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 #3481
3481. I have quite often been in conversation with Jews in the next life. They appear in a forward position on the lower earth below the level of the left foot, and on one occasion I also spoke about the Word, the land of Canaan, and the Lord. I said that the Word contained very deep arcana which are not visible to men. This point they agreed with. After that I said that all the arcana there deal with the Messiah and His kingdom. This also they assented to. But when I told them that Messiah in Hebrew is the same as Christ in Greek they would not listen. And again when I said that the Messiah was the Most Holy One, that Jehovah was within Him, that none other was meant by the Holy One of Israel and by the God of Jacob, and that seeing that He is the Most Holy One none can be in His kingdom except those who are holy not outwardly but inwardly - who are not accordingly under the influence of the filthy love of the world, or of a superior attitude towards other nations, or of hatred for one another - they could not listen to it.
[2] After that I said that the Messiah's kingdom according to prophecy was going to last for ever, and those with Him would also inherit the land for ever. If His kingdom were of this world and they were brought into the land of Canaan it would last only for the few years that constitute the human life-span. Besides, all who had died since the expulsion of the Jews from the land of Canaan would not enjoy such blessedness. From this, I said, they could recognize that the land of Canaan represented and meant the heavenly kingdom; indeed they would recognize it all the more easily, in that they now knew they were in the next life and were going to live for ever, from which it was evident that this next life was the place where the Messiah had His kingdom. And, I continued, if they were allowed to talk to angels they could know that the whole angelic heaven was the Lord's kingdom.
[3] I added that by the new earth, the new Jerusalem, and the new temple described in Ezekiel nothing else could be meant than such a kingdom of the Messiah. To all these points they were unable to make any response apart from weeping bitterly at the prospect of being led into the land of Canaan by the Messiah only to die after so few years and leave behind the blessedness they were to enjoy there.
