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.

7317. 'And they will be turned into blood' means that they will falsify truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'blood' as falsified truth, dealt with in 4735, 6978, 'blood' in the genuine sense is truth emanating from the Lord, thus the holiness of faith, this being what is meant by blood in the Holy Supper. But in the contrary sense 'blood' is violence done to Divine Truth, and since it is done by means of falsifications, 'blood' is the falsification of truth. From this and from what follows it may be seen who specifically are represented by 'Pharaoh', or who specifically are meant by those who molest - those within the Church who have declared themselves on the side of faith and have also convinced themselves that faith saves, yet have led a life contrary to the commandments intrinsic to faith. In short they are those whose faith has been false and whose life has been evil.

[2] When these people enter the next life they bring with them the assumption that they are to be introduced into heaven because they were born and baptized within the Church, possessed the Word, and also the teachings drawn from the Word which they had claimed to believe in, and especially because they claimed to believe in the Lord, who suffered for their sins and thereby saved those within the Church who from a knowledge of its teachings claimed to believe in Him. When these people first arrive in the next life from the world they do not wish to know anything about a life of faith and charity. They regard it as of no account, saying that because they have possessed faith all the evils marring their life have been purged and washed away by the blood of the Lamb. But then they are told that these ideas are contrary to the Lord's words in Matthew, where He says this,

Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy through Your name, and through Your name cast out demons, and do many mighty works in Your name? But then I will confess to them, I do not know you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. Everyone who hears My words and does them I liken to a wise man; but everyone hearing My words and not doing them I liken to a foolish man. Matthew 7:11-24, 26.

And in Luke,

Then you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He replying will say to you, ¹ I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, We ate in Your presence and we drank; and You taught in our streets. But He will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. Luke 13:25-27.

But when they are told this they reply that only those who possessed faith induced by miracles are meant, not those who possessed the faith of the Church.

[3] But after some time these same people start to learn that none are admitted into heaven apart from those who have led the life of faith, that is, have had charity towards the neighbour. And when they start to learn this they begin to feel contempt for the teachings making up their faith, and their faith itself also. For their faith had not been faith but merely a knowledge of such things as constitute faith; and it had not existed for life's sake, only for the sake of making gain and having important positions. So it is that they begin to feel contempt for the things which had composed their knowledge of faith, and so cast them aside, soon after which they immerse themselves in falsities opposed to the truths of faith. This is the state in which those who have declared themselves on the side of faith, yet have led a life contrary to faith, come to live. These are the ones who in the next life molest the upright by means of falsities, thus who are meant specifically by 'Pharaoh'.

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