Arcana Coelestia # 904
904. That 'God spoke to Noah' means the Lord's presence with the member of the Church becomes clear from the internal sense of the Word. The Lord speaks to everybody, for whatever good and truth a person wills and thinks comes from the Lord. With everyone there are at least two evil spirits and two angels. The former activate his evils whereas the latter instill goods and truths. Every good or truth that angels instill is the Lord's; in this way the Lord is constantly speaking to man, though quite differently from one person to the next. To people who allow themselves to be carried away by evil spirits the Lord speaks as though He were not present, or so far away that He can hardly be said to be speaking. But to those who are being led by the Lord, the Lord speaks as one who is quite present. This becomes clear enough from the fact that nobody can possibly think of anything good and true except from the Lord.
[2] The Lord's presence is relative to the state of love towards the neighbour and of faith present in a person. It is in love towards the neighbour that the Lord is present, for He is present in all good, and not so much in so-called faith that is devoid of love. Faith devoid of love and charity is something severed or disjoined. Wherever conjunction exists there has to be a conjoining agency, which is exclusively love and charity. This may become clear to anyone from the fact that the Lord has compassion on everybody, loves everyone, and wishes to make everyone eternally happy. A person therefore who is devoid of the kind of love that leads him to have compassion on others, to love them, and to wish to make them happy, cannot be joined to the Lord because he is not at all like Him, and is in no sense the image of Him. Looking to the Lord by means of that which goes by the name of faith while hating the neighbour amounts not only to standing a long way off, but also to having between himself and the Lord a hell-like chasm into which the person would fall if he wished to go any nearer. For it is hatred towards the neighbour that constitutes that intervening hell-like chasm.
[3] The Lord is present with a person the moment he starts to love the neighbour. It is in love that the Lord is present, and to the extent that a person has love the Lord is present. And to the extent that the Lord is present He speaks to man. No one knows anything other than that he thinks from himself. Yet he possesses not one single idea of thought, not even the shred of an idea, from himself. Rather that which is evil and false he possesses through evil spirits from hell, and that which is good and true through angels from the Lord. Such is influx, the channel by which a person's life comes and by which consequently his soul interacts with the body. All these considerations make clear what 'God spoke to Noah' means. 'Saying to someone' means one thing, as in Genesis 1:29; 3:13-14, 17; 4:6, 9, 15; 6:13; 7:1, while 'speaking to someone' means another. Here speaking to Noah' means His being present, for the subject now is the regenerate person, who has had charity conferred on him.
Matthew 24
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Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.
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But he answered them, "You see all of these things, don't you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down."
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As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?"
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Jesus answered them, "Be careful that no one leads you astray.
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For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will lead many astray.
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You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren't troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.
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For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.
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But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.
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Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name's sake.
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Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.
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Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray.
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Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.
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But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.
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This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
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"When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
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then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
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Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out things that are in his house.
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Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes.
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But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!
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Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath,
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for then there will be great oppression, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.
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Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.
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"Then if any man tells you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'There,' don't believe it.
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For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
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"Behold, I have told you beforehand.
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If therefore they tell you, 'Behold, he is in the wilderness,' don't go out; 'Behold, he is in the inner rooms,' don't believe it.
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For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
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For wherever the carcass is, there is where the vultures gather together.
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But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
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and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
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He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
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"Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is near.
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Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
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Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished.
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Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
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But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
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"As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
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For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,
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and they didn't know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
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Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left;
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two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left.
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Watch therefore, for you don't know in what hour your Lord comes.
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But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
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Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don't expect, the Son of Man will come.
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"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?
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Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.
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Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has.
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But if that evil servant should say in his heart, 'My lord is delaying his coming,'
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and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards,
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the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn't expect it, and in an hour when he doesn't know it,
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and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
