"Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:3

Additional readings: Isaiah 1:1-20

In the childhood of the human race, before men had departed from right ways of life, heaven was near to them. They could be led directly by the Lord, for their hearts and minds were open to him. Of this Golden Age of the human race it is written, "Man walked with God." But we have all read in the history of the human race as revealed in the Scripture the account of how many departed from the way of life and, following the devices of his own heart, closed his mind to the direct reception of goodness and truth from the Lord, until finally he reached a state in which all true knowledge of God and heaven was lost.

Then the Lord came to bring salvation to mankind, and preparation for His reception was made through John the Baptist, the messenger sent in fulfillment of a prophecy given centuries before. John’s message is our text: "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And when John was put to death, and the Lord began His active ministry in the world, the words of our text were also His first message. For He came to make clear the way of life, and wrong ideas held possession of the minds of men then, as they do of many minds today.

It is not by chance that this first message turns our thoughts to heaven. The purpose of our creation is that we may so live that we shall find our homes in heaven. Belief in heaven had been lost, along with the knowledge about it. And today belief in heaven is for the most part vague, and many think that eternal life does not mean personal existence in the spiritual world, but only the persistence of one’s influence in this world. Great men like Homer, Plato, Moses, Shakespeare, Gladstone, Lincoln, Pasteur, and many others perpetuate themselves in the influence they exert in the minds of living men. This, they say, is what is meant by immortality, by everlasting life. But we should realize that this type of everlasting life is open to the evil as well as to the good. A Diocletian may be remembered forever as well as the beloved Apostle. We need to know the truth that men and women, as individuals, live forever after death in the spiritual world.

But this is not the implication of the text which I have chosen for consideration this morning." The kingdom of heaven is at hand." We know that heaven is not in some remote part of the natural sky, that we cannot say, "Lo, here, or Lo, there" (Luke 17:21). But we are still apt to think of it as far away. We are also inclined to think of it as remote in time. We speak commonly of the "future" world. In the thought of some even, it lies at the indefinitely remote time, when they expect a general resurrection along with others; death is the gateway of heaven, but heaven still seems too distant to be of much practical and present interest.

But the truth is that heaven is far away neither in space nor in time. It is here, it is now, it is "at hand." We live in it now, or we may do so. It is a present reality, the most real and the most important element of the life we are now living. When we speak of heaven, and of living for heaven, we are not, as some charge, setting our hearts on something far away, and despising the real world in which we now are. If one lives for a far-off heaven — and no doubt some have lived so — he may be careless of this world’s joys and sorrows, of opportunities for usefulness, keeping his eyes fixed on some vision of the future. But we may live for heaven and still live thoroughly in the present. We ought to value heaven as the most real of present realities. The Gospel is true: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."

We are taught in the New Church that heaven is essentially a state of human feeling, thought and life, a state in which love to the Lord and love to the neighbor are the ruling motives. We are taught that no outward paradise which could be made by human or by Divine skill would be a heaven if those affections were absent from the heart, that there is no real or lasting satisfaction except in the exercise of these affections. It follows that we can come into heaven in this world, and live in heaven while we live on earth, for we may learn here to love the Lord and one another, and to find our chief enjoyment in the exercise of these heavenly loves.

But this is an abstract way of speaking. Concretely, heaven is not merely a heavenly state in ourselves; it is the great world of human beings who are living in that state, those people in whose hearts are heavenly affections, whose minds are bright with spiritual light, and whose hands are busy with heavenly works. There are many such people in this world. There are countless more who have gone from the earth to the spiritual world, and are there living the same good life under freer and happier conditions. All these people are heaven.

When we have love to the Lord and the neighbor in ourselves, we are brought spiritually near to those in like affections, both of this world and of the spiritual world. It is not a figure of speech when we say that heaven is about us when we are in heavenly states. It is a literal and positive fact. Heaven is so really around us at such times that if it were granted to us, as it was to Elisha’s servant and to others in Bible days to have our spiritual eyes opened, we should see the angels who are our companions and the beautiful land in which they dwell. Among them we should see and recognize some who were dear to us on earth, who still love and help us, and there would be some whom we had not known before but who would from the first glance seem to us as old friends, because they have similar desires and thoughts. And we should recognize them as the source of our happiness.

