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).

758. All the things the Lord spoke of with the disciples were said about the final period of the Christian church; this is obvious from Revelation, where similar predictions are made about the ending of the age and the Lord's coming. All of these were explained in detail in Apocalypse Revealed (published in 1766). Now since what the Lord told His disciples about the ending of the age and His coming is in agreement with His later disclosures on the same subjects through John in Revelation, it is perfectly clear that He meant no other ending than that of the present-day Christian church. Moreover, there was a prophecy about the end of this church in Daniel, and this is why the Lord says:

When you see the abomination of desolation, foretold by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let him who reads take due note) ... Matthew 24:15; Daniel 9:27.

There are similar remarks in the other prophets.

[2] Such is the abomination of desolation in the Christian church at the present time, as will be plain from the Appendix, which will show that there is not a single real truth left in the church, and also that unless a new church is raised up to take the place of the present one, no flesh can be saved, as the Lord said in Matthew (Matthew 24:22). It is impossible for those on earth who have convinced themselves of their false beliefs to see that the Christian church, as it is at the present time, is to such an extent brought to an end and laid waste. The reason is that the strengthening of falsity is the denial of truth. It therefore places as it were a curtain beneath the understanding, and by this means takes care that nothing else creeps in, which might wreck the ropes and stakes which hold up the system of thought he has built and formed like a rigid tent. In addition, the natural faculty of reason can prove whatever it likes, the false as much as the true. Each of these appears when proved in similar light, and there is no way of telling whether it is deceptive light such as one encounters in dreams, or true light like that of day. But it is quite different with the spiritual faculty of reason possessed by those who look to the Lord and under His guidance love truth.