776. This Second Coming of the Lord Is Not Taking Place in Person but in the Word, Since the Word Is from Him and He Is the Word

Many passages say that the Lord is coming in the clouds of heaven; see, for example, Matthew 17:5; 24:30; 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 9:34-35; 21:27; Revelation 1:7; 14:14; Daniel 7:13. Until now no one has known, however, what the clouds of heaven mean. People think the Lord is going to appear in person in the actual clouds in the sky.

The clouds of heaven stand for the Word's literal meaning, and the glory and power with which the Lord is going to come (Matthew 24:30) stand for the Word's spiritual meaning. The reason this has escaped everyone's notice until now is that no one yet, even in a theoretical flight of fancy, has guessed that there is any spiritual meaning within the Word of the type it actually contains.

Because the Lord has opened up the Word's spiritual meaning to me and has also allowed me to be with angels and spirits in their world as one of them, I have discovered that a cloud of heaven stands for the Word's earthly meaning, glory stands for the Word's spiritual meaning, and power stands for the power the Lord has through the Word.

Readers can see from the following passages in the Word that a cloud of heaven has this meaning.

No one is like the God of Jeshurun, who is riding a horse in heaven, and in magnificence on the clouds. (Deuteronomy 33:26)

Sing to God; praise his name. Celebrate the horse rider on the clouds. (Psalms 68:4)

Jehovah is riding a horse on a fast-moving cloud. (Isaiah 19:1)

[2] To ride a horse means to equip us with divine truths from the Word, since a horse means our understanding of the Word (see Revelation Unveiled 298). Surely everyone can see that God does not literally ride a horse on the clouds. For another passage,

God rode upon angel guardians and made the clouds of the heavens his tent. (Psalms 18:10-12)

Angel guardians, too, mean the Word (see 239, 672).

Jehovah binds the waters in his clouds and spreads his cloud over his throne. (Job 26:8-9)

Give strength to Jehovah, strength upon the clouds. (Psalms 68:34)

Jehovah created a cloud by day over every dwelling place in Zion; he placed a cover over all glory. (Isaiah 4:5)

The Word in its literal meaning was also represented by the cloud in which Jehovah came down onto Mount Sinai when he proclaimed the law. The commandments of the law that were proclaimed at that time were and are the primary principles of the Word.

[3] The following things I have witnessed can be added to lend further support. In the spiritual world there are clouds, just as there are in the physical world, although spiritual clouds have a different origin than physical clouds do. In the spiritual world there are sometimes shining clouds over the angelic heavens and dark clouds over the hells. The shining clouds over the angelic heavens symbolize a lack of clarity that the angels there are experiencing because of the Word's literal meaning. When those clouds are breaking up, they symbolize the fact that the angels are coming into goodwill as a result of the Word's spiritual meaning. The dark clouds over the hells symbolize that the Word is being falsified and desecrated there.

The fact that clouds have these symbolic meanings in the spiritual world is the origin [of their meanings in the Word]. The light that emanates from the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world symbolizes divine truth. Therefore the Lord himself is called the Light (John 1:9; 12:35). As a result, the Word itself, which is kept in the sanctuaries of the church buildings in the spiritual world, appears surrounded with shining light. Clouds dim that light.