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 #5577
5577. 'In the land' means in the case of the integral parts of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' in the Word as the Church, and therefore here the integral parts of the Church; for whatever serves to mean the Church also means its integral parts since it is made up of these. The reason why in the Word 'the land' means the Church is that the land of Canaan was the one in which the Church had existed since most ancient times. Consequently when the expression 'the land' appears in the Word it is used to mean the land of Canaan; and when this particular land is meant one understands the Church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it; yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it. Consequently they concern themselves with an idea of the Church when 'the land', used to mean the land of Canaan, appears there.
[2] From this one may see how deluded those people are who believe - on the basis of prophetical utterances in the Old Testament, and in John in the New - that on the day when the last judgement takes place a new earth or land and a new heaven or sky are going to be created, when in fact nothing else than a new external Church is meant by 'a new earth' and a new internal Church by 'a new heaven'. These deluded people also believe that something other than the Church is meant when the expression 'the whole earth' is used in the Word. This shows how little understanding of the Word exists with those who imagine that the Word does not contain any meaning more holy than that shining out of the letter alone.
Regarding the existence of the Church in the land of Canaan since most ancient times, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136.
Regarding 'the land' in the Word meaning the Church, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1928, 4447.
Regarding 'a new heaven and a new earth' meaning a new Church, internal and external, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535.
