4333. What those words mean in the internal sense will be clear from the following explanation, namely that they describe what the state will be at the time when the old Church is set aside and the new is established. It has been shown many times already that the setting aside of the old Church and the establishment of the new is that which is meant by the close of the age and the coming of the Son of Man and in general by the last judgement. It has also been shown that a like judgement has occurred several times on this planet, the first taking place when the Lord's celestial Church, which was the Most Ancient, perished among those living before the flood through the deluge of evils and falsities meant in the internal sense by the flood.
[2] The second judgement occurred when the spiritual Church, which existed after the Flood and is called the Ancient, and which was spread through much of the Asiatic world, reached a point when it had destroyed itself.
[3] The third occurred when the representative of the Church among the descendants of Jacob was destroyed, a destruction which took place when the ten tribes were carried off into everlasting captivity and were scattered among the gentiles, and finally when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews too were dispersed. Because the close of that age was reached after the Lord's Coming, many of the Lord's statements in the Gospels about the close of that age are therefore applicable to that nation also; many at the present day do apply statements to it. But though these can be understood in that way, they refer specifically and primarily to the close of the age which is now imminent; that is to say, they refer to the end of the Christian Church, which is the subject also in John, in the Book of Revelation. This will be the fourth last judgement on this planet. Exactly what is implied by the words contained in verses 36-41 quoted above will be clear from the internal sense of them, which is this.
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