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Ezekiel 7

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1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 And thou, son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto the land of Israel: An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

3 Now is the end upon thee; and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

4 And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity; but I will bring thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

5 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: An evil, an only evil! behold, it is come.

6 The end is come, the end is come; it awaketh against thee: behold, it cometh.

7 The doom is come unto thee, inhabitant of the land; the time is come, the day is near, -- tumult, and not the joyous cry from the mountains.

8 Now will I soon pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger against thee; and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will bring upon thee all thine abominations.

9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will render unto thee according to thy ways, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that it is I, Jehovah, that smite.

10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the doom is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride is full blown.

11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: nothing of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth, nor of the magnificence in the midst of them.

12 The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for fierce anger is upon all the multitude thereof.

13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, even though he were yet alive amongst the living: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof; it shall not be revoked; and none shall through his iniquity assure his life.

14 They have blown the trumpet and made all ready, but none goeth to the battle; for my fierce anger is upon all the multitude thereof.

15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

16 And they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one for his iniquity.

17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall melt into water.

18 And they shall gird on sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an impurity: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath; they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their belly; for it hath been the stumbling-block of their iniquity.

20 And he set in majesty his beautiful ornament; but they made therein the images of their abominations [and] of their detestable things: therefore have I made it an impurity unto them.

21 And I will give it into the hands of strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.

22 And I will turn my face from them; and they shall profane my secret [place]; and the violent shall enter into it, and profane it.

23 Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

24 Therefore will I bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses; and I will make the pride of the strong to cease; and their sanctuaries shall be profaned.

25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, but there shall be none.

26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; and they shall seek a vision from a prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with dismay, and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble: I will do unto them according to their way, and with their judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 476

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476. That there should be no more time. This symbolically means that there will be no church or any state of the church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God.

Time symbolizes state, and because the church is the subject here, it symbolizes a state of the church. Consequently, that there should be no more time means, symbolically, that there should be no state of the church.

It follows also that it means there would be no church unless people acknowledge one God, and that the Lord is that God. But what is the case today? No one denies that there is one God, but people do deny that the Lord is that God. And yet there cannot be one God in whom there is at the same time a Trinity unless that God is the Lord. No one denies that the church originates from Him who is the Savior and Redeemer, but people do deny that they should turn to Him directly as their Savior and Redeemer.

It is apparent from this that the church will die unless a new one arises, one that acknowledges the Lord alone as God of heaven and earth and accordingly turns to Him directly (see Matthew 28:18 1 ). Consequently the statement here that there should be no more time, that is to say, no church, is related to what is said in verse 7 of this chapter, 2 and verse 7 in turn is related to what is said in chapter 11:15, 3 where we are told that there would be a church which would be the Lord's alone.

[2] Time symbolizes state because in the spiritual world time is not measured by days, weeks, months and years, but instead by states which are progressions of the inhabitants' lives, by which they recall the past. (On which subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, published in London in 1758, nos. 162-169, where we dealt with time in heaven.)

The state of the church is meant here by time because although day and night, morning and evening, summer and winter mark periods of time in the world, when interpreted in the spiritual sense they mark states of the church. Consequently, when these states come to an end, there is no church; and that is the case when there is no longer any good and truth, thus when the light of truth has become dark, and the warmth of goodness cold. That is what is meant by the statement that there should be no more time.

The following passages in the Word have similar meanings:

(The fourth beast) shall think to change times... (Daniel 7:25)

There shall be one day which is known to Jehovah - neither day nor night (and so not a period of time). (Zechariah 14:7)

...I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight (and so not in a period of time). (Amos 8:9)

...a single evil, behold, it has come! An end has come, the end has come... The morning has come upon you, who dwell in the land; the time has come... (Ezekiel 7:5-7)

The morning is the commencement of the New Church (no. 151), which is why it says, "The time has come."

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."

2. ."..in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, as He declared to His servants the prophets."

3. "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, and He shall reign forever and ever!'"

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.