404. Verse 14. And the heaven departed as a book rolled up, signifies that the spiritual man became closed up. This is evident from the signification of "heaven," as being the church in general and in particular; for the church is the heaven of the Lord on the earth; moreover, the church makes one with heaven by conjunction; therefore when "heaven and earth" are mentioned in the Word, the church internal and external is meant, for the internal of the men of the church is heaven with them, and their external is the world with them; and as "heaven and earth" signify the church internal and external so they signify the internal and external man, or the spiritual and the natural man; for as man in whom is the good of love and of faith is a church, so the church, in general exists from the men in whom the church is. This makes clear why it is that "heaven" here means the internal or spiritual man. It is said "the spiritual man," by which is meant the spiritual mind, which is the higher or interior mind of man, while the lower or exterior mind is called the natural man. The above is evident also from the signification of "departed as a book rolled up," as meaning that it became closed up; for the spiritual mind, which is, as was said, the higher or interior mind with man, is opened by truths applied to life, thus by goods, but it is closed up by falsities applied to life, thus by evils; and the closing up is as the rolling up of the scroll of a book. That this is so was made very clear by the appearances in the spiritual world when the Last Judgment was accomplished; for the mountains and the hills there then appeared sometimes to be rolled up as the scroll of a book is rolled up, and those that were upon them were then rolled down into hell. The cause of this appearance was this: that the interiors of their minds, through which somewhat of light from heaven had before flowed in, were then closed up. What takes place in general with many, takes place with everyone in particular of a like character, for in the spiritual world such as the general is, such is the particular (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 73). By "book" is meant a scroll, because in ancient times there were no types and thus no books like those at the present day, but there were scrolls of parchments; so "books" in Revelation mean scrolls, and "heaven departed as a book rolled up" means as a scroll rolled up; the same as in Isaiah:

All the host of the heavens shall waste away, and the heavens shall be rolled up as a book (Isaiah 34:4).

6846. 'And He said, I am the God of your father' means Him who was the God of the Ancient Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'father' as the Ancient Church, dealt with in 6075. The reason why the Ancient Church is called 'father' is that from it the Churches that came after it were born - the Hebrew Church, and later on the Church among the descendants of Jacob. For the religious practices and the statutes decreed through Moses for Jacob's descendants were not new but had existed previously in the ancient Churches and were merely re-established among the children of Jacob. They were re-established because among other nations they had become idolatrous practices, and in Egypt and Babel they had been converted into magical ones. The fact that the same things had existed in ancient Churches becomes clear from a large number of places in the Word. So it is then that the Ancient Church is meant by 'father', and also that it is called 'father' in the Word where the subject is the Church. The God whom people worshipped in the Ancient Church was the Lord in respect of His Divine Human; and it was well known to those people that the Lord was the One who was represented in each particular religious observance of their Church. A large number of them also knew that the Lord was going to come into the world, when He would make the Human within Himself Divine. Nor did the people of that Church take Jehovah to mean anyone else, for whenever He appeared to them He did so as a Divine Man, and was called Jehovah, 1343, 5663, as He also appeared at a later time to Abraham, Genesis 18:2 and following verses; to Joshua, Joshua 5:13-15; to Gideon, Judges 6:11 and following verses; and to Manoah and his wife, Judges 13:3 and following verses. He was acknowledged as God overall, and as the one and only God whom they were to adore. From all this one may now see that 'the God of your father' is used to mean in the internal sense Him who was the God of the Ancient Church, namely the Lord. But in the external sense written as history 'father' is used to mean Abraham, also Isaac, and Jacob too.