2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2
Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture #14
14. Where the Lord speaks with His disciples about the end of the age, which is the final period of the church, at the end of His predictions concerning its successive changes in state, He says:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
[2] This, in the spiritual sense, does not mean that the sun and moon will be darkened, that the stars will fall from heaven, and that a sign of the Lord will appear in the sky. Nor does it mean that people will see Him on the clouds, or at the same time angels with trumpets. Rather each of these predictions has some spiritual meaning having to do with the church, regarding whose state at its end these predictions were made.
Indeed, in the spiritual sense the sun that will be darkened means the Lord in relation to love. The moon that will not give its light means the Lord in relation to faith. The stars that will fall from heaven mean concepts of goodness and truth that will perish. The sign of the Son of man in heaven means an appearance of Divine truth. The tribes of the earth that will mourn mean an absence of any truth as a matter of faith, and of any goodness as a matter of love. The coming of the Son of man on the clouds of heaven with power and glory means the Lord’s presence in the Word and a revelation of Him. The clouds symbolize the Word’s literal sense, and glory the Word’s spiritual sense. The angels with a great sound of a trumpet symbolize heaven and Divine truth coming from it. Gathering the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, symbolizes a renewal of the church as regards love and faith.
[3] That this prediction does not mean a darkening of the sun and moon and a falling of the stars to earth is quite clear from the Prophets, in which similar predictions occur regarding the state of the church when the Lord would come into the world. As in Isaiah:
Behold, the day of Jehovah is coming, cruel..., one of wrathful anger.... ...the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will visit upon the world its malice.... (Isaiah 13:9-11, cf. 24:21, 23)
In Joel:
(Behold, ) the day of Jehovah is coming..., a day of gloom and pitch darkness.... The sun and moon will darken, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:1-2, 10, cf. 2:31, 3:15)
In Ezekiel:
...I will cover the heavens and darken the stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. All the shining lights of the heavens I will darken..., and bring darkness upon (the) land.... (Ezekiel 32:7-8)
The day of Jehovah means the Lord’s advent, which occurred when there was no longer any goodness and truth left in the church, and no knowledge of the Lord.
Genesis 11
1
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
10
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:
11
And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
12
And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
13
And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
14
And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber:
15
And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.
16
And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg:
17
And Eber lived after he begat Peleg four hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters.
18
And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu:
19
And Peleg lived after he begat Reu two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters.
20
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
21
And Reu lived after he begat Serug two hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
22
And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor:
23
And Serug lived after he begat Nahor two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.
24
And Nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat Terah:
25
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
26
And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
28
And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
30
But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32
And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
