Apocalypse Revealed (Coulsons) n. 882

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882. [verse 3] 'And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold God's tabernacle is with men' signifies the Lord out of love speaking and declaring the glad tidings that He Himself is now going to be present with men in His Divine Human. This is the celestial sense of those words. The celestial angels, who are the angels of the third heaven, understand them no otherwise, for by 'to hear a great voice out of heaven saying' there is understood by them the Lord out of love speaking and declaring good tidings, because no one but the Lord speaks out of heaven; for heaven is not heaven by virtue of the propria* of the angels but from the Lord's Divine, of which they are recipients. By 'a great voice is understood speech out of love, for 'great' is predicated of love (n. 656, 663). By 'behold God's tabernacle is with men' is understood the Lord now present in His Divine Human. By 'God's tabernacle' is understood the celestial Church, and in the universal sense the Lord's celestial kingdom, and in the highest sense His Divine Human, as may be seen above (n. 585). The reason why by 'the tabernacle' in the highest sense is understood the Lord's Divine Human is because this is signified by 'the temple', as can be established from John ii 18-21; Mal. iii 1; Rev. xxi 22; and elsewhere. [This is signified] likewise by 'the tabernacle', with the difference that by 'the temple' is understood the Lord's Divine Human as to Divine Truth or Divine Wisdom, and by 'the tabernacle' is understood the Lord's Divine Human as to Divine Good or Divine Love. It follows from this that by 'behold God's tabernacle is with men is understood that the Lord is now going to be present with men in His Divine Human.


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