711. And there was a great earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were on the earth, so great was the earthquake. This symbolizes seeming shocks, convulsions, upsets and drawings down from heaven of every element of the church.

Earthquakes symbolize changes in a church's state, as may be seen in no. 331 above. But because some earthquakes are milder and some more severe, and the one here is very severe, since we are told that such a quake had not occurred since the appearance of people, it is apparent that the earthquake here symbolizes shocks, convulsions, upsets and drawings down from heaven of every element of the church.

We are told, too, in regard to the dragon, which is called a serpent, the devil and satan, ¹ that its tail drew down from heaven a third of the stars and threw them to the earth (Revelation 12:4). Something similar is said in regard to the male goat in Daniel 8:10-12. The Lord also says regarding the end of the present church:

...then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

The end of the church is described in the prophets as well by shocks, overturnings and castings down of the earth, and many other occurrences attendant on earthquakes.

Poznámky pod čarou:

The number "two" has two different meanings in the Bible. In most cases "two" indicates a joining together or unification. This is easy to see if we consider the conflicts we tend to have between our "hearts" and our "heads" -- between what we want and what we know. Our "hearts" tell us that we want pie with ice cream for dinner; our "heads" tell us we should have grilled chicken and salad. If we can bring those two together and actually want what's good for us, we'll be pretty happy. We're built that way -- with our emotions balanced against our intellect -- because the Lord is built that way. His essence is love itself, or Divine Love, the source of all caring, emotion and energy. It is expressed as Divine Wisdom, which gives form to that love and puts it to work, and is the source of all knowledge and reasoning. In His case the two aspects are always in conjunction, always in harmony. It's easy also to see how that duality is reflected throughout creation: plants and animals, food and drink, silver and gold. Most importantly, it's reflected in the two genders, with women representing love and men representing wisdom. That's the underlying reason why conjunction in marriage is such a holy thing. So when "two" is used in the Bible to indicate some sort of pairing or unity, it means a joining together. In rare cases, however, "two" is used more purely as a number. In these cases it stands for a profane or unholy state that comes before a holy one. This is because "three" represents a state of holiness and completion (Jesus, for instance, rose from the tomb on the third day), and "two" represents the state just before it.