the Lord chose to come down from heaven, become the Word, and fulfill
it. By doing this he put the Word back together and restored it, giving
light once again to the inhabitants of our world, as the Lord himself says
in these words: “The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light;
on the people sitting in the realm and shadow of death the light has
dawned” (Isaiah 9 : 2 ; Matthew 4 : 16 ).
271 It has been predicted that at the end of this church darkness will arise
again through ignorance that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth and
through separation of faith from goodwill. Therefore to prevent the loss of
a genuine understanding of the Word and a consequent loss of the church,
the Lord has now chosen to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Word. He
has chosen to reveal the fact that in this meaning, and from it in the earthly
meaning, the Word contains countless things for restoring the church’s
light of truth, which has almost gone out.
Many passages in the Book of Revelation predict that at the end of
this church the light of truth will almost go out. This is also the meaning
of the following words of the Lord:
Immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and
the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of
Humankind coming in the clouds of heaven with glory and power.
(Matthew 24 : 29 , 30 )
“The sun” here means love for the Lord, “the moon” means faith in
the Lord, and “the stars” mean concepts of what is good and true. “The
Son of Humankind” means the Lord in his role as the Word. “The cloud”
means the Word’s literal meaning, and “the glory” means the Word’s spir-
itual meaning and the way it shines through the literal meaning. “The
powers” mean the Word’s power.272 An abundance of experience has taught me that human beings have
a communication with heaven through the Word. When I read the
Word through from the first chapter in Isaiah to the last chapter in
Malachi and the Psalms of David, and I kept thinking about their spiri-
tual meaning, I was given a clear perception that every verse communi-
cates with some community in heaven, and therefore the whole Word
communicates with the entirety of heaven. This made it clear to me that
as the Lord is the Word, heaven is also the Word, since heaven is heaven
from the Lord, and by means of the Word the Lord is everything to all
heaven.