When Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake. Rocks were split. The centurion and his soldiers who had carried out the crucifixion orders were afraid.

In the heart of the temple, in the "holy of holies", in the very heart of Jerusalem, the sacred veil tore, from top to bottom.

The veil, "rent in twain"...

The veils in the tabernacle and later in the temple were important. They're described in great detail in Exodus and in 1 Kings. In Arcana Coelestia 2576, it says that, "Rational truths are a kind of veil or clothing to spiritual truths.... The veil represented the nearest and inmost appearances of rational good and truth....

And now, as Jesus dies on the cross, the veil tears. What does this mean?

Here's how Swedenborg describes the symbolism of this:

"...that once all appearances had been dispelled, the Lord entered into the Divine Itself, and at the same time He opened a means of access to the Divine Itself through His Human that had been made Divine." (Arcana Coelestia 2576)

Think about four watershed spiritual events:

1) The creation of the physical universe. (Current best guess: 13.8 billion years ago). Genesis 1:1-10

2) The beginning of life. (On earth, between 3.5 and 4.5 billion years ago.) Genesis 1:11-25

3) The beginning of spiritually conscious human beings. (Reasonable guess: 100,000 years ago). Genesis 1:26-31

4) The incarnation and resurrection of the Lord God Jesus Christ (2000 years ago).

God's love and wisdom have been flowing into the universe for a long time. Where you might expect entropy, instead we see a universe that seems to favor life and intelligence. Think what a fulfilling moment it must have been when God could tell that human minds were now responding to Him, after all that outpouring.

But the free response-ability has tragedy baked in, because we can also choose not to respond, and to go the opposite way.

As we humans grew more "sophisticated", God used new channels to reach us, notably prophets and spiritual leaders, and later the written word. And in those channels, from the earliest times, there are already prophecies that the Lord would one day come into the world in human form.

Why did He need to do that? He must have foreseen that people would need to have that human level of connection, in order for enough good and truth to exist for us to make the decisions that open us to salvation.

Let's go back to Swedenborg's description:

"... once all appearances had been dispelled the Lord entered into the Divine Itself..."

Throughout the Lord's life on earth, there was the appearance that he was a man, like us. He had a human body. He could be tired and hungry. He could be tempted (though unlike us, he always won). In his spiritual life, there were times when he felt keenly the appearance of his human separate from his Divine essence. At other times, that appearance thinned, and he felt his divinity more powerfully. As he grew up, and was baptized, and began his ministry, he must have been growing more and more fully aware of what was going on inside him -- the glorification of the human part of him. With the death of his body on the cross, the bodily human-ness was no longer in the way. That appearance was dispelled. A new connection was fully forged between the Divine and the human.

And then, there's the second part of Swedenborg's statement:

"at the same time He opened a means of access to the Divine Itself through His Human that had been made Divine."

The veil was torn. The old religion, which had placed ritual above real good, and where God was invisible, separated from human knowledge by a veil -- was torn. New light could reach people, through the new teachings of the Lord. We could respond to a God who, in His Divine Human, we now could understand and approach and love more deeply.

489. Verse 2. And I saw the seven angels who stood before God, signifies the heavens more interiorly and more closely conjoined to the Lord. This is evident from the signification of "seven angels," as meaning all the heavens; "seven" signifying all persons and all things (See above, n. 257, 299), and "angels" signifying the heavens (See also above, n. 90, 302, 307); also from the signification of "standing before God," as being to be conjoined to the Lord (of which see above, n. 462, 477). Why "the seven angels who stood before God" signify that now all the heavens were more interiorly and more closely conjoined to the Lord, will be explained in the following article.

[2] And there were given unto them seven trumpets, signifies influx from them, and consequent changes of state and separations. This is evident from the signification of "trumpet" or "horn," as meaning Divine truth that is to be revealed, and is revealed clearly and plainly (of which see above, n. 55, 262), here the influx of Divine good and truth through the heavens from the Lord, for through that influx all changes and separations are effected, which are treated of in what follows; for each time an angel sounded a trumpet, a change is described and a separation was effected; therefore "sounding a trumpet" in what follows, signifies influx.

[3] That all changes of state and separations of the evil from the good, and of the good from the evil, that occurred before the judgment and during the judgment, were effected by an interior influx, more intense or more moderate, of divine good and truth from the Lord out of heaven, has been said and shown above (n. 413, 418, 419, 426); also how it was done, and the kind of effect that followed; this is signified by "the angel filled the censer with the fire of the altar, and cast it unto the earth" (verse 5), and afterwards that "the angels sounded." As this was done by the Lord through the heavens, therefore the Lord first conjoined the heavens to Himself more interiorly and closely, for otherwise the heavens also would have been endangered; therefore this is signified by "the seven angels stood before God," "to stand before God" meaning to be conjoined to Him; and when they are conjoined to Him more interiorly and closely, those in whom there is no spiritual good are separated; for it is spiritual good only that conjoins, and not any external or natural good that does not derive its essence, and its existence, from spiritual good.

[4] This separation of the evil from the good when the Lord conjoins the angels to Himself more interiorly and closely by a strong influx into their spiritual good, and through this into the interiors of the evil, may be comprehended by those who are in some measure of intelligence; for through such influx the interiors in the evil also who have only feigned goodness in externals are opened, and when their interiors are opened the evils and falsities that lie inwardly concealed are manifested; this is done because they have no spiritual good; and external good without spiritual good is only apparent good, in itself feigned and hypocritical. That it is such is not evident until the interiors are uncovered and laid open. Spiritual good is formed with man by the Lord by means of truths and a life according to them; but external good, separate from internal spiritual good, is formed by a moral life having for its end self and the world, or honors, gain, and the enjoyments of the flesh; and if these alone are considered, Divine truths are regarded as of no account except as means of acquiring reputation; and this has as its sole end the external things above mentioned. (Of internal and external good with the good, and of these with the evil, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 36-53.) These things have been mentioned in advance in order that what follows may be understood. (See also what has been said and shown on this subject in the places cited above, n. 413, 418, 419, 426.)