37. And I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet. This symbolizes a manifest perception of Divine truth revealed from heaven.

A loud voice, when heard from heaven, symbolizes Divine truth, as we will show next. It sounded like the voice of a trumpet for the reason that when Divine truth descends from heaven, it is sometimes heard as such by angels of the lowest heaven, and they then manifestly perceive it. That is why "a voice, as of a trumpet" symbolizes a manifest perception. More on the symbolism of a trumpet will be seen in nos. 397 and 519 below.

That a loud voice, when heard from heaven, symbolizes Divine truth, is apparent from the following passages:

The voice of Jehovah is over the waters... The voice of Jehovah is powerful; the voice of Jehovah is accompanied with honor. The voice of Jehovah breaks the cedars... The voice of Jehovah falls like a flame of fire. The voice of Jehovah shakes the wilderness... The voice of Jehovah makes the deer give birth... (Psalms 29:3-9)

You kingdoms of the earth..., sing praises to the Lord... Behold, He will send out His voice, a mighty voice. (Psalms 68:32-33)

Jehovah has given voice before His army...; for numerous is he who obeys His word. (Joel 2:2)

Jehovah... will utter His voice from Jerusalem. (Joel 3:16)

Moreover, because a voice symbolizes Divine truth from the Lord, therefore the Lord said that "the sheep hear His voice," that "they know His voice" (John 10:3-4). Also,

Other sheep I have...; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice... My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. (John 10:16, 27)

And elsewhere:

The hour is coming... when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, ¹ and those who hear will live. (John 5:25)

The voice here is the Lord's Divine truth emanating from His Word.

Footnotes:

519. Then the seventh angel sounded. (11:15) This symbolizes an examination and exposure of the state of the church after its end, at the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom.

To sound the trumpet means, symbolically, to explore and expose the state of the church after its end, at the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom. That is because the seventh angel's sounding has this symbolic meaning. For the first six angels and their sounding their trumpets symbolized the examinations and exposures of the church at its end, as is clear from the preceding chapter, where the whole subject is the church at its end. But the subject now is the state of the church after its end, or the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom, and this is apparent from the particulars that come next in this and the following verses. In this verse:

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"

And so on. The seventh angel's sounding causes the aforesaid exposure because the number seven has the same symbolic meaning as a week, in which six days are days of labor and belong to man, while the seventh is holy and is the Lord's.

By the church's end we mean its ruination, when there is no more doctrinal truth or goodness of life left in it, thus when it has reached its final state (see nos. 658, 750). And because that is the time of the Lord's advent and the advent of His kingdom, therefore both the end of the age and the Lord's coming are mentioned in Matthew 24:3, and both are also foretold in that chapter.