102. Angels of heaven have informed me that the ancients had a Word written entirely in correspondences, but that it was later lost; and they have said that this Word is still preserved among them in heaven and is in use among ancients in the particular heaven where the people live who had that Word when they were living in this world.

Some of the ancients among whom that Word is still in use in heaven came from the land of Canaan and its adjoining regions - from Syria, for example; from Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria; from Egypt; from Sidon, Tyre, and Nineveh - all regions inhabited by people who were devoted to symbolic worship and therefore to the knowledge of correspondences. Their wisdom in those days was based on that knowledge, and by means of it they had an inner perception and communication with the heavens. The ones who were more deeply knowledgeable about the correspondences of that Word were called “the wise” and “the intelligent, ” though later they were called “diviners” and “magi.”

[2] However, since that Word was full of a kind of correspondence that pointed in a remote way to heavenly and spiritual realities and therefore began to be distorted by too many people, in the course of time, under the Lord’s divine providence, it vanished and eventually was lost; and they were given another Word composed by means of less remote correspondences. This was done through the prophets among the children of Israel.

All the same, that Word kept many of the place-names in Canaan and in surrounding parts of the Middle East with meanings similar to the ones they had in the earlier Word. That is the reason Abram was ordered to go to that land and why his descendants from Jacob on were brought back into it.

870. Having an eternal gospel. That this signifies concerning His Advent, and concerning the salvation of those who believe in Him, is evident from the signification of gospel, as denoting the Advent of the Lord, and, in such case, the salvation of those who then believe in Him. That the Advent of the Lord has taken place, and also is about to take place, at the Consummation of the Age, that is, at the end of the old church and the beginning of the new; and that at the same time, also, the Last Judgment, may be seen above (n. 612); and from the signification of eternal, as denoting the Divine as to Manifestation (existere). There are two universals by which the Divine is expressed - "Infinite" and "Eternal." Infinite is the Divine as to its Being (esse); and eternal is the Divine as to its Manifestation (existere); and each is to be understood apart from space and time. He who thinks from space and time of the infinite and eternal falls into errors; for space and time are proper to nature, in which man's ideas are, while he lives in the natural world. But this is not the case when he leaves this world and comes into heaven. Spaces and times appear, indeed, in heaven, in a way quite similar to their appearance in the world; but they are only appearances of the states of the angels; for the states of their affection and thought therefrom takes on the appearances before their external senses of spaces and as times; yet they are not spaces and times such as pertain to the natural world. The nature of spaces and times in heaven will be evident from two articles in the work concerning Heaven and Hell, where this subject is treated of.

Because the Divine is infinite and eternal, therefore in all things in general and particular which come from the Divine, there is the Infinite and Eternal. This is why the gospel, by which is signified the Advent of the Lord and the salvation of the faithful, is called eternal. That "infinite and eternal" are said of the Lord alone may be seen above (n. 23, 286).

That the gospel signifies the Advent of the Lord, and the salvation of the faithful which then takes place, is clear from the passages in both Testaments where it is mentioned; these have been adduced above (n. 612). But as to the Advent of the Lord, it is believed by some that the Lord will come again in person, and, indeed, to carry out the Last Judgment, because it is said in Matthew:

The disciples drew near, saying unto Jesus, "Tell us what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the age" (24:3).

And after the Lord had foretold to them the states of the church, successively decreasing even to its devastation and consummation, He said,

"Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Watch therefore, because ye know not the hour in which your Lord will come" (Matthew 24:30, 39, 42). Also in John (21:22).

His Advent does not there mean His Advent in person; but that He will then reveal Himself in the Word, that He is Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth; and that He alone is to be worshipped by all who shall belong to His New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem. To this end also He has now opened the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense the Lord is everywhere treated of. This is also what is meant by His coming in the clouds of heaven with glory;

See Matthew 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; 14:62; Luke 21:27.

That the clouds of heaven signify the Word in the letter, and the glory its spiritual sense, may be seen above (n. 36, 594). Because He Himself is the Word, as He is called in John (1:1, 2, 14); therefore the revelation of Himself in the Word is His Advent.