these words of the Lord mean that at the end of the church, when
there is no longer any love, and consequently no faith, the Lord will
open the internal meaning of the Word and reveal arcana of heaven.
The arcana revealed in the following pages relate to heaven and hell,
and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at
this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his
life after death, although all these matters are set forth and
described in the Word; and yet many of those born within the church
refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from
that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial,
which especially prevails with those who have much worldly wisdom,
should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in
faith, it has been granted me to associate with angels and to talk
with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and
what is in the hells, and this for thirteen years; so now from what I
have seen and heard it has been granted me to describe these, in the
hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated.
Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what
is meant by the Coming of the Lord.

[REFERENCES TO THE AUTHOR'S ARCANA COELESTIA.]

{Footnote 1} The consummation of the age is the final period of
the church (n. 4535, 10622).

{Footnote 2} The Lord's predictions in Matthew (24 and 25),
respecting the consummation of the age and His coming, and the
consequent successive vastation of the church and the final
judgment, are explained in the prefaces to chapters 26-40 of
Genesis (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757,