“All religion is of life; and the life of religion is to do good.” - Doctrine of Life §1
Kempton New Church

Week 3
Day 2

    Listen:

Luke 21‒22

The coming of the Son of Man

Luke 21

20 And when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, then know that her desolation is near.
21 Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her depart, and let not those in the countryside enter into her.
22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
23 But woe to those who have in the womb, and to those who nurse, in those days! For there shall be great necessity on the earth, and anger upon this people.
24 And they shall fall by the mouth2 of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden by the nations, until the times of the nations be fulfilled.
25 And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish3 of nations in perplexity, the sea and the waves resounding;
26 men whose souls go out for fear and the expectation of those things that are coming on the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
27 And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and much glory.
28 But when these things begin to come to pass, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.

AC 3652:4. “Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains,” signifies that they who are of the church must not look elsewhere than to the Lord, thus to love to Him, and to charity toward the neighbor.... By “Judea” is signified the church.... By a “mountain” is signified the Lord Himself, but by “mountains” love to Him and charity toward the neighbor.... According to the sense of the letter the meaning would be that when Jerusalem was besieged, as it came to be by the Romans, then they should not take themselves there, but to the mountains, according to what is written in Luke 21:20-21....

TCR 764. This night is followed by morning, which is the coming of the Lord.

As the successive states of the church in general and in particular are described in the Word by the four seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and by the four divisions of the day, morning, noon, evening, and night; and as the present church in Christendom is the night, it follows that the morning, that is, the beginning of a new church, is now at hand....

TCR 766. The Lord is present with every man, urging and pressing to be received; and His first coming, which is called the dawn, is when man receives Him, which he does when he acknowledges Him as his God, Creator, Redeemer, and Savior. From this time man’s understanding begins to be enlightened in spiritual things, and to advance into a more and more interior wisdom. And as he receives this wisdom from the Lord, he advances through morning into day, and this day lasts with him into old age, even to death; and after death he passes into heaven to the Lord Himself. And there, although he died an old man, he is restored to the morning of his life, and the rudiments of the wisdom implanted in him in the natural world grow to eternity.

TCR 776. This second coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word, which is from Him, and is Himself.

It is written in many places that the Lord will come in the clouds of heaven (as in... Luke 21:27....). And as no one has hitherto known what is meant by “the clouds of heaven,” it has been believed that the Lord would appear in them in Person. Before this, it has not been known that “the clouds of heaven” mean the Word in the sense of the letter, and that the “glory and power” in which He is then to come... mean the spiritual sense of the Word, because no one as yet has had the least conjecture that there is a spiritual sense in the Word, such as this sense is in itself. But as the Lord has now opened to me the spiritual sense of the Word, and has granted me to be associated with angels and spirits in their world as one of them, it is disclosed that “a cloud of heaven” means the Word in the natural sense, and “glory” the Word in the spiritual sense, and “power” the Lord’s power through the Word.


2 This means the “edge” (see AE 175:12), but is called the “mouth” in both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament, and usually in the Latin of the Writings (see AC 1857:5, AC 2799:18, AC 9164, et al.).

3 Greek is “that which besets.”

Questions and Comments
  1. Why is the coming of the Lord preceded by such calamities, representing the end of the church? What does this correspond to in an individual’s life?
  2. “Woe to those who have in the womb, and who nurse in those days” in the spiritual sense means those who receive the goods of love to the Lord and the truths of that good; but at the end of the church, because of the overwhelming influence of hell, they cannot keep these goods and truths (see AE 710:7). Does this relate also to the very low birth rate in the western world?
  3. How does the second coming of the Lord help us love Him and follow Him better, if we are willing, even though it is not a coming in person?
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