3445. 'And Isaac's servants dug a well there' means the doctrine that came from there. This is clear from the meaning of 'a well' as the Word, dealt with in 2702, 3424. Now because the Word is doctrine itself and so the Word is the source of all doctrine taught by the Church, 'digging a well' therefore means doctrine drawn from there, that is to say, from the literal sense of the Word, since that sense is the subject here. But the doctrine itself drawn from the literal sense of the Word is invariably the same, that is to say, it is always concerned with charity and love - charity towards the neighbour and love to the Lord. For such doctrine and life lived according to it constitute the whole Word, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 22:37-40.

4057. What the Close of the Age or the Last Judgement is has been explained already, namely the final period of the Church. It is called the final period of it when no charity or faith exists there any longer. It has also been shown already that such closes or final periods have been reached on several occasions. The close of the first Church has been described by the Flood; the close of the second Church by the uprooting of the nations in the land of Canaan, and also by the many uprootings and exterminations referred to in the Prophets. The close of the third is not described in the Word, but is foretold; it was the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering throughout the whole world of the Jewish nation, with whom the Church existed. The fourth close of an age is that of the present-day Christian Church, which is foretold by the Lord in the Gospels and also in John, in the Book of Revelation, and which is now at hand.