AR 24 - coming with the clouds

AR 24

Behold, He is coming with the clouds (of heaven).
(Revelation 1:7)

This symbolically means (signifies) that the Lord

will reveal Himself in the literal sense of the Word

and lay open its spiritual meaning

at the end of the church.

Someone who knows nothing

of the internal or spiritual meaning of the Word

cannot know what the Lord meant

by His coming in the clouds of heaven.

For He said to the high priest who was adjuring Him

to say whether He was the Christ, the Son of God,

As you have said . . . . I am.

And you will see the Son of Man

sitting at the right hand of power

and coming with the clouds of heaven.

(Matthew 26:63,64; Mark 14:61,62)

Moreover, in speaking to His disciples

about the end of the age, the Lord said,

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear . . .,

and they will see (Him) coming in the clouds of heaven

with power and . . . glory.(Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26)

The clouds of heaven in which He will come

mean nothing else than the Word in its literal sense,

and the glory in which they will see Him,

the Word in its spiritual meaning.

The reality of this can hardly be believed

by people who do not think of the Word

beyond the sense of the letter.

To them a cloud is a cloud,

and so they believe

that the Lord will appear in the clouds of the sky

when the Last Judgment is at hand.

But this idea collapses

when the meaning of a cloud is known,

that it is Divine truth

in its outermost expressions,

thus the Word in its literal meaning.