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).

8330. 'The sanctuary, O Lord, [which] Your hands have prepared' means the heaven where those guided by the truth of faith coming from the Lord are. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sanctuary' as the heaven where the truth of faith resides, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'Your hands have prepared' as that which comes from the Lord. The reason why the words 'hands have prepared' are used in connection with 'the sanctuary' is that 'hands' have reference to truth and mean power. For 'hands' and their reference to truth, see 3091, 8281; for their meaning as power, 878, 3387, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 6292, 6947, 7011, 7188, 7189, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8069, 8153, 8281; and for 'the sanctuary', that this in a similar way has reference to truth, 8302. But the words which come immediately before - 'a place for You to dwell in' and 'You have made, O Jehovah' - have reference to good because they apply to 'mountain of inheritance', which means the heaven in which the good of charity resides, 8327. There are expressions which when used in the Word have reference to good, and there are expressions which have reference to truth, see 8314.

[2] What is implied by the heaven in which the good of charity resides, meant by 'mountain of inheritance', and what is implied by the heaven in which the truth of faith resides, meant by 'the sanctuary', must be stated briefly. The heaven in which the good of charity resides is that which is inhabited by the more internal members of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, and the heaven in which the truth of faith resides is that which is inhabited by the more external members of that kingdom. The internal members are those in whom charity itself resides and faith rooted in charity, whereas the external members are those in whom faith resides but not as yet charity. The latter are moved to do good by a sense of obedience, but the former by affection. These few details show what one should understand by the heaven in which the good of charity resides and the heaven in which the truth of faith resides.

[3] As regards 'the sanctuary', in the highest sense it means the truth of faith which comes from the Lord. From this it means in the representative sense the Lord's spiritual kingdom, also the spiritual Church, and therefore a regenerated person who is an embodiment of the Church, and so means in the sense abstracted from these the truth of faith, thus faith itself. For what 'sanctified' or 'holy' means, see above in 8302. So it is then that the truth of faith which comes from the Lord is what causes heaven to be called 'the sanctuary', as in David,

May Jehovah answer you in the day of trouble. May He send you help from the sanctuary, and sustain you out of Zion. Psalms 20:1-2.

Here 'the sanctuary' stands for the heaven where the truth of faith resides, 'Zion' for the heaven where the good of love resides.

[4] In the same author,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. You are frightening, O God - out of [Your] sanctuaries, O God of Israel. Psalms 68:24, 35

'The sanctuary' stands for the heaven where the truth of faith resides. This is why the name 'God', not 'Jehovah', is used, and also 'King'; for 'God' is used where truth is referred to, but 'Jehovah' where good is referred to, 2586, 2769, 2807, 2822, 3921 (end), 4402, 7010, 7268, and 'king' means truth, 1672, 1728, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148.

[5] In the same author,

It will praise Jah, for He looked out from the height of His sanctuary. Jehovah looked from the heavens towards the earth to hear the groaning of him who was bound, to open to the sons of death. Psalms 102:18-20.

Here also 'the sanctuary' stands for heaven in respect of the truth of faith. In the same author,

Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the expanse of His strength. Psalms 150:1.

'Praising in the sanctuary' stands for doing so from the truth of faith which comes from the Lord, 'praising in the expanse of strength' from the good of charity which comes from the Lord.