1217. Saying, Alleluia for the Lord God, the Almighty reigneth, signifies joy and gladness that the Lord has now a kingdom on the earth as in the heavens. This is evident from the signification of "Alleluia," as being an expression of glorification of the Lord from joy of heart (see n. 1197, 1203). The two expressions, joy and gladness, are used because in the Word "joy" is predicated of good, and "gladness" of truth, and here both the angels that were in truths and those that were in goods said "Alleluia." It is evident also from the signification of "the Lord God, the Almighty, reigneth" as being that His kingdom is on the earth as in the heavens, which means that when the good have been separated from the evil, and the evil have been cast into hell, all the good came into a better state for receiving truth and good from the Lord, a state in which they had not been before. For so long as they were held in connection with the evil, if they had received goods and truths they would have defiled and perverted them. For the same reason interior truths were not revealed on the earth until that separation had been effected by means of the Last Judgment. [2] This, too, is the meaning of the words in the Lord's Prayer:
Thy kingdom come on earth as in the heavens (Matt. 6:10). The Lord's kingdom existed before the Last Judgment, for the Lord always rules both heaven and earth; but after the Last Judgment the state of the Lord's kingdom became different from the state before it, for after it the reception of Divine truth and good became more universal, more interior, more easy, and more distinct. It is said, "the Lord God, the Almighty," for the Lord is called "Lord" from good, and "God" from truth, "Almighty" from the separation of the good from the evil by the Last Judgment, and also from His power to save those who receive Him.
(Continuation)
[3] How the Lord can be present with all who are in heaven and throughout the whole earth, and can know all things, even the most particular things connected with them, both present and future, can be comprehended only by means of the following truths: (1) In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances. (2) Spaces and times must be removed from the ideas before the Lord's omnipresence with all and with each individual, and His omniscience of things present and things future connected with them, can be comprehended. (3) All angels of heaven and all men of the earth who constitute the church are as one man, and the Lord is the life of that man. (4) Consequently as there is life in the particular and most particular things of man and it knows the entire state of these, so the Lord is in the particular and most particular things of the angels of heaven and of the men of the church. (5) The Lord, by the intellectual faculty that each man has, or by its opposite, is also present with those who are out of heaven and out of the church, that is, those who are in hell or who are to come into hell, and knows their whole state. (6) From the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord thus perceived it can be understood how the Lord is the all and is in all things of heaven and the church, and that we are in the Lord and He is in us. (7) The omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord can be comprehended also from the creation of the universe; for it was so created by Him that He is in things first and in things last, in the center and at the same time in the circumferences, and that the things in which He is are uses. (8) As the Lord has the Divine love and the Divine wisdom, so from these He has the Divine omnipresence and the Divine omniscience; but omnipresence is chiefly from the Divine love, and omniscience chiefly from the Divine wisdom.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church