691. Because thou hast taken thy great power, and entered upon the kingdom.- That this signifies the establishment of a new heaven and a new church when the former heaven and church are destroyed, is evident from the signification of taking His great power, and entering upon the kingdom, as denoting that when the former heaven and former church have been destroyed, a new heaven and a new church will be established. This is meant by taking great power and entering upon the kingdom because the Lord then has omnipotence and the kingdom; for then His will is done, since the angels of heaven and the men of the church then suffer themselves to be led by Him, because He thus rules all, according to order, from Himself, by keeping them in Divine goods and truths, which go forth from Him, and withholding them from evils and falsities, which are from hell. This cannot be done before the evil are separated from the good, and are cast down into hell, and a new heaven is formed of the good. These things were accomplished by the Last Judgment, which is treated of in what follows.
[2] That then the Lord has power and sovereignty may be illustrated by a comparison with the sun of the world. During the winter the sun has no power or sovereignty in the earth, because its heat is not received, for the coldness of the air and of the earth counteracts it; but when spring returns, then the power and sovereignty of the sun return, for its heat is then received, and also its light, because conjoined with the heat, and from these the whole earth is vivified. The case is similar with the Lord's power and sovereignty, which come when the evil have been separated from the good and cast down into hell; for they are cold like the winter, and they extinguish the spiritual heat of the sun, which is love, and render inoperative the power and sovereignty of the Lord, although viewed in Himself He is perpetually in the same omnipotence, but not so in the subjects [thereof] until a new heaven and a new church come into existence.
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