1843. Your seed will be immigrants means that charity and faith would be rare, as can be seen from the symbolism of immigrants and of seed. Immigrants mean what is not native and so what is not acknowledged as belonging to the local area and therefore what is regarded as foreign. Seed, though, symbolizes charity and the faith that goes with it, as shown before, in §§255, 1025, and above at verse 3 [§1798:1]. The seed is described as immigrants, which are viewed as foreign, and what is foreign is what does not belong to the area, or come from it, so it follows that it is something rare. It also follows, then, that charity and the faith that comes of charity would be rare, since that is what the seed is. When it says that Abram's seed would be immigrants — that is, that charity and faith would be rare — it is speaking about a time before the end, when the shadows (falsity) would be immense.

[2] In Matthew 24:4-end, Mark 13:3-end, and Luke 21:7-end, which describe the close of the age, the Lord predicts that faith will be rare in the last days. Everything said there carries the idea that charity and faith will be scant in those days, until finally they disappear. John predicts the same thing in the Book of Revelation, as the prophets also do many times, not to mention the narrative parts of the Word. ¹

[3] But by the faith that will perish in the final days nothing is meant but neighborly love. No other faith can possibly exist than the faith that grows out of love for others. People who do not love their neighbor cannot have the least faith. Love for others, or charity, is the actual base on which faith is planted. Charity is its heart, the source of its existence and life. As a result, the ancients compared love and charity to a heart, and faith to lungs, both of which reside in the chest. Charity and faith actually resemble the heart and lungs, too, because to imagine a life of faith without charity is like imagining we can live by our lungs alone, without our hearts. Anyone can see it is impossible. So the ancients called every impulse of charity a gesture of the heart, and every word of faith lacking in charity they called lip service, or a product of the lungs (by way of the breath that flows into speech). That is how they developed the habit of talking about goodness and truth as something that ought to "come from the heart."

Footnotes:

755. The ending of the age being the final period of the church is clear from the passages in the Word where it is mentioned. For instance:

I have heard an ending and a cutting off from Jehovah's part upon the whole earth, Isaiah 28:22.

Ending limited, righteousness overwhelmed, for the Lord Jehovih Zebaoth is bringing about ending and cutting off in the whole earth, Isaiah 10:22-23.

In the fire of the zeal of Jehovah the whole earth will be consumed, because He will bring about a speedy ending with all the inhabitants of the earth, Zephaniah 1:18.

Earth in these passages means the church, because the land of Canaan is meant, where the church was. The meaning of earth or land being the church can be seen supported by numerous passages from the Word in Apocalypse Revealed (285, 902).

Finally upon the bird of abominations desolation, to the point of ending and cutting off it will be poured upon devastation, Daniel 9:27.

This was said by Daniel about the end of the present Christian church; see Matthew 24:15.

The whole earth will be a wilderness, yet I shall not make an ending, Jeremiah 4:27.

The first iniquity of the Amorites has not yet come to an end, Genesis 15:16.

Jehovah said, I shall go down and see whether they have made an ending, according to the cry which has reached me, Genesis 18:21.

This relates to Sodom.

[2] The final period of the present Christian church was also what the Lord meant by the ending of the age in the following passages:

The disciples asked Jesus, What is the sign of your coming and of the ending of the age? Matthew 24:3.

At harvest-time I shall tell the reapers, First gather the tares for burning. Gather the wheat into the barns. Thus it will be at the ending of the age, Matthew 13:30, 39-40.

At the ending of the age the angels will go forth and separate the wicked from out of the midst of the righteous, Matthew 13:49.

Jesus said to the disciples, Look, I am with you until the ending of the age, Matthew 28:20.

It needs to be known that devastation, desolation and cutting off have similar meanings to ending, but desolation means the ending of truth, devastation the ending of good, and cutting off the complete ending of both. The fullness of time, in which the Lord came into the world, and in which He will come again, is also an ending.