The Last Judgement #3
3. Thus far it has remained unknown that a new earth means a new church on earth, because everyone has understood earth in the Word as meaning the earth, when it really means the church. In the natural sense earth is the earth, but in the spiritual sense the church. The reason is that those who grasp the spiritual sense, those, that is, who are spiritual like the angels, do not understand the actual earth when earth is mentioned in the Word, but the people on it, and their worship of God. That is why earth means the church. Proof of this is to be found in ARCANA CAELESTIA; see below. 1 I should like to quote one or two passages from the Word, which allow one to grasp to some extent that earth means the church:
The flood-gates on high have been opened, and the foundations of the earth have been shaken. The earth was utterly shattered, the earth quaked exceedingly. The earth reels to and fro like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; and its transgression weighs heavy on it. Isaiah 24:18-20.
I will make mankind scarcer than pure gold. Therefore I shall shake the heaven, and the earth will be shaken from its place on the day when Jehovah's anger is kindled. Isaiah 13:12-13.
The earth quaked before Him; the heavens trembled, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Joel 2:10.
The earth was shaken and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and were shaken. Psalms 18:7-8.
There are very many other such passages.
Footnotes:
1. Earth in the Word means the Lord's kingdom and the church: (662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 9325, 9643). In particular, because earth means the land of Canaan and from the earliest times the church was there, this too is why heaven is called the heavenly Canaan (567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9325, 9327). Also because earth in the spiritual sense means the people on it and their worship (1262). As a result earth means a number of things connected with the church (620, 636, 1066, 2571, 3368, 3379, 3404, 8732). The people of the earth means those who belong to the spiritual church (2928). An earthquake is a change in the condition of the church (3355). A New heaven and a new earth means a new church (1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535, 10373). The Most Ancient church, which existed before the flood, and the Ancient church which followed the flood, were in the land of Canaan (567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9327). At that time all the places there became representative of things in the Lord's kingdom and in the church (1585, 3686, 4447, 5136). Abraham was therefore ordered to go there, since a representative church was to be set up among his descendants starting from Jacob, and among them the Word was to be written; the last sense of this was to be composed of the things there which represented and stood for spiritual ideas (3686, 4447, 5176, 6516). Thus it is that earth and the land of Canaan mean the church (3038, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5757, 10568).
Arcana Coelestia #10568
10568. 'And he said to Him, If Your face is not going [before me], do not cause us to go up from here' means that if the Divine is not present there, nothing constituting the Church will be there. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah's face' as things that are interior and Divine in the Church, worship, and the Word, dealt with immediately above in 10567; and from the meaning of 'do not cause us to go up from here' as that nothing constituting the Church will be there. The reason why these words have this meaning is that being led into the land of Canaan means the establishment of the Church, and therefore 'do not cause us to go up from here' means that without those interior things nothing constituting the Church will be present. For the meaning of being led into the land of Canaan as the establishment of the Church, see above in 10560, 10561. The reason why being led into the land of Canaan means the establishment of the Church is that by the land of Canaan in the Word those in heaven understand nothing at all other than the Church. They perceive everything in the Word on a spiritual level; consequently when any land is mentioned they think of the kinds of things constituting the Church that exist in that land or among the nation inhabiting it. Angels in heaven cannot keep their mind focused on the idea of a land because that idea is a material one, nor on the idea of any nation since this idea too is material; therefore a spiritual idea is what immediately presents itself to them, an idea that has something to do with the Church. In general a spiritual idea has to do with the Lord, His kingdom, heaven, the Church, love to the Lord and faith in Him, and countless aspects of faith and love, thus of the Church. And if you are willing to believe it, it is impossible for any material idea to enter heaven; it is cast off at the gateway of heaven. This is how it is with every single thing in the Word. So it is then that being led into the land of Canaan means the establishment of the Church, and not being led in, implied in the present verse, its not being established.