The Lord created the world and all things in it. All things in the world were made for man to use and enjoy, from the very materials of the earth to all the myriad things of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea. For man’s needs of food, clothing, shelter, for gratification of his senses, and the improvement of his mind these things were made. All these were created and given to man for blessings. But they are subject to one important condition: man must indeed labor to make these things of service to himself, but he must also use them in the service of others. Only so can he have any security or peace. The world of nature and of human beings is not for one man, or a few men, or a nation to control or exploit. Indeed we cannot rightly claim sovereignty over ourselves. We need the guidance of the Lord. And whatever under the Divine Providence we have been able to acquire, whether of material wealth, or of skill, or of learning, we did not acquire it by our unaided efforts. Our daily knowledge of the happenings in the world, our libraries, our schools are made possible by the labor of mind and body of other men and women, great or humble, living or dead. We depend on others and they on us, and life and security today, as always, depend upon the honesty and good will of the community in which we live.

Yet we should also realize that behind the labors and sufferings and the honesty and good will of men stands the Lord. Through His power alone man achieves progress. It is a law of the Divine Providence that man must act in freedom according to reason. This applies to the life of nations as well as to the life of individuals. But the Lord is present and operative always.

For infinitely wise and good reasons, the Lord does not draw the veil aside for us and allow us to see the heavenly world. Some argue that if only they could see heaven, they would believe in it. But to see that world as an outward, objective reality would destroy our freedom. We should be lured by its outward attractiveness, and it would be less possible for us to come into its true spirit.

When we are living in selfish and evil affections, we are in hell. Not only is hell within us at such times but it is also about us, not by a figure of speech, but actually. We are breathing its poisoned atmosphere and, if our eyes were opened, we should see the forms and faces of those who find their life in evil and who exult in influencing others to evil. Why, at least then, does the Lord not draw the veil aside and show us the terribleness of evil? The sight might for the moment frighten us, but we should be less able to shun evil freely because it is evil, and our power to escape permanently from it would be greatly lessened.

If we are tempted to question the Lord’s Providence in not revealing to us more openly the conditions of the good and evil in the spiritual world, we do well to remember His words, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them….If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:29-31).

The Lord said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). We should seek those good things which endure forever, and should not sacrifice them for the sake of money or health or life itself. To acquire love to the Lord and to the neighbor is the only thing worth living for. Our business dealings should have as their motive the love of use, of service to others. The most necessary thing in making a home is having in it the sunshine of heaven. The only absolute requirement for our happiness as we go to and fro in the ways of the world is that heaven shall go with us. This is to live for heaven, and yet to live must fully in the present. This is the practical meaning of living for heaven.

It may be stated still more simply. Heaven is not heaven from locality, neither is it heaven from anything which belongs to the angels as their own. It is heaven from what is received from the Lord into the lives and hearts of the angels. To be near the Lord, not in place merely, but in heart, to feel the protection and peace of His presence is heaven. Heaven is being near to the Lord and keeping near to Him. There is no other heaven for men or angels.

"The kingdom of heaven is at hand." When John first spoke this message, the kingdom of heaven was in a special sense at hand, because the Lord had come to live with men and to make Himself accessible to them. A power to heal and bless went forth from the Lord during His life on earth. Men obsessed felt his saving power and sat at His feet clothed and in their right mind.

At the Transfiguration Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here" (Matthew 17:4, Mark 9:5, Luke 9:33). In following the Lord, in hearing His Word and in doing His work, they were tasting of heaven. But we need to note that the mere physical nearness of the Lord did not make heaven. Some cried out with fear at His approach. It was not heaven to them. It was not heaven to those who followed Him to accuse and to betray Him. His presence was a blessing only to those who in some measure drew near to Him in spirit.

Even in the Lord’s coming on earth the kingdom of heaven was not forced on me. It was made accessible to them; it was brought within their reach.

