4229. 第32章

最后的审判 (续)

我们从第三卷 (系指拉丁文的第3卷) 开始解释主在马太福音 24章关于最后审判的预言. 这些解释被放在了那一卷最后几章的开头部分, 目前已解释到31节 (参看3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060节).

概括地说, 主的这些预言的内义从所给出的解释很清楚看出来, 即祂预言了教会的逐渐毁灭和最终一个新教会的建立, 其次序如下:

⑴教会成员不再知道何为良善与真理, 反而开始彼此争论它们.

⑵他们蔑视它们.

⑶他们从心里不承认它们.

⑷他们亵渎它们.

⑸由于信之真理和爱之良善仍存留在某些被称为 “选民” 的人当中, 故经上描述了那时信之真理所具有的状态.

⑹然后描述了仁的状态.

⑺最后论述了一个新教会的开始, 由最后所解释的那些话来表示, 即:

祂要差遣祂的使者, 用号筒的大声, 将祂的选民从四风, 从天这边到天那边, 都招聚了来. (马太福音 24:31)

这些话表示一个新教会的开始 (参看4060末尾节).

756. The natural world contains various things which can illustrate the ending of the age. For here every single thing upon the earth grows old and reaches its end, but in successive alternations known as cycles. Periods of time are cyclical, both in general and in detail. In general, the year advances from spring to summer, through this to autumn and comes to an end in winter, from which it returns to spring; this is the heat cycle. In detail, the day advances from morning to noon, through this to evening and comes to an end in night, from which it returns again to morning; this is the light cycle. Every human being too goes through a natural cycle. He begins his life from childhood, advances to adolescence and early adulthood, from which he passes into old age, and dies. Likewise every bird of the sky, and every beast of the earth. Every tree too begins with a shoot, grows to full size and little by little wastes away, until it falls. The same thing happens to every shrub and plant, in fact to every leaf and flower, as well as to the ground itself, which in course of time becomes barren. The same happens to every stretch of still water, which little by little becomes foul. All of these endings are alternating, being natural and temporary, but they show periodicity. For when one passes from its beginning to its end, another like it arises. So everything is born and wastes away, and is born again, so that creation may continue in existence. The reason why much the same happens to the church is that people are a church, and on the general level compose it. One generation takes the place of another, and every mind is different. Wickedness once rooted in the character is transferred to descendants as a propensity to wickedness; and it cannot be rooted out except by regeneration, which only the Lord can bring about.

4422. In the preliminary section of this chapter the Lord's words in Matthew 24:42-end come up for explanation. These last verses in that chapter concerning the close of the age or the coming of the Lord read in the letter as follows,

Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, if the master of the house knew at which period of the night the thief is coming, he would watch, and would not let his house be broken into. Therefore you also, be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and careful servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his goods. But what if that wicked servant shall say in his heart, My master is delaying his coming, and he shall begin to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with drunkards? The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know. And he will cut him off and assign him his part with the hypocrites, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

What these words hold within them may be seen from the train of thought, for the subject throughout this chapter in the gospel has been the last days of the Church, by which in the internal sense are meant the close of the age and the coming of the Lord. This can be seen plainly in the explanation of every statement in that chapter, in the preliminary sections of the chapters of Genesis immediately previous to this. That is to say, see 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, and 4332-4335, the preliminary sections of Chapters-33..

[2] The sequence of thought contained in this chapter of the gospel has also been stated in those paragraphs, that sequence being as follows: When the Christian Church established after the Lord's Coming began to ruin itself, that is, to depart from good,

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

2. They treated them with contempt.

3. Then they did not in their hearts acknowledge them.

4. After that they profaned them.

5. And because the truth of faith and the good of charity were still to remain in existence 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. Finally the beginning of a new Church is dealt with, and

8. The state of good and truth within the Church, so called, when that Church is set aside and the new one adopted.

From this sequence of thought one may come to see what is included within the final verses of Matthew 24, which are set out above. That is to say, they contain an exhortation to those within the Church to keep to the good of faith or else they will perish.