13. (vi) The state of the world and the church before the Last Judgment resembled evening and night, but after it morning and day. When the light of truth is not to be seen, and truth is not accepted, the state of the church in the world resembles evening and night. Such was its state before the Last Judgment, as is evident from what was said above (11). But when the light of truth is to be seen, and truth is accepted, the state of the church in the world resembles morning and day. That is why those two states of the church are called in the Word evening and morning, as well as night and day; as for example:

The Holy One said to me, 'Until the evening and morning two thousand three hundred [days], then the sanctuary shall be made holy'. Daniel 8:14.

The vision of the evening and the morning is truth. Daniel 8:26.

There shall be one day, known to Jehovah, neither day nor night, because around evening time there shall be light. Zechariah 14:7.

One is calling to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning is coming, and night again. Isaiah 21:11-12.

Jesus spoke of the final period of the church:

Keep awake, for you do not know when the lord of the house will come, at evening, at midnight, at cockcrow or in the morning. Mark 13:35.

Jesus said, I must work while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. John 9:4.

Also elsewhere, such as Isaiah 17:14; Jeremiah 6:4-5; Psalms 30:5; 65:8; 90:6.

Because this is the meaning of evening and night, the Lord, in order to fulfil the Word, was also buried in the evening, and afterwards rose again in the morning.

11. (iii) Before the Last Judgment was carried out on them, much of the communication between heaven and the world, and so between the Lord and the church, was blocked. All of a person's enlightenment is from the Lord by way of heaven, and it comes in by an internal route. So long as there were groups of such people between heaven and the world, or between the Lord and the church, people could not be enlightened. It was as when the sun's rays are blocked by a dark intervening cloud; or when the sun goes into eclipse by the interposition of the moon and its light is blocked. If therefore any revelation had been made by the Lord, either it would not have been understood, or, if it was understood, it would still not have been accepted, or, if it was accepted, it would still afterwards have been choked. Now, since all these interposed groups were scattered by the Last Judgment, it is clear that (iv) communication was restored between heaven and the world or between the Lord and the church.