It is brought within our reach. Just as there is no royal road to knowledge, there is no royal road to heaven. We must cease to do evil before we can learn to do well. Repentance, the willingness to recognize and acknowledge our faults and weaknesses and to struggle to overcome them opens the door. Heavenly life comes into the soul when selfish desires are replaced by kindly thoughts and the desire to serve. The Lord tell us to seek these heavenly virtues now, not for the sake of honor for ourselves, but that we may be really kind and helpful to others, that our lives may have something of the Lord’s love in them. Then we shall find that life here makes one with heavenly life, and that our Heavenly Father is the Source of happiness in both alike.

526. And the third part of them was darkened, signifies that all these were changed into the falsities of evil and into the evils of falsity. This is evident from the signification of "darkness," as being falsities, and thus "to be darkened" means to be changed into falsities. It means a change both into the falsities of evil and into the evils of falsity, because it is said that "the third part of the sun was darkened, the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars," and the "sun" signifies the good of love, the "moon" the good and truth of faith, and the "stars" the knowledges of good and truth; therefore "the third part of the sun was darkened" signifies that the good of love was changed into evil and into falsity from evil, which is the falsity of evil; for good is changed into evil and into falsity therefrom, but the truth of faith, which is signified by the "moon," is changed into falsity and into evil therefrom, which is the evil of falsity. The evil of falsity is the falsity of doctrine out of which comes evil of life, and the falsity of evil is the evil of life out of which comes the falsity of doctrine.

[2] Darkness signifies falsity because light signifies truth, and falsity is the opposite of truth as darkness is of light; moreover, when the light of life, which is the Divine truth, is not with man, the shadow of death is with him, which is falsity; for man from what is his own (proprium) is in every evil and in falsity from the evil, and he is removed from these only by means of the truths of the church; consequently where there are no truths there are the falsities of evil. (That it is only by means of truths that man is removed from evils, is purified, and is reformed, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 24.)

[3] That "darkness" signifies in the Word falsities of various kinds can be seen from the following passages. In Joel:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh (Joel 2:31).

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood," has a similar signification as "the third part of the sun and the third part of the moon were darkened," namely, that at the end of the church there will be the falsity of evil in the place of the good of love, and evil of falsity in the place of truth of faith.

[4] Elsewhere in the Word where the darkening of the sun and moon is spoken of there is a like meaning, as in Isaiah:

For the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not make their light to shine; the sun shall be darkened in its rising, and the moon shall not make bright her light (Isaiah 13:10; 24:21, 23).

In Ezekiel:

When I shall extinguish thee I will cover the heavens and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine; all luminaries of light in the heavens will I make dark over thee, and I will set darkness upon thy land (Ezekiel 32:7, 8).

In Joel:

The day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision; the sun and the moon have been darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness (Joel 3:14, 15).

In the same:

The day of Jehovah cometh, a day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of cloud and obscurity. Before Him the earth trembled, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their brightness (Joel 2:1-2, 10).

In the Gospels:

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24, 25).

This is said of the last time of the church, when there is no longer any spiritual good or truth, or the good and truth of heaven and the church, but evil and falsity. That the goods and truths of the church, which are called the goods of love and the truths of faith are changed into evils and falsities, is signified by "the sun and moon shall be obscured and darkened, and the stars shall not give their light;" the Last Judgment that then follows is meant by "the day of Jehovah great and terrible;" and as this comes when the church is in darkness and in thick darkness, that day is also called "a day of darkness and thick darkness," and also "a day of cloud and obscurity," as also in the following passages.

[5] In Amos:

Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah. What to you is the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? Even thick darkness, and no brightness to it? (Amos 5:18, 20).

In Zephaniah:

The day of Jehovah, a day of wasteness and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of clouds and of gloominess (Zephaniah 1:14, 15).

In Isaiah:

In that day he shall look upon the land, which behold is darkness and distress, and the light shall grow dark in its ruins (Isaiah 5:30).

In the same:

He shall look unto the earth, and behold distress and darkness dimmed with straitness and driven with thick darkness (Isaiah 8:22).

