Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 158together in a continuous connection, which is fitted together insuch a manner by the force and meaning of all the words in theliteral or natural sense, that if even a little word were taken out ofit, the connection would be broken and the coherence wouldperish. In order to prevent this, it is added at the end of thisprophetical book,That not a word shall be taken away (Rev. 22:19).It is the same with the books of the prophets of the Old Testament;in order to prevent anything from being taken away from them, itcame to pass of the Lord’s Divine providence that everythingtherein down to the very letters was counted. This was done by theMasorites.14. In speaking to his disciples about the consummation of theage (which is the last time of the church), at the end of hispredictions concerning the successive changes of state in thechurch, the Lord says,Immediately after the affliction of those days shall the sun be darkened, andthe moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and thepowers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of theson of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and theyshall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power andmuch glory. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice,and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the end ofthe heavens even to the end of them (Matt. 24:29–31).[2] By these words, in the spiritual sense, is not meant that thesun and moon would be darkened, that the stars would fall fromheaven, that the Lord’s sign would appear in heaven, and that hewould be seen in the clouds together with angels with trumpets,but by every word is meant some spiritual thing that is of thechurch, concerning the state of which at its end these things werespoken. For, in the spiritual sense, the “sun, which shall bedarkened” means the Lord as to love; the “moon, which shall notgive her light” means the Lord as to faith; the “stars, which shall fallfrom heaven” means the knowledges of what is good and true that