How are the Prophecies of the Second Coming Fulfilled?

Many, when they hear about the Second Coming of Christ, think of His eventually return where He will appear in the clouds of the sky, the world will come to an end, and that there will be a last judgment. However this is a false expectation: by the Second Coming is not meant a physical manifestation of the Lord, but a heavenly revelation from heaven which will take place in vision. The final judgment does not take place on earth, but in the spiritual world. The "end of the world" is not the end of the visible planet earth, but rather, it refers to the end of the age of traditional Christianity that has become corrupted by falsehoods.

That the Second Coming is spiritual, and not observable in a physical manner, is discussed in detail here: Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?

That the Second Coming is a spiritual revelation, and not a physical manifestation that appears before everybody at once, we know from Jesus Himself:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.  (Luke 17:20-23)

Now despite this, there are some that still expect a literal, physical appearance of the Lord. This is not possible, for when Jesus rose from the dead, His human body had transformed into a Divine Human. The Lord could only be seen by those whose spiritual vision had been opened:

"He is not to appear in person, because since He ascended into heaven He is in the glorified Humanity, and in this He cannot appear to any man unless He first opens the eyes of his spirit, and this cannot be done with any one who is in evils and hence in falsities... Therefore when He manifested Himself to His disciples, He first opened their eyes; for we read, And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight (Luke xxiv. 31). The same took place with the women at the sepulchre after the resurrection, who therefore then saw angels sitting in the sepulchre and talking with them; and no one can see angels with the material eye. That neither did the apostles see the Lord in the glorified Human before His resurrection with the eyes of the body, but in spirit, which appears, after returning to wakefulness, as if in sleep, is evident from His transfiguration before Peter, James, and John, for it is said that they were then heavy with sleep (Luke ix. 32). It is therefore vain to believe that the Lord will appear in a cloud of heaven in person; but He will appear in the Word, which is from Him and thus is Himself." (True Christian Religion, n. 777)

What happened is that in the 18th century, Emanuel Swedenborg's vision was opened where he would read scripture and its spiritual meaning was explained by the Lord. This is the Second Coming, available to anyone who pays attention and reads the writings: the First Coming was a revelation of the Word made flesh, the Second Coming is a revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word hidden within its literal sense.

This does not preclude future revelations concerning the Second Coming and the book of Revelation - but it must take place in one's spiritual sight, not in the physical world. This is the first step of true understanding.

THE INTERMEDIATE WORLD BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL

After death, a spirit is judged and goes either to heaven or hell, which Swedenborg saw were higher dimensions where space and time do not exist, and yet these spiritual dimensions govern our states of mind. What he also discovered was that between heaven and hell groups of souls would gather in an intermediate spiritual world who were not prepared for judgment, which he called the "world of spirits." It is in this area where the last judgment occurs, where souls are judged in mass at the end of a world age. This intermediate world can be compared to purgatory in Catholic tradition, and some of it is known from the "Harrowing of Hell" that took place when Jesus descended into hell in Orthodox tradition. This middle region between heaven and hell is mentioned explicitly in two areas of the New Testament:

"For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (2 Pet. 3:18-19)

It is also the area where some good spirits remain, awaiting judgment:

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." (Rev. 6:9-11)

The good that remained here were those who had good intentions, but had perhaps been misled by falsehoods or did things out of ignorance. The evil that remained until the last judgment were those who put on an appearance of being good or religious towards others, but inwardly were evil. Jesus had entered this intermediate spiritual world after His death, and He speaks of His fight against hell in order to release spiritual captives in this passage:

But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. (Matt. 12:28-29)

THE FINAL JUDGMENTS OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

In the heavenly revelations received by Swedenborg in the 18th century, it was shown to him that "last judgments" take place periodically in the spiritual world. This has happened three times, one of which he witnessed personally in his waking visions:

1. A final judgment took place in the spiritual world which is metaphorically described in the story of the flood of Noah.
2. A final judgment took place in the spiritual world during the time of Jesus, which Jesus does mention briefly but practiced it in His exorcisms of demons.
3. A final judgment took place in the spiritual world in 1757, due to the corruptions of the Christian churches (primarily by dividing God into three persons, and promoting a religion of belief alone)

The final judgment of the year 1757 opened up a new era of thought, where mankind started to think more freely and began to question religious authority, and follow rational thought. Swedenborg mentions that a new era of free thought would begin:

"The great change which has been effected in the spiritual world does not induce any change in the natural world as to external form, and therefore there will be civil affairs hereafter just as before... the man of the church will hereafter be in a freer state of thinking on the things of faith, thus on the spiritual things which are of heaven, because spiritual freedom has been restored... I have had various conversations with angels concerning the state of the church hereafter, and they said that they know not things to come, because to know things to come is of the Lord alone; but they know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of the church has been hitherto, has been taken away, and that now from restored freedom he can better perceive interior truths, if he wishes to perceive them, and so can become interior, if he wishes to become so; yet they have slender hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much of a people quite remote from the Christian world, and hence removed from infesters, which is such as to be able to receive spiritual light, and to become a celestial spiritual man; and they said that at this day interior Divine truths are revealed in that people, and are also received with spiritual faith, that is, in life and heart, and that they adore the Lord." (Final Judgment, n. 73-74)

This is known as the Age of Enlightenment to historians. The external manifestation of it can be seen in the volumes of writings that Swedenborg wrote to explain the spiritual sense of the Bible. Now completely independent from Swedenborg, those who have studied the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, especially Seventh Day Adventists, understood that there was a 1260 year prophecy beginning with the collapse of the Roman Empire that ended in the 18th century. All that they could figure out was the external historical manifestation of the spiritual event: at this time, the Catholic Church lost its spiritual power, especially with the disbanding of the Jesuits and the separation of church and state due to the French and American revolutions. From the revelation we have now received, the 1260 year period began in 497 A.D. and ended in 1757 A.D. (see The Prophetic Time Periods of Daniel Revealed).

The Seventh Day Adventists speak of a prophecy in Daniel 8 concerning the "cleansing of the temple" which they cannot explain well, but they happen to be close to the mark. It was actually fulfilled in the cleansing of the spiritual world between heaven and hell in 1757. There is a 2300 year prophecy beginning from the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C. which brings us to the year 1762, for which see the previous posts The New Church Prophecy of the 2300 Days, or the Cleansing of the Sanctuary and The Prophecy of Babylon and the Writing on the Wall

So with that introduction, lets explain now what portions of the book of Revelation have been fulfilled, or are happening now...

THE SEVEN CHURCHES REPRESENT THE OLDER CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

The letters to the seven churches were written to seven churches in Asia, or modern day Turkey, and they are representative of the older traditional Christian churches as they are now, preceding their awareness of the revelations of the Second Coming.  There are seven different types, and they are explained in detail here: The Symbolism of the Seven Churches of the book of Revelation

Those who separate faith from charity, are described in one aspect of the letter to the church of Thyatira. However most Christians are in an external form of worship, without applying it to their life, and are dead spiritually: these are described by Sardis. Those who do works of charity, or are merit seeking, are described by Pergamos.  All churches, in no matter what state of life, or what state of belief they are, are invited to the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem that descends out of heaven.

THE SEVEN SEALS: EXPLORATION BEFORE JUDGMENT

The unsealing of the book of seven seals signifies a phase of exploration of the state of each person in the intermediate world before judgment is executed, for before judgment there is a state of visitation or exploration of one's interior mind.  On a careful read of the symbolism (described in detail in The Apocalypse Revealed and Explained) it matches the progressive decline of the Christian Church until no good or truth remained within it, as described spiritually in Jesus's explanation for the end of the age (see The End of this World Age - the Last Days of Matthew 24). For the sun to turn dark signifies a total lack of love, for the moon to turn blood red signifies truth will be falsified, and for stars to fall from the sky signifies all spiritual knowledge will be lost for the Christian churches on earth. This period of spiritual exploration continued for a period of time before the judgment upon the spiritual world in 1757, until the evil became separated from heaven which is described as heaven departing as a rolled book (Rev. 6:14):

"The reason that it is said that the heaven departed as a book rolled together, is that man's interior understanding and hence his thought is like heaven. For his understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, and in elevation can think with the angels about God, about love and faith, and about eternal life. But if his will is not at the same time elevated into the heat of heaven, the man is still not conjoined to the angels of heaven, and thus is not like heaven... By this faculty of the understanding, the evil, who are here treated of, were able to be in consociation with the angels of the lowest heaven. But when these were separated from them, their heaven then departed like a book rolled together." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 335)

Another aspect of the spiritual exploration of the intermediate spiritual world is that the good who were present there and yet had not been taken up to heaven had to be marked out and separated from the evil, and this is represented by the sealing of the 144,000 (Rev. 7). This is represented historically in scripture when the angels rescued Lot and his family before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19) and the sealing of the righteous by angels before the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezek. 9). The "winds" that are held back by the angels signifies a stronger Divine influx from the higher heavens into the lower intermediate spiritual world:

"It is to be known, that a final judgment takes place, when the evil are multiplied to such a degree under the heavens in the world of spirits, that the angels in the heavens cannot stand in the state of their love and their wisdom; for they then have no support and foundation. And because this takes place from the multiplication of the evil below, the Lord, therefore, that He may preserve their state, flows in more and more strongly with His Divine; and this is done until they cannot be preserved by any influx, unless the evil below are separated from the good: and this is effected by a lowering and drawing near of the heavens, and hence a stronger influx, until the evil cannot endure it; and the evil then flee away, and cast themselves into hell." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 343)

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS: EXPLORATION OF THE SPIRITUAL CHURCH

Following the exploration of those spirits in the intermediate world who were only good in external appearance, or those who were good but had been influenced by falsehoods, next followed an exploration of those who had a higher understanding of Christianity, but had falsified the gospel by separating faith from charity and good works. This mainly affected those of the Protestant persuasion, who believed in scripture and yet had followed an evil life. That this is a false theology, see Is there Salvation from Belief Alone? and The Spiritual Meaning of the word "Works" in Scripture. That this exploration concerned the Protestants, is because when people believe in salvation from belief alone, and that man has power to do nothing, and that nothing a person does has any spiritual value, and that sins are "automatically transferred" on a mere lip confession, they do not practice repentance. And repentance through Jesus Christ is the true path of Christianity. Their exposure, that they lived an evil life, and did not practice repentance, is described in Rev. 9:20-21 which describes those who do not repent of the work of their hands. Their separation from heaven in the spiritual world are described in a symbolic manner, which is more fully explained in The Apocalypse Revealed and Explained.

