Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 106signify when mentioned elsewhere in the Word, as in the followingpassages. In Isaiah:I will make the land a waste, and destroy the sinners thereof out ofit; the stars of the heaven and the constellations thereof shall not shineforth with their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, andthe moon shall not make bright her light (Isa. 13:9–10).The vastation of the church is here treated of, which is when thereis no good of love any more, nor any truths of faith. The “land”that shall be laid waste is the church; the “land” is the church (asmay be seen above, n. 29).[4] In Ezekiel:When I shall extinguish thee I will cover the heavens, and willmake the stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moonshall not make her light to shine; all the luminaries of light will I makedark over thee, and I will set darkness upon the land (Ezek. 32:7–8).“Darkness upon the land” means falsities in the church. In Joel:The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars withdrawtheir brightness (Joel 2:10–11; 3:15).In Matthew:In the consummation of the age, after the affliction of those daysthe sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and thestars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall beshaken (Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24).In Daniel:From one of the horns of the he-goat went forth a horn, a littleone, and it waxed exceeding great towards the south, and towards theeast, and towards splendor; and it waxed great towards the host of theheavens; and some of the host and of the stars it cast down andtrampled upon them. Yea, it magnified itself even to the prince of thehost (Dan. 8:9–11).