14. When the Lord speaks to his disciples about the close of the age, which is the last time of the church, at the end of his predictions about the sequence of changes of state he says,

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, 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 Humanity will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will wail; and they will see the Son of Humanity coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

[2] Spiritually understood, this 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 heaven and he will be seen in the clouds accompanied by angels with trumpets. Rather, the particular words are here used to mean spiritual events that have to do with the church, spiritual events about its state at its end. The underlying reason is that in the spiritual meaning the sun that will be darkened is the Lord as an object of love; the moon that will not give its light is the Lord as an object of faith; the stars that will fall from heaven are the knowledge of what is good and what is true that will come to an end; the sign of the Son of Humanity in heaven is the manifestation of divine truth; the tribes of the earth that will wail are a complete lack of true belief and of good actions that come from love; the coming of the Son of Humanity in the clouds of heaven with power and glory is the Lord’s presence in the Word, and a revelation - the clouds being the literal meaning of the Word and the glory being the spiritual meaning of the Word. The angels with a trumpet and a loud voice mean heaven as our source of divine truth; and the gathering of the chosen people from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other, means a new kind of church, specifically its love and faith.

[3] It is obvious from the prophets that this does not mean the darkening of the sun and the moon and the falling of the stars to earth, because things like this are said there about the state of the church when the Lord will come into the world. It says in Isaiah, for example:

Behold, the fierce day of Jehovah is coming, a day of blazing wrath. The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not shine their light. The sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. I will execute judgment upon the world for its malice. (Isaiah 13:9-11; 24:21, 23)

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and gloom; the sun and the moon will be darkened and the stars will withhold their light. (Joel 2:1-2, 10; 3:15)

In Ezekiel,

I will cover the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. I will darken all the bright lights and bring darkness upon the land. (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

The day of Jehovah means the Coming of the Lord, which happened when there was no longer anything good or true left in the church, and there was no knowledge of the Lord.

1044. 'And it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth' means a token of the Lord's presence in charity, 'the earth' here being a person's proprium. This is clear from what has been stated already. That 'the earth' means a person's Proprium is clear from the internal sense and from the whole train of thought. Above it was stated that 'this is the sign of the covenant between Me and you and every living soul that is with you' meant whatever has been regenerated; but here the wording is different - 'it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth'. From this, and also from the repetition of 'sign of the covenant', it is evident that something different is meant here, and indeed that 'the earth' is that which has not been regenerated, and which is incapable of being, namely the will part of a person's proprium.

[2] When somebody is regenerate he belongs to the Lord so far as the understanding Part of his mind is concerned but belongs to himself so far as the will part of it is concerned. These two parts in the spiritual man are opposed to each other. But although the will part of a person's proprium is opposed, its continuing presence is nevertheless inevitable. Indeed all the obscurity in the understanding part, that is, all the thickness of his cloud, originates there. It is constantly flowing in from there, and in the measure it flows in so the cloud in the understanding part thickens; but in the measure it is taken away, the cloud thins out. This is why 'the earth' here means a person's proprium. That 'the earth' means the bodily part of man's nature as well as having many other meanings has been shown already.

[3] The relationship between those two parts is like two parties who were first of all joined together by a covenant of friendship - as will and understanding were in the member of the Most Ancient Church - and then the friendship was broken off and hostility arose, as happened when man corrupted totally the will part of him. After that, when the covenant is renewed, the hostile part presents itself as though the covenant were with it. But no covenant is made with it because it is utterly opposed and contrary. It is made instead with that which flows in from it, as has been stated, that is, with the understanding part of the proprium. The sign or token of the covenant is this, that to the extent the Lord is present in the understanding part of the proprium the will part of it will be taken away. The relationship between the two is just like that of heaven and hell. The understanding part of a regenerate person, by virtue of the charity in which the Lord is present, is heaven, while the will part of him is hell. To the extent the Lord is present in heaven, hell is removed; for when he subsists from himself man is in hell, but when he does so from the Lord he is in heaven. Man is constantly being raised up from hell into heaven, and so far as he is raised up his hell is taken away from him. The sign or token therefore that the Lord is present rests in the fact that man's own will is taken away. The possibility of that removal is achieved by means of temptations and many other means of regeneration.