758. Dass sich alle diese Dinge, die der Herr hier mit seinen Jüngern besprach, auf die letzte Zeit der christlichen Kirche beziehen, geht deutlich aus der Offenbarung hervor, in der sich ähnliche Voraussagen bezüglich der Vollendung des Zeitlaufs und seiner Wiederkunft finden, die sämtlich in dem 1766 herausgegebenen Werk «Die Enthüllte Offenbarung» bis ins einzelne erklärt worden sind. Da nun das, was der Herr vor den Jüngern über die Vollendung des Zeitlaufs und seine Wiederkunft sprach, mit dem übereinstimmt, was er nachher in der Offenbarung durch Johannes offenbarte, so liegt offen zutage, dass er damit keine andere Vollendung als die der heutigen Kirche meinte. Überdies findet sich eine Weissagung über das Ende dieser Kirche auch bei Daniel, weshalb der Herr sagte: „Wenn ihr nun sehen werdet den Greuel der Verwüstung, von dem durch den Propheten Daniel gesagt ist, an heiliger Stätte stehen – wer es liest, der merke auf.“ (Matthaeus 24:15; Daniel 9:27) Ähnliches findet sich auch bei den übrigen Propheten. Im Anhang wird noch deutlicher gezeigt werden, dass ein derartiger Greuel der Verwüstung heutzutage in der christlichen Kirche herrscht, weil in ihr nicht eine einzige echte Wahrheit übriggeblieben ist, und dass nach den Worten des Herrn bei Matthaeus 24:22 „kein Fleisch gerettet werden könnte“, wenn nicht an Stelle der heutigen eine neue Kirche erweckt würde.

Die Erdbewohner, die sich auf die Falschheiten der heutigen christlichen Kirche versteift haben, vermögen nicht zu sehen, wie sehr sie zu ihrem Ende gekommen und verwüstet ist, und zwar deshalb, weil die Begründung des Falschen zugleich eine Leugnung des Wahren ist und eine Art von Schleier über den Verstand breitet, um dadurch zu verhüten, dass irgendetwas anderes in ihn eindringen kann, das ihre Stricke und Pfähle ausreißt, mit deren Hilfe sie ihr System wie ein festes Zelt aufgeschlagen und zusammengefügt haben. Dazu kommt noch, dass mit den Argumenten der natürlichen Vernunft jede beliebige These begründet werden kann, sei sie nun falsch oder wahr, und dass diese danach in gleichem Licht erscheint, sodass nicht zu erkennen ist, ob es unecht ist, wie jenes, das man im Traum erblickt, oder echt wie das Tageslicht. Ganz anders freilich verhält sich die geistige Vernunft, über die jene verfügen, die zum Herrn aufblicken und mit seiner Kraft das Wahre lieben.

6971. 'And do not hear the voice of the former sign' means that if they did not obey what was declared by the Word, then instead of being spiritual and rational they would become people who were not spiritual or rational. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' as obeying, dealt with in 2542, 3869, 5017; from the meaning of 'the voice' as what is declared by the Word, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the former sign' as an indication that instead of being spiritual and rational they would become people who were not spiritual or rational. The truth of this may be seen from the meaning of 'the serpent' that was made out of Moses' rod when it was thrown onto the earth - the event to which 'the first sign' refers here - as a person who thinks on a sensory and bodily level, 6949, and so is not spiritual or rational. For a person who is sensory- and bodily-minded is not rational, and so is not spiritual either, because he thinks things that are false and desires those that are evil. One who behaves like this is not rational, still less spiritual, for an acceptance of and belief in what is true, together with a life of goodness, since these two come from the Divine, constitute true spirituality within rationality, whereas an acceptance of and belief in what is false, together with a life of evil, are the opposite. For the fact that wholly sensory- and bodily-minded people are like this, see 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949.

[2] Those people become wholly sensory- and bodily-minded who have first had a knowledge of things that belong to the spiritual world but after that have rejected them, and then have adopted fundamental ideas of falsity that are contrary to truths and focused their lives solely on worldly, bodily, and earthly values. They have consequently come to believe that life is meant to be filled with pleasures of every kind, saying, 'What more does a person have while he is alive? When we die, we die; as for the possibility of life after death, has anyone ever come back to talk about it? We have no knowledge of anything that will go on living when the life goes out of a person.' If anyone using rational arguments induces those people to give any thought to eternal life, they think that nothing worse will happen to them than to anyone else, and they immediately go back to living in the way they had done previously. With such people the passageway for the light of heaven to flow in is closed, and at the natural level of their minds the light of heaven is turned into thick darkness, while the light of the world there becomes brightness, 6907, a brightness that shines ever more brilliantly, the more that the light of heaven is darkened. This is why such people do not see the evil in their lives as anything other than goodness, or consequently the false ideas as anything other than true. Here then is the reason why a person becomes sensory- and bodily-minded. In short, once the way is opened for the light of heaven to flow in and then closed, a person is impelled to look downwards, and not upwards. This is done in keeping with Divine order so as to prevent truths once accepted and remaining in a person's inner self from being contaminated by falsities and thereby rendered profane.

[3] The same applies to gentiles who fall away from their religion, though their lot is better than that of people within the Church since what they possess are not truths from the Word, not genuine truths therefore but truths coupled with many misconceptions, which cannot be profaned in the way genuine ones can.

As regards the meaning of 'the voice' as that which is declared by the Word, it should be recognized that frequent use is made of the expression 'the voice'. It is also linked to other things that have nothing to do with a voice, such as the linking of it here to 'the sign' - 'If they do not hear the voice of the former sign they will believe the voice of the latter sign' - and also elsewhere, for example in Nahum,

The voice of the whip and the voice of the sound of the wheel. Nahum 3:2.

And in David,

The rivers have lifted up their voice, more than the voices of many mighty waters. Psalms 93:3-4.

[4] The fact that 'the voice' means a declaration, in the good sense a declaration by the Word, when it is called 'the voice of Jehovah', is clear in David,

The voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is glorious; the voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars; the voice of Jehovah flashes forth flames of fire; the voice of Jehovah causes the wilderness to shake; the voice of Jehovah causes the hinds to calve, and strips the forests bare. Psalms 29:3-5; Psalms 7-9.

And elsewhere in the same author,

. . . to Him who rides above the heavens of heavens of old. Behold, He will put forth His voice, a mighty voice. Psalms 68:33.

Here 'voice' stands for Divine Truth, and so for the Word and a declaration made by it. For what more is meant by 'voice', see 219; and for its use in reference to truth, 3563.