5599. 'Saying, Is your father still alive?' means and regarding spiritual good from which these sprang. This is clear from the representation of Israel, to whom 'father' refers here, as spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598, 5595. Since the truths of faith descend from that good as their father, 5598, the expression from which they sprang is used here.

3655. The subject in the previous sections of Matthew 24 has been the first and second states of the perversion of the Church. The first state exists when people cease to know any longer what good is or what truth is, and instead argue with one another about these, as a result of which falsities arise, see 3354. And the second state exists when they treat good and truth with contempt and also reject them, and so when belief in the Lord breathes its last, which things take place step by step as charity ceases to exist, see 3487, 3488. Here the third state is now dealt with, which exists when good and truth in the Church are made desolate.