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).

720. And cast them unto the earth, signifies their extinction and destruction. This is evident from the signification of "casting to the earth," when said of the "stars" by which is signified the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, thus truths; here it means to extinguish and destroy, for truths are extinguished and destroyed when they are falsified and adulterated. Truths falsified and adulterated are more false than falsities from any other source; for falsities from other sources do not so extinguish and destroy truths, for they give some place to truths in or near themselves. By falsities from other sources, those especially are meant that are from ignorance, from fallacies, and from religion with those who do not have the Word. It is to be known that those who live in evil, and yet say that they are saved because they have faith, have scarcely any genuine truth, however many things they know and draw forth from the sense of the letter of the Word; for the sense of the letter of the Word is such that when it is not comprehended interiorly it may be explained in various ways, and when that sense is not looked at from genuine truths it is believed according to the letter and is falsified, according to what was shown in the preceding article in the comparison with the movement and position of the sun. That such have scarcely any genuine truth was ascertained with some in the spiritual world who had confirmed faith alone by doctrine and life, who it was found did not know and acknowledge a single genuine truth; angels investigated it and were surprised. This showed clearly that they had extinguished and destroyed with themselves the truths of the Word. This, then, is meant by "the dragon drew down the third part of the stars of heaven with his tail, and cast them to the earth;" as the he-goat did also in Daniel:

The horn of the he-goat waxed great even to the host of the heavens, and some of the host and of the stars it cast down to the earth and trampled upon them; and it cast down the truth to the earth (Daniel 8:10, 12).

"The host of the heavens" means all the truths and goods of heaven and the church. (The stars that shall fall from heaven have a like signification, Matthew 24:29)