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:

6516. 'In my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you are to bury me' means that it - the Church - was to be restored to life where the previous one had existed. This is clear from the meaning of 'a grave' and 'burying' as restoring to life, dealt with in 5551; and from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan' as the Lord's kingdom and the Church, dealt with in 1413, 1437, 1607, 1866, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4240, 4447. The reason Jacob wished to be buried in the land of Canaan, where Abraham and Isaac had been buried, and not in any other place was that his descendants were going to possess that land, and so he would be lying among his own people. But in the internal sense not this but something else is meant, namely regeneration and resurrection, because these are what the Church resides in. For 'burial' means in the internal sense regeneration and resurrection, 2916, 1917, 4621, 5551. While 'the land of Canaan' means the Church, as is evident from the places referred to above in the present paragraph, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob represent the Lord as regards the Divine itself and the Divine Human, and in the relative sense the Lord's kingdom as regards the internal aspect and the external aspect of it, 1965, 1989, 2011, 3245, 3305 (end), 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276. This then is what is meant in the internal sense by the burial of them in that land; and it explains why among Jews who believe in resurrection the conviction continues to exist that even though they have been buried in some other place they will nevertheless rise again in the land of Canaan.

[2] The reason why it is said that the Church was to be restored to life in the place where the previous one had existed is that the Lord's Church had existed in that land since most ancient times, see 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136. It also explains why Abraham was told to go there and why the descendants of Jacob were led into it. And the reason for all this was not that the land was holier than all others but that since most ancient times all the locations there, both provinces and cities as well as mountains and rivers, had been representative of such things as belonged to the Lord's kingdom; and the actual names conferred on those locations implied such things. For every particular name supplied from heaven to a place or person implies some celestial or spiritual reality; and when the name has been supplied from heaven, that reality is perceived by them there. The Most Ancient Church too, which was celestial and was in contact with heaven, was one that used to confer names. The reason therefore why the Church was to exist again in that land was that a Word was going to be given in which every detail would be representative of and would mean some spiritual or celestial reality, and that Word would accordingly be understood in heaven no less than on earth. But this could not possibly have been accomplished unless also the names of places and persons had had spiritual meanings. This is the reason why the descendants of Jacob were led into that land, why prophets were raised up there through whom the Word was written, and therefore why a representative of the Church was established among Jacob's descendants. From all this one may see the reason for the statement that the Church was to be restored to life where the previous one had existed.

[3] The fact that names in the Word mean spiritual things may be seen in 1224, 1264, 1876, 1888, 4442, 5225, as well as in the multitude of places where explanations are given of what their meanings are. But the fact that in heaven they perceive what the meanings are of names used in the Word, and that they do this without prior instruction, is an arcanum unknown as yet to anyone and must therefore be described. When the Word is read the Lord comes in and teaches; also - and this is one of the marvels in the spiritual world - writings exist, which I have frequently seen and been able to read yet not understand. But good spirits and angels understand them perfectly well because those writings accord with the universal language they speak. I have been led to know that individual words used there, even individual letters, hold within themselves the kinds of things that belong to that world, thus spiritual things, and that these are perceived there from the breath that is used, and from the affection resulting from the uttering of those words, thus from the varying smooth or rough delivery of them. But it is probable that hardly anyone will believe this. This arcanum has been disclosed so that people may know that those in heaven perceive instantly what the meanings are of names used in the Word, because those names are registered in heaven.