THE ANGEL WITH THE LITTLE BOOK

Revelation 10 describes an angel that descends from heaven with a little book, who then speaks and then seven thunders are uttered, and John is commanded to not write it down.  This concerns a new heavenly revelation that was not revealed to John the apostle, but it has been revealed in the heavenly visions given to Emanuel Swedenborg. The "little book" concerns one major point that has been missed by many within the Christian churches: that Jesus Christ is not a second person of a trinity, but that He is the One God of the universe, who descended and became incarnate in human form, and made His human Divine, until He became a God-Man or Divine Human who can now interact directly with all mankind who had been cut off from heaven. Thus the angel with the little book was fulfilled in the revelation of the Divine Human given to Swedenborg, which is explained throughout the writings and more specifically in the small work, Doctrine of the Lord, which was published in 1763. See the post The Mystery of the Book of Seven Thunders Explained.

THE TWO WITNESSES

Revelation 11 describes two witnesses who prophesy for a period of 1260 days before being slain, and these signify the two principle doctrines of the New Church which are rejected by several churches that teach a false theology of faith alone:

1. That there is One God in One Being, One Person, who is Jesus Christ, the Divine Human, and,
2. That one must live by the commandments, turning away from evil as sin

Their rejection, and death, signifies that these two principles are opposed by those who follow a tritheism of three persons, and who believe that one is saved by faith alone and that works effect nothing for one's salvation. This is summarized in the blog post The Identity of the Two Witnesses of Revelation. The two doctrines are summarized in the small works, Doctrine of the Lord (1763), and Doctrine of Life according to the Commandments of the Decalogue (1763), and these are the two witnesses which become rejected primarily by those who follow the false theology of faith alone in the Protestant/Reformed churches (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 515)

THE "PRECURSOR" JUDGMENT OF THE YEAR 1757

Swedenborg was shown a grand vision of a judgment that took place in the intermediate spiritual world in 1757, and assumed that it was the complete fulfillment of all the prophecies in the Apocalypse (Final Judgment, n. 40-44 and Final Judgment Continued, n. 1).  Swedenborg had other confirmed clairvoyant abilities as testimony that he indeed did see a last judgment of the spiritual world in 1757, but Swedenborg had initially incorrectly assumed that his grand vision was the complete fulfillment of the Apocalypse. On a careful read of his writings, it can be seen that it was a precursor, and that there will be more to come.

First, the two witnesses of Revelation 11 are ultimately rejected, killed, and after three and a half days are raised and are caught up into heaven, and Swedenborg's visions . This signifies the revival of the New Church, and its preservation by heaven:

"And after the three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, [Rev. 11:11] signifies that the two essentials of the New Church, at the end of the former, when the New Church is beginning and advancing, are vivified by the Lord with those who receive them. By the three days and a half is signified to the end and beginning... and thus from the end of the church which as yet is, to the beginning of the new; here with those among whom the New Church commences and is progressing: because it is now said of the witnesses, that the spirit of life entered into them, and they stood upon their feet. By the spirit of life from God spiritual life is signified; and by standing upon the feet is signified natural life agreeing with the spiritual life, and thus to be vivified by the Lord." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 510)

This speaks of the utter rejection of the New Church, especially by those who follow a false theology of salvation by belief alone, for they reject salvation by repentance and reforming one's life.  Swedenborg had one vision that showed that the revelations given to him were the fulfillment of this prophecy, and he saw that in the spiritual world it was vehemently opposed by spirits who believed in faith alone. The ascension of the two witnesses into heaven signifies that the New Church will be preserved and protected by heaven against those who oppose it. And after this, the Apocalypse describes a judgment upon the evil that opposed the revelation:

And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city fell, signifies that a remarkable change of state then took place with them, and that they were torn away from heaven and cast down into hell. In that hour signifies the time when they beheld the two witnesses go up into heaven, and yet remained fixed in their falsities, as just above (n. 514); for the two witnesses prophesied, that is, taught them (vers. 3). And after they were slain, and came to life again, and they also saw them ascend into heaven, and still did not recede from their falsities, then that great earthquake took place... By an earthquake a change of state is signified (n. 331); here their destruction... By falling is signified to sink down into hell, which takes place when they are torn away from heaven. For the cities in the world of spirits which are in evils and falsities, — after they who are there have been visited, informed, and admonished, and still persist in their evils and falsities, — are shaken by an earthquake; and thereby a gulf is opened, into which they sink down...  And there were slain in the earthquake names of men seven thousand, signifies that in that state all those who professed faith alone, and therefore made the works of charity of no account, perished. By being slain is signified here as before to be spiritually slain, which is to perish as to the soul. By the earthquake is signified a change of state with them, and their destruction... And the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven, signifies that they who joined any goods of charity to their faith, when they saw the destruction of those, acknowledged the Lord, and were separated. By the remnant are here meant those who adjoined to faith any goods of charity... Because these, through fear, acknowledge the Lord, they were separated, that they might be explored as to the origin from which they did good, whether from themselves or from the Lord." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 515-7) 

In the book of Revelation, this is the second time a spiritual judgment is mentioned. The first was at the opening of the sixth seal where there is a great earthquake (Rev. 6:12-17) and this involved those within the intermediate spiritual world who were outside of the Christian church. The second is after the ascension of the two witnesses (Rev. 11:13), and this involved a judgment upon those of the Protestants or Reformed who separate faith from charity. And this is similar to how the last judgment of 1757 in the spiritual world proceeded:

"And it was done in this order: first, upon those of the Papal religion; then upon the Mohammedans; afterward upon the Gentiles; and lastly upon the Reformed." (Final Judgment, n. 47)

Rev. 6-7 speaks of the general judgment upon the spiritual world, and this is followed by a judgment on the Protestants of faith alone in Rev. 8-11. When the judgment of 1757 took place in the spiritual world, it manifested as an earthquake, and there was a separation between the good and evil, before the evil were cast down to hell:

"Destruction is effected after visitation; for visitation always precedes. Visitation is a process of exploration as to quality, and also a separation of the good from the evil; then the good are removed and the evil are left. When that was done, there were great earthquakes, from which they perceived that the final judgment was at hand; and trembling also then seized them all." (Final Judgment, n. 61)

"These changes of their state were accompanied with various concussions of their dwellings and lands, followed by earthquakes, mighty according to their perversions. Here and there also were made chasms toward the hells, which were under them, and thus communication was opened with them: then exhalations were seen ascending like smoke mingled with sparks of fire." (Final Judgment Continued, n. 25)

In city that is destroyed by earthquake in Rev. 11:13 is spiritually called "Sodom and Egypt." And Swedenborg saw that those who were in faith alone, and yet lived an evil life, in the spiritual world behaved exactly like those of Sodom right before their judgment:

"Visitations were also made by angels; for before any ill-conditioned society perishes, visitation always precedes. The angels exhorted them to desist; foretelling their destruction if they did not. Then they also sought out any good spirits that might be intermingled with them, and separated them. But the crowd, incited by their leaders, treated them with insults, rushing upon them to drag them into the market-place and treat them abominably, just as was done in Sodom. The most of these were of faith separate from charity, and there were also some who professed charity and still lived wickedly." (Final Judgment Continued, n. 26)

In Revelation, the earthquake and destruction is followed by the seventh trumpet:

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 11:15)

Compare this to what Swedenborg saw concerning the judgment upon those of faith alone in the spiritual world in 1757:

"The Lord was seen in a bright cloud with the angels, and a sound was heard thence as of trumpets, which was a sign representative of the protection of the angels of heaven by the Lord, and of the gathering together of the good from every side." (Final Judgment Continued, n. 28)

Unfortunately, not many in the New Church have made this connection, taking Swedenborg's opinion that everything of the Apocalypse has been fulfilled on face value.  Swedenborg had also made the decision to make an account of his vision of the last judgment in the work Final Judgment, separate from his massive work on the explanation of the Apocalypse (see The Apocalypse Revealed and Explained.) When we read the commentary on Rev. 11:15, Swedenborg confirms that it refers to the last judgment that he saw in 1757:

