46. CHAPTER IX. FROM THIS HAS COME THE "AFFLICTION" AND "DESOLATION" IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FORETOLD BY THE LORD IN THE GOSPELS AND IN DANIEL

1. Where the Lord is speaking with His disciples about the Consummation of the Age, and of His Coming, that is, about the end of the present Church and the commencement of a new one, He foretold these things:

Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, nor shall be. [Matt. 24:21.]

further that there would be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet:

For after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and ... the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. [Matt. 24:15, 29.]

2. That such tribulation and desolation exists in the Church is altogether unknown and unseen in the world, it being said in every part of the Church that they are in the very light of the Gospel; so that even if an angel were to descend from heaven and teach otherwise, he would not be believed.

The Roman Catholic Church says it, the Greek Church says it, so does each of the three Reformed Churches named after their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, and so does every one of the numerous heretical sects.

3. The tribulation and desolation that was foretold, however, has become visible in clear light in the spiritual world, ¹ inasmuch as all men come into that world after death and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world; for the light there is spiritual light, which uncovers all things.

4. When members of the clergy are asked there about God, faith, and charity, the three essentials of the Church and consequently of salvation, they answer almost like blind people in pits.

Concerning God, they answer, He is One and He is three who are in unanimity; and when they say that the three are one, they are told to express themselves in accordance with their thought; and then, because with those who are in the spiritual world thought and speech act as one, they say out aloud, "three Gods".

Concerning faith, they reply that it is a faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and that God the Father gives it, the Son mediates it, and the Holy Spirit operates it, thus it is a faith in three Gods in order. When they are questioned further about that faith-whether they know the sign of its entering and the sign of its being in anyone-they reply, What does knowing the sign of it mean? Is it not from good pleasure by the election of that one God, without anything from man being intermingled with it?

When they are asked whether that faith-seeing that it is applied to three, and is thus a faith in three Gods, and that man is in complete ignorance about it-is anything, they reply that not only is it something, but it is the all of the Church and the all of salvation. If they are asked whether that is possible, they laugh at the question.

Concerning charity, their reply is that charity exists where that faith is, and that it is both separate from it and not separate; thus it contributes to salvation and does not contribute to it.

5. When the laity are questioned about God, faith, and charity, they know practically nothing, except that a few of them are acquainted with some obscure sayings heard from the clergy, which they call matters of faith; and that these are in general, that God the Father has pity on account of His Son's passion, that He remits sins, and that He justifies.

6. When both the laity and the clergy are examined as to whether they have in themselves anything of God, of faith, or of charity, they are found to have nothing; consequently there is nothing of heaven and the Church or of salvation, except only with those who have done good deeds from religion, these being able in the spiritual world to receive faith in the Lord God the Saviour.

7. From the few things adduced above it is clear whence is the great "tribulation such as was not since the world began, nor shall be", and that "abomination of desolation", which the Lord foretold would come at the end of the Church, which is at this day.

8. The reason that there has not been such tribulation from the beginning of the world, nor will there be, is that neither the Gentiles nor the Jews themselves knew the Lord God the Saviour as the Fountain of salvation; and ignorance excuses; but it is otherwise with the Christians after His Coming, to whom this has been unfolded in the Word of both Testaments.

Footnotes:

3128. 'And told [those of] her mother's house all about these things' means towards whatever natural good enlightenment was able to reach. This is clear from the meaning of 'mother's house' as the good of the external man, that is, natural good. For 'a house' means good, see 2233, 2234, ¹ 2559; and man's external or natural is received from the mother, but his internal from the father, 1815. In the Word the good that exists with a person is compared to 'a house', and for that reason one who is governed by good is called 'the House of God'. But internal good is called one's 'father's house', while good of an identical degree is spoken of as one's 'brethren's house', and external good, which is the same as natural good, is referred to as one's 'mother's house'. Furthermore all good and truth is born in this fashion, that is to say, by means of the influx of internal good as the father into external good as the mother.

[2] Since the subject in this verse is the origin of truth that was to be joined to good in the Rational it is therefore said that Rebekah, who represents that truth, 'ran to her mother's house', for this is where truth originates. As stated and shown above, all good flows in by an internal route, that is, by way of the soul, into man's rational, and through the rational into his factual knowledge, and even into his sensory awareness, and by means of enlightenment there causes truths to be seen. From there truths are summoned, stripped of the natural form they possess, and joined to good in the mid-way position, that is to say, in the rational, and together constitute the rational man, and at length the spiritual man. How all this is effected however is quite unknown to anyone, for at the present day scarcely any knowledge exists of what good is or of its being distinct and separate from truth. Still less does anyone know that a person is reformed by means of the influx of good into truth and by the joining together of the two. Nor is it known that the rational is distinct and separate from the natural. And since these matters which are very general are unknown, it cannot possibly be known how truth is introduced into good, and how the joining together of these two is effected - which are the things dealt with in this chapter in the internal sense. Now seeing that these arcana have been revealed and are open to view to any who are governed by good, that is, who have minds like those of angels, such arcana, no matter how obscure they may appear to others, must be explained since they are in the internal sense.

[3] Regarding that enlightenment, which comes from good by way of truth in the natural man, here called 'the mother's house', the position is that Divine Good with man flows into his rational, and through the rational into his natural, and even into his factual knowledge, that is, into the cognitions and matters of doctrine there, as has been stated. Then by fitting the truths there to itself, inflowing Divine Good shapes them for itself, and by means of them enlightens everything in the natural man. But if the life of the natural man is such that it does not receive Divine Good, but either rejects, or perverts, or stifles it, Divine Good cannot fit truths to itself and so shape them for itself. As a consequence the natural cannot be enlightened any longer, for enlightenment in the natural man is effected by good through truths; and when there is no longer any enlightenment no reformation can take place. This is the reason why in the internal sense also so much reference is made to the nature of the natural man, and so to the origin of truth, namely that it arises from the good there.

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