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).

34. It can be established that the equilibrium between heaven and hell begins to be destroyed when a church comes to its end by considering the fact that heaven and hell come from the human race (on which see the appropriate chapter above [14-22]). Since people then rarely come to heaven, and many go to hell, evil grows on the one side at the expense of good on the other. For the growth of hell produces a corresponding growth of evil; and all the evil a person experiences comes from hell, all the good from heaven. Since at the end of a church evil grows to outweigh good, the Lord then judges all, the wicked are separated from the good, and everything is restored to order; a new heaven is set up and also a new church on earth, thus restoring the equilibrium. This then is what is called the Last Judgment; more on this in what follows.

52. These facts prove the veracity of the Lord's prediction about the Last Judgment:

Then they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and recline in the kingdom of God. Luke 13:29.