11.10.2026

“Two women will be together grinding grain, but only one will be taken. The other will be left” (Matthew 24:41)

Abstract: Emanuel Swedenborg’s Bible commentaries and writings have the object of explaining the “spiritual meaning” of the written text that is hidden within it. This is because the angels in heaven have and read the same Bible text but in the spiritual meaning, because they are fully spiritual people who dwell in a fully spiritual realm. For we in the world dwell in a natural space-time continuum, and our minds are accustomed to relating to events and interpreting the Holy Bible in the same fashion. New church doctrine states we have been given the capacity to lift our minds higher spiritually by our Creator to see within the wonderful Truths within His Holy Word. In doing so we can gaze upon Him in the adornment of His endless Love and Wisdom.

The New Christian Chatbot was created by Steve David and staff at newchristianbiblestudy.org for students of the Bible Commentaries and writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. We thank them was being able to use this amazing new educational tool.

The Chatbot will denote reference numbers from Swedenborg commentaries on which it drew it’s answers/conclusions from “the heavenly doctrine” of which Swedenborg spoke as meaning the spiritual meaning of the Holy Bible as the angels read and understand it. For the student or researcher these numbers are connected to a hyperlink which directly go back to the newchristianbiblestudy.org website database.

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Conversation With a New Church Chatbot. The Lord’s Use of the Word “Grinding”

New Church Chatbot: Question: Can you elaborate or expound on the good or opposite state of those within the church who are “grinding”. (AC 4335 Chapter 33 In the Word ‘those who are grinding’ means those within the Church who are led to know the truth by an affection for good, and in the contrary sense those within the Church who are led to know it by an affection for evil.

Chatbot Answer: Here’s what the Heavenly Doctrines teach about “grinding” as a spiritual image, drawn mainly from Swedenborg’s exposition of Matthew 24:41 (“two women shall be grinding at the mill; one shall be taken, and one shall be left”).

The context: the Lord’s words about the Last Judgment

This phrase appears in the Lord’s prophecy about the close of an old church and the dawning of a new one. Throughout that discourse — eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, two in the field, two grinding at the mill — the Lord is not describing literal events but states of good and truth within the church at its close (Arcana Coelestia 4334). “Two” in a field or at a mill represents the fact that, outwardly, people within the church can look alike — both are “doing the same thing” — yet inwardly one is governed by good and the other by evil, and so one is “taken” (saved) and one is “left” (condemned) (Arcana Coelestia 4334:8-9).

What “grinding” itself signifies

Grinding at a mill turns raw grain into flour — and flour, the product of wheat or barley, corresponds to truths that are products of good. So “grinding” means the process of producing or working out doctrine and teaching from truths one has learned (Arcana Coelestia 4335).

This is a good state when:

• the person is led to know truth from an affection for good — that is, truths are sought and worked into doctrine out of genuine love of what is good and useful, so the “flour” that results is substantial and life-giving.

It becomes a state of the opposite when:

• the person is led to know truth from an affection for evil — truths are gathered and worked up not out of love for good, but to rationalize, defend, or dress up what is actually evil or false. The resulting “flour” only looks like truth; it has no genuine substance, because it has been separated from good at its root.

Supporting imagery from the Word

Swedenborg draws together several Scripture passages to confirm this meaning:

• Isaiah 47:1-2 — Babylon (“daughter of Babel”) being told to “take a mill and grind flour” pictures those who outwardly appear holy and good but are interiorly evil, producing teachings out of truths which they pervert (Arcana Coelestia 4335).
• Jeremiah 25:10-11 and Revelation 18:21-23 — the silencing of “the sound of mills” in desolated Babylon means that no truth, and no understanding of truth, remains there at all.
• Lamentations 5:11-14 — “the young men have been led away to grind at the mill” pictures people being led, by persuasion, to produce falsities out of truths they possess.
• Exodus 11:5 — “the servant-girl’s firstborn who is behind the mill,” among the firstborn of Egypt that die, represents the affection for truth that has been separated from good and so degenerates into an affection that only produces falsity.
• Deuteronomy 24:6 — the law forbidding a mill or millstone to be taken in pledge, “for they are his livelihood,” shows that the mill means the body of doctrine and the millstone the truths basic to it — so vital to spiritual life that they must never be stripped away.

A confirming experience from the spiritual world

Swedenborg also reports that in the world of spirits he actually saw people who appeared to be grinding. He was told these are people — within the church in this life — who gather up large numbers of truths “not with any use in view, other than for the sake of their own pleasure.” Because such truths are cut off from any affection rooted in good, they look like truths on the outside but have no genuine substance — they are “sheer fancies.” And if evil is actually present within the person, those same truths get turned to supporting that evil, becoming falsities through that abuse (Arcana Coelestia 4335:5; Spiritual Experiences 4673-4674).

In sum

“Grinding” pictures the mental and spiritual work of turning known truths into working doctrine. Done from an affection for good, it produces real spiritual nourishment — truth joined to good, useful and life-giving. Done from an affection for evil — even by people who remain within the church and know the same truths — that same activity produces only falsity dressed up as truth, truth used to excuse or support what is evil, which in the end has no substance and cannot save (Arcana Coelestia 4334:9; Arcana Coelestia 4335).

New Church Chatbot: Question #2: From your statements on “grinding”, could we say with assurance this is not only the Lord’s teaching but a divine observance of the human heart and the contrast between the two states?

Chatbot Answer: Yes — and the sources actually make that connection explicitly rather than leaving it as an inference.

It is not merely a teaching — it is how judgment actually works.

The Writings are clear that when the Lord speaks of a “last judgment” at the close of the age, He is not describing a future external event in which He will sort people out by decree. Rather, “the Lord’s words… carry the teaching that everyone will be judged according to what his life is, thus that everyone brings his judgment with him because he brings his life with him” (Arcana Coelestia 4663, 4807). The Lord Himself states elsewhere, “I judge no one”; judgment is not something imposed from outside but is the inevitable result of what a person’s own heart is drawn to (True Christian Religion 652; Apocalypse Explained 297).

The contrast of the two states is the very mechanism of that self-judgment.

Apocalypse Explained 297 lays this out directly: the Lord continuously radiates Divine love, drawing everyone toward Himself and toward heaven. Those whose hearts are in good and truth “follow, for they apply themselves” — they are carried along like a ship in a current. Those whose hearts are in evil and falsity “turn backwards from the Lord” and resist “with all strength and endeavor, for his will is toward his own love; for this love is his breath and life.” So the separation between the “two grinding at the mill” is not an arbitrary external verdict — it is the heart’s own orientation becoming visible and complete.

This is why outward similarity means nothing, and inward love means everything.

Two people can be doing the very same outward thing — grinding at the same mill, working in the same field, sitting at the same table in the church — and yet be radically different in the sight of the Lord, because “He sees the heart.” Arcana Coelestia 4663 makes the same point about the sheep and goats: “even if people who are under the influence of evil utter truths, they do so with their lips but not from their hearts, so that evil and truths are still very far away from each other.” The mill produces flour either way — truths are gathered either way — but the question the Lord’s Divine perception answers is what love ground them.

Swedenborg’s own witness confirms this as an actual spiritual law, not just a figure of speech.

He reports having seen, in the world of spirits, those who outwardly resemble people grinding — people who had, in earthly life, “gathered up large numbers of truths… not with any use in view, other than for the sake of their own pleasure,” so that the truths they held were severed from good and became “sheer fancies” liable to be turned toward supporting evil (Spiritual Experiences 4674; Arcana Coelestia 4335, 10303[6]). This shows the correspondence is not a literary device invented for the parable — it corresponds to a real condition of the human mind, observable even after death, where the quality of one’s love determines what one’s truths actually are.

So yes: this teaching rests on the principle, taught throughout the Writings, that the Lord’s “judgment” is in fact His perfect and continuous perception of the heart — of what love animates a person’s thought and knowledge — and the contrast between the two who grind, two in the field, two in one bed, is the Lord disclosing that this interior reality, however hidden now, is what truly and eternally distinguishes one soul from another (Apocalypse Explained 555[11]; Arcana Coelestia 4334-4335).

END New Church Chatbot Response

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If the Chatbot is offering a correct rational appraisal of the Lord’s spiritual teaching found in Matthew 24:41,

“Two women will be together grinding grain, but only one will be taken. The other will be left” (Matthew 24:41)

Then we can draw some general conclusions for our own understanding.

1. There are two women working (“grinding”).

2. “Grinding at a mill turns raw grain into flour — and flour, the product of wheat or barley, corresponds to truths that are products of good (love of Lord, Love of Neighbor). So “grinding” means the process of producing or working out doctrine and teaching from truths one has learned” (Arcana Coelestia 4335).

3. One of the church women has her mind on the work (“grinding”) she must do for her Lord. “…the “flour” that results is substantial and life-giving”.

4. One of the church women appears to have her mind on the work (“grinding”) she must do for her Lord, but her mind is really a million miles away. She is only thinking about what she will do after her religious work is done. “The resulting “flour” only looks like truth; it has no genuine substance, because it has been separated from good (no Love to Lord and Love to Neighbor) at its root”.

5. The results of both behaviors result in one woman being taken, and the other woman being left. The truth of the matter is one woman wanted to please her Lord in her “grinding” or work. The other woman only wanted to appear to be religious and good (“grinding”), and then return to the things she wanted to do.

6. One woman truly loved and wished to be with her lord and was putting in the work (“grinding”) to make that happen. “…one will be taken”.

7. One woman had her mind on other things than the work (“grinding”) and only appeared to be religious. “The other will be left”.

8. Both women had a choice to draw near to the Lord. One chose to do so, “…one will be taken”. The other one separated herself from Him, from lack of interest. “The other will be left”.

9. We also also see the angelic wisdom that the angels in heaven see when they also read our Bible, that the Lord only looks at the heart and not on outward appearances.

10. “But the LORD told him, “Samuel, don’t think Eliab is the one just because he’s tall and handsome. He isn’t the one I’ve chosen. People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts” (1 Samuel 16:7)

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“This people draws near Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6).