"And the seventh angel sounded, signifies the exploration and manifestation of the state of the church after its consummation, when the coming of the Lord and of His kingdom takes place. By sounding the trumpet is signified to explore and make manifest the state of the church after its consummation, when the coming of the Lord and of His kingdom takes place. The reason is, because this is signified by the seventh angel sounding; for by the six angels and their trumpets sounding, the explorations and manifestations of the consummated church have been signified, as is manifest from the preceding chapter, where only its consummation is described. But that its state after consummation is now treated of, which is the coming of the Lord and of His kingdom, is manifest from these things that follow in this verse and afterwards: in this verse, And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become our Lord's and His Christ's, and He shall reign for ever and ever, etc. This manifestation was made by the sounding of the seventh angel, because seven signifies the same as a week; and six days of it are days of labor and of what belongs to man, and the seventh is holy and the Lord's." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 519) 

Also Swedenborg explicitly states that this was fulfilled by the last judgment of 1757 (Apocalypse Explained, n. 674). Moreover, when he completed his work True Christian Religion, he saw this take place in the spiritual world:

"After this work was finished the Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth into the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages, according to the prediction by Daniel (vii. 13, 14), and in the Apocalypse (xi. 15); and that Blessed are they who come to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Apoc. xix. 9). This took place on the nineteenth day of June, in the year 1770. This is meant by these words of the Lord: He will send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from one end of the heavens even to the other (Matt. xxiv. 31)." (True Christian Religion, n. 791)

This was written in the year 1770, which not only fulfilled Matt. 24:31, but again he quotes Rev. 11:15 which is the sounding of the seventh trumpet. This indicates that the judgment that took place in the intermediate spiritual world in the year 1757 was a precursor to future events in the development of the New Church, with the end goal of communion with the Lord described in Rev. 19:9. 

THE GRADUAL FORMATION OF THE NEW CHURCH

The slow formation of the New Church on earth is described by the woman giving birth to a child in Revelation 12, which signifies the Doctrine that the Lord's human is Divine, a Divine Human, and that His human form is the Son and not a second person of a fictional trinity of three persons.  That the doctrines of the New Church will be hard to accept, and occur with difficulty, is signified by the woman who labors to give birth to the child. That the woman has to flee to the wilderness, means that for a long time the New Church will be among the few, and in obscurity. This is due to the strong persuasion of the false theology that God is three persons and that one is saved by faith alone. That a false theology of three personal beings would arise is signified by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (see The Prophecy of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet).

One reason for the slow development on earth, is that the heavens have to be organized first before the New Church will completely manifest on earth:

"It is in accordance with Divine order that the new heaven should be formed before the new church on earth; for the church is internal and external, and the internal church makes one with the church in heaven, and thus with heaven; and the internal must be formed before the external, and the external must afterward be formed by means of the internal; that this is so is known among the clergy in the world. Just so far as this new heaven, which constitutes the internal of the church with man, grows, so far does the New Jerusalem, that is, the New Church come down from that heaven. This, therefore, cannot take place in a moment, but it takes place as the falsities of the former church are removed; for what is new cannot enter where falsities have been previously implanted, unless these are uprooted, which will take place with the clergy, and so with the laity; for the Lord said, No one putteth new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break and the wine runneth out; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved (Matt. ix. 17; Mark ii. 22; Luke v. 37, 38)." (True Christian Religion, n. 784)

This gradual formation can be seen somewhat in modern times: many are leaving the traditional churches behind, and identifying themselves as "spiritually independent." For those who have removed themselves from the falsehoods of the older churches, there is an opportunity to learn of the rational spirituality of the New Church: one that declares that there is One God in One Person Jesus Christ, and that a true spiritual life is to live by the decalogue of the 10 commandments. In one of his private letters, Swedenborg wrote this:

"The New Heaven of Christians out of which the New Jerusalem, will descend from the Lord (Rev. 21:1, 2) is not yet fully established..." (Docu. 230, dated Sept, 25, 1766)

And the key to establishing the New Church, is instruction of a new set of ministers, who are not constrained by the older false teachings:

"The Lord is at this time preparing a New Heaven of those who believe in Him, acknowledge Him as the true God of heaven and earth, and look to Him in their lives, which means to shun evil and do good; for from that heaven the New Jerusalem is to come down (see Rev. 21:2.). I daily see spirits and angels, from ten to twenty thousand, descending and ascending and being set in order. By degrees, as that heaven is being formed, the New Church likewise begins and increases. The universities in Christendom are now first being instructed, whence will come new ministers; for the new heaven has no influence over the old (clergy) who deem themselves, too learned in the doctrine of justification by faith alone" (Docu. 234, II., dated Stockholm, February 1767.)

So it is obvious: not everything in the book of Revelation or the Apocalypse have been fulfilled yet, there are present and future spiritual developments in the formation of the New Jerusalem here on earth.

Major Insider Reveal: Selected by Extraterrestrials by William Tompkins

 

In the 18th century, Swedenborg described in his visions the existence of extraterrestrial humans on other planets. I have, in prior blog posts, connected this to contactee accounts of human extraterrestrials and the burst of UFO activity that followed after World War II. The subject matter soon became a part of secret military programs, and censorship of the media. It is a complicated subject as this is often swept under the table by counter intelligence efforts, and the general public is blissfully unaware of the enormous budgets that are poured into secret programs, and doubt the ability of the military to keep a secret. But recently I have seen evidence of a shift in policy among the military: they are slowly beginning to turn on the faucet of information, in a slow "drip drip" manner so as not to shock the public. It is a hard thing for many to accept, as they are brainwashed by the media - and even by our current system of education - to believe in many falsehoods.

The first major insider reveal, I think, was the book The Day After Roswell, written by Lieutenant Colonel Philip J. Corso:

He served in the army and arranged for about 10,000 Jews to leave Rome for Palestine at the end of World War II. Following this he served four years on the National Security Council for President Eisenhower. In 1961, he became Chief of the Pentagon's Foreign Technology desk in Army Research and Development. And what was he working on? In the book, he states that the 1947 crash of a flying saucer did indeed crash in Roswell New Mexico. This confirmed the accounts of many witnesses that were gathered by independent researchers. And one of his primary responsibilities was to take the crash remains, bring it to U.S. corporations, and reverse engineer it. Two of the major technological developments that came out of this was the integrated circuit, responsible for the computer you are reading this on, and the other was fiber optics, now used for many communications.

And the other claim? They discovered some of the extraterrestrials were hostile. And this is the origin of the Space Defense Initiative (SDI) under Ronald Reagan.  And we don't have to take his word for it: Reagan explicitly mentioned the "extraterrestrial threat" in his public speeches and mentioned that as a reason we should end the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Although Corso does not mention it, these hostiles are probably responsible for biological research into both the animals and humans on this planet, and are responsible for many human abductions. In my opinion, it is the biological bacteria and viruses on this planet that is protecting us, but one group is intent on creating hybrids to get past this problem (see The Threat: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda, by Jacobs). This is probably one of the reasons why the military had to be careful what they revealed to the public.

So I left the subject of extraterrestrials for a while, and once things settled personally for me after this coronavirus pandemic broke out, I decided to read a book entitled Selected by Extraterrestrials, by William Tompkins, who unfortunately passed away recently in 2017. A second volume of his work has been published this year posthumously by Dr. Michael Salla. And when I read it, although the book is poorly written and includes a lot of "fluff", it drops a number of bombshells confirming what I previously regarded as rumors or hearsay in UFO research. And some of it is just so unbelievable, even to me, and probably more so for those who have no knowledge of the research. But I am going to report on it anyway, because many people need to start getting their heads out of the sand.

So who is William Tompkins? He worked for Navy intelligence during World War II out of southern California. He would later work for an Aerospace company, Douglas Aircraft Company (the editor, Robert Wood, worked at the same company). After the book was published, Dr. Michael Salla, through the Freedom of Information act was able to confirm the following:

• William Tompkins was part of the staff to Admiral Rico Botta of the U.S. Navy, who in 1942 reported to the Naval Air Station in San Diego, California.
• William Tompkins job was "Disseminator for Advanced Research."
• Rico Botta was selected by Secretary of the Navy Forrestal to be the individual who controlled the information brought back by naval intelligence operatives from Nazi Germany.
• Before Rico Botta took over Naval Air station in San Diego, he visited all four of the principal aircraft companies: Lockheed, North American, Douglas Aircraft and Northrup.
• Within 2 months of Rico Botta's visit to these four aircraft companies, which would later become aerospace companies, the companies were visited by Williams Tompkins who presented packages to them.

Here is a picture of Admiral Rico Botta of the U.S. Navy:

 

A short biography can be found here: http://www.epnaao.com/BIOS_files/DECEASED/Botta-%20Rico.pdf.  What is interesting is this statement, after having served at the Naval Air Station at San Diego:

“For exceptionally meritorious conduct (in that capacity) from December 31, 1942 to August 14, 1945...” he was awarded the Legion of Merit. The citation states in part: “...By his outstanding technical knowledge and skill, (he) enabled his department to meet the ever increasing demands of the Fleet Air Commands for combat aircraft of the latest type and with the latest combat-improved changes installed...”

Now, with that out of the way, William Tompkins makes the following statements, some of which came out in interviews after the book was published:

• The Battle of Los Angeles in 1942 was caused by an incursion of flying saucers. Two were shot down and recovered by the navy.
  
