894. 'At the beginning, on the first of the month' means a starting point. This is now clear from what has been said above. Everything that this statement embodies is an arcanum so deep that it cannot be described, except for just the point that no definite period of time ever exists when anyone is regenerate enough to be able to say, 'Now I am perfect'. In fact an unlimited number of states of evil and falsity exist with everyone, not only simple states but also varied and complex ones which, as has been stated, have to be disposed of in such a way that they do not recur. In some states a person can be called fairly perfect, but in countless others he cannot. People who have been regenerated during their lifetime, and in whose lives faith in the Lord and charity towards the neighbour have been present, are in the next life being perfected all the time.

The flood was the end of the most ancient church, and the beginning of the ancient church. The flood which the serpent cast out of his mouth, as in Revelation 12:15, signifies reasonings in abundance grounded in fallacies and appearances. The flood, as in Genesis 7, not only signifies the temptations which the man of the church called Noah must undergo, before he could be regenerated, but likewise the desolation of people who could not be regenerated; both temptations and desolations are in the Word compared to floods, or inundations of waters. A flood signifies truths in abundance. “No more to destroy the earth”, signifies that such a deadly and suffocating persuasion as in the former church should exist no more.

(Referenser: Apocalypse Revealed 564)