Heaven and Hell: The Portable New Century Edition

(Romina) #1

§167 time 89


a. Expressions of time in the Word mean states: 2788 , 2837 , 3254 , 3356 , 4816 [ 4814 ], 4901 , 4916 ,
7218 , 8070 , 10133 , 10605. Angels do their thinking without any concept of time or space: 3404.
The reasons for this: 1274 , 1382 , 3356 , 4882 , 4901 , 6110 , 7218 , 7381. What a “year” means in the
Word: 487 , 488 , 493 , 893 , 2906 , 7828 , 10209. What a “month” means: 3814. What a “week”
means: 2044 , 3845. What a “day” means: 23 , 487 , 488 , 6110 , 7430 [ 7443 ], 8426 , 9213 , 10062
[ 10132 ], 10605. What “today” means: 2838 , 3998 , 4304 , 6165 , 6984 , 9939. What “tomorrow”
means: 3998 , 10497. What “yesterday” means: 6983 , 7124 [ 7114 ], 7140.
b. We have a concept of eternity that includes time, while angels have one without time: 1382 ,
3404 , 8325.


They do not even know what all these temporal things are, like a year, a


month, a week, a day, an hour, today, tomorrow, or yesterday. When


angels hear these expressions from one of us (angels are always kept in


contact with us by the Lord), they perceive states instead, and things that


have to do with state. So our natural concept is changed into a spiritual


concept with the angels. This is why expressions of time in the Word


mean states, and why things proper to time like the ones listed above


mean the spiritual things that correspond to them.a


It is much the same for all the things that occur as a result of time, 166


such as the four seasons of the year called spring, summer, autumn, and


winter; the four times of day called morning, noon, evening, and night;


our own four ages called infancy, youth, maturity, and old age; and with


the other things that either occur as a result of time or happen in tempo-


ral sequence. When we think about them, it is from a temporal stand-


point; but an angel thinks about them from the standpoint of state.


Consequently, anything in them that is temporal for us changes into an


idea of state for the angel. Spring and morning change into an idea of


love and wisdom the way they are for angels in their fi rst state; summer


and noon change into an idea of love and wisdom as they are in the sec-


ond state; autumn and evening, as they are in the third state; and night


and winter into a concept of the kind of state that is characteristic in hell.


This is why similar things are meant by these times in the Word (see


above, § 155 ). We can see from this how the natural concepts that occur


in our thought become spiritual for the angels who are with us.


Since angels have no notion of time, they have a different concept of 167


eternity than we earthly people do. By “eternity,” angels perceive an infi -


nite state, not an infi nite time.b


I was thinking about eternity once, and using a concept of time I


could grasp what “to eternity” entailed—namely, without end—but not


what “from eternity” entailed and therefore not what God did before

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