Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 159would perish; the “sign of the son of man in heaven” means theappearing of Divine truth; the “tribes of the earth, which shallwail” means the lack of all truth that is of faith, and of all good thatis of love; the “coming of the son of man in the clouds of heavenwith power and glory” means the Lord’s presence in the Word, andrevelation; “clouds” signify the sense of the letter of the Word, and“glory,” the spiritual sense of the Word; the “angels with a trumpetand a great voice” signifies heaven whence comes Divine truth; to“gather together the elect from the four winds, from the end of theheavens even to the end of them” signifies a newness of the churchin respect to love and faith.[3] That there is not meant a darkening of the sun and moon,nor a falling of the stars to the earth, is very evident from theprophets, in which like things are said about the state of the churchwhen the Lord should come into the world. As in Isaiah:Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel, and of wrath of anger; the stars ofthe heavens, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light, the sunshall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not cause her light toshine; I will visit upon the world its wickedness (Isa. 13:9–11; 24:21, 23).In Joel:The day of Jehovah cometh, a day of darkness and of thick darkness; thesun and the moon shall be blackened, and the stars shall withdraw theirshining (Joel 2:1–2, 10; 3:15).In Ezekiel:I will cover the heavens, and blacken the stars; I will cover the sun with acloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine; all the luminaries oflight I will make dark, and will set darkness upon thy land (Ezek. 32:7–8).“The day of Jehovah” means the Lord’s advent, which took placewhen there was no longer anything good and true left in thechurch, and not any knowledge of the Lord.