643. And if anyone will hurt them, thus must he be killed, signifies that according to their endeavor to inflict evil they perish. This is evident from the signification of "will hurt," as being the endeavor to inflict evil, for to will is to endeavor; also from the signification of "to be killed," as being to perish, here in respect to spiritual life, which is destroyed solely by the evils and the falsities of evil, for such are the cause of spiritual death (See above, n. 315, 589). It is here again said "If any will hurt them," because it is meant that everyone perishes according to his wish or endeavor to inflict evil, for it is the will that makes the life of everyone. Everyone perishes according to his wish to hurt "the two witnesses," who are the "two olive trees and the two lampstands," that is, the good of love and charity, and the truth of doctrine and faith, because he is in the opposite will, and the will that is opposite to the good of love and the truth of doctrine is hell in the measure of such opposition; consequently "thus must he be killed," that is, perish, so far as he desires to hurt them. Moreover, every man and spirit is under the Lord's protection, the evil as well as the good; and to him who is under the Lord's protection no evil can happen: for it is the Lord's will that no one should perish or be punished. But so far as anyone is under the Lord's protection he abstains from doing evil, but so far as he does not abstain he removes himself from the Lord's protection, and so far as he so removes himself he is hurt by the evil spirits who are from hell; for infernal spirits have an unceasing desire to do evil to others; and so far as any are outside of the Lord's Divine protection, that is, so far as they do evil, they come into the power of those who do evil to them by inflicting punishment and depriving them of such things as belong to spiritual life. In a word, so far as anyone desires to hurt the goods of love and the truths of doctrine he is "devoured by fire and is killed," that is, he is possessed by evils and the falsities of evil, and so far he spiritually dies, and this comes to pass not from the Divine but from the evil itself that he does.

2118. Par le Jugement Dernier on entend le dernier temps de l'Eglise, et aussi le dernier moment de la vie de chaque homme : Quant à ce qui concerne le Dernier temps de l'Eglise, le Jugement Dernier de la Très-Ancienne Eglise, qui existait avant le déluge, arriva quand fut détruite la postérité de ceux qui l'avaient composée, cette destruction est décrite par le déluge. Le Jugement Dernier de l'Ancienne Eglise, qui existait après le déluge, arriva quand presque tous ceux qui avaient été de cette Eglise furent devenus idolâtres, et furent dispersés. Le Jugement Dernier de l'Eglise Représentative, qui fut ensuite instituée chez les descendants de Jacob, arriva quand les Dix Tribus furent emmenées en captivité et dispersées parmi les nations, et quand ensuite les Juifs, après l'avènement du Seigneur, furent chassés de la terre de Canaan et dispersés sur toute la surface du globe. Le Jugement Dernier de l'Eglise actuelle, qu'on nomme Eglise Chrétienne, est ce qu'on entend dans Apocalypse de Jean par le Nouveau Ciel et la Nouvelle Terre.