869. 20:13 Then the sea gave up the dead who were in it. This symbolizes external and natural people in the church called together for judgment.

The sea symbolizes the external component of the church, which is natural. Thus those whom the sea gave up symbolize external and natural people in the church. That the sea symbolizes the external component of the church, which is natural, may be seen in nos. 238, 398 at the end, 402-404, 470, 565[r], 659, 661 above. The dead mean people who had died from earthly lands, as in nos. 866, 868 above.

The dead that the sea gave up mean external people in the church, because the only people judged were those who engaged in some worship. For all those who scorned the sanctities of the church and denied the reality of God, the Word, and life after death, were judged immediately after death and conjoined with people in hell, to which they were subsequently cast down. But external and natural people who had professed with the mouth the reality of God and of heaven and hell, and had acknowledged the Word to some extent - these were the ones called together for judgment.

Many of those "from the sea" were saved, for we do not read that they were all cast into the lake of fire, as Death and Hell were. Rather we are told that any of them not found written in the Book of Life were cast into the lake of fire (verse 15). Those among them who were saved are also meant by the rest of the dead who did not live again until the thousand years were completed (verse 5).

It can now be seen from this that the sea's giving up the dead who were in it symbolizes external and natural people in the church called together for judgment.

866. 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. This symbolizes all people of every condition and character, who had died from earthly lands and were now among those in the world of spirits, gathered by the Lord for judgment.

The dead symbolize all who had departed from earthly lands, or who had died physically. More on this below. Small and great symbolize people of every condition and character, as in no. 604. To stand before God, that is, before Him who sat on the throne, symbolically means to be gathered and presented for judgment.

The dead in the Word have the same symbolic meaning as their deaths, and deaths have various symbolic meanings. For death symbolizes not only the extinction of natural life, which is its demise, but also the extinction of spiritual life, which is a state of damnation. Death also symbolizes the extinction of physical loves or lusts of the flesh, which is followed by a renewal of life. Death likewise symbolizes resurrection, because after death a person immediately rises again. Death also symbolizes a state of being ignored, disregarded and rejected by the world.

In its most general sense, however, death has the same symbolic meaning as the Devil, which is why the Devil is also called Death, ¹ and the Devil means the hell where the inhabitants are called devils. Consequently death means evil of will as well, which makes a person to be a devil. It is in this last sense that Death is referred to in the next two verses, where we are told that Death and Hell delivered up their dead and that these were cast into the lake of fire.

It can be seen from this who are symbolically meant by the dead in the various senses of the term. Symbolized here are all those people who had departed from the world or died from earthly lands, and were then in the world of spirits.

[2] We say, in the world of spirits, because all people come first into that world after their demise, and are there prepared, the good for heaven and the evil for hell, and some remain there for only a month or a year, and some for as much as ten to thirty years. And those who were granted to form for themselves pseudo-heavens remained there for several centuries. People today, however, remain no more than twenty years. There is a huge multitude of them, and they form societies there as in the heavens and hells. Regarding this world, see nos. 784, 791 above.

It was on these people in the world of spirits that the Last Judgment was executed, and not on those in heaven or those in hell. For those who were in heaven had already been saved, and those who were in hell had already been damned.

It can be seen from this how deluded those people are who believe that the Last Judgment will take place on earth, and that people will then rise again with their bodies. For all who have lived from the first creation of the world are together in the spiritual world, and all are clothed with a spiritual body, so that to the eyes of spiritual people they appear in the same human form as people do in the natural world to the eyes of natural people.

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