108. The first reason why Roman Catholics are better equipped than Protestants to become part of the New Jerusalem (that is, the new church) is this: The belief that we are justified by being assigned Christ’s merit, which is wrong and cannot live alongside the faith of the new church (see §§102– 104), has been wiped out among Roman Catholics, and should be completely eradicated. This belief is firmly fixed in Protestants, however, as if it were carved into their being. It is the chief teaching in their church.

The second reason is that Roman Catholics have more of an idea than Protestants that there is divine majesty in the Lord’s human manifestation. This is abundantly clear in the extremely sacred way in which Roman Catholics venerate the Host.

The third reason is that Roman Catholics see goodwill, good works, repentance, and the effort to live a new life as essential to salvation; the new church, too, considers them essential. Protestants who are committed to faith alone, though, have a very different view. They see these as playing a nonessential role or even no role at all in our faith; they see them as contributing nothing to our salvation.

These are three reasons why Roman Catholics, if they turn to God the Savior himself directly rather than indirectly and if they take both elements in the Holy Eucharist, are better equipped than Protestants to receive a living faith in place of a dead one and be led by the Lord, through the agency of his angels, to the gates of the New Jerusalem (the new church) and brought in shouting for joy.

[The Assignment of Christ’s Merit]

78. Brief Analysis

The prophetic Word includes a number of statements about the sun, the moon, and the stars that are similar to this statement in Matthew 24:29. For example, in Isaiah:

Behold, the fierce day of Jehovah is coming. The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not shine their light. The sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not make its light shine. (Isaiah 13:9, 10)

In Ezekiel,

When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. I will bring darkness upon your land. (Ezekiel 32:7, 8)

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness; the sun and the moon will be darkened and the stars will withhold their light. (Joel 2:1, 2, 10)

The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great day of Jehovah comes. (Joel 2:31)

The day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision; the sun and the moon have been darkened. (Joel 3:14, 15)

In the Book of Revelation,

The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck, [a third of the moon,] and a third of the stars; and a third of the day did not shine. (Revelation 8:12)

Also in the Book of Revelation,

The sun became black as sackcloth of goat hair and the moon became like blood. (Revelation 6:12)

The topic of all the Old Testament passages here is the final times of the Jewish church, which occurred when the Lord came into the world. The passages from Matthew and the Book of Revelation are similar, but they deal with the final times of the Christian church, when the Lord is going to come again, but this time in the Word, which contains him and is him. For this reason, immediately after the statement in Matthew 24:29 the following passage occurs: “Then the sign of the Son of Humankind will appear, coming in the clouds of the heavens” (Matthew 24:30).

In these passages “the sun” means love, “the moon” means faith, and “the stars” mean knowledge of what is good and what is true. “The powers of the heavens” mean all three of these things as the sources of strength and stability for the heavens, where angels are, and the churches, where people are.

Gathering all the above together into one meaning, then, they refer to the fact that at the last time of the Christian church, when its end is imminent, it will have no more love, no more faith, and no more knowledge of what is good or what is true.

(For a demonstration that the sun means love, see Revelation Unveiled 53, 54, 413, 796, 831, 961; that the moon means faith, see Revelation Unveiled 53, 332, 413, 533; that the stars mean knowledge of what is good and what is true, see Revelation Unveiled 51, 74, 333, 408, 413, 954.)