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.

8516. 'Therefore on the sixth day He gives you the bread of two days' means that for this reason right at the end of the former state He imparts so great an amount of truth through good that the joining together takes place after that. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sixth day' as the end of a former state, dealt with in 8421; from the meaning of the manna, to which 'the bread' refers here, as the good of truth, dealt with in 8462, 8464; and from the meaning of the sabbath, for which day also the manna on the sixth day was given, so that it was two days' bread, as the joining together of goodness and truth, dealt with in 8495. It has been shown above that since 'the sabbath' means the joining together of goodness and truth, the fact that no man[na] was to be found on the seventh day means that when that joining together has taken place a person's actions spring from good and no longer from truth, indeed that they must not any longer spring from truth, 8510.

[2] But as this appears rather baffling, let a few further words of explanation be added. Everyone ought to be led to Christian good, which is called charity, through the truth of faith; for the truth of faith must teach not only what charity is but also what it needs to be like. And unless a person learns this first from the teachings of his Church - for he cannot by any means know it instinctively - he cannot be prepared and so made fit to receive that good. For example, he needs to know from religious teachings that charity in no way involves doing good for selfish reasons, that is, for the sake of reward, nor thus meriting salvation through the works of charity. He also needs to know that all the good of charity originates in the Lord, and none whatever in self, besides very many other teachings telling him what charity is and needs to be like. From all this it becomes clear that a person cannot be led to Christian good except through the truths of faith. In addition a person needs to know that truths do not of themselves enter good but that good adopts truths and attaches them to itself; for the truths of faith in a person's memory lie so to speak in a field that is spread out before his inward vision. Good from the Lord flows into that vision, and from the truths present there it selects and joins to itself those that are compatible. The truths, which lie below, cannot flow into the good, which is above, since it is altogether contrary to order, as well as impossible, for what is lower to flow into what is higher, 5259.

[3] From all this one may now see how Christian good is born with a person when he is being regenerated, and therefore also what a person will be like when he has been regenerated, namely one whose actions spring from good, but not from truth. That is, he is one who is led by the Lord through good and no longer through truth, for now he is governed by charity, that is, by an affection for doing that good. All who are in heaven are led in such a manner, for it is in keeping with Divine order. Thus everything they think or do flows so to speak spontaneously and freely. It would be altogether different if truth were to shape their thought and action, for then they would cogitate over whether or not they should do a certain thing, and so would hesitate over details, and in so doing would obscure the light they have. Eventually they would act in accord with what they themselves loved, thus in accord with influences that pander to their own loves, which is to be led by self, not by the Lord. From all this it is again evident what it is to be forbidden to acquire good through truth any longer, meant by the people gathering manna on six days, and finding none on the seventh day, dealt with in 8505, 8506, 8510.