1. I. THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED

My earlier work on THE LAST JUDGMENT dealt with the following subjects:

The day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world (The Last Judgment 1-5).

The reproduction of the human race will never cease (6-13).

Heaven and Hell are from the human race (14-22).

All people who have ever been born since the beginning of creation and have died are in heaven or in hell (23-27).

The Last Judgment is to be where all are together, and so in the spiritual world, not on earth (28-32).

The Last Judgment takes place when a church comes to an end; and this happens when there is no faith because there is no charity (33-39).

All the predictions made in the Book of Revelation are today fulfilled (40-44).

The Last Judgment has taken place (45-52).

On Babylon and its destruction (53-64);

on the former heaven and its abolition (65-72);

on the future state of the world and the church (73-74).

40. VII. ALL THE PREDICTIONS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION ARE TO-DAY FULFILLED.

No one can know what is meant by and involved in the book of Revelation without knowing the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. The whole of its contents is written in a style similar to that of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, in which every expression has a spiritual meaning not to be seen in the literal sense. Moreover, the contents of Revelation can only be explained in their spiritual sense by those who know what happened to the church up to its end; and only in heaven can this be known. This is the subject of Revelation, for the spiritual sense of the Word everywhere deals with the spiritual world, that is, the state of the church both in the heavens and upon earth. That is why the Word is spiritual and Divine. The state of the church is there expounded in due sequence. This can serve to establish that the contents of Revelation could not be explained except by someone who had received a revelation of the successive states of the church in the heavens. There is equally a church in the heavens as on earth, and some remarks on it will follow.

1. THE DAY OF THE LAST JUDGMENT DOES NOT MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD.

Those unfamiliar with the spiritual sense of the Word have understood only that on the day of the Last Judgment everything in the world we see around us will be destroyed. For it is said that then heaven together with the earth will perish, and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. To reinforce this belief it has been noted that it is said that all will then come up out of their graves, and then the good will be separated from the wicked, and so on. But this is said in the literal sense of the Word, a sense which is natural and at the lowest level in God's order, in which all the details contain a spiritual sense. As a result anyone who takes the Word only in its literal sense may be driven to accept various views, as has happened in the Christian world; this is the reason why there are so many heresies, every one of which is proved from the Word.

[2] Seeing, however, that no one has yet known that every detail of the Word contains a spiritual sense, nor even that there is such a thing as a spiritual sense, those who have taken this view of the Last Judgment should be forgiven. But they ought now to know that it is not the sky we see with our eyes which is to be destroyed nor is it the earth on which we live, both of which will remain in existence; but the 'new heaven and new earth' mean a new church, both in the heavens and upon earth. We say a new church in the heavens, because there is a church there just as much as on earth. There the Word is likewise to be found, there sermons are preached, and Divine worship takes place much as upon earth. The difference is that everything there is in a more perfect condition, because it is not in the natural but the spiritual world. So all the people there are spiritual, and not natural as they were in the world. On this subject see my HEAVEN AND HELL, in particular the description there of how heaven is linked with man by means of the Word (303-310) and of Divine worship in heaven (221-227).