472. And when he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. This symbolically means that the Lord has disclosed throughout the whole of heaven what is in the little book.

This is the symbolic meaning, because we read next that John wished to write what the seven thunders said, but that he was told from heaven to seal those things up and not to write them, and later that he ate the little book, which in his mouth was as sweet as honey, but made his stomach bitter. The symbolic meaning is that present within were such things as would not yet be accepted. The reason may be seen in the next number.

But now I will reveal what the little book had in it. The little book had in it the same contents as found from beginning to end in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, which are as follows:

[2] The Sacred Scripture throughout has the Lord as its subject, and the Lord is the Word (nos. 1-7).

The Lord's fulfilling all things of the Law ¹ means that He fulfilled all things of the Word (nos. 8-11).

The Lord came into the world to conquer the hells and glorify His humanity, and His suffering of the cross was the final battle by which He fully overcame the hells and fully glorified His humanity (nos. 12-14).

By His suffering of the cross the Lord did not take away sins, but bore them (nos. 15-17).

Any imputation of the Lord's merit is simply the forgiveness of sins following repentance (no. 18).

The Lord is called the Son of God in relation to His Divine humanity, and the Son of Man in relation to the Word (nos. 19-28).

The Lord made His humanity Divine from the Divinity in Him, and thus became one with the Father (nos. 29-36).

The Lord is God Himself, from whom the Word originated and who is the subject of the Word (nos. 37-44).

There is one God, and the Lord is that God (no. 45).

The Holy Spirit is the Divinity emanating from the Lord, and it is the Lord Himself (nos. 46-54).

The doctrine of the Athanasian Creed accords with the truth, provided a trinity of persons is interpreted to mean a trinity of person, which is present in the Lord (nos. 55-61).

[3] We are told that the seven thunders uttered their voices because the Lord's speech descending through the heavens into the lower regions sounds like thunder. And because He speaks at the same time throughout the whole of heaven, thus in fullness, there are said to be seven thunders, for the number seven means, symbolically, all people or all things, and thus completeness (nos. 10, 390). Consequently thunder also symbolizes instruction and a perception of truth (no. 236), and here discovery and disclosure as well.

That a voice from heaven sounds like thunder when it comes from the Lord is apparent from the following:

(Jesus said,) "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." (John 12:28-30)

The multitude heard this as thunder.

(God roars with His voice;) He thunders with His majestic voice... (Job 37:4-5)

Jehovah thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. (2 Samuel 22:14)

I heard a voice from heaven... like the voice of loud thunder. (Revelation 14:2)

You called... and... I answered you in secret with thunder. (Psalms 81:7)

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15. By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them

Some people in the church believe that by His suffering of the cross the Lord took away sins and made satisfaction to the Father, and so redeemed mankind.

Some believe, too, that He transferred to Himself the sins of people who have faith in Him, bore them, and cast them into the depths of the sea, that is, into hell.

They confirm these beliefs of theirs by John’s saying in regard to Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29) Also by this declaration in Isaiah:

...He has borne our diseases and carried our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His wound we are healed.... Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.... ...He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people they were stricken, that He might deliver the wicked to their tomb and the rich to their deaths....

...By the labor of His soul He shall see [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge He shall justify many, by His bearing their iniquities.... ...He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Both passages have as their subject the Lord’s temptations or trials and His suffering. His taking away sins and diseases and Jehovah’s laying on Him the iniquities of us all have the same meaning as His bearing our sorrows and iniquities.

[2] First, therefore, we must say what bearing our iniquities means, and then what it means to take them away.

To bear iniquities means nothing else than to endure severe temptations or trials, and to allow the Jews to treat Him as they treated the Word. He allowed them to treat Him in the same way because He embodied the Word. For the church which existed at that time among the Jews was completely destroyed, having been destroyed by their perverting everything in the Word, to the point that there was no truth left. Consequently neither did they acknowledge the Lord. This is what is meant and symbolized by everything having to do with the Lord’s suffering.

The prophets were treated similarly, because they represented the Lord in relation to the Word and so to the church, and the Lord was the prophet.

[3] That the Lord was the prophet can be seen from the following passages:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” (Matthew 13:57, cf. Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24)

Jesus said:

...it is not right that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33)

People called Jesus the prophet from Nazareth (Matthew 21:11, cf. John 7:40-41). Fear seized them all, and they praised God, saying that a great prophet had risen up among them (Luke 7:16). [And we are told] that a prophet would be raised up from among the people’s brethren, whose words the people were to obey (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

[4] That the prophets were treated similarly is clear from the passages that follow now:

The prophet Isaiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by removing the sackcloth from his loins, taking his sandals off his feet, and going naked and barefoot for three years, as a sign and a wonder (Isaiah 20:2-3).

The prophet Jeremiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by purchasing a sash and putting it around his waist, by not drawing it through water, and by hiding it in a hole in a rock by the Euphrates, which after some days he found to be ruined (Jeremiah 13:1-7).

The same prophet also represented the state of the church by not taking himself a wife in the place where he was, by not entering the house of mourning, by not going off to lament, and by not going into the house of feasting (Jeremiah 16:2, 5, 8).

[5] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by passing a barber’s razor over his head and beard; by then dividing the hair, burning a third in the midst of the city, striking a third with a sword, and scattering a third in the wind; by binding a small number of them in the edges of his garment; and by finally throwing them in the midst of a fire and burning them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

The same prophet was commanded to represent the state of the church by making containers for departure, by departing to another place in the eyes of the children of Israel, by bringing out the containers by day and digging through a wall at evening and going out through it, and by covering his face so as not to see the ground, so that he was thus a sign to the house of Israel. And by the prophet’s saying, “Behold, I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them.” (Ezekiel 12:3-7, 11)

[6] The prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking himself a harlot as a wife. He also did take one, and she bore him three children, one of whom he called Jezreel, the second Not-To-Be-Pitied, and the third Not-My-People. (Hosea 1:2-9)

The same prophet was commanded again to go and love a woman who was loved by a companion and who was an adulteress, whom he obtained for himself for fifteen pieces of silver (Hosea 3:1-2).

[7] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking a brick and carving “Jerusalem” on it; by then laying siege to it, and putting a wall and mound against it; by setting an iron pan between himself and the city; by lying on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, and then on his right for forty days; by taking wheat, barley, lentils, millet and spelt and making of them bread for himself, which he then ate; and by drinking water by measure. Also by his being commanded to make for himself a barley cake mixed with a stool of human excrement. And because he prayed for it, he was commanded to make it with cow dung. (Ezekiel 4:1-15)

The prophets also represented other things besides, like Zedekiah and the horns of iron he made for himself (1 Kings 22:11). And another prophet by his being struck and wounded, and putting ash on his eyes (1 Kings 20:35, 37-38).

[8] The prophets in general represented the Word in its outermost sense, namely the sense of the letter, by a hair shirt (Zechariah 13:4). Elijah therefore wore such a shirt, and he was girded about the loins with a leather girdle (2 Kings 1:8). John the Baptist was clothed similarly, having a garment of camel hair and a leather girdle about his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4).

It is apparent from this that the prophets represented the state of the church and the Word. For whoever represents one, also represents the other, since the church is founded on the Word, and is a church in accordance with its reception of the Word in its life and faith.

Consequently wherever prophets in either Testament are mentioned, they symbolize the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word. Moreover, the Lord, as the greatest prophet, symbolizes the church itself and the Word itself.