moon will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky, that the
sign of the Lord will appear in the sky, and He Himself will be seen
in the clouds, attended by angels with trumpets; and furthermore, as
is foretold else where, that the whole visible universe will be
destroyed, and afterwards a new heaven with a new earth will come
into being. Such is the opinion of most men in the church at the
present day. But those who so believe are ignorant of the arcana that
lie hid in every particular of the Word. For in every particular of
the Word there is an internal sense which treats of things spiritual
and heavenly, not of things natural and worldly, such as are treated
of in the sense of the letter. And this is true not only of the
meaning of groups of words, it is true of each particular word.{3}
For the Word is written solely by correspondences,{4} to the end that
there may be an internal sense in every least particular of it. What
that sense is can be seen from all that has been said and shown about
it in the Arcana Coelestia; also from quotations gathered from that
work in the explanation of The White Horse spoken of in the
Apocalypse. It is according to that sense that what the Lord says in
the passage quoted above respecting His coming in the clouds of
heaven is to be understood. The "sun" there that is to be darkened
signifies the Lord in respect to love;{5} the "moon" the Lord in
respect to faith;{6} "stars" knowledges of good and truth, or of love
and faith;{7} "the sign of the Son of man in heaven" the
manifestation of Divine truth; "the tribes of the earth" that shall
mourn, all things relating to truth and good or to faith and love;{8}
"the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory"
His presence in the Word, and revelation,{9} "clouds" signifying the
sense of the letter of the Word,{10} and "glory" the internal sense
of the Word;{11} "the angels with a trumpet and great voice" signify
heaven as a source of Divine truth.{12} All this makes clear that