74. I had various talks with angels about the future state of the church. They said that they did not know what would happen, because the Lord alone knows the future. What they did know was that the servitude and captivity, in which people in the church have up to now been held, had been taken away, so that now through the restoration of freedom they could better perceive interior truths, if they wished to do so, and thus, if they wished, become interior people. But they said that they still had only faint hopes of the people in the Christian church, though much better hopes of a people far removed from the Christian world and sheltered from its attackers, since it was of a nature able to receive spiritual light and become celestial-spiritual people. They said that at the present time interior truths are being revealed among that people, and they are being received with spiritual faith, that is, in the way they live and in their hearts; and they worship the Lord.

5. These things are concerning the New Heaven; something shall now be said concerning "the New Earth." By "the New Earth" is meant the New Church on the earth; for when a former church ceases to exist, then a new one is established by the Lord. For it is provided by the Lord that there should always be a church on earth, since by means of the church there is a conjunction of the Lord with the human race, and of heaven with the world; for there the Lord is known, and there are the Divine truths by which man is conjoined to Him. That a New Church is at this time being established, may be seen in the small work on The Last Judgment (n. 74). The reason why a New Church is signified by "the New Earth" arises from the spiritual sense of the Word; for in that sense, by the "earth" no particular country is meant, but the nation dwelling there, and its Divine worship; this, in the spiritual sense, being what answers to earth in the natural sense.

Moreover, by "earth" in the Word, when there is no name of any particular country affixed to the term, is signified the land of Canaan; and in the land of Canaan a church had existed from the most ancient times; in consequence of which, all the places therein, and in the adjacent countries, with the mountains and rivers, which are mentioned in the Word, became representative and significative of the things which are the internals of the church, and which are called its spiritual things. Hence it is, as was said, that "earth" in the Word, because it means the land of Canaan, signifies the church; in like manner here by "the New Earth"; from this comes the custom in the church to speak of the heavenly Canaan, by which is meant heaven.

That "the land of Canaan," in the spiritual sense of the Word, signifies the church, is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, in various places, of which the following are here adduced:

The Most Ancient Church, which was before the flood, and the Ancient Church, which was after the flood, were in the land of Canaan (n. 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516-4517, 5136, 6516, 9325). Then all places in that land became representative of such things as are in the kingdom of the Lord, and in the church (n. 1585, 3686, 4447, 5136). Therefore Abraham was commanded to go thither, since with his posterity from Jacob, a representative church might be