2117. CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT.

Few at this day know what the Last Judgment is. They suppose that it will come together with the destruction of the world; and this gives rise to the notion that the whole globe will perish by fire, together with all things in the visible world; and that then for the first time the dead will rise again and will be brought to judgment, the evil being cast into hell, and the good ascending into heaven. These conjectures originate in the prophetical statements of the Word-where mention is made of a new heaven and a new earth, and also of the New Jerusalem-those who make them not being aware that in the internal sense such prophetical statements have a totally different meaning from that which appears in the sense of the letter; and that by “heaven” is not meant the sky, nor by “earth” the earth, but the Lord’s church in general, and with everyone in particular.