• Naval intelligence officers in Germany were reporting back very strange things: German scientists had advanced flying saucer technology.
• Maria Orsic of the Vril society was also independently successful in developing advanced flying saucer technology.
  
• Portions of the plans from German scientists were relayed to William Tompkins. Tompkins would drop off these notes at the aforementioned companies to try to reverse engineer them.
  
• The German technology was surprisingly advanced. The Naval intelligence officers, to their utter surprise, discovered they were receiving assistance from an extraterrestrial reptilian race.
  
• The particular reptilian race was not only hostile to humans, but had been involved in human history for the last 5-6,000 years. Their objective is to keep the human race suppressed and ignorant.
  
• This reptilian race was familiar with advanced mind control methods, and would use it to keep humans suppressed. Tompkins avoids questions in this area, indicating it is a sensitive topic and probably still classified.
• Amazingly, the plans and designs for the Apollo Missions to the Moon originated at Douglas Aircraft, at the direction of Tompkins, who made an unofficial trip to present it to von Braun, whose group was later incorporated into NASA.
• Tompkins had no formal education, but had been selected to join the U.S. Navy due to his amazing photographic memory.
• Tompkins would have these amazing detailed plans, or answers to his questions, come into his head, despite the lack of his formal education. Scientists would approach him to discover where all this information was coming from.
• Tompkins later discovered, quite by accident, that the secretaries assigned to him were Nordic extraterrestrials.  These "secretaries" were both extremely beautiful and highly intelligent, and were responsible for feeding ideas into Tompkins through telepathy.
• The "secretaries" would never confirm who they were, and like other similar reports, were apparently never allowed to confirm their identity.
• The purpose of the Apollo missions to the Moon was to help push the human race to become interstellar.
• Before they landed on the Moon, NASA discovered there were artificial structures on the surface of the Moon. Tompkins himself saw some of the photographs, confirming the testimony of several prior witnesses (e.g., Karl Wolfe, who saw the photographs at CIA headquarters in Langley)
  
• The Moon had the capacity to house within it massive cities. This was recently confirmed with the discovery of large lava tubes under the lunar surface. Tompkins states the Moon was probably designed for this.
• When Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, several large massive extraterrestrial ships were seen on the other side of the crater. Although this was never reported to the public, HAM radio operators at the time reported similar testimony (see https://www.quora.com/Did-Neil-Armstrong-really-see-aliens-on-the-moon-Or-is-the-whole-story-made-up)
  
• Although not stated in the book, it is implied that the other agenda was to help the human race defend itself against a possible extraterrestrial threat.
• Tompkins would confirm in another interview that the secret space program now known as "Solar Warden," as discovered recently by British hackers, is indeed real.
• Another secret program that was successful based on extraterrestrial knowledge, is extension of human life, again confirming some other bizarre witness testimony about our secret space program. Our lives have been artificially shortened, as well as our brain functioning capacity. This program was seen necessary for long trips for interstellar travel.
  

OK. That was a lot. Its a lot to take in, and I had to absorb and think about it before immediately rejecting it offhand. But Tompkins is not the only one saying these things, most of the information can be found in other witness accounts. The difference here, Tompkins is not another UFO researcher, he obviously is an insider. So let's examine some of this one by one.

WAS THERE A NAZI PROGRAM INVOLVING FLYING SAUCERS?

The first surprise for me was that reverse engineering of UFO technology did not begin in 1947 from the crash in Roswell, but in 1942 under the U.S. Navy. And actually before that under Nazi Germany, except the Germans were being given explicit help. Surprisingly, evidence for this is right out there in the public, and it is completely brushed over in the history books. One good book on this is Hitler's Flying Saucers: A Guide to German Flying Discs of the Second World War, by Henry Stevens. I happened to have it and never read it as I thought it was too speculative. I skimmed through it and was surprised by the amount of research. Much of it is circumstantial or indeed speculative, but among the pages I found this:

• A CIA Document from 1952 confirms that the Germans were building flying saucers as early as 1941. It states: ""Flying saucers" have been known to be an actuality since the possibility of their construction was proven in plans drawn up by German engineers toward the end of World War II." This confirms Tompkins account. The CIA probably had this knowledge from the U.S. Navy programs.
  
• The CIA document mentions an engineer that said Nazi Germany had plans for a flying saucer as early as 1941. He was present in Prague for a test flight of an experimental flying saucer.
  
• The American military thought "Foo fighters", strange globes that followed American airplanes during WWII, were of German origin, which they called "Phoo bombs". My surmise on this is these were probably extraterrestrial.
• An FBI Report from 1957 spoke to a Polish prisoner of war who saw a flying saucer ascend from a German facility east of Berlin in 1944.

At the time the author concluded that UFO researchers had "jumped to the conclusion" that UFOs were extraterrestrial and not of a terrestrial origin, as there was a habit to ignore the evidence from Germany. Tompkins testimony changes that conclusion: German indeed had a flying saucer research program, but they were reverse engineering it, with extraterrestrial help.

A (FORMER?) EXTRATERRESTRIAL BASE ON THE MOON?

The idea of artificial structures of the Moon seems preposterous at first, but other witnesses have reported this - some researchers were even allowed to take a look at the original photographs. Several researchers and witnesses have said that NASA brushed them out in the photographs revealed to the public, and I have discussed this previously on this blog. But surprisingly, Emanuel Swedenborg was told in his visions the Moon was inhabited in the 18th century (Earths in the Universe, n. 111-112). For the other extraterrestrials he had to guess about their origin, and was probably mistaken when identifying certain planets of our solar system, but was explicitly told by the angels that this group were indeed from the Moon. Unfortunately what the secret space programs know is kept hidden from the public, and Swedenborg's statements on human extraterrestrials have caused many to reject the revelations. Obviously, if you have extraterrestrials on the Moon they have to be extremely advanced, and were (are?) probably using it as a temporary base. When one understands that bacteria and viruses on earth can be lethal to extraterrestrial life, an advanced civilization traveling the stars may prefer such sterile locations to setup temporary way stops.

WHAT ABOUT TELEPATHIC HUMAN EXTRATERRESTRIALS?

Many witnesses, not just Tompkins, report encounters with extraterrestrial humans who prefer to communicate telepathically rather than verbally.  In one of his visionary encounters of extraterrestrials, Swedenborg seemed to encounter this but did not seem to understand it, as the concept of "telepathy" did not even exist. Instead he attributed the non-verbal communication to a type of "internal breathing" that affected the Eustachian tube of the inner ear (Earths in the Universe, n. 87).

As for the behavior of extraterrestrial UFOs, why they do not make contact?  Swedenborg saw that these extraterrestrial societies regarded humans on earth as barbaric and evil. There also seemed to be a spiritual barrier that Swedenborg had to cross that separated the earth from other extraterrestrial societies, and this because unlike their societies humans on earth were very external and materialistic, something that was very averse to their way of life and thinking, which was more internal and spiritual. This was because in many other extraterrestrial societies contact with heaven was not broken, and communication with spirits is utterly normal to them. They did not experience the "fall of Adam" as we did here on earth, and this idea has been expressed in other witness accounts.

WHAT ABOUT A REPTILIAN EXTRATERRESTRIAL RACE?

This testimony of an extraterrestrial reptilian race from Tompkins took me by surprise, and my first reaction was to reject it.  I realized this was because there are a lot of false conspiracy theories on the internet regarding extraterrestrial reptilians, which mix in truth with fiction and speculation. Some researchers have reached some very false conclusions, confusing the effects of mind control programs with these reptilians, a subject for another day. However, if one reads multiple independent witness accounts, indeed there are many reports of encounters with reptilian humanoid extraterrestrials in these UFO contacts. So I knew of these accounts, but despite that, it was still shocking to see that this was indeed true from an inside account that they do indeed exist. But was more surprising: Tompkins states several times this reptilian race has been involved in human affairs for thousands of years, and they want to keep the human race suppressed. When we see the Nazis exterminating millions in concentration camps, putting many into slave labor, this implies that their agenda is very negative for the human race. And, they need an earthly government to do their bidding.

