4229. 第32章

最后的审判 (续)

我们从第三卷 (系指拉丁文的第3卷) 开始解释主在马太福音 24章关于最后审判的预言. 这些解释被放在了那一卷最后几章的开头部分, 目前已解释到31节 (参看3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060节).

概括地说, 主的这些预言的内义从所给出的解释很清楚看出来, 即祂预言了教会的逐渐毁灭和最终一个新教会的建立, 其次序如下:

⑴教会成员不再知道何为良善与真理, 反而开始彼此争论它们.

⑵他们蔑视它们.

⑶他们从心里不承认它们.

⑷他们亵渎它们.

⑸由于信之真理和爱之良善仍存留在某些被称为 “选民” 的人当中, 故经上描述了那时信之真理所具有的状态.

⑹然后描述了仁的状态.

⑺最后论述了一个新教会的开始, 由最后所解释的那些话来表示, 即:

祂要差遣祂的使者, 用号筒的大声, 将祂的选民从四风, 从天这边到天那边, 都招聚了来. (马太福音 24:31)

这些话表示一个新教会的开始 (参看4060末尾节).

397. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. (8:6) This symbolizes their being prepared and ready to examine the state of the church and consequent life in people for whom religion is faith alone.

The symbolism of trumpets follows from the statute governing their use among the children of Israel, which Moses describes in this way: Jehovah told Moses to make silver trumpets for summoning the assembly and for the setting out of the camps, and they were also to sound them on days of celebration, feasts, new moons, and over burnt offerings and sacrifices. Furthermore, when they went to war against enemies oppressing them, they were to sound an alarm with the trumpets, and then they would come into remembrance before Jehovah God and be saved from their enemies. (Numbers 10:1-10)

It can be seen from this what sounding with trumpets symbolizes. Here, that the seven angels sounding symbolizes an examination and exposure of the state of the church and its character among people for whom religion is faith alone, as is apparent from the particulars in this chapter and from the particulars in the following chapters up to chapter 16 inclusive, understood in their spiritual sense.

[2] From the ways trumpets were used among the children of Israel it can also be seen what trumpets and sounding them symbolize in the following places:

Sound a trumpet in Zion, and sound it in My holy mountain! ...For the day of Jehovah is coming... (Joel 2:1-2)

Jehovah will be seen over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; and the Lord Jehovih will sound the ram's horn... (Zechariah 9:14)

Jehovah shall go forth like a lion... (and) sound an alarm... (Isaiah 42:13)

...on that day a great ram's horn will be sounded, and those who perish in the land of Assyria, and those who are exiled in the land of Egypt, will come and bow themselves to Jehovah on the holy mountain... (Isaiah 27:13)

He will send His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:31)

Blessed are the people who know the trumpet's sound! They walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Your countenance. (Psalms 89:15)

When the morning stars sing together, and... the sons of God sound the trumpet. (Job 38:7)

[3] Since the soundings of trumpets had these symbolic meanings, and in the Israelite Church everything was presented concretely in accordance with correspondences and the consequent symbolism, therefore it also came to pass, when Jehovah descended upon Mount Sinai, that there were voices and lightnings and a thick cloud, and the sound of a ram's horn, loud, with the sound of the ram's horn growing and becoming louder and louder, so that the people in the camp trembled greatly. (Exodus 19:16-25)

Therefore it also came to pass that when the three hundred men with Gideon sounded their ram's horns in the campaign against Midian, then every Midianite man's sword was set against his companion and they fled (Judges 7:16-22). Likewise that twelve thousand of the children of Israel with holy vessels and trumpets in their hands overcame Midian (Numbers 31:1-8). Also that the wall of Jericho fell after seven priests with seven ram's horns went around the city seven times (Joshua 6:1-20).

Therefore we read in Jeremiah:

Sound against (Babylon) all around..., her walls are thrown down. (Jeremiah 50:15)

And in Zephaniah:

...a day of darkness and blackness..., a day of ram's horn and its sounding against the fortified cities... (Zephaniah 1:15-16)