In the same:

Behold, darkness covereth the earth, and thick darkness the peoples (Isaiah 60:2).

In Jeremiah:

Give glory to Jehovah your God before He causeth darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains of twilight; then shall ye look for light, but He will turn it into the shadow of death, He will make it thick darkness (Jeremiah 13:16).

This is said of the last time of the church, when the Lord is to come into the world, and judgment is to be accomplished; because there will then be no longer any good of love or truth of faith, but the evil of falsity and the falsity of evil, that day is called "a day of darkness and of thick darkness."

[6] The same is signified by:

The darkness that came over all the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour when the Lord was crucified (Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-49).

"The darkness over all the land" represented that in the whole church there was nothing but evil and falsity therefrom, and falsity and evil therefrom; moreover, the three hours signify what is full and complete; for each and all things related in the Gospels respecting the Lord's passion have stored up in them arcana of heaven, and signify Divine celestial things, which can be laid open only by means of the internal spiritual sense.

[7] That "darkness" signifies falsity is further evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20).

"To put darkness for light and light for darkness" signifies to call falsity truth and truth falsity; it is clear that "darkness" means falsity and "light" truth, for good and evil are first spoken of, therefore what follows must be respecting truth and falsity.

[8] In John:

This is the judgment, that the Light hath come into the world, and men have loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil (John 3:19).

The Lord here calls Himself the Light because He was the Divine truth itself when in the world; therefore "the Light" signifies the Lord in relation to Divine truth, also Divine truth from the Lord; and as darkness is opposed to light, "the darkness that men loved rather than the light" signifies infernal falsity, which is the falsity of evil. That the falsity of evil is here signified by "darkness" is evident from its being said, "because their works were evil." The falsity of evil springs from evil works, or the evils of life; for as good joins to itself truth, so evil joins to itself falsity; for the one belongs to the other.

[9] "Light" and "darkness" have a similar signification in the following passages in John:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the light appeareth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:4, 5).

In the same:

Jesus said, I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

In the same:

Jesus said, Walk while ye have the Light, that darkness overtake you not; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. I have come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me may not abide in darkness (John 12:35, 46).

In these passages "darkness" signifies infernal falsity; for the "light" to which darkness is opposed, signifies Divine truth. "Light" signifies Divine truth because light in the heavens is in its essence Divine truth proceeding from the Lord (See in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-140). Now as Divine truth is the light in the heavens, it follows that the falsity of evil, which is the falsity in the hells, is darkness. This darkness is not indeed darkness to those who are in the hells, for they see one another; but the light by which they see is like the lumen from burning coal, and this lumen, when the light of heaven flows into it, becomes mere darkness. For this reason also the caverns and dens in which they are appear to those in heaven like gloomy caves.

[10] From this it can be seen why "darkness" signifies the falsities of evil, and why the Lord says:

That those who are in hell are to be cast into outer darkness (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).

In David:

The enemy pursueth my soul; he hath crushed my life down to the earth; he hath made me to sit in darkness, like the dead of the world (Psalms 143:3).

"The enemy who pursueth his soul" signifies in the spiritual sense evil; consequently "to make me to sit in darkness" signifies falsities.

[11] In Isaiah:

Judgment is far from us, and righteousness doth not overtake us; we wait for light, but behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness (Isaiah 59:9).

"Judgment is far from us" signifies that there is no understanding of truth; "righteousness doth not overtake us" signifies that there is no good of life; "we wait for light, but behold darkness," signifies waiting for truth, but behold falsity; "for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness," signifies waiting for goods through truths, but behold a life of falsity from evils; for "brightness" signifies the goods of truth, because "light" signifies truth, and truth is bright from good; "thick darkness" signifies the falsities of evil, and "to walk" signifies to live.

[12] In Luke:

But this is your hour and the power of darkness (Luke 22:53).

The Lord said this to the chief priests, the captains of the temple, and the elders, who seized Him by the aid of Judas. The power to do this wickedness the Lord calls "the power of darkness," because they were in the falsities of evil, in falsities respecting the Lord and in evils against Him; here also "darkness" means hell, because such falsities of evil are there.

