287. We can also tell that love and wisdom are human by looking at heaven's angels, who are people in full beauty to the extent that they are caught up in love, and therefore in wisdom, from the Lord. The same conclusion follows from what it says in the Word about Adam's being created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), because he was created in the form of love and wisdom.

All earthly individuals are born in the human form as to their physical bodies. This is because our spirit, which is also called our soul, is a person; and it is a person because it is receptive of love and wisdom from the Lord. To the extent that our spirit or soul actually accepts love and wisdom, we become human after the death of these material bodies that we are carrying around. To the extent that we do not accept love and wisdom we become grotesque creatures, retaining some trace of humanity because of our ability to accept them.

1837. That 'as the sun was going down' means the period of time and the state just before the close is clear from the meaning of 'the sun'. In the internal sense 'the sun' means the Lord, and because of this means the celestial things of love and charity, consequently love and charity themselves, dealt with already in 30-38, and 1053. From this it is evident that 'the going down of the sun' is the last period of time in the Church, which is called the close, when charity does not exist any longer. The Lord's Church is also compared to the times of day, its earliest time being compared to sunrise, or dawn and morning, and its final period to sundown, or evening and the shadows that fall then; for there is indeed a similarity between the two. In like manner the Church is compared to the seasons of the year, its earliest time being compared to spring when everything is flowering, while the time next to the last is compared to autumn when everything starts to die off. Indeed, the Church is also compared to metals, its first time being called golden, its last that of iron and clay, as in Daniel 2:31-33. These considerations show what is meant by 'as the sun was going down', namely that the period of time and the state just before the close are meant, for the sun had not yet gone down. In what follows the subject is the state of the Church when the sun had gone down, at which point thick darkness descended, and a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.