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.

2388. 'Whom have you here still? Son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city - bring [them] out of the place' means that all with whom the good of charity exists, and everything belonging to that good, were to be saved; also those governed by the truth of faith, provided they drew back from evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'sons-in-law', 'sons', 'daughters', 'city', and 'place', which are dealt with in the paragraphs following this.

[2] As regards the salvation of those governed by the truth of faith provided they drew back from evil, the position is that truths of faith are the vessels themselves for receiving good, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269, and they receive good insofar as the individual draws back from evil. For good is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but it is the evil belonging to the life within that prevents the reception of that good by the truths present in a person's memory or knowledge. Consequently insofar as a person draws back from evil good enters in and inserts itself within the truths he has. When this happens the truth of faith residing with him becomes the good of faith. A person can indeed know the truth, even profess it because some worldly reason prompts him to do so; in fact he can even be persuaded that it is the truth. But this truth still does not live so long as he leads a life of evil. Such a person is like a tree that has leaves on it but no fruit; and that truth is like light in which there is no warmth, like that in winter-time when nothing grows. When however there is warmth within it, it becomes like light in spring-time when everything is growing. In the Word truth is compared to and actually called the light, while love is compared to warmth and also called spiritual warmth. In the next life moreover truth manifests itself by means of light while good does so by means of warmth. But truth devoid of good manifests itself as cold light, while truth accompanied by good does so as spring-like light. This shows what the truth of faith is when devoid of the good of charity. Here too is the reason why his sons-in-law and his sons, who meant such truths, were not saved, only Lot together with his daughters.

[3] Since it is stated here that they also are saved who are governed by the truth of faith provided they draw back from evil, it should be recognized that these people are such - on account of their having been so taught - as profess faith but think nothing of charity. They do not know what charity is, imagining that it is purely a matter of giving away what is one's own to others and of taking pity on everyone. Nor do they know what the neighbour is, towards whom charity has to be exercised; they imagine that almost everybody without discrimination is the neighbour. Nevertheless these same people do lead a life of charity towards the neighbour since the life of good is present in them. They come to no harm because they profess faith along with the rest, since their faith has charity within it; for by charity is meant all goodness of life in general and in particular. What charity is therefore, and what the neighbour, will in Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.