[13] In the same:

The lamp of the body is the eye; when therefore thine eye is pure thy whole body also shall be light; but when the eye is evil thy body also shall be dark. Take heed, therefore, that the light that is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be light, having no part dark, the whole shall be light, as when a lamp by its flashing doth give thee light (Luke 11:34-36; Matthew 6:22, 23).

The "eye" here signifies the understanding, and the "pure (or single) eye" the understanding of truth from good; but the "evil eye" signifies the understanding of falsity from evil; the "body" that is either light or dark, means the whole man. From this the signification of these words in series can be concluded, namely, that the whole man is such as is his understanding from the will; for every man is his truth and his good, because he is his love or affection; therefore he is throughout wholly such as he is in respect to his understanding from his will; for all truth is of the understanding, and all good is of the will; for the body is a mere obedience, since it is the effect of an effecting cause, and the effecting cause is the understanding from the will; therefore such as is the quality of the one such is that of the other, for the effect has its all from its effecting cause. That heed must be taken that truth once perceived in the understanding and received into the will be not turned into falsity, which is done from evil, is meant by "take heed, therefore, that the light that is in thee be not darkness," for from this falsities become worse; therefore in Matthew, in the passages just referred to, it is said:

If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:23).

[14] "Darkness" signifies the falsities of evil also in Isaiah:

Sit thou silent and enter into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for they shall no longer call thee the mistress of kingdoms (Isaiah 47:5).

"The daughter of the Chaldeans" signifies the falsification of truth, therefore "darkness" signifies the falsities of evil, since evil falsifies truth:

The thick darkness of darkness that was over all the land of Egypt for three days, while in the dwellings of the sons of Israel there was light (Exodus 10:21-23);

signifies also the falsity of evil. Likewise the "darkness" in Genesis (Genesis 15:17), and in many other passages.

[15] It has been shown thus far that "darkness" signifies in the Word the falsities of evil. "Darkness" signifies also falsities not of evil, such as were the falsities of religion among the upright Gentiles, which falsities were with them because of their ignorance of the truth; that these falsities were also called "darkness" is evident from the following passages:

This people walking in darkness have seen a great light; those dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light become bright (Isaiah 9:2).

In Matthew:

A people sitting in darkness saw a great light; and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death a light hath arisen (Matthew 4:16).

In Luke:

The dayspring from on high appeared to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:78, 79).

In Isaiah:

If thou shalt draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, thy light shall arise in the darkness, and thy thick darkness be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10).

In the same:

He shall say to the bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Be revealed (Isaiah 49:9).

In the same:

In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of thick darkness and in ¹ darkness (Isaiah 29:18).

In the same:

And I will lead the blind in a way that they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them, and crooked things into straightness (Isaiah 42:16).

In Micah:

When I sit in darkness Jehovah shall be a Light unto me (Micah 7:8).

In these passages "darkness" signifies the falsities of ignorance, such as existed, and as exist at this day among the upright Gentiles. These falsities are altogether distinct from the falsities of evil, which have evil stored up in them because they are from evil, while the former have good stored up in them because they have good as an end. Those, therefore, who are in these falsities can be instructed in truths, and they also when instructed receive truths in the heart, for the reason that good, which is in their falsities, loves truth, and also conjoins itself to truth when it is heard. It is otherwise with the falsities of evil; these are averse to all truth and cast it off because it is truth, and thus is not in agreement with evil.

[16] Again, "darkness" signifies in the Word mere ignorance from lack of truth (as in David, Psalms 18:29; 139:11, 12). "Darkness" signifies also natural lumen, for this in comparison with spiritual light is like darkness; therefore also when angels look down into man's natural lumen, such as is in man's natural cognition, they regard it as darkness, and the things that are in it as in darkness; this light is signified by "darkness" in Genesis 1:2-5. And as the sense of the letter of the Word is natural, that sense also is called in the Word "a cloud," and also "darkness," in comparison with the internal spiritual sense, which is the light of heaven, and is called "glory."

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