Apocalypse Explained (Tansley) n. 1217

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1217. Saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God tire Omnipotent reigneth.- That this signifies joy and gladness, that the Lord has now a kingdom on earth as in the heavens, is evident from the signification of Alleluia, as denoting the expression of glorification of the Lord from joy of heart, concerning which see above (n. 1197, 1203). - It is said joy and gladness, because in the Word joy is said of good, and gladness of truth, and here the angels, both those who were in truths and those who were in goods, said Alleluia; and from the signification of for the Lord God the Omnipotent reigneth, as denoting that His kingdom is on the earth as in the heavens, by which is meant, that after the good were separated from the evil, and the evil cast into hell, then all the good came into a better state to receive truth and good from the Lord, in which state they were not previously. For so long as they were in connexion with the evil, even if they had received goods and truths, they would have contaminated and perverted them. This also is the reason why interior truths were not revealed on earth, before that separation was effected by means of the Last Judgment.

[2] This also is meant in the Lord's Prayer by "Thy kingdom come on earth as in the heavens." The Lord's kingdom existed also previous to the Last Judgment, for the Lord always rules both heaven and earth, but the state of His kingdom after the Last Judgment was different from what it was before, for the reception of Divine Truth and Good became consequently more universal, more interior, easier, and more definite. It is said, the Lord God the Omnipotent, because the Lord is called Lord from good, and God from truth, and omnipotent from the separation of the good from the evil by means of the Last Judgment, and also from the power of saving those who receive him.

[3] Continuation [concerning Omnipresence and Omnipotence]. - But how the Lord can be present with all who are in heaven and in the whole earth, and also know all things - even the most minute, connected with them in the present and in the future, is a subject which can be understood only by means of the following propositions

1. There are in the natural world spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances.

2. Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas, in order that the Lord's Omnipresence with all men, collectively and severally, as well as His omniscience of things present and future connected with men, may be understood.

3. All the angels of heaven, and all men on earth, who form the church, are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man.

4. Consequently as there is life in all the individual and most minute parts of man, and it is cognizant of their whole state, so the Lord is in all the individual and most minute things belonging to the angels of heaven and to the men of the church.

5. The Lord, from the intellectual faculty which every man possesses, and from its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and the church, and with those who are in hell, or will come into hell, and knows their whole state.

6. From the Lord's omnipresence and omniscience thus perceived, the understanding is enabled to see how He is the All and the In-all of heaven and the church, and how we are in Him, and He in us.

7. The Lord's omnipresence and omniscience may be understood also from the creation of the universe; for it was so created by Him that he is in primaries and in ultimates; in the centre and at the same time in the circumferences; and all things in which he is are uses.

8. Because Divine Love and Divine Wisdom belong to the Lord, therefore Divine Omnipresence and Divine Omniscience, proceeding from both of them, belong to Him; the former proceeding principally from Divine Love, the latter principally from Divine Wisdom.


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