331. 'And behold a great earthquake was brought about' signifies the state of the Church with those entirely changed, and terror. 'Earthquakes' signify changes of state in the Church, because 'land' [or 'earth'] (terra) signifies the Church (n. 285); and because in the spiritual world, when the state of the Church is corrupted anywhere and there is a change, an earthquake is seen, and because this foretells their destruction, terror is produced. For the lands in the spiritual world are in appearance like the lands in the natural world (n. 260); but because the lands there, just as all the other things in that world, are out of a spiritual origin, they are changed in accordance with the state of the Church of the inhabitants upon them, and when the state of the Church is corrupted, they quake and tremble, even sink down and are moved out of place. That it so happened when the last judgment was impending and taking place can be seen in the little work concerning THE LAST JUDGMENT. From these things it can be established what is signified by 'earthquakes', 'tremors' and 'movements' in the following passages:-
There shall be pestilences, famines, earthquakes in divers places Matt. xxiv 7; Mark xiii 8; Luke xxi 11.
Those things are said of the last judgment.
In the fire of indignation will I speak if in that day there is not a great earthquake, so that every man upon the faces of the land shall tremble, and the mountains shall be overturned Ezek. xxxviii 18-20.
There was a great earthquake, such as was not since there came to be men upon earth Rev. xvi 18.
I will shake heaven, and the land shall be shaken out of its place, in the indignation of Jehovah Zebaoth Isa. xiii 13.
The foundations of the land have been shaken violently; shaking, the land has been shaken, for the transgression thereof is heavy upon it Isa. xxiv 18-20.
Violently shaken and shaken is the land, and the foundations of the mountains, because He was wroth Ps. xviii 7, 14 [H.B. 8, 15].
The mountains tremble before Jehovah, and the rocks are overturned Nahum i 5, 6.
Likewise in other places, as Jer. x 10; xlix 21; Joel ii 10; Hag. ii 6, 7; Rev. xi 19, and elsewhere. These things, however, are to be understood as being done in the spiritual world but not in the natural world. In this respect they signify such things as have been stated above.
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