6895. Saying, Visiting I have visited you. That this signifies His coming to those who are of the spiritual church, is evident from the signification of “visiting,” as being the coming of the Lord, which precedes the last time of the church, which time in the Word is called the “Last Judgment.” (That this is meant by “visitation,” see n. 2242, 6588.) That this is called “the Lord’s coming,” is plain from these words in Matthew:

The disciples said unto Jesus, Tell us when shall these things shall be? and what is the sign of Thy coming, and of the consummation of the age? (Matthew 24:3);

and then the Lord instructed the disciples about the last time of the church, as can be seen from what has been unfolded above (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4422-4424); and He said that when all these things should come to pass, “then shall appear the sign of the Son of man, and then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory” (Matthew 24:30).

[2] That by the “coming of the Lord” is not meant His appearing with angels in the clouds, but acknowledgment in hearts by love and faith (see n. 3353, 3900); also His appearing from the Word, the inmost or supreme sense of which treats of the Lord alone (n. 4060). This coming is meant by the coming of the Lord which takes place when an old church is rejected, and a new church is set up again by the Lord. And as newness of the church was now to be restored with the posterity of Jacob, it is said, “Visiting I have visited you,” as was also said by Joseph when he died:

Joseph said unto his brethren, I die; and visiting God will visit you, and will make you come up out of this land unto the land which He sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob (Genesis 50:24);

by “visiting to visit you,” in the sense of the letter, is here signified liberation from slavery in Egypt, and introduction into the land of Canaan; but this is not the spiritual content of the Word, but the natural. The spiritual of the Word treats of the Lord, of His kingdom and church, and of love and faith; and therefore by “visiting to visit” in the spiritual sense is meant liberation from falsities, and thus initiation into what is of the Lord’s church and kingdom, thus the coming of the Lord in love and faith with those who will be of the new church.

4229. In volume 3 ¹ a commencement was made with the explication of the Lord’s predictions in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew concerning the Last Judgment, the explication being prefixed to the last chapters of that volume, and being continued as far as the thirty-first verse of the chapter in the Evangelist just referred to (see n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060). The internal sense in a summary of these predictions of the Lord plainly appears from the explications already given, namely, that prediction is there made concerning the successive vastation of the church, and the ultimate setting up of a New Church, in the following order:

1. That the members of the church would begin not to know what good and truth are, and would dispute about them.

2. That they would hold them in contempt.

3. That at heart they would not acknowledge them.

4. That they would profane them.

5. And because the truth of faith and the good of charity would still remain with some, who are called the “elect,” a description is given of the state of the faith as it then existed.

6. Next of the state of the charity.

7. And finally the commencement of a New Church is treated of, which is meant by the words that were last explained:

He shall send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end of the heavens even to the end thereof (Matthew 24:31),

by which is meant the commencement of a New Church (see n. 4060 at the end).

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