So, suspending my initial idea to reject this statement, my question was: if true, how did Swedenborg miss this?  He was not only allowed to give a full account of heaven and hell in the afterlife, but had accidentally encountered several human extraterrestrials from other planets in the spiritual world while in full waking state. But they were all human, not once did he mention any other kind. I surmised one reason he may have missed this is that in the spiritual world, those who are deceptive are represented by serpents, as all animals are representative of internal human affections and thoughts, good or evil. So, if Swedenborg actually encountered a deceptive humanoid reptilian race, he might have thought that the serpents were merely representative of their cunning and deceptive nature.  So out of curiosity, I decided to take another look at his private Spiritual Diary, which is actually the original document where he first reported his extraterrestrial encounters. There is an interesting passage of one of his encounters with the most evil spirits among hell, who were according to Swedenborg were under a "fantasy" seeming to walk across the globe beneath their feet, supposing themselves to be the greatest gods ruling the universe (Spiritual Diary, n. 284-285). They were deceitful and cunning and were adept at perverting the thoughts of the innocent, and were described as the "poisons and deceits of the serpent" (Spiritual Diary, n. 287). Maybe a coincidence, but their nature of deceit, and perverting human thought, coincides with Tompkins testimony how this reptilian race uses mind control techniques to suppress the human race. It is unclear as evil spirits in the spiritual world do the same, but the account is curious as the word "globe" is used by Swedenborg to refer to planets. Was it just their fantasy, or did he happen to encounter an evil sort of extraterrestrial from our own planet? Later, Swedenborg encountered in his vision a group of advanced extraterrestrials, who would travel in the form of a "globe" between solar systems, gathering immense knowledge. These were of a different sort, but it is curious how again he used the word "globe" to refer to extraterrestrials traveling between solar systems. There is a later passage with the heading, THE SEAT OF CERTAIN ONES IN HEAVEN WHO ARE CALLED STARS. Here, he relates that there was a certain spirit appearing at the "zenith" high above, who at times appeared as a "smooth serpent," whom Swedenborg relates to the dragon of the Apocalypse in Rev. 12:4. While holding preference for the Jewish race, he wished to destroy all other humans, and pervert Christian doctrine, and was quite deceitful and had caused trouble for Swedenborg for 3 years (Spiritual Diary, n. 461). Later Swedenborg explicitly calls this spirit a "star" that supposed he was the sun for all others (Spiritual Diary, n. 466), and in another passage, calls this spirit a "dragon" whose deceit has "persisted for many ages past, and has perverted countless numbers" (Spiritual Diary, n. 487).

None of this is conclusive, for Swedenborg focused solely on universal spiritual truths. But what is hidden may actually be right in front of us: the serpent, a symbol of evil and deceit that caused the fall of Adam in ancient times, has perhaps a hidden more literal story of a reptilian race interfering with human affairs. The extraterrestrial interpretation would be a more literal application of scripture than the more universal one, where a serpent spiritually represents those who are materialistic and deceitful. And it all ends with the Apocalypse, in a great battle between Christ who descends from heaven against the dragon who has a stranglehold on planet earth. While in a spiritual sense this represents the Second Coming of Christ in the spiritual sense of the Word against those who have followed a falsified and corrupt form of Christianity, on a more literalistic level it possibly refers to the hidden war between the Nordic humans and reptilians. The dragon, in a spiritual sense, are those who separate faith from charity, and in a sense refers to those who are stuck in a false belief system that renders them spiritually powerless and useless in life. If there is an extraterrestrial factor in all of this, it makes sense to introduce in Swedenborg's revelations that extraterrestrial humans do indeed exist. So get over that, and see the big picture.

UFO researchers have said there are too many sightings: they have to be somewhere close by. If they are human they could walk down the street and you would never know it. I have read multiple independent accounts, where these extraterrestrials have warned us that there is a hostile race interfering with human affairs, and Tompkins sheds a bit more light on it. Unfortunately he did not say everything.

This all sounds like science fiction, but we have this account from Tompkins where some of the facts can be independently verified. And consider: why did God choose to become incarnate on our planet?  Could it be, our planet will be (or is) at the center of a conflict of extraterrestrial proportions? Indeed, I think some of these human extraterrestrials do actually follow that point of view. One of them reportedly had said, "We are God's celestial army." But in all of this, it is we who have to solve our problems, and follow internal spiritual discernment to weed out the falsehoods from the truth, and determine who is friend and who is foe. But it is good to hear we have friends who have decided to become involved in our affairs to help.                                        

What is the Spiritual Meaning of the Rapture?

A very popular prophecy in Christianity is the rapture, where Christians will be caught up into heaven to be with the Lord.  It comes from the following writing of Paul:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thes. 4:17)

This is preceded by a final judgment, in which those who "sleep" are raised up:

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  (1 Thes. 4:7)

From the revelations received by Emanuel Swedenborg, we now know that those who "sleep" are the souls who have not been judged immediately after death, who entered a state of sleep or unawareness in a place Swedenborg called the "world of spirits" which lies between heaven and hell. Periodically there are last judgments in this region to divide the good from the evil, where the good ascend into heaven and the evil are cast down to hell. These last judgments occur at the end of a dispensation of the church: one happened during the flood of Noah, another happened at the time of Jesus Christ, and another happened in the year 1757, to which Swedenborg was a witness. After each of these judgments, a new revelation is given which begins a new dispensation for the church. For the 18th century, it brought us the revelations of the New Church, and it ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and rational thinking, instead of blind belief in tradition and authority.

But what does it mean to be "caught up" or "raptured" to be with the Lord?  I did explain before that we are not to take this literally: heaven is not the sky above, but it is the spiritual heaven, and the apostle John was also "caught up" into heaven in a spiritual vision (see Rev. 4) that was recorded in the book of Revelation (see the previous blog post, Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?, for more details). However I read a passage where we can be raptured with the Lord, not literally but in a spiritual sense.

In the book of Revelation, we read of the two witnesses who are killed and are brought back to life, and then are taken up into heaven:

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them (Rev. 11:12)

The two witnesses are symbolic: they symbolically represent two principles of the New Church:

1. That God is One Person in Jesus Christ, and that His Human is Divine, and,
2. One must live a life according to the commandments.

The witnesses are rejected and killed by a false church: those who divide God into three persons, and state that one is saved by faith alone. Those who hold to this faith are in hostile opposition to the principles of the New Church. For them to ascend into heaven in a cloud means that this revelation will be protected by the Lord from the evil. For a time, our time, this revelation will be accepted by only a small number of people.

However it has another meaning, which I thought was interesting. In scripture, the word "cloud" symbolically refers to the literal sense of the Word itself, which is a cover or veil for the glory of God. Hidden within the literal sense there is a higher spiritual sense which reveals the true spiritual meaning, and this is known as the "Son of Man coming in His glory" (Matt. 24:30). But here is a passage from Swedenborg on the meaning of the two witnesses ascending into the cloud of heaven:

"And they ascended up into heaven in a cloud, signifies them being taken up into heaven, and conjunction with the Lord there through the Divine truth of the Word in its literal sense. By going up into heaven is signified being taken up by the Lord into heaven... here also conjunction with the Lord there, because they went up in a cloud; for by a cloud the sense of the letter of the Word is signified (n. 24); and through this there is conjunction with the Lord, and consociation with the angels" (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 513)

So in other words, when reading scripture, and understanding the spiritual sense hidden behind the literal sense, and applying it, means we are with the Lord in the clouds.  For Swedenborg also saw that when scripture is read with an open heart, conjunction with the Lord and the angels are effected. However when we actually understand the spiritual meaning, as revealed in the revelations of the New Church, we are actually raptured and caught up with the Lord in our internal spiritual state, and have conjunction with the Lord when we apply it to our lives, fulfilling this prophecy. I thought, how beautiful. The spiritual rapture is thus fulfilled - and we can experience it whenever we so desire.

I do encourage everyone who reads this to read scripture in light of the revelations of the New Church, for understanding what scripture means in the spiritual sense opens the spiritual understanding, and allows for us to come into closer communion with the Lord in love and truth.

The Prophetic Time Periods of Daniel Revealed

The book of Daniel speaks of the end times of the church, and the Second Coming. Within the book of Daniel there are many prophecies that were fulfilled in the historical sense, including a 490 year prophecy that predicted the year in which Jesus came as the Messiah and was crucified (Dan. 9:24-27). In the latter prophecy it is quite clear that a "day" is used to signify a prophetic year. That a day signifies a year in prophecy is explicitly declared in scripture in Num. 14:34 and Ezek. 4:4-6.

There is another prophecy which speaks of the Second Coming, which will occur after a "time, times and half a time":

The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. (Dan. 7:23-27)

This prophecy is discussed in detail in The Prophecy of the Four Beasts and Little Horn of Daniel 7. In the literal sense the "fourth beast" refers to the Roman Empire, but in the spiritual sense it refers the final state of the Christian Church that had spread under the rule of the Roman Empire. Most interpreters agree that the "10 horns" in the literal sense refer to Europe, where Christianity had become the established religion. The prophecy of Daniel is speaking of the final end of the Christian church, where no truth remains within it.

That Christianity had become a superficial religion was revealed in visions to Emanuel Swedenborg. On the one hand we have the Catholic Church that used the religion to obtain religious authority and power, and its many traditions conflict with true Christianity. On the other hand you have the Protestant churches who in the positive sense read the Word as a source of authority. But their theology is corrupt as they make faith a matter of belief alone, without regard to how one lives their life. Both follow a trinity of three gods (but deny it in mouth) and believe in vicarious atonement, which is not true. Thus, there is no truth remaining in Christian churches that has not been corrupted by falsehoods. Moreover, they cannot rationally defend it. And this is death in the modern world of the post Enlightenment era.

Now, in the above prophecy of Daniel, it mentions the word "time." Swedenborg will simply say all time periods mentioned in the Bible are different states and will tend to not dwell on the literal sense. But there is an interesting literal meaning to the time period that corresponds to the time when Swedenborg received his heavenly revelations. The word "time" is Aramaic iddan which comes from Akkadian adannu which simply means a "fixed time period." However this can be extended to mean "year," and the same word is used to describe a period of 7 years for the insanity of Nebuchadnezzar (see Dan. 4:13, 4:20, 4:22, 4:29). For the historical evidence regarding the insanity of Nebuchadnezzar see The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar.

It is likely that a time is one year, times is two years, and half a time half a year, the same time period when Elijah did not allow it to rain (see Luke 4:25). This would be 42 months or 1260 days, as these time periods appear in the Apocalypse (Rev. 11:2, 11:3, 12:6, 13:5).

