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).

212. That 'the eyes becoming opened' means a dictate coming from within is clear from similar usages in the Word, such as that which Balaam adopts when speaking about himself. Because he had visions he calls himself' a man who has had his eyes opened', Numbers 24:3-4. And in the case of Jonathan when on tasting from the honeycomb he experienced a dictate from within indicating that doing so was evil, it is said that his eyes saw, that is, they were enlightened for him to see the thing he had not known up to then, 1 Samuel 14:27, 29. Also, many times in the Word, the eyes stand for the understanding, and so for an inner dictate from the understanding, as in David,

Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep [the sleep of] death. Psalms 13:3.

'Eyes' here stands for the understanding. In Ezekiel,

They have eyes to see but they see not. Ezekiel 11:2.

Here they stand for those who do not wish to understand. In Isaiah,

Plaster over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes. Isaiah 6:10.

This stands for their being blinded to prevent their understanding. Through Moses the people were told,

Jehovah has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear. Deuteronomy 29:4.

'Heart' stands for the will, and 'eyes' for the understanding. It is said of the Lord in Isaiah 42:7 that He will open eyes that are blind; and in the same prophet,

Out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Isaiah 29:18.