473. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." (10:4) This symbolically means that these things must indeed be disclosed, but they are not accepted until after those people meant by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet have been cast out of the world of spirits, because it would be dangerous before then.

The voices uttered by the seven thunders are declarations expressing what we have just said in no. 472 above. And because these constitute the essential doctrine of the New Church, they are mentioned three times.

In the natural sense, to write means to commit to paper and thus to record for posterity; but in the spiritual sense, to write means, symbolically, to commit to the heart for its acceptance. Sealing something up, therefore, and not writing it. This means, symbolically, not to commit it to the heart or accept it until after the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet have been cast out of the world of spirits, because it would be dangerous before then. That is because the dragon, beast and false prophet symbolize people caught up in a faith divorced from charity, and these cling steadfastly and tenaciously to their belief that one must go to God the Father and not to the Lord directly, and that the Lord is not God of heaven and earth as regards His humanity. Consequently, as regards the doctrine presented just above in no. 472, which was disclosed and continues to be disclosed, symbolized by the little book's being open - if, before the dragon was cast out, that doctrine were to be received by others than people possessing charity and its accompanying faith, who also are symbolized by John (nos. 5, 17), it would be rejected not only by them, but through them by everyone else as well. And if not rejected, still it would be falsified, even profaned.

[2] The reality of this is clearly apparent from the following chapters in Revelation when viewed in their sequence, in which we are told that they killed the Lord's two witnesses (chapter 11); that the dragon stood before the woman ready to give birth, to devour her child, and that after it fought with Michael, it pursued the woman (chapter 12); that the two beasts, one rising up from the sea and one from the earth, made common cause with him (chapter 13); that they gathered their followers together to do battle at a place called Armageddon (chapter 16); and finally that they gathered the nations Gog and Magog to do battle (chapter 20, verses 8-9); but that the dragon, beast and false prophet were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (chapter, verse 10); and that after this took place, the New Church, which was to be the Lamb's bride, came down out of heaven (chapters 21, 22).

These are the things meant by the charge, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." Also by the subsequent statement in this chapter, that "in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel..., the mystery of God would be concluded, as He declared to His servants the prophets" (verse 7). So, too, by this statement in the next chapter, "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,'" (chapter 11:, verse 15). And further, by a number of similar statements in the following chapters.

On this subject, something may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 61.

61. All of what we have said about the Lord has now for the first time been published, because it was foretold in the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, that at the end of the former church the Lord would establish a new church, in which this doctrine would be primary.

This new church is the one meant in that book by the New Jerusalem, which no one can enter unless he acknowledges the Lord alone to be God of heaven and earth. I can also report that the whole of heaven acknowledges the Lord alone, and that anyone who does not acknowledge Him is not admitted into heaven. For heaven is heaven owing to the Lord. That very acknowledgment out of love and faith causes the inhabitants there to be in the Lord and to have the Lord in them. As the Lord Himself teaches in John:

At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (John 14:20)

And again in John:

Abide in Me, and I in you.... I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out.... (John 15:4-6; see also 17:22-23)

[2] This has not previously been seen in the Word because if it had been seen before, it would still not have been accepted. For the Last Judgment had not yet been accomplished, and prior to that the power of hell prevailed over the power of heaven; and since people exist in between heaven and hell, if they had seen it then, the devil, that is, hell, would have snatched it from their hearts, and moreover profaned it.

This exercise of power by hell was completely broken by the Last Judgment, which has now been accomplished. Since then — thus at the present time — every person who wishes to be enlightened and become wise, can be.

For more on this subject, see what we wrote in the book Heaven and Hell 589–596, and nos. 597–603; and in the short work The Last Judgment 73, 74.