Using a day for a year principle, the prophecy of Daniel thus speaks of a period of 1260 years. This would be the time period when falsehood was dominant within the Christian church. The end was when no truth remained, which in effect was "the end of the world" or more accurately "the end of a world age."

The prophecy of Daniel speaks of a final judgment at the end of the time period, which in the literal sense is 1260 years. The revelations given to Swedenborg reveals that the final judgment takes place in the spiritual world, not the physical world. In his visions Swedenborg was shown that there is heaven, there is hell, and between heaven and hell there is a middle region where souls await judgment. Last judgments are when souls are judged in mass, where the good are separated from the evil. This allows heaven to flow into the minds of men, and a new revelation can be given to establish the church anew.

In one of Swedenborg's most important visions, he saw a last judgment take place in the spiritual world in the year 1757. This is described in detail in his work, The Final Judgment:


That Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled in the last judgment seen by Swedenborg in his visions can be seen in the following prophecy of Daniel:

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ​And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." (Dan. 7:13-14)

Swedenborg was shown that the clouds of heaven do not literally refer to clouds, but clouds in the spiritual sense refer to the literal sense of the Word. The "Son of Man" was a title that the Lord chose to refer to Himself as the Divine Truth. The prophecy is thus a revelation of Divine Truth in the literal sense of the Word. It is proof that the Bible is Divinely Inspired. This was revealed in multiple visions which is covered in multiple volumes, especially Heavenly Arcana, otherwise known as Arcana Coelestia or Heavenly Secrets. It is a massive read. These and other works of his are collected in an anthology entitled The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition. It is all freely available online, one can search everything at Heavenly Doctrines.

That the Second Coming is a spiritual event, a spiritual revelation from heaven, is shown in the blog post Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?

So the obvious conclusion is that the period of 1260 years lasts from 497 A.D. to 1757 A.D. So what happened in 497 A.D.?  By that time, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed became firmly established in the west, even declaring in the creed itself that although there are three persons one should not verbally say "three gods" but "one God" even though the religion became one of tritheism in the mind. Since this could not be rationally defended, rational thought is then suspended. Europe then fell into the Dark Ages. With the year 1757 we have the Age of Enlightenment, in which rationality became primary over traditions and rule of authority.

More specifically, the year 497 A.D. fell within the period of time known as the Acacian Schism. To sum up a lot of theological gibberish: the west declared the original Christians of the east heretics because they believed Jesus Christ had one Divine nature. The western Popes declared he had a dual nature of Divine plus human, so that they could stand in his place and declare themselves as the Vicar of Christ. This, in Biblical prophecy, is known as the "abomination of desolation" standing in the "holy place." Don't look for a future Jewish temple, the falsehood and error resides within the traditional theology of Christian churches that many think is the foundation of truth.

So, the 1260 years is from 497 to 1757 A.D. And this leads us to another interesting set of time periods from Daniel in the following prophecy:

And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. (Dan. 12:11-12)

Using the day for year principal, we have the following literal fulfillment of the prophecy:

• 1260 years = 497 - 1757 A.D.
• 1290 years = 497 - 1787 A.D.
• 1335 years = 497 - 1832 A.D.

So what happened in 1787 A.D.?  The first New Church based on the theology of the revelations given to Swedenborg was established in England.

And what about 1832 A.D.?  This was the year that the New-England Anti-Slavery Society was established. Many Swedenborgians became involved in the Abolitionist movement, which resulted in the end of slavery in the United States after a huge Civil War. In the revelations given to Swedenborg, in the future the New Church will grow out of Africa and among the African peoples.

In a spiritual sense, one can make an argument that the three time periods fulfilled in the literal historical sense correspond to the feast days of Passover (liberation of souls from Limbo in the spiritual world), Pentecost (establishment of the Church) and finally the Feast of Tabernacles (when good is finally established - in this case - social activism, applying truth to one's life).

The prophecy is thus fulfilled, the Second Coming is here. Hopefully more will begin to notice and be brought into the light of the new revelation that restores true Christianity.

The Spiritual Meaning of the Lamb Slain From the Foundation of the World

In the book of Revelation, which speaks of the end times of the Christian church, it speaks of Jesus as the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" on two occasions (see Rev. 13:8, 17:8). So what is the meaning of this phrase? But first, why is Jesus called the "lamb of God"? It is because in the spiritual sense, the lamb signifies innocence:

"That lambs signify innocence may be evident from many passages in the Word, of which the following may be adduced in confirmation — in Isaiah: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them (xi. 6) — where the subject is the Lord's kingdom, and the state of peace and innocence therein. The wolf stands for those who are against innocence, and the lamb for those who are in innocence. So again, in the same prophet: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all the mountain of My holiness (lxv. 25) — where the wolf stands as above for those who are against innocence, and the lamb for those who are in innocence. As the wolf and the lamb are opposites, the Lord also said to the seventy whom He sent forth, Behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves (Luke x. 3). In Moses: He maketh him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs and of rams, the sons of Bashan (Deut. xxxii. 13, 14). Here in the internal sense the celestial things of the Ancient Church are treated of, and the fat of lambs stands for the charity of innocence." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 3994.3)

True charity and love can only exist from innocence, and the Lord is innocence itself:

"Since the Lord is innocence itself, which is in His kingdom, the all of innocence being from Him, He is therefore called the Lamb — as in John: The next day John the Baptist seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world (i. 29, 36). And in the Apocalypse: They shall war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and they who are with Him are called, and chosen (xvii. 14, and elsewhere in the Apocalypse, as chap. v. 6; vi. 1, 16; vii. 9, 14, 17; xii. 11; xiii. 8; xiv. 1, 4; xix. 7, 9; xxi. 22, 23, 26, 27; xxii. 1, 3). That in the supreme sense the paschal lamb is the Lord, is known; for the passover signified the Lord's glorification, that is, the putting on of the Divine as to the Human; and in the representative sense it signifies man's regeneration, and the paschal lamb signifies that which is the essential of regeneration, namely, innocence; for no one can be regenerated except by charity in which there is innocence." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 3994.6)

It is only in innocence that one can be regenerated, thus John 1:29 declares Jesus as the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  Sins are only removed by repentance (see The Two Essentials of True Christianity, where one must identify specific evils and remove them by means of the truth which fights against falsehood. Extreme repentance must go through a period of doubt and temptation. But modern false churches teach sins get automatically removed by man doing nothing except lip confession. Man must remove specific sins as from himself, but it is the Lord who fights for him or her in removing the sins from within in innocence. This the Lord can do directly as He made His human Divine, and works within us through our actions via the Holy Spirit which proceeds from His Divine Human.

WHAT DOES SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD MEAN?

In the end times two false systems of religion will arise which will have corrupted Christianity and destroy it: on the one hand the priesthood of Roman Catholicism would distort Christianity and use it as a means of exercising religious power and authority for the sake of self rule. On the other hand Protestants would arise and make faith alone primary, and destroy the essence of Christianity which is love and charity, for without work in act faith is nothing. The latter is described in the book of Revelation as the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.

So what is the meaning of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? The lamb is a symbolic representation of the Divine Human, and to be slain is the rejection of the Lord's Divinity and the rejection that His human is Divine. The "foundation of the world" is not the beginning of time nor is it creation, but it is the foundation of the Christian Church - for in the spiritual sense "earth" and "world" references the church on this earth. And from the time the Jews crucified Jesus, the true identity of Jesus Christ has been unknown, misunderstood and rejected:

"Slain from the foundation of the world, signifies the Lord's Divine Human not acknowledged from the first establishment of the church. That by the Lamb slain is signified that the Lord's Divine Human has not been acknowledged, may be seen above (n. 59, 269), where these words are explained: I am the First and the Last, and am He who liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for ever and ever (chap. i. 17, 18): also these: And I saw, and behold, in the midst of the throne a Lamb standing as if slain: and they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book; for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God (chap. v. 6, 9). From the foundation of the world signifies the first establishment of the church, as well the Jewish as the Christian. It is known that the Jews did not acknowledge the Lord's Divine Human. That the Roman Catholics do not, is also known: and that neither do the Reformed, see above (n. 294). The creation of the world is not meant here by the foundation of the world, but the establishment of the church: for by the world, in the widest sense, the whole world is meant, and as well the good as the evil in it, and sometimes the evil only; but in a sense not the widest, the same is meant by the world as by the globe and by the earth, that is, the church. That the church is signified by the globe, may be seen n. 551; and by the earth n. 285. That by founding the globe and the earth is signified to establish the church, and that by the founding and the foundation of them is signified establishment may be evident from Isa. xxiv. 18; xl. 21; xlviii. 12, 13; li. 16, 17; lviii. 12; Jer. xxxi. 37; Mic. vi. 1, 2; Zech. xii. 1; Ps. xviii. 7, 15; xxiv. 1, 2; lxxxii. 5; lxxxix. 11. That the world also signifies the church (Matt. xiii. 37-39; Joel i. 9, 10). And that the Lord is called the Saviour of the world, from faith in Him (John iii. 16-19; iv. 42; vi. 33, 51; viii. 12; ix. 4, 5; xii. 46, 47). That the world also means the people of the church (John xii. 19; xviii. 20). It may be seen from this what is signified by the foundation of the world; also, Matt. xxv. 34; Luke xi. 50; John xvii. 24; Apoc. xvii. 8." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 589).

