Chapter One - Summary of its Internal Meaning:

The Lord will come and gather together His church. Why is this gathering necessary?

1. The knowledge and truth of the former churches had perished.

2. Their doctrines perished because people loved falsities, and in the course of time, the worship of the Lord became ritualistic and empty of genuine emotional love for the Lord.

3. With the absence of the Lord in their hearts, the Word was adulterated, and those who willfully adulterated the truths of the Word chose hell in their minds and hearts.

4. The wayward condition of the church emptied the rich storehouse of spiritual truth. The proud and self-serving people within the church plundered and emptied out the goods and truths of the Lord.

5. The Lord sent the message that a day of judgment was at hand. His word to the church was clear. The defilers would not continue to preserve their seats of prominence. Their day was at hand. The cleansing of the church would happen. Who would overturn the ways of the evil? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 411; The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 228)