35. Verses 7, 8. Behold He cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall lament over Him. Even so: Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and End, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. 7 "Behold He cometh with the clouds," signifies that the Lord is about to reveal Himself in the Word through the internal sense n. 36; "and every eye shall see Him," signifies that all will acknowledge Him who are in truths from good (n. 37); "and they who pierced Him," signifies that they also will see Him who are in falsities from evil (n. 38); "and all the tribes of the earth shall lament over Him," signifies that the falsities of the church will oppose n. 39; "even so: Amen," signifies Divine confirmation, that so it will be (n. 40).

8. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and End," signifies that He governs all things from firsts through ultimates, and thus all things of heaven to eternity (n. 41); "saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come," signifies from Him who is the All in all things of heaven and of the church from eternity to eternity, and Jehovah (n. 42); "the Almighty," signifies from Himself (n. 43).

2117. THE LAST JUDGEMENT

Few nowadays know what the Last Judgement is. They imagine that it is going to be accompanied by the destruction of the world; and this leads to conjectures that this earth, together with everything else in the visible world, is going to be destroyed by fire. They also conjecture that then for the first time the dead will rise again and appear for judgement, and the evil are to be cast into hell and the good to rise up to heaven. These conjectures are based on the prophetical parts of the Word where references are made to a new heaven and a new earth, and also to a New Jerusalem. Such people do not realize that the prophetical parts of the Word have a meaning altogether different in the internal sense from what appears in the sense of the letter, and that 'heaven' is not used to mean heaven, nor 'the earth' to mean the earth, but the Lord's Church in general, and as it exists with each individual in particular.