870. Having the eternal gospel, signifies respecting His coming and the salvation of those who believe in Him. This is evident from the signification of "gospel," as being the Lord's coming and the salvation at that time of those who believe in Him. (That there has been a coming of the Lord, and that He is yet to come at the time of the consummation of the age, that is, at the end of the old church and the beginning of the new, and at the same time will be the Last Judgment, may be seen above, n. 612.) Also from the signification of "eternal," as being the Divine as to its existence [existere]. There are two universals through which the Divine is expressed, namely, the infinite and the eternal. The infinite is the Divine as to its being [esse]; and the eternal is the Divine as to its existence [existere]; each of which must be understood in a supereminent sense, namely, without space and without time. Anyone who thinks about the infinite and the eternal from space and time falls into errors; for space and time belong to nature, and man's ideas are in these so long as he lives in the natural world, but are not in them when he leaves this world and comes into heaven. Spaces and times indeed appear in heaven exactly similar to those in the world; but they are only appearances of the states with angels, for the states of their affection and consequent thought are presented in appearance before their external senses as spaces and as times, and yet they are not spaces and times like those in the natural world. (What these are can be seen in two articles in the work on Heaven and Hell, which treat of Space and Time in Heaven.) Because the Divine is infinite and eternal the infinite and eternal is in each and every thing that comes from the Divine; and this is why "the gospel," which signifies the Lord's coming and the salvation of the faithful, is called "eternal." That the infinite and eternal are predicated of the Lord alone may be seen above (n. 23, 286). That "the gospel" signifies the Lord's coming and the salvation of the faithful at that time can be seen from the passages where it is mentioned in both Testaments which have been quoted above (n. 612). [2] In respect to the Lord's coming it is believed by some that the Lord will come again in person, and indeed, to accomplish the Last Judgment; and this because it is said in Matthew:
The disciples drew near, saying unto Jesus, Tell us what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the age (24:3). And after the Lord had foretold to them the states of the church declining step by step even to its devastation and consummation, He said:
Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory. Watch, therefore, for ye know not in what hour your Lord will come (verses 30, 39, 42; also in John 21:22). But His coming does not mean here His coming in person, but that He was then to reveal Himself in the Word that He is Jehovah the Lord of heaven and earth, and that all who will be in His New Church which is meant by the New Jerusalem will adore Him alone; and to this end He has now opened the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense the Lord is everywhere treated of. This is the meaning also of:
His coming in the clouds of heaven with glory (Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; 14:62; Luke 21:27). That the "clouds of heaven" signify the Word in the letter, and "glory" its spiritual sense, may be seen above (n. 36, 594). Because He Himself is the Word, as He is called in John (1:1, 2, 14), therefore the revelation of Himself in the Word is "His coming."
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