413. And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, and a third of them was darkened. This symbolically means that because of their evils springing from falsities and their falsities springing from evils, they did not know what love is, or what faith is, or any truth.

A third means, symbolically, all (no. 400). The sun symbolizes love (no. 53). The moon symbolizes intelligence and faith (no. 332). The stars symbolize concepts of truth and goodness from the Word (no. 51). To be darkened means, symbolically, to be unseen and unknown because of evils springing from falsities and falsities springing from evils.

Evils springing from falsities are found in people who adopt falsities having to do with religion and defend them to the point that they appear to be true. Then, when they live in accordance with them, they do evils as a result of the falsities, or the evils of falsity.

On the other hand, falsities springing from evils are found in people who do not regard evils as being sins, and still more in people who employ reasonings issuing from their natural self, and moreover from the Word, to establish in themselves that evils are not sins. Their very arguments are falsities springing from evils, and what we call the falsities of evil.

[2] Darkness symbolizes these falsities because light symbolizes truth, and when the light has been extinguished, darkness is left.

To confirm this we will first cite passages where things similar to those here in the book of Revelation are said regarding the sun, moon and stars, and darkness ensuing upon their being extinguished:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah. (Joel 2:31)

...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. (Isaiah 13:10, cf. 24:21, 24:23)

When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens..., I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the luminaries of light in the heavens I will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land... (Ezekiel 32:7-8)

...the day of Jehovah... is at hand... The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness. (Joel 2:1, 10)

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven... (Matthew 24:29, cf. Mark 13:24-25)

Who, if he elevates his mind, cannot see that in these places it is not the world's sun, moon and stars that are meant.

[3] That darkness symbolizes falsities of various kinds is clear from these passages:

Woe to you who desire the day of Jehovah! ...It will be one of darkness, and not light... Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light? Very dark, without any brightness? (Amos 5:18, 20)

(The day of Jehovah will be) a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of clouds and overcast... (Zephaniah 1:15)

In that day... it will look to the land, which, behold, will be darkness...; and the light will grow dark in its ruins. (Isaiah 5:30, cf. 8:22)

...behold, the darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. (Isaiah 60:2)

Give glory to Jehovah... before He causes darkness...; you look for light, but He turns it into thick darkness. (Jeremiah 13:16)

We look for light, but there is darkness and no brightness; we walk in thick darkness... We stumble at noonday as at twilight; among the living we are as dead men. (Isaiah 59:9-10)

Woe to those... who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. (Isaiah 5:20)

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. (Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matthew 4:16)

...the rising sun from on high (has appeared) to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death... (Luke 1:78-79)

If you give your soul to the hungry..., your light shall rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness shall be as the noonday. (Isaiah 58:10)

In that day... the eyes of the blind who are in thick darkness and gloom shall see. (Isaiah 29:18, cf. 42:16; 49:9)

(Jesus said,) "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you... I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. (John 12:35, 46)

When I sit in darkness, Jehovah is a light to me. (Micah 7:8)

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness more than light... (John 3:19, cf. 1:4-5)

If... the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23, cf. Luke 11:34-36)

...this is your hour, and the power of darkness. (Luke 22:53)

Darkness in these places symbolizes falsity arising either from ignorance of truth or from some false tenet of religion, or from a life of evil.

Regarding people caught up in falsities having to do with religion, who are therefore caught up in evils in life, the Lord says that they should be "cast out into outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12, cf. 22:13; 25:30).

6884. 'The God of your fathers' means Him who was the God of the Ancient Church. This is clear from what has been stated above in 6876, where similar words occur. In the external sense written as history the words 'the God of their fathers' are used to mean the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but in the internal sense to mean Him who was the God of the Ancient Church. That the latter, not the former, is what is meant in the internal sense may be recognized from the consideration that the historical record contained in the Word cannot find its way into heaven. For the historical record in the Word is concerned with what is natural and worldly, but those in heaven possess exclusively spiritual ideas and thus they understand in a spiritual Way that which is written as history. And when the description of what is worldly, constituting the sense of the letter of the Word, reaches only the outskirts of heaven it is converted into the spiritual sense. Some recognition that this is so may also be gained from the consideration that man too on many occasions converts what he is being told into the kinds of things that occupy his entire thinking; that is, one whose thoughts are unclean turns them into what is unclean, and one whose ideas are clean into what is clean. So it is then that by 'the God of your fathers' those in heaven do not perceive the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for in heaven they have no thought of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, only of the Lord who is represented by them. It is for this reason that He who was the God of the Ancient Church is what those words mean.