2. Before treating of the New Jerusalem and its doctrine, something shall be said of the New Heaven and the New Earth. In the small work on The Last Judgment and the Destruction of Babylon it was shown what is meant by the "first heaven and the first earth" which had passed away. After they had passed away, and thus after the Last Judgment had been accomplished, the new heaven was created, that is, formed by the Lord. This heaven was formed of all those who after the Lord's advent even to the present time, had lived a life of faith and charity; since they alone were forms of heaven. For the form of heaven, according to which all consociations and communications are there effected, is the form of Divine Truth from the Divine Good which proceeds from the Lord; and this form a man puts on as to his spirit by a life according to Divine Truth.

That the form of heaven is from this source, may be seen in the work Heaven and Hell 200-212; and that all angels are forms of heaven, in Heaven and Hell 51-58, 73-77. From this it may be known, of whom the new heaven was composed, and hence also what its quality is; namely, that it is altogether of one mind; for he, who lives a life of faith and charity, loves another as himself, and through love conjoins him to himself, and thus reciprocally and mutually, because love in the spiritual world is conjunction. When, therefore, all act alike, then from many, yea, from countless numbers consociated according to the form of heaven, there arises one mind, and there results, as it were, a one; for there is nothing which separates and divides, but everything conjoins and unites.

1413. 'To the land which I will cause you to see' means the spiritual and celestial things that were to be brought to view. This is clear from the meaning of 'a land', 662, 1066, and indeed from the meaning here of 'the land of Canaan' which represents the Lord's kingdom, as becomes clear from many places in the Word. For this reason the land of Canaan is called the Holy Land, and also the heavenly Canaan. And since it represented the Lord's kingdom, it also represented and meant the celestial and spiritual things that belong to the Lord's kingdom, and here those that belong to the Lord Himself.

2120. Every single detail of what the Lord has said in Matthew 24:7, 29; Luke 21:25, about the last times - about the sea and the waves roaring then, about the sun being darkened, the moon not giving its light, the stars falling from heaven, nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and so on - means the future state of the Church, when its Last Judgement takes place. By 'the roaring of the sea and of the waves' is meant that nothing other than heresies and controversies within the Church in general and in the individual in particular will reverberate in this fashion. 'The sun' is used to mean nothing other than love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour; 'the moon' to mean faith; and 'the stars' cognitions of faith which in the last times will be so darkened; their 'not giving their light' and 'falling from heaven', that they will disappear. The Lord has also spoken in a similar way in Isaiah 13:10. Also, by 'nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom' is meant nothing other than evils clashing with evils, and falsities with falsities. And so on. There were many hidden reasons why the Lord spoke in this fashion. That seas, sun, moon, stars, nations, and kingdoms have such meanings I know for certain, and have shown in Volume One.