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Amos 8

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1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket of summer fruit.

2 And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, The end has come to my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin.

3 And the songs of the king's house will be cries of pain in that day, says the Lord God: great will be the number of the dead bodies, and everywhere they will put them out without a word.

4 Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land,

5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit;

6 Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain.

7 The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I will ever keep in mind all their works.

8 Will not the land be shaking with fear because of this, and everyone in it have sorrow? and all of it will be overflowing like the River; and it will be troubled and go down again like the River of Egypt.

9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day, and I will make the earth dark in daylight:

10 Your feasts will be turned into sorrow and all your melody into songs of grief; everyone will be clothed with haircloth, and the hair of every head will be cut; I will make the weeping like that for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send times of great need on the land, not need of food or desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord.

12 And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running here and there in search of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it.

13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water.

14 Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be lifted up.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 476

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476. That there should be no more time. This symbolically means that there will be no church or any state of the church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God.

Time symbolizes state, and because the church is the subject here, it symbolizes a state of the church. Consequently, that there should be no more time means, symbolically, that there should be no state of the church.

It follows also that it means there would be no church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God. But what is the case today? No one denies that there is one God, but people do deny that the Lord is that God. And yet there cannot be one God in whom there is at the same time a Trinity unless that God is the Lord. No one denies that the church originates from Him who is the Savior and Redeemer, but people do deny that they should turn to Him directly as their Savior and Redeemer.

It is apparent from this that the church will die unless a new one arises, one that acknowledges the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth and accordingly turns to Him directly (see Matthew 28:18 1 ). Consequently the statement here that there should be no more time, that is to say, no church, is related to what is said in verse 7 of this chapter, 2 and verse 7 in turn is related to what is said in chapter 11:15, 3 where we are told that there would be a church which would be the Lord's alone.

[2] Time symbolizes state because in the spiritual world time is not measured by days, weeks, months and years, but instead by states which are progressions of the inhabitants' lives, by which they recall the past. (On which subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London in 1758, nos. 162-169, where we dealt with time in heaven.)

The state of the church is meant here by time because although day and night, morning and evening, summer and winter mark periods of time in the world, when interpreted in the spiritual sense they mark states of the church. Consequently, when these states come to an end, there is no church; and that is the case when there is no longer any good and truth, thus when the light of truth has become dark, and the warmth of goodness cold. That is what is meant by the statement that there should be no more time.

The following passages in the Word have similar meanings:

(The fourth beast) shall think to change times... (Daniel 7:25)

There shall be one day which is known to Jehovah - neither day nor night (and so not a period of time). (Zechariah 14:7)

...I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight (and so not in a period of time). (Amos 8:9)

...a single evil, behold, it has come! An end has come, the end has come... The morning has come upon you, who dwell in the land; the time has come... (Ezekiel 7:5-7)

The morning is the commencement of the New Church (no. 151), which is why it says, "The time has come."

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."

2. ."..in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, as He declared to His servants the prophets."

3. "Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!'"

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.