Apocalypse Explained, Vol. 1

CHAPTER I, VERSE 3 — NUMBER 16

In the Gospel of Luke:

"Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it" (xi. 28);

In John:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, if a man keep My word he shall never see death" (viii. 51);

In the same Gospel:

"If a man love Me he will keep My word: . . . . He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words" (xiv. 15, 23, 24);

And again:

"If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love. . . . . Ye are My friends if ye do the things which I command you" (xv. 10, 14).

To "do" is to "will," and to "will" is to "do"; this is because, in any deed, the will is the essential thing.

16. "For the time is near" signifies such an interior state.—This is clear from the signification The specific symbolic or spiritual meaning behind a word used in the Bible. of "time" as meaning a "state" of being (see the work Heaven and Hell, numbers 162–169, which explains how Time works in Heaven); it is also clear from the meaning of "near," which signifies what is internal. Therefore, because the text refers to a state, it means the interior state described previously. By "state," we mean a condition of affection and the thoughts that come from that affection.

Anyone who reads this without being familiar with the internal sense The deeper spiritual meaning of the Bible that lies beneath the literal stories and words. might suppose that "the time being near" meant that the events described in the Apocalypse The Book of Revelation. were about to happen at that very moment. However, we can see this is not the case, as seventeen centuries passed before they were fulfilled. Because the Word is natural in its literal wording but spiritual within, the phrase "the time is near" is used so that those in heaven can understand it as an "interior state." If the phrase "interior state"—the actual spiritual meaning—had been used in the text, the angels would not have understood it The author suggests that angels do not process abstract concepts directly from the literal text but instead perceive the underlying reality through the system of correspondences.; for they perceive everything in the Word according to correspondences The relationship between physical things in our world and the spiritual realities they represent..

"Near" signifies what is interior because distances in heaven are determined entirely by how people differ in the good of love A technical term referring to the selfless goodness that comes from a person's love for God and others.. For this reason, those who share a similar kind of goodness are also near one another. It is from this spiritual reality that, even on earth, words designating kinship—such as relationship original: "affinitas" or proximity original: "propinquitas"—are used to describe those who are "near" to us; these terms relate to spiritual nearness, which is a physical reality in the heavenly world. In heaven, this occurs because the goodness of love creates a conjunction between people, and the more interior that goodness is, the closer the connection becomes. Because of this, heaven is closer to a person the more deeply they live in the goodness of love. This connection originates with the Lord, who is nearer to an angel, a spirit, or a human being the more deeply they love—