702. And there were lightnings, voices, and thunders.- That this signifies that at that time, in the lower places where the evil are, there were conflicts and disturbances of thought, and reasonings from evils and falsities concerning goods and truths, is evident from the signification of lightnings, voices, and thunders, as denoting enlightenment, thoughts, and perceptions (concerning which see above, n. 273); and, in the opposite sense, as here, conflicts and disturbances of thought, and reasonings from evils and falsities concerning the goods and truths of the church (concerning which also see above, n. 498). In a strict sense, lightnings signify darkenings of the understanding, voices, reasonings, while thunderings signify conclusions of falsity from evil; and since, according to the state of the interiors of those with whom they are, there then arise conflicts and disturbances of affections and thoughts, and consequent reasonings from evils and falsities concerning the goods and truths of the church, therefore this is the signification of these words in their logical connection with what precedes. That the lightnings, voices, and thunders, as well as the earthquake and the great hail, were in the lower parts, is clear. For it was in the higher parts that the temple and the ark of the covenant in the temple were seen, which signify the manifestation of a new heaven where there is worship of the Lord, and a representation of Divine Truth through which conjunction takes place, as is evident from the explanations of the preceding particulars. That such things took place in the lower parts through influx out of the higher heavens has been already made clear. But since these things are such as not to fall into any one's understanding except by living revelation, and consequent knowledge respecting the influx of higher things into lower things in the spiritual world, and because these things have been revealed to me, and thus made known, I will briefly explain this interior fact (arcanum).

[2] In the spiritual world - by which both the heavens and the hells are meant - the arrangement is such, that the heavens are like expanses one above the other, and under the heavens is the world of spirits, and under this are the hells, one below another. Influx from the Lord takes place according to this successive arrangement, thus through the inmost heaven into the middle, and through this into the ultimate, and from these in their order into the hells which lie beneath. The world of spirits is in the midst, and receives influx from both the heavens and the hells, each one there according to the state of his life.

[3] But this arrangement of the heavens and the hells underwent changes from one judgment to another, for the reason that the men who passed from the earths, of whom the heavens and the hells are constituted, were various in their affections, some being more or less spiritual or internal, and some more or less natural or external. And because the Lord does evil to none, but good to all, therefore He permitted those who had lived a moral and apparently spiritual life in externals from custom and habit in the world, however interiorly they were conjoined with hell, to form for themselves, in the world of spirits, a similitude of heaven in various places. And then the heavens above them, and the hells below them, were so arranged, that their interiors, through which they were conjoined with hell, might as far as possible be kept closed, while their exteriors, through which they were conjoined with the ultimate heaven, be kept open. And then it was provided that the higher heavens should not flow in immediately, for by such immediate influx their interiors, which were infernal, would be opened, and their exteriors, which were apparently spiritual, closed; for the influx of the higher heavens is into the interiors, which are the spirits' own, and not into the exteriors, which are not really their own. But when such apparent heavens had increased to such an extent that the influx from the hells had begun to prevail over the influx from the heavens, and that consequently the ultimate heaven, which was conjoined with them, had begun to totter, then the Last Judgment was at hand, and by degrees a separation of the evil from the good in those new apparent heavens took place, and this by immediate influx from the higher heavens; and by such influx their interiors, which were infernal, were opened, and their exteriors, which were apparently spiritual, were closed, as stated above.

From these things it is now clear why the temple appeared and the ark in the temple, which signifies the Divine Truth, by which the higher heavens were enlightened, in order that from them influx might pass into the lower parts, where the evil had their abode. From this influx it resulted that, in the lower parts where the evil were, lightnings were seen, and voices and thunders heard. Also there was a great earthquake, and hail fell. The influx out of the heavens, that is, through the heavens from the Lord, is nothing else but an influx of the love of good and of affection for truth; but with the evil it is turned into such things as correspond to their evils, and to the falsities therefrom, or as correspond to their love of evil and affection for falsity. And because the conflicts and disturbances of thought, and reasonings from evils and falsities concerning the goods and truths of the church, in which they were, correspond to lightnings, voices, and thunders, therefore they are here signified by these. For the subject here treated of is the state of heaven, such as it was about to become immediately before the Last Judgment. The existence of conflicts and disturbances of thought, and of reasonings from evils and falsities concerning the goods and truths of the church with those who are interiorly evil, and appear outwardly good after their interiors have been opened and their exteriors closed, arises from the conflict of their interiors with their exteriors in the first state of separation. But as soon as the exteriors have been completely closed, and they are left to their own interiors, then the conflict ceases, for then they are entirely in the love of their own evil, and in the affection for their own falsity, and thus in the delight of their life; therefore they then cast themselves down into hell to their like, which takes place at the time of a last judgment.