The reason why the former Christian churches do not know the true identity of Jesus Christ is known from the fact that God is divided into three persons, and Jesus is divided into a Divine and human nature. But the New Church acknowledges Jesus Christ as the Divine Human, the manifestation of the God of heaven and earth. This is the primary truth of the New Church:

"This New Church is the crown of all the churches which have hitherto existed on earth, because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible, like the soul in the body. Thus and not otherwise can there be conjunction of God with man, because man is natural and hence thinks naturally, and the conjunction must be in his thought and thus in his love's affection, which is the case when he thinks of God as man. Conjunction with an invisible God is like that of the eye's vision with the expanse of the universe, of which it sees no end; it is also like vision in mid ocean, which falls upon air and sea and is lost. But conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like seeing a man in the air on the sea, spreading forth his hands and inviting to his arms. For all conjunction of God with man must also be reciprocally of man with God, and there cannot be this reciprocation on the other part except with a visible God. That God was not visible before the assumption of the Human, the Lord Himself also teaches in John: Ye have neither heard the Father's voice at any time, nor seen His shape (v. 37); and in Moses it is said that no one can see God and live (Exod. xxxiii. 20). But that He is seen through His Human is taught in John: No one hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him (i. 18). And in the same: Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one cometh to the Father but by Me. He who knoweth Me knoweth the Father, and he who seeth Me seeth the Father (xiv. 6, 7, 9). That there is conjunction with the invisible God through Himself visible, that is, through the Lord, He Himself teaches in these passages: Jesus said, Abide in Me and I in you; he who abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit (xv. 4, 5). At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (xiv. 20). And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me; that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them (xvii. 22, 23, 26; see also vi. 56). Moreover, it is taught that He and the Father are one, and that in order to have eternal life one must believe in Him." (True Christian Religion, n. 787)

To teach that God is One in one person Jesus Christ, and that His Human is Divine, is in conflict with the false teaching of other churches that divides God into three into a form of tritheism in the mind, even though they say God is one with the mouth. And so they do not even know to whom they should direct their prayers, and Roman Catholics even direct prayers to Mary and the saints. This revelation that God is one person in Jesus Christ is a declaration of this new revelation from heaven, which is described in the Apocalypse: Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him: and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him (Rev. 1:7). This is explained as follows:

"And every eye shall see Him," signifies that all will acknowledge Him, who, from affection, are in the understanding of Divine truth: "And they who pierced Him," signifies that they also will see, who are in falsities in the church; "And all the tribes of the earth shall wail," signifies that this will be when there are no longer any goods and truths in the church. (Apocalypse Revealed, ch. 1). 

Some may be disturbed when they discover that what they thought was true is actually a false teaching. However it was foretold that when Jesus would come, there would be no truths left in the former churches: when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8).

Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?

Jesus promised his disciples and those who followed Him that He would come again. This is known as the Second Coming. There are several "mainstream" interpretations of the Second Coming which has formed some false expectations in the minds of many. With these false expectations, many will not see the reality of the true Second Coming. False expectations can blind people to the truth - for example, the Jews expected a literal Messianic King, who would lead them to conquer the world. This false expectation is diametrically opposed to the spiritual truth of the Word, and because of it, the Jews completely missed recognizing the identity of Jesus Christ.

As it was then, so it is now. There are several false expectations that have been formed regarding the Second Coming. To be specific:

1. There will be a visible appearance of Jesus in the sky, seen by everyone.
2. At some point in time, Jesus will descend upon the Mount of Olives.
3. Related to #2, there will be a third temple established in Jerusalem.
4. There will be a rapture of Christians into the clouds of the sky.
5. There will be a literal physical resurrection of the body.

So lets examine expectations surrounding each of these subjects, and look at what the New Testament actually has to say on this.

IS THE SECOND COMING A PHYSICAL RETURN OR A SPIRITUAL REVELATION?

Let's start with a verse that may indicate there will be a physical return, visible to everyone:

Behold, he comes with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Rev. 1:7)

There is a similar passage in Matt. 24:30. This at first seems that He will make a visible appearance, and that every eye shall see Him. But Jesus counters this argument in what at first seems to be a conflicting statement:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21).

This is important, the word "observation" means "visible evidence" or "outward show" - something that can be seen with one's literal eyes. This means there will not be outward visible evidence of the Second Coming.  So what does it mean that "every eye shall see him"? What it means is that those who have spiritual sight, that is spiritual understanding, will be able to see the truth of the Second Coming. That this is the spiritual meaning of "eye" can be seen from the following passage:

And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. (Matt. 5:29)

This Jesus commands after stating one should not look upon a woman lustfully, for even the thought of it is considered adultery (Matt. 5:28). It's one's internal thought or intent that counts. Thus he is of course not literally stating that we should pluck our eye out, but rather, that one should correct how one sees things. These false thoughts should be searched out and removed. Thus "eyes" in the spiritual sense signify one's spiritual understanding in a good sense, or a false understanding in the bad sense.  Correcting how one sees things falsely is again portrayed as removing a "beam" out of one's "eye" before removing a speck of dust out of another person's "eye" (Matt. 7:3-5).

So let's pick out another passage, which causes problems to many:

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Truly I say unto you, There be some standing here, who shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matt. 16:27-28)

Some early Christians had interpreted this that the Second Coming should have taken place in the lifetime of the disciples. That the early Christians had this expectation, can be seen from the following passage, where Jesus singles out the disciple John after Peter asks what would become of him:

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”
So the saying spread abroad among the brothers  that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” (John 21:21-23)

And, in the literal sense, it was John who literally saw the Second Coming take place, in a spiritual vision as recorded in the book of Revelation.  That Jesus is talking about one's spiritual vision is easily proven in the book of Revelation. Before John's grand vision, John states this:

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day (Rev. 1:10)

Which means he was in a spiritual visionary state. That "in the spirit" means one was in a spiritual visionary state can be seen from Ezekiel:

The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Jehovah (Eze. 37:1)

After which Ezekiel sees a vision of a valley of bones coming to life. John would later mention he was caught up into heaven "in the Spirit" (Rev. 4:1), that he was carried away to a wilderness "in the Spirit" (Rev. 17:3), and he was taken to see the New Jerusalem "in the Spirit" (Rev. 21:10). 

Combining Jesus' statement of His Second Coming, with the fulfillment of it by John seeing it in a spiritual vision, we can infer that John is a type of the future, where the Second Coming will be seen in spiritual vision.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES PROPHECY

There are a couple of passages that are used as proof that Jesus will return in physical form upon the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem. One is the scene of the ascension of Jesus at the Mount of Olives. After Jesus commands his disciples to return to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit, He then ascends into heaven. There is unfortunately a mistranslation here in most English translations, I will select the NASB:

And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

This is stating that Jesus will return "in just the same way" or as other translations have it, "in like manner" (KJV).  The problem here is this phrase is added by the translators, the Greek simply has "as."  So the last sentence should read as follows:

This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come as you have watched Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

It simply says He will come again from heaven.  It does not say "in just the same way" or "in like manner."  This phrase was added by translators.  I double checked this with an online Greek interlinear tool, you can see the entire chapter here: Greek Interlinear of Acts 1. The same Greek word (Strongs #5158) is simply translated as "as" in Acts 7:28, 15:11, 27:25.

Another point, when Jesus appeared to others after the resurrection, in many cases He manifests Himself by opening up their spiritual vision:

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. (Luke 24:30-31)

With the corrected translation of Acts 1:11, it is saying Jesus will come "as you have watched" or "as you have seen." If they were seeing Him with their spiritual vision opened, then this means He will return in a manner that is seen in spiritual vision.

Now, there is the case of a prophecy of Zechariah which speaks of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives:

Jehovah shall go forth, and fight against the nations. . . . His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before the face of Jerusalem . . . and the mount of Olives shall cleave asunder, that a part thereof shall remove toward the east, and [a part] toward the sea, with a great valley; and a part of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and a part of it toward the south (xiv. 3, 4).

