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).

6895. “说, 我实在眷顾了你们” 表祂降临到那些属于属灵教会的人那里. 这从 “眷顾” 的含义清楚可知, “眷顾” (visiting, 经上或译为降罚, 追讨, 刑罚等) 是指先于教会末期的主的降临, 在圣言中, 这个时间被称为 “最后的审判”. 关于 “眷顾” 表示审判的这层含义, 可参看前文 (2242, 6588节). 该审判被称为主的降临, 这一点从马太福音中的这些话明显看出来:

门徒对耶稣说, 请告诉我们, 什么时候有这些事? 你降临和时代的完结, 有什么预兆呢? (马太福音 24:3)

然后, 主将教会的末期告诉门徒, 这从前面的解释可以看出来 (3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4422-4424节). 当这一切发生时, 祂说:

那时, 人子的兆头要显在天上, 地上的众支派都要哀哭. 他们要看见人子, 有能力, 有大荣耀, 驾着天上的云降临. (马太福音 24:30)

“主的降临” 不是指祂同天使驾着云出现, 而是指人们通过爱和信从心里承认, 接受祂 (参看3353, 3900节; 还有, 祂从圣言的里面出现, 圣言的至内或至高意义唯独论述主 (4060节). 这种降临才是当一个旧教会被废除, 一个新教会被主建立时主的降临所指的. 由于教会的一个新阶段现即将在雅各的后代中间建立, 故经上说 “我实在眷顾了你们”, 就像约瑟临死时所说的那些话:

约瑟对他弟兄们说, 我要死了; 但神必定眷顾你们, 领你们从这地上去, 到祂起誓所应许给亚伯拉罕, 以撒, 雅各之地. (创世记 50:24)

就字义而言, “必定眷顾你们” 在此表示从在埃及为奴役的状态中被解救出来, 引入迦南地; 然而, 这不是圣言的属灵内容, 而是属世内容. 圣言的属灵内容论述主, 祂的国度和教会, 以及爱和信. 因此, “实在眷顾” 在灵义上表示从虚假中被解救出来, 从而引入属于教会和主国度的事物, 也就是说, 主在爱与信中降临到那些将属于新教会的人中间.

10623. 'Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons and on the sons of sons' means the rejection and condemnation of evils and of a long line of falsities arising from them. This is clear from the meaning of 'visiting' as the casting out and condemnation of evils, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'the fathers' as forms of good, and in the contrary sense evils, dealt with in 3703, 5902, 6050, 10490; and from the meaning of 'the sons' as truths, and in the contrary sense falsities, dealt with in 1147, 10490, so that 'the sons of sons' means a long line of falsities arising from evils. By the casting out and condemnation of evils and of the falsities arising from them the casting out and condemnation of those ruled by such evils and falsities should be understood; for evils and falsities have no existence other than within their subjects ¹ , that is, within people. It should be recognized that the falsities of evil are meant by 'the sons' because the fathers from whom they spring mean evils. What falsities of evil and falsities not of evil are, see in the places referred to in 10109.

[2] A person unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word may easily be led to believe that Jehovah visits the iniquity of the fathers on the sons and on the sons of sons, consequently that the sons are going to pay the penalty for their fathers' evils. But this is not the meaning of those words, as is plainly evident from the Divine law that fathers shall not die because of sons, nor sons because of fathers, but each because of his own evil, Deuteronomy 24:16. From this law it is evident that those words are to be understood differently from their literal meaning. The fact that those who are ruled by evils and the long line of falsities arising from them are meant by the fathers, their sons, and their sons' sons, is clear from the internal sense, in which evils and falsities are meant by fathers and sons. Angels - who also see a meaning in the Word when someone in the world reads it - do not understand anything other than this here by fathers and sons. For in heaven, where angels live, there is no knowledge, as there is among people on earth, of what a father is or of what a son is; for nobody there acknowledges anyone to be his father or anyone to be his son. There are no births there as there are in the world. When therefore father and son are mentioned in the Word angels think of spiritual births, which are those of goodness and truth or else of evil and falsity. Consequently they understand forms of good or else evils by fathers, and truths or else falsities by sons, since good is the father of truth and evil is the father of falsity.

[3] The reason why 'being visited' means being cast out and condemned is that this is what follows after evils reach their closing stage and comes before actual condemnation, meant in the Word by the last judgement. For visitation is the examination of a person to discover his true character. But this takes place in the next life, in particular when the individual person goes there from the world, and in general with all at the end of the Church, as stated immediately above in 10622. Regarding visitation, see what has been stated and shown in 6588, 6895, 10509.

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