486. And the angel stood by, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there." This symbolizes the Lord's presence and His command to see and learn the state of the church in the New Heaven.

The Lord is meant by the angel, here as in nos. 5, 415, and elsewhere, since an angel does nothing of himself but is impelled by the Lord. That is why the angel said, "I will give power to my two witnesses" (verse 3), when they were the Lord's witnesses. The angel's standing by symbolizes the Lord's presence, and his speaking symbolizes the Lord's command. To rise and measure means, symbolically, to see and learn. We will see below that to measure means, symbolically, to learn and investigate the character of a state.

The temple, altar, and those who worship there symbolize the state of the church in the New Heaven - the temple symbolizing the church in respect to its doctrinal truth (no. 191), the altar symbolizing the church in respect to the goodness of its love (no. 392), and those who worship there symbolizing the church in respect to its formal worship as a result of those two elements. Those who worship symbolize here the reverence that is a part of formal worship, since the spiritual sense is a sense abstracted from persons (nos. 78, 79, 96), as is apparent here also from the fact that John is told to measure the worshipers. These three elements are what form the church: doctrinal truth, goodness of love, and formal worship as a result of these.

[2] That the church meant is the church in the New Heaven is apparent from the last verse of this chapter, where we are told that "the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple" (verse 19).

This chapter begins with the measuring of the temple in order that the state of the church in heaven might be seen and learned before its conjunction with the church in the world. The church in the world is meant by the court outside the temple, which John was not to measure, because it had been given to the gentiles (verse 2). The same church is then described by the great city called Sodom and Egypt (verses 7, 8). But after that great city fell (verse 13), it follows that the church became the Lord's (verses 15ff.).

It should be known that the church exists in the heavens just as on earth, and that the two are united like the inner and outer selves in people. Consequently the Lord provides the church in heaven first, and from it, or by means of it, then the church on earth. That is why the New Jerusalem is said to come down from God out of the New Heaven (Revelation 21:1-2).

The New Heaven means a new heaven formed from Christians, as described several times in the following chapters.

[3] To measure means, symbolically, to learn and investigate the character of a thing because the measure of something symbolizes its character or state. All the measurements of the New Jerusalem (chapter 21) have this symbolic meaning, as does the statement there that the angel who had the gold reed measured the city and its gates, and that he measured the wall to be one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man which is that of an angel (verses 15, 17). Moreover, because the New Jerusalem symbolizes the New Church, is it apparent that to measure it and its component parts means, symbolically, to learn its character.

Measuring has the same symbolic meaning in Ezekiel, where we read that an angel measured the house of God: the temple, the altar, the court, and the chambers (Ezekiel 40:3-17; 41:1-5, 13-14, 22; 42:1-20, and 43:1-27). Also that he measured the waters (47:3-5, 9). Therefore the prophet is told:

...show the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the pattern... and... its exits and its entrances, and all its patterns..., so that they may keep its whole design... (Ezekiel 43:10-11)

Measuring has the same symbolic meaning in the following places:

I raised my eyes..., and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem...." (Zechariah 2:1-2)

He stood and measured the earth. (Habakkuk 3:6)

(The Lord Jehovih) has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and gauged heaven with a span... and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. (Isaiah 40:12)

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? ...Who determined its measurements? ...Or who stretched the line upon it? (Job 38:4-5)

5. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John. This symbolizes the things that have been revealed by the Lord through heaven to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith.

"He sent and signified it by His angel" means, in the spiritual sense, things that have been revealed by the Lord from heaven or through heaven. For in the Word an angel frequently means the angelic heaven, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself. That is because no angel ever speaks with a person in dissociation from heaven, for each has such a conjunction with all the rest there that everyone speaks in accord with the communion, even though the angel is not conscious of it.

In the Lord's sight, in fact, heaven is as a single person, whose soul is the Lord Himself. Therefore the Lord speaks with a person through heaven, as a person does from his soul through his body in speaking with another. And this the person does in conjunction with each and every part of his mind, at whose center are the things that he is saying. But this secret cannot be explained in a few words. We have explained it in part in Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Love and Wisdom.

In the highest sense the Lord is meant by an angel because heaven is not heaven in consequence of the angels' own qualities, but owing to the Lord's Divinity from which they have their love and wisdom, indeed their life. It is on this account that in the Word the Lord is Himself called an angel.

It is apparent from this that the angel did not of himself speak with John, but that the Lord did so by means of heaven through the angel.

[2] As for saying that this statement means that these things have been revealed to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, that is because it is they who are meant by John. For by the Lord's twelve disciples or apostles are meant all in the church who possess truths arising from goodness, and in an abstract sense, all constituents of the church. By Peter are meant all who are governed by faith, and abstractly, faith itself. By James are meant those who are impelled by charity, and abstractly, charity itself. And by John are meant those who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith, and abstractly, the resulting goodness of life itself. That these are what are meant by John, James and Peter in the Gospels may be seen in the short work The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (London, 1758), no. 122.

[3] Now because goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith is what forms the church, therefore it was through the apostle John that secrets were revealed concerning the state of the church, the secrets that are contained in his visions.

The fact that the names of persons and places in the Word all symbolize things having to do with heaven and the church is something we showed many times in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), also published in London.

It can be seen from this that the phrase, "He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John," means, in the spiritual sense, the things that have been revealed by the Lord through heaven to people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith. For charity produces goodness through faith, and not charity by itself or faith by itself.