city, I will spare the whole place for their sakes.

27. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have undertaken to speak to my Lord, and I am [but] dust and ashes.

28. Perhaps the fifty righteous persons will lack five; will You for five destroy the whole city? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty five there.

29. And he spoke to Him yet again, and said, Perhaps forty will be found there. And He said, I will not do it for the sake of the forty.

30. And he said, Let not now my Lord be incensed and I will speak; perhaps thirty will be found there. And He said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

31. And he said, Behold now, I have undertaken to speak to my Lord; perhaps twenty will be found there. And He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.

32. And he said, Let not now my Lord be incensed, and I will speak just once more; perhaps ten will be found there. And He said, I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.

33. And Jehovah departed, when He had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

CONTENTS

First, this chapter deals here with the state of the Lord's perception within the Human, and of the communication at that time with the Divine before the perfect union existed of His Human Essence with the Divine Essence, which state is also what the Lord is referring to when He says,

Nobody has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. John 1:18.

Fotnoter: