The crucifixion of Jesus Christ broke both of the greatest commandments

Matthew 22:36-40 - King James Version (KJV) <36> Master, which is the great commandment in the law? <37> Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. <38> This is the first and great commandment. <39> And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. <40> On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

When the Jewish Church called for Jesus Christ to be crucified, they had arrived at that precise point in the charity life cycle of the Jewish Church when they were effectively breaking both of the greatest commandments, right on schedule. One would refer this particularly to the interesting comment that Jesus made above, in Matthew 22:40:

King James Version (KJV) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

See that? The "prophets" "hang" on these two commandments! In other words, the prophecies of the Bible are about the charity life cycle of the Church -- especially in relation to its gradual disobedience to commandments over time -- and its relation to Jesus Christ. With Him there is a covenantal relationship: the marriage of the bride and the Bridegroom and what in the New Church is called conjunction, being also a conjunction of good and truth, as bread with wine and flesh with blood. Indeed, the opposite of this conjunction of good and truth, "the voice of the bridegroom and voice of the bride" ceasing, concerns a state analogous to that of the Jewish Church in relation to Lord Jesus at the time when they cried "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

Luke 23:20-21 - King James Version (KJV) <20> Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. <21> But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.

For at this point in the charity life cycle of the Jewish Church, there was no more conjunction of good and truth. There was no more obedience to the two greatest commandments, love of the Lord and love of the neighbour, and this evil of disobedience had as its consort "idolatry", which in the New Church indicates falsity; which signifies in this case rendering the commandment of God of none effect. Did Jesus say this another way? Yes, He did:

Matthew 23:38 - King James Version (KJV) <38> Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

Does this appear elsewhere in Biblical prophecy? Yes, it does:

Daniel 12:11 - King James Version (KJV) <11> And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

Whenever a house -- that is, a Church -- is left desolate, there is no love to the Lord in the form of obeying His commandments, no more good and consequently no more truth from good and consequently no more conjunction of good and truth and consequently no more conjunction with Lord Jesus in the Old Church, in this case the Jewish Church; upon the heels of which "desolation" there providentially follows His conjunction with some New Church, just like the Israelites succeeded the Canaanites and just like the Christians succeeded the Jews. After all, Jesus expressly says:

John 14:15 - King James Version (KJV) <15> If ye love me, keep my commandments.

This would, for instance, NOT be compatible with crucifying the Divine Human, Jesus Christ, who is both the neighbour whom we are to love and also the Lord whom we are to love, these being the two greatest commandments. The crucifixion is a complex event, but one of the layers of that event involves precisely the symbolic expression of the Jewish Church's breakage of the two greatest commandments at the end of their charity life cycle, when they had made "made void thy law", as here in Psalm 119:126

King James Version (KJV) It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.

There is precisely a "time" for the Lord "to work", a time which Jesus refers to when He asks the following rhetorical question:

Luke 18:8 - King James Version (KJV) ...Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Now, "faith" pertains to truth, and in the New Church truth has always its associated good. In general, the proper understanding of a commandment corresponds to truth, and the actual carrying out of that commandment corresponds to good, with this act constituting love to the Lord and service to mankind, love to the Lord and love to the neighbour, keeping His commandments and being of use.

James 1:22 - King James Version (KJV) <22> But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Here we have the Bible's customary good, "doer", and truth, "hearer", in married association. If someone or an entire Church is both a hearer and a doer of the Word, then in this case we have the following positive conjunction of good and truth which the Bible represents in terms of joyous nuptials:

Jeremiah 33:11 - King James Version (KJV) <11> The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.

Of course, at the time that the Jewish Church cried "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" the negative pole of the bride/bridegroom relationship obtained, the end point of the charity life cycle of the Jewish Church when their house was left unto them desolate and when there was no more faith on earth. For the "abomination of desolation" is here the customary evil with reference to its associated falsity, or "no more faith on earth". You see, this pairing of good and truth, evil and falsity, occurs so often throughout the Bible that to know about it joined with charitable faith in the living God has a multiplying effect on Biblical understanding and study as well as spiritual warfare. This will help anyone at all to grow in righteousness and understanding in loving association with the living God, Jesus Christ. It was given to us during the Second Coming and belongs to everyone. "And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). "Freely ye have received, freely give", as the Lord says (Matthew 10:8). But here is the negative pole of the bride and bridegroom coin:

Revelation 18:23 - King James Version (KJV) <23> And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Here is a slightly different expression of the same phenomenon which preserves the relationship between evil and its associated falsity. This allows you to see the flipping from an association between good and truth to an association between evil and falsity under a different form. A basis for comparison allows you to perceive whether this interpretation reverberates throughout the Bible as one claims or not, so here:

Proverbs 4:17. “For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.” King James Version (KJV).

Everyone can see that this relationship between "bread of wickedness", or evil, and "wine of violence", or falsity, involves the flipping of the bread and wine which we know as the Eucharist. The Jewish Church was eating the bread of wickedness and drinking the wine of violence when they had arrived at a state when they were willing to cry "Crucify Him!" and also incapable of recognising their own Messiah! This association of condemning someone innocent to death and not recognising their Messiah is the customary evil in association with the customary falsity.

You can reliably use your understanding of this association of good with truth and evil with falsity to understand large swathes of Biblical prophecy and much else besides. This way, you can enter into the real sense of the Bible's prophecies.

And while we are on the subject, let us consider something rather notable about the episode where Jesus said "Your house is left unto you desolate!" Notice how the atmosphere didn't catch on fire? Yes, the prophetic books are not about the atmosphere catching on fire, the world ending, and all suchlike Hollywood-style scenarios. Jesus says very plainly

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation" (Luke 17:20). He also says "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Obviously, the terrifying scenarios envisaged by most Christian denominations do not pass the sniff test of the Lord's plain indication that we are to look elsewhere than highly obvious angelic invasions of the Earth and similar phenomena for the essence of the Bible's prophecies about the "End Times".

Let us look at a specific usage which Jesus makes of prophecy, so that you can evaluate this matter fully:

Mark 7:6, KJV: "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."

Esaias is here prophecying not about Hollywood-style catastrophes or geopolitical happenings but about people who are evil but wear a mask of sanctity; which just happens to correspond to the people in the Jewish Church at the time when they called for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This crucifixion, as has been mentioned, represents among other things the crucifixion of the Word of God itself, which occurs when a Church "reject[s] the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition" (Matthew 7:9). Specifically, that is the point when a Church crucifies the Divine Human, the God Man, Jesus Christ. Neighbours, it is no light thing not to keep the commandment of God, severally and as individuals, and it infallibly carries with it the associated falsity of not recognising the Saviour even as, in effect, such crucify Him.

Let us consider that associated falsity more closely, with reference to the point in the charity life cycle of the Church described in Revelation 18:23: "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Notice that reference to "sorcery" and the connection of that evil, "sorcery", to "deceived", or falsity: in the New Church, "sorcery" is not some magic rite (albeit such things are still literally proscribed) but the falsification of truth in the service of gain. Here, Jesus explains this process of falsification of truth very plainly when He tells the Jewish Church that they are "making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered" (Mark 7:13).

This process of falsification proceeds through a definite life cycle in association with gradual loss of charity in the course of a particular Church's existence. In the Protestant portion of the Old Church in our day, for instance, it is very common to preach that faith alone saves, and thus to falsify the commandment of God in John 14:15: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." And it is also common for them to teach, along with the Catholics and Orthodox, that there is a trinity in 3 persons, which is in effect a non-acknowledgement of our "Everlasting Father" and "Mighty God", Jesus Christ, "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9).

There is no compatibility between the idolatry or falsity of Nicean doctrine with God's own teaching in regard to His nature. For we read in Isaiah 9:6: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

We also have the sure word of God that "The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord". This is God's Nicea. To falsify God's Nicea with the human Nicea, which is an idol, is in effect to crucify the God Man Jesus Christ, in tandem with other similar falsifications such as the separation of faith and works.

One has all along attempted to provide you with numerous synonyms for the situations we encounter here and in the Bible. This has, as emphasised, served you for a basis to consider these Biblical images freely and rationally, perceiving for yourself whether the interpretations provided actually work. For they must work, that is what they are for. So without further ado, here is another representation of the point when the "bread of inquity" and the "wine of drunkeness" are consumed:

Proverbs 30:17 "The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it."

In the New Church, the commandment to "Honour thy Father and Mother" does not merely refer to obeying them whilst a child in their home and helping them out if necessary in their old age. For in addition to these biological matters it involves a generalised respect for all authority, from God down to one's supervisor. More spiritually, it involves honouring God and His Church, the Bridegroom and the Bride.

Now, in the New Church "honour" has a particular designation and association. This designation, good, pertains to "glory", or truth. For "honour and glory" is yet another instance when will and understanding, length and breadth, bread and wine, X and Y relate some good to some truth or contrarily some evil to some falsity. Learn how to recognise this association where it occurs, and how to associate this recognition to the practice of charity, and you will have access to the warp and woof of the Word in word and deed.

Moreover, it is certainly not accidental that Jesus specifically mentioned the Jewish Church's breakage of the commandment to "Honour thy Father and Mother" in His discourse on how the Jewish Church was rendering the commandment of God of none effect through its tradition! For they were precisely mocking at their Father, and despising to obey their Mother, as Proverbs has already informed us. "To mock" has a precise meaning which another Proverb makes available to us:

"Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour" (Proverbs 14:9).

Those who make a mock at sin promulgate falsifications of commandments or truths; inevitably, this falsity pertains in married association to wickedness of life. If they mock sin, they effectively mock also Him who is our Saviour from sin, and thus the Word of God. Thus does the Proverb associate their mockery with the Father.

As for their disobedience to the commandment of their Mother, this involves the actual commission of evil deeds in association with the falsity that sin is, for instance, not sin. This is the "sorcery" which we have already seen in association with the ceasing of the voice of the bride and the bridegroom.

We find confirmation that the Crucifixion of Jesus represents among other things the crucifixion of the Word itself -- that is, roughly speaking, the Bible -- in <<Spiritual Experiences 4394>>, where we read "that the symbolism [of the crucifixion] was to the effect that heavenly truth would suffer so as not to perish, indeed that He would be crucified by the Jews, He Himself being the example of heavenly goodness and heavenly truth, so because they suffered, He also suffered". So in other words, because the Jewish Church was disobeying the commandment and falsifying doctrine so to facilitate their disobedience, "He also suffered"!

When Jesus Christ, the God Man and Divine Human, was crucified, the Jewish Church sacrificed God, Man, good and truth at a stroke. As with the Jewish Church, so with the Christian Church. For the acknowledgement of the Divine Human is precisely keeping His commandments and understanding His teachings. In the New Church, which does so acknowledge, the voice of the bride and the voice of the bridegroomare still heard."Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). Amen.