20. Verse 3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. This is at the outset when a person starts to realize that good and truth are something superior. Thoroughly external people do not even know what good is and what truth is, for they imagine that everything which comprises self-love and love of the world is good, and that everything that panders to those loves is truth. Thus they do not know that the things which they imagine to be good are in fact evil, and that those which they imagine to be true are in fact false. But when a person is conceived anew, first he starts to recognize that the good in him is not really good, and then, when he enters more into light, to recognize the existence of the Lord and that the Lord is good and truth themselves. The Lord Himself says in John that men ought to know He exists,

Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. John 8:24.

The point that the Lord is good itself, which is life, and truth itself, which is light, together with the consequent point that no good or truth exist except from the Lord, is made once more in John,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness. He was the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world John 1:1, 3-5, 9.

673. And in that hour.- That this signifies during that state, is evident from the signification of hour, as denoting state, in this case, therefore, that state when the two witnesses ascended into heaven, and their enemies saw them. Hour signifies state, because, in the Word, times, and all expressions referring to time, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, ages, and also morning, noon, evening, and night, as well as spring, summer, autumn, and winter, signify states of life. That such things are signified by times, is illustrated and shown in Heaven and Hell 162-169), where time in heaven is treated of, as also above in this work (n. 571, 610, 664); and that hour signifies some duration of state, greater and less, thus time and state, may be seen above (n. 194), and that the number employed determines the state as to its quality (n. 488).