1. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, we find the Lord talking to his disciples about the close of the age, the last time of the church. ¹ At the end of his prophecies concerning the sequence of states of its love and faith ² he says:

Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Human-born One will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will lament. And they will see the Human-born One coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens all the way to the other end. (Matthew 24:29-31)

When people understand these words according to their literal meaning, they can only believe that all these things are going to happen just as this meaning describes them, at that end of time called the Last Judgment. This does not mean only that the sun and moon will be darkened and that the stars will fall from heaven, that the sign of the Lord will appear in heaven, and that he will be seen in the clouds with angels blowing trumpets. It also includes matters prophesied elsewhere, statements that the whole visible world is going to be destroyed and that afterward a new heaven and a new earth will come into being.

Many people in the church these days are of this opinion. However, people who believe such things are not aware of the hidden depths that lie within the details of the Word. There is in fact spiritual meaning in these details, for they intend not only the outward and earthly events that we find on the literal level but spiritual and heavenly events as well. This holds true not just for the meaning of phrases but even for each word. ³

The Word is in fact written in pure correspondences ⁴ so that there may be deeper meaning in the details. Questions about the nature of this meaning can be resolved by all the things I have set forth about it in Secrets of Heaven. A selection of these may be found also in my explanation of the white horse in the Book of Revelation. It is in this deeper sense that we are to understand what the Lord said in the passage just cited about coming in the clouds of heaven. The sun that will be darkened means the Lord in respect to love, ⁵ the moon means the Lord in respect to faith. ⁶ The stars mean insights into what is good and true, or into love and faith. ⁷ The sign of the Human-born One in heaven means the appearing of divine truth. The wailing tribes of earth mean all the elements of what is true and good, or of faith and love. ⁸ The Lord's coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory means his presence in the Word, and revelation. ⁹ The clouds refer to the literal meaning of the Word ¹⁰ and the glory to the Word's inner meaning. ¹¹ The angels with a trumpet and a loud voice mean heaven, which is where divine truth comes from. ¹²

This enables us to see what these words of the Lord mean. They mean that at the end of the church, when there is no longer any love and therefore no longer any faith, the Lord will open the Word by disclosing its deeper meaning and will reveal the heavenly contents hidden within it. The particular hidden contents to be disclosed in the pages that follow have to do with heaven and hell and with our own life after death.

Church people these days know practically nothing about heaven and hell or their life after death, even though there are descriptions of everything available to them in the Word. In fact, many who have been born in the church deny all this. In their hearts they are asking who has ever come back to tell us about it.

To prevent this negative attitude - especially prevalent among people who have acquired a great deal of worldly wisdom - from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been granted me to be with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been enabled to see what is in heaven and in hell, a process that has been going on for thirteen years. Now I am being allowed therefore to describe what I have heard and seen, in the hopes of shedding light where there is ignorance, and of dispelling skepticism.

The reason this kind of direct revelation is taking place today is that this is what the Coming of the Lord means.

Footnotes:

4229. CHAPTER 32

In Volume Three ¹ an explanation was begun of what the Lord has foretold in Matthew 24 about the Last Judgement. The explanation stands in the preliminary sections to the final chapters of that volume and has been taken as far as Matthew 24:31, see 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060. The internal sense in brief of all that He foretold is evident from the explanations contained in those paragraphs; that is to say, He foretold the progressive ruination of the Church and the establishment at length of a new Church, in the following order:

1. People ceased to know what good or truth was, and instead began to argue with one another about these.

2. They treated them with contempt.

3. They did not in their hearts acknowledge them.

4. They profaned them.

5. And because the truth of faith and the good of love would continue to exist with some who are called the elect, the state of faith as this will be at that time is described.

6. Then the state of charity as this will be.

7. And finally the beginning of a new Church is dealt with, which is meant by the words which were explained last of all, namely,

And He will send out His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other end of them. Verse 31.

These words are used to mean the beginning of a new Church, see the end of 4060.

Footnotes:

2901. Genesis 23

1. And the life ¹ of Sarah was a hundred and twenty-seven years - the years of the life ¹ of Sarah.

2. And Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

3. And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,

4. I am a stranger and an inhabitant among you; give me possession of a grave among you, and I will bury my dead from before me.

5. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,

6. Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God in the midst of us; in the choicest of our graves bury your dead; none of us will withhold his grave from you, from burying your dead.

7. And Abraham rose up and bowed to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth.

8. And he spoke to them, saying, If you are willing ² to let me bury my dead from before me, hear me and intercede for me with Ephron the son of Zohar.

9. And let him give me the cave of Machpelah which is his, which is at the end of his field; for the full price ³ let him give it to me in the midst of you, as a possession for a grave.

10. And Ephron was sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, in the ears of the sons of Heth, to all entering into the gate of his city, saying,

11. No, my lord, hear me; the field I give to you, and the cave that is in it I give to you; before the eyes of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.

12. And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.

13. And he spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, Even so, please hear me; I will give the price ⁴ of the field; accept it from me, and I will bury my dead there.

14. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,

15. My lord, hear me; the land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver; what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.

16. And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current with the merchant.

17. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah - which was before Mamre - the field and the cave which was in it, and every tree which was in the field, which was in all its borders round about, was made over

18. To Abraham as an acquisition, before the eyes of the sons of Heth, in [the presence] of all entering the gate of his city.

19. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife at the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

20. And the field and the cave which was in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a grave, from the sons of Heth.

CONTENTS

The subject here in the internal sense is the new spiritual Church which was raised up by the Lord after the previous one had altogether breathed its last, and also the reception of faith among those who belonged to the Church. 'Sarah' here is Divine truth that breathed its last; 'burial' is a raising up again; 'Ephron' and 'the sons of Heth' are those people among whom the good and truth of the Church was received; 'Machpelah, which was before Mamre' is regeneration; 'Hebron in the land of Canaan' is a new Church.

Footnotes: