THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE

ACCORDING TO WHAT HAS BEEN HEARD FROM HEAVEN

WITH AN INTRODUCTION CONCERNING THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

2118. The expression 'Last Judgement' is used to mean the final period of a Church, and also to mean the final phase of each person's life. As regards the final period of a Church, the Last Judgement of the Most Ancient Church, which had existed before the Flood, occurred when their descendants perished, whose destruction is described by the Flood. The Last Judgement of the Ancient Church, which existed after the Flood, took place when almost all who belonged to that Church had become idolaters and had been scattered. The Last Judgement of the representative Church, which followed next, among the descendants of Jacob, came about when the ten tribes were led away into captivity and dispersed among the gentile nations; and later on when the Jews after the Lord's Coming were expelled from the land of Canaan and were scattered throughout the whole world. The Last Judgement of the Church existing at present, which is called the Christian Church, is what 'the new heaven and the new earth' is used to mean in John in the Book of Revelation.

5292. 'In the seven years of abundance of corn means which are instilled during the times when truths along with forms of good have been multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, and from these as periods of time, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'abundance of corn' as the multiplication of truth, or truth that has been multiplied, dealt with above in 5276, 5278, 5280. Here therefore truths which, along with forms of good, have been multiplied are meant because truths are nothing unless they are accompanied by forms of good; nor are any truths stored away within the interior man - dealt with immediately above in 5291 - other than those which have been joined to forms of good. The reason 'years' means not only states but also periods of time is that in the internal sense 'years' means entire states, that is, periods in their entirety from the start to the finish of a state. No expression other than periods of time exists to describe such states; nor have the inhabitants of [space and] time any other way of understanding them than as periods of time. For 'days' and 'years mean both states and periods of time, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2906.