23. Nothing is more common in the Word than for the word 'day' to be used to mean the particular time at which events take place, as in Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah is near. Behold, the day of Jehovah comes. I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, on the day of My fierce anger. Its time is close at hand, and its days will not be prolonged. Isaiah 13:6, 9, 13, 22.

And in the same prophet,

Her antiquity is in the days of antiquity. On that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. Isaiah 23:7, 15.

Since 'day' stands for the particular time it also stands for the state associated with that particular time, as in Jeremiah, Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening have lengthened! Jeremiah 6:4

And in the same prophet,

If you break My covenant that is for the day and My covenant that is for the night, so that there is neither daytime nor night at their appointed time. Jeremiah 33:20, 25.

Also,

Renew our days as of old. Lamentations 5:21.

38. Such is the state of the church to-day; it has no faith because it has no charity. Where there is no charity, neither is there any spiritual good, for charity is the sole source of that good. I have been told from heaven that some people still have good, but it cannot be called spiritual good, only natural good. This is because real Divine truths are obscured, and it is these which lead to charity, teaching it and looking to it as the end in view. There is no other way charity can come into existence than by truths being present as its source. The Divine truths on which the church's teachings are based are concerned with faith alone; so they are called the teachings of faith, and they are not concerned with life. Truths which are concerned only with faith and not with life cannot make a person spiritual; and so long as they are not part of his life, they are merely natural truths, merely known and thought about like other matters. That is why spiritual good does not exist to-day, but only in certain people natural good.

[2] Moreover, every church is spiritual to begin with, since it starts from charity. But in course of time it turns aside from charity to faith, and then becomes an external instead of an internal church. When it becomes external, it reaches its end since then all importance is attached to knowledge and little if any to life. As a person becomes external instead of internal, so proportionately is spiritual light darkened for him, until he is unable to see Divine truth from truth itself, that is, in the light of heaven, the light of heaven being Divine truth, but only in natural light. This is such that, when it is alone and not accompanied with spiritual light, he sees Divine truth as it were at night-time, and he has no other way of recognising whether it is truth than from its being preached by a prelate and generally received by its hearers. That is why their intellectual faculty could not be enlightened by the Lord; for the brighter natural light shines in the intellect, the more spiritual light is dimmed. Natural light shines brightly in the intellect, when worldly, bodily and earthly concerns are loved more than spiritual, heavenly and Divine ones; and to that extent a person is external.

2130. As regards the second representation, that is to say, the idea of a Last Judgement which takes place before the eyes of the good when they are being admitted into heaven, let that too be described. In the Word it is said that the door was shut, so that they could no longer be admitted; and that they had no oil, arrived too late, and therefore were not admitted, statements which also mean a Last-Judgement state. The situation with these matters and how they are to be understood has been shown to me.

[2] I heard communities of spirits declaring in a clear voice, one community after another, that a wolf had wished to carry them off but that the Lord rescued them, and so they were restored to Him, and on that account rejoiced from the depths of their heart. Indeed they had been without hope, and so were afraid that the door had been shut, and that they had arrived too late to be admitted. Such thought had been instilled into them by those called wolves, but it vanished on their being admitted, that is, being received, by angelic communities. Being admitted into heaven is nothing else. The admission which I witnessed seemed to proceed continuously community by community, up to twelve of them, the admission, that is, the reception, of the twelfth being more difficult than that of the previous eleven. After that about eight more communities were also admitted, which, it was pointed out to me, were composed of females. Having witnessed all this I was told that this is how the process of admission, that is, of being received into heavenly communities is seen. They proceed in an orderly continuation from one place to another. I was also told that heaven can never be filled up, still less the door be shut, but that the more who enter, the more blessing and happiness there is for those in heaven, because their unanimity is made that much stronger.

[3] After these had been admitted it did at that point seem as though heaven was shut; for there were still more who wished after that to be admitted, that is, to be received. But they were told in reply that they could not yet be let in. This is meant by those arriving too late, by the door being shut, by their knocking, and by the statement about their having no oil in their lamps. The reason they were not admitted was that they were not yet ready to move among angelic communities where mutual love exists, for, as stated above towards the end of 2119, people who in the world have lived charitably disposed towards the neighbour are raised up by the Lord into heaven gradually.

[4] There were also other spirits who did not know what heaven is, namely mutual love, and who also at that time wished to be admitted. They imagined it was just a matter of being admitted. They received the reply however that it was not yet time for them, but that they would be admitted at another time when they were ready for it. The reason why twelve communities were seen was that 'twelve' means everything comprising faith, as stated above towards the end of 2129.