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).

807. Slain from the foundation of the world, signifies whose Divine in His Human has not been acknowledged from the first establishment of this church. This is evident from the signification of "the Lamb slain or killed," as being not acknowledged (See above, n. 315, 328), here that His Divine in His Human has not been acknowledged (of which presently). Also from the signification of "the foundation of the world," as being the first establishment of the church. For "the world" signifies in the Word several things, namely, the world in general, also both those who are good and those who are evil in it, also the evil only who are in the world, and so also the hells. "The world" has also a similar signification as "the earth," namely, the church; and that is also here meant by "the foundation of the world," as also in Matthew:

The King shall say to them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34).

[2] The Lord is not acknowledged when His Divine in His Human is not acknowledged, for the reason that the Lord is not then regarded as God, but only as a man, who is not able to save. And although it is believed from the Athanasian Creed that the Lord is the Son of God born from eternity, and that His Divine is equal to the Divine of the Father, yet (since they separate His Human from His Divine) they divide the Lord as it were into two persons, which they call natures, making the Lord one thing as the Son of God from eternity, and another as the son of Mary. And because they so divide the Lord no one is able to approach Him unless he is willing to approach Him as one person when regarded as God and as another when regarded as man. Such has been the idea of the Lord from the first foundation of the church, as can be seen from the writings of the fathers, and afterwards from the writings of their sons.

[3] The Lord has been thus divided in the church from its beginning, because they did not understand the Word. For where the Lord mentions the Father it is believed that a Divine distinct from His Human is meant, although it is clearly evident in Matthew and in Luke that the Lord was conceived by the very Divine which is called the Father, consequently that this very Divine is in His Human as a soul is in its body; and the soul and the body are one Person. And what is wonderful, this is taught in express terms in the Athanasian Creed, which is the doctrine concerning God in the whole Christian world, and yet scarcely anyone in that confession gives any heed to it. That no heed has been given to it has been made clear to me from conversations with many in the other life, both the learned and the unlearned, who have said that it was unknown to them, and that they had thought of the Son of God from eternity as a Divine Person above His Human, sitting at the Father's right hand. It was clear also that they had given no heed to those words of the Lord, that "the Father and He are One," and that "the Father is in Him and He in the Father." From this it can be seen that the church from its beginning has not acknowledged the Lord's Divine in His Human, and that this is what is signified by "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."