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).

33. VI. 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.

There are many reasons why the Last Judgment takes place when a church comes to an end. The primary one is that the equilibrium between heaven and hell then begins to be destroyed, and together with it man's true freedom. When man's freedom is destroyed, he can no longer be saved. For then his loss of freedom carries him to hell, and he cannot be brought in freedom to heaven. No one can be reformed without freedom, and a person's freedom is wholly dependent upon the equilibrium between heaven and hell. This can be established from the two chapters in HEAVEN AND HELL, which deal with the equilibrium between heaven and hell (589-596) and man's freedom being maintained by this equilibrium (597-603). It is also shown there that no one can be reformed except in freedom.

67. It needs further to be known that this which is called the first heaven was not composed of any who had lived before the Lord came into the world, but entirely of those who lived after His coming. At the end of each church (as shown in 33-39 above) a last judgment takes place, and then the former heaven is abolished and a new one is created or formed. From the beginning up to the end of a church all are tolerated who outwardly lived a moral life and maintained a pious and holy appearance in outward behaviour, even if there was nothing within it, so long as the internal levels of thoughts and intentions could be kept in check by the civil and moral laws of society. But at the end of a church the internal levels are disclosed, and then a judgment is passed upon the people. That is why a last judgment on the inhabitants of this planet has taken place twice before, and now for the third time (see 46 above). So too heaven with the earth has twice before passed away and a new heaven with a new earth has been created (as shown above, 1-5). From this it is plain that the new heaven and the new earth mentioned by the Old Testament Prophets are not the same as the new heaven and the new earth mentioned in Revelation. The former ones were created by the Lord when He was in the world, and the latter is being created by Him now. We read about them in the Old Testament Prophets as follows:

Behold, I shall create a new heaven and a new earth, and the former ones will not be remembered. Isaiah 65:17.

And elsewhere:

I shall make a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah 66:22.

It is also said in Daniel.