944. 22:7 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." This symbolically means that the Lord will surely come and give eternal life to people who keep and obey the doctrinal truths or precepts in this book, now laid open by the Lord.

"Behold, I am coming quickly!" means, symbolically, that the Lord will surely come. Quickly symbolically means surely (nos. 4, 943), and coming symbolically means that He will come - not in person, but in the Word, in which He will be visible to all those people who will be part of His New Church. This is the meaning of His coming in the clouds of heaven, as may be seen in nos. 24, 642, 820 above.

"Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book" means, symbolically, that the Lord will give eternal life to people who keep and obey the doctrinal truths or precepts in this book, now laid open by the Lord. One who is blessed symbolizes a person who receives eternal life (nos. 639, 852). To keep symbolically means to keep and obey truths or precepts. The words are truths and precepts. The prophecy of this book symbolizes the doctrine in this book now laid open by the Lord, prophecy being doctrine (nos. 8, 133, 943).

[2] Anyone who weighs the matter can see that to keep the words of the prophecy of this book does not mean to preserve them, but to maintain them, that is, to keep and obey the doctrinal truths or precepts in this book that are now explained and laid open. Indeed, if not explained, the book of Revelation contains few things that can be kept, as they are prophecies previously not understood. Take for example the following:

It is impossible to keep what is related in chapter 6 regarding the horses emerging from the book. In chapter 7 regarding the twelve tribes. In chapters 8, 9 regarding the seven angels sounding their trumpets. In chapter 10 regarding the little book that John ate. In chapter 11 regarding the two witnesses that were killed and lived again. In chapter 12 regarding the woman and the dragon. In chapters 13, 14 regarding the two beasts. In chapters 15, 16 regarding the seven angels having the seven plagues. In chapters 17, 18 regarding the woman sitting on a scarlet beast and regarding Babylon. In chapter 19 regarding the white horse and the great supper. In chapter 20 regarding the Last Judgment. And in chapter 21 regarding the New Jerusalem as a city.

It is apparent from this that the verse does not mean that those people are blessed who preserve the words of the prophecy, for the meanings of the words are hidden, but it means that those people are blessed who maintain them, that is, who keep and obey the doctrinal truths or precepts that are contained in those words and are now laid open. That the explanations originate from the Lord may be seen in the Preface.

4. Things which must shortly take place. This symbolically means that they must surely come to pass to keep the church from perishing.

"Which must shortly take place" does not mean that the things predicted in the book of Revelation are going to happen immediately or quickly, but that they will happen surely, and that unless they come to pass, the church will perish.

In the Divine view, and so in the spiritual sense, time does not exist, but instead of time, state. And because "shortly" has to do with time, it symbolically means certainty and that something will happen before its time. For the book of Revelation was written in the first century, and seventeen centuries have now gone by, from which it is apparent that "shortly" means, symbolically, what corresponds to it, which is certainty.

[2] Something quite similar is involved in these words of the Lord:

Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

This, too, means that unless the church should be ended before its time, it would perish entirely. That chapter has as its subject the end of the age and the Lord's advent, and by the end of the age is meant the last state of the old church, and by the Lord's advent, the first state of a new church.

[3] We said that in the Divine view there is no time, but the presence of everything that has happened and will happen. Accordingly we are told in the Psalms,

...a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday... (Psalms 90:4)

And in the same book:

I will declare the decree: Jehovah has said to Me, "You are My Son, today I have begotten You." (Psalms 2:7)

"Today" is the presence of the Lord's advent.

For this reason, too, a whole period in the Word is called a day, its first state being called dawn and morning, and its last state evening and night.