519. Then the seventh angel sounded. (11:15) This symbolizes an examination and exposure of the state of the church after its end, at the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom.

To sound the trumpet means, symbolically, to explore and expose the state of the church after its end, at the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom. That is because the seventh angel's sounding has this symbolic meaning. For the first six angels and their sounding their trumpets symbolized the examinations and exposures of the church at its end, as is clear from the preceding chapter, where the whole subject is the church at its end. But the subject now is the state of the church after its end, or the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom, and this is apparent from the particulars that come next in this and the following verses. In this verse:

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"

And so on. The seventh angel's sounding causes the aforesaid exposure because the number seven has the same symbolic meaning as a week, in which six days are days of labor and belong to man, while the seventh is holy and is the Lord's.

By the church's end we mean its ruination, when there is no more doctrinal truth or goodness of life left in it, thus when it has reached its final state (see nos. 658, 750). And because that is the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom, therefore both the end of the age and the Lord's coming are mentioned in Matthew 24:3, and both are also foretold in that chapter.