This many have taken to be a prophecy of the Second Coming. But that is not the case, it is a prophecy of the First Coming, foretelling how a new church would be established that would withdraw from the Jews and go out towards the Gentiles. The spiritual sense of this prophecy is explained by Swedenborg in Heavenly Arcana:

"Here the Lord and His coming are the subject; by the mount of Olives is signified the good of love and of charity and thus the church, for these goods make the church. That the church would remove from the Jewish nation, and would be established among the Gentiles, is signified by the mountain being cleft asunder toward the east, toward the sea [the west], and toward the north, and the south; in like manner as by the words of the Lord in Luke: Ye shall be cast forth without. And they shall come from the east, and the west, and from the north, and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God (xiii. 28, 29). In a universal sense by Jehovah going forth and fighting against the nations, and by His feet standing upon the mount of Olives which is before the face of Jerusalem, is meant that the Lord from the Divine love would fight against the hells; for the nations are the evils which are from the hells (n. 1868, 6306), and the mount of Olives, on which were His feet, is the Divine love." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9780.13)

The massive work Heavenly Arcana goes through several passages that prove that in the spiritual sense, mountains signify love (or in the opposite sense selfish pride), and nations in a bad sense signify the evils of hell. It is also known to some that Jesus made a descent into hell between his death and resurrection and effected a last judgment. In these spiritual judgments, this is portrayed in the spiritual world as the upheaval and upturning of mountains (see Rev. 6:14-16). The upturning of mountains in the spiritual world is further described in Swedenborg's vision in the work The Final Judgment. That "mountain" has a spiritual meaning can simply be seen from the gospels:

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matt. 17:20)

Jesus is obviously not literally speaking of a literal mountain. Following the description of the splitting of the Mount of Olives, Zechariah then describes a river that proceeds out of Jerusalem toward the west, and toward the east through the split Mount of Olives, which again has a spiritual meaning:

"In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; part of them to the eastern sea, and part of them to the hinder sea (xiv. 8).
"Living waters from Jerusalem" signify truths from a spiritual origin in the church, which are the truths that are received by man when he is illustrated by the Lord while he is reading the Word. "Jerusalem" is the church in respect to doctrine, the "sea" signifies the natural man, into which those things that are in the spiritual man descend; the "eastern sea" signifies the natural man in respect to good; and the "hinder sea" the natural man in respect to truth; and as the natural man is in the generals of truth, "sea" also signifies the general of truth." (Apocalypse Explained, n. 275.20)

This river is again described in the vision of a new temple in Jerusalem in Ezekiel, which literalists interpret as a future third temple. However it is symbolic, and it spiritually signifies the Christian Church that would be established. This is shown in detail in the blog post The Spiritual Symbolism of Ezekiel's Vision of the Third Temple. There are several items in Ezekiel's vision which show that it cannot be taken literally, but should be interpreted in a spiritual manner.

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A RAPTURE?

Next, associated with many Christians' expectation of a physical Second Coming of Jesus is the idea of a rapture, where they will suddenly be caught up in heaven to be with the Lord. This mainly comes from the letters of Paul:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thes. 4:7)

The original prophecy of this was probably taken from the gospel of Matthew:

And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:30-31)

The original does not even mention the word "rapture" but instead "gather together." Nevertheless, from the letter of Paul he mentions that those who are alive and remain will be "caught up" and from this Greek word we have the word "rapture."  There are two interpretations of this. It can indeed mean a sudden physical transportation, as in the case of Philip:

And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:39-40)

The word "caught away" is the same as "caught up" in 1 Thes. 4:7 where we get the term rapture. So from this, many assume there will be an actual physical ascension into the sky. However there is another, perhaps more interesting interpretation. The same word is used by Paul in a completely different context:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. (2 Cor. 12:2-4)

Some surmise Paul had this near death experience when he nearly died from being stoned to death. The word "caught up" or "rapture" is used twice in this verse. Here it does not refer to a physical ascension, but rather the rapture is to be caught up or enraptured in a spiritual visionary state.  And this is exactly what happens to John in his vision of the Apocalypse:

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (Rev. 4:1-2)

With the apostles and select individuals throughout history, such visions took place on a limited individual basis. But the promise of the future is that such a visionary state will become more widespread:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

In parallel with that, the majority of cases have been of those who are false prophets. So in each case they should be tested to determine if what they are stating is valid. But the point here is this: the expectation of a "rapture" can be fulfilled by a widespread outpouring of the Spirit, allowing people to enter a visionary state. At the moment, this is not permitted for most everyone, as most people's minds have been lowered into material and carnal desires away from the love of the Spirit.

IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE PHYSICAL BODY, OR THE SPIRITUAL BODY?

So somewhat related to all this is the doctrine of the resurrection. There are many, at this day, who expect a literal physical resurrection, where people will rise out of their graves. This view is related to a literal appearance of the Second Coming, where everyone assumes all things take place in this material physical world. But this is not the case: one is resurrected in the spiritual world, in a spiritual body. One can take the same passages and interpret them either way. For example:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Cor. 15:51-53)

This would indicate we will be raised in a spiritual glorified body. Will it be visible in this world? Not necessarily. And then there is this one:

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29)

To interpret these references to a resurrection, one must have spiritual knowledge of the afterlife. In the spiritual world, midway between heaven and hell, there is an intermediate state where souls gather, good and evil, who were not judged right after death. Many enter into a state of sleep. John sees them in one of his visions of the Apocalypse, where souls "under the altar" are told they must rest or sleep a little longer (Rev. 6:9-11). There are three heavens signified by the three divisions of the temple; the lowest heaven is represented by the outer court and this is where the altar was located. Those "under the altar" are those in this intermediate state between heaven and hell.

It is in this intermediate state, where many are unaware or asleep, is where the last judgment takes place. One is judged after death, some immediately who go to heaven or hell, but many will gather in this intermediate spiritual world. Thus, it is in the spiritual world where last judgments take place. And indeed, the Second Coming is this event - a judgment of souls in the spiritual world:

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. (Matt. 16:27)

At this time, there is a separation between the good and evil. This is described in the parable of Matthew 25, where the righteous are signified by "sheep" and the evil by "goats" -

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. (Matt. 25:31-32)

As this is a common misconception, one of the primary revelations given to Swedenborg is a complete explanation of the afterlife, the spiritual resurrection there, and how people are judged according to their works in a complete life review. For further information on this see Heaven and Hell as well as The Final Judgment.  This is becoming more well known among those who study the Near Death Experience from a variety of witnesses who have been brought back to life.

IF THE SECOND COMING IS "NONE OF THE ABOVE" THEN WHAT IS IT?

So its not a literal physical return, there is no literal physical resurrection, there is no rapture into the sky... all I have said so far is what it isn't, and that one must look for a higher spiritual explanation.  It is very simple: in the First Coming, the "Word was made flesh." The Word, or Greek Logos, is the Lord as to Divine truth made manifest in human form. In the Second Coming, the Word or Divine truth has been made manifest in the spiritual sense of the Word itself. This spiritual sense has been made manifest in the many volumes of revelations given in waking visions to Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century. It is a more internal revelation, not an external visible revelation.

That this is so, is indicated by Jesus, who always describes the Second Coming as the coming of the "Son of Man."  In the New Testament, "son of Mary" is used to refer to Jesus in His ordinary human form, "Son of God" is used to refer to Jesus in His glorified Divine Human form, but "Son of Man" is used to refer to the Lord as to the Divine truth. To appear "in the clouds of heaven" does not mean He will appear in the sky, but rather He will appear in spiritual vision. The "clouds" is the obscure truth that appears in the literal sense of the Word; for the Son of Man to "appear in glory" signifies the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word. This He did in the 18th century to Emanuel Swedenborg over a period of 27 years of continuous waking visions, where incorrect doctrines of Christianity have been corrected, for there are many false teachings that have corrupted the core of Christianity where very little truth means. And that is the other point: the Second Coming will take place when there is little or no faith left on earth:

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? (Luke 18:8)

And there will be a general falling away from Christianity, where a false religion will come to take its place:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (1 Thes. 2:3-5)

This particular prophecy is probably taken from Dan. 11:45. A "falling away" is an apostasy from the true faith, a "man of sin" indicates that the falling away is where sin is disregarded, and to show oneself as God is to have an incorrect understanding of God Himself. Thus to see and recognize the Second Coming, one has to first recognize the falsehoods that are propagated in one's own religion. Very few question what they are taught to believe. Falsehoods from within is what causes a true church to come to its end:

"A church is brought to an end by various means, especially by such as cause falsity to appear as truth; and when falsity appears to be truth, then the good which in itself is good and is called spiritual, is found no more." (True Christian Religion, n. 754)

Thus what to expect? A true revelation of Jesus Christ and Christianity, a revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, revealed through spiritual vision. This will establish a New Church, which will be among the few and opposed by the many. This is signified by the 2 witnesses (Rev. 11), the sealing of the 144,000 (Rev. 7 and 14), and the woman who flees to the wilderness (Rev 12) which signifies a state of truth in obscurity known to few. This will be opposed by a false form of Christianity, signified by the dragon, beast and false prophet (Rev. 13) as well as the whore of Babylon (Rev. 17-18). That the Second Coming is a heavenly revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, can be seen by the coming of the Lord on a white horse, where we have this statement:

And his name is called The Word of God (Rev. 19:13)

As for the hidden spiritual sense of the Apocalypse, see further in the works Apocalypse Revealed and Apocalypse Explained. The good news here, is the Second Coming has taken place, to reveal a more spiritual Christianity where further heavenly secrets are revealed. This was revealed in spiritual vision by Jesus Christ to Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century:

"We read in many places that the Lord will come in the clouds of heaven (as in Matt. xxiv. 30; xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62; Luke xxi. 27; Apoc. i. 7; xiv. 14; Dan. vii. 13; see also Matt. xvii. 5; Luke ix. 34, 35). But hitherto no one has known what was meant by the clouds of heaven; they have believed that He is to appear in them in person. But that by the clouds of heaven the Word in the sense of the letter is meant, and by the glory and power in which also He is then to come (Matt. xxiv. 30) the spiritual sense of the Word is meant, has been heretofore concealed, because hitherto no one has even by conjecture reached the conclusion that there is a spiritual sense in the Word such as this sense is in itself. Now because the Lord has opened to me the spiritual sense of the Word, and it has been granted me to be together with angels and spirits in their world as one of them, it has been disclosed that by the clouds of heaven is meant the Word in the natural sense, and by glory the Word in the spiritual sense, and by power the Lord's power through the Word." (True Christian Religion, n. 776)