24. Vers. 1:7. Voici, il vient avec les nuées, signifie que le Seigneur se révélera dans le sens de la lettre de la Parole, et en ouvrira le sens spirituel à la fin de l'Église. Celui qui ne connaît rien du sens interne ou spirituel de la Parole, ne peut pas savoir ce qui a été entendu par le Seigneur par cela qu'il devait venir dans les Nuées du Ciel ; car il répondit au Grand-Prêtre qui l'adjurait de dire s'il était le Christ, le Fils de Dieu :

— « Toi, tu (l')as dit : Moi je (le) suis ; et vous verrez le Fils de l'homme assis à la droite de la puissance, et venant avec les Nuées du Ciel. » Matthieu 26:63-64 ; Marc 14:61-62 ;

— et lorsque le Seigneur parle de la Consommation du siècle aux disciples, il dit :

— « Et alors apparaîtra le signe du fils de l'homme, et on le verra venir dans les Nuées du Ciel avec puissance et gloire. » — Matthieu 24:30 ; Marc 13:26.

Par la Nuée du Ciel, dans laquelle il doit venir, il n'est pas entendu autre chose que la Parole dans le sens de la lettre, et par la Gloire, dans laquelle on le verra, il n'est pas entendu autre chose que la Parole dans le sens spirituel.

8094. 'Although that was near' means that this is the first to present itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'being near', when said in reference to separated faith, as the fact that it is the first to present itself. A brief statement needs to be made about how one should understand this explanation, that the particular belief regarding separated faith or faith alone is the first to present itself. Evil in life is accompanied by its own falsity, and a person subject to evil in life has this falsity hidden away inside himself. Sometimes he does not even know that it is there. But the moment he thinks about the Church's truths, and in particular about salvation, that falsity emerges and reveals itself; and if he is unable to deny the truth itself, the general aspects of it, he explains it in a way to suit his evil, and in so doing falsifies it. When therefore he thinks about faith and charity, which are the indispensable elements of the Church and of salvation, faith instantly presents itself, but not charity since this is opposed to evil in life. As a consequence too he sets aside charity and gives preference to faith alone. From this it is evident that the truths of faith are 'near', but not forms of the good of faith; that is, those truths are the first to present themselves, but not these forms of good.

[2] From this incorrect and false starting-point many more ideas that are false and incorrect then follow, such as the ideas that good works contribute nothing to salvation; that a person's life does not follow him after death; that a person is then saved by mercy alone through faith, irrespective of the life he has been leading in the world; that the worst criminal is saved through faith in the final hour of his life; and that evils are wiped away in an instant. These and others like them are the ideas that enter human thought and establish themselves from that false starting-point; they extend from it in a continuous chain. But the way in which these ideas are seen would be altogether different if charity and life were the starting-point.