4058. The subject in previous verses of this chapter in Matthew has been the progressive ruination of the Church, which took place as follows: First of all people ceased to know what good or truth was, and instead began to argue with one another about these. In a second phase they treated them with contempt; in a third they did not in their hearts acknowledge them; and in a fourth they profaned them. These phases were the subject in verses 3-22 of this chapter. And because the truth of faith and the good of love would continue to exist at the centre, that is, with some called 'the elect', the state of the truth of faith as this will be at that time is dealt with in verses 23-28, and the state of the good of charity and love as that will be then, and also the beginning of a new Church, are dealt with in the verses which have just been quoted [in 4056].

4056. The preliminary sections of Genesis 26-30 in Volume Three explained what the Lord has said and foretold in Matthew 24 about the Close of the Age, or the Last Judgement. Those sections covered verse 3 through to verse 28, and now the statements next in line come up for explanation. The preliminary section of this chapter deals with what is stated in verses 29-31 in the following words,

But immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He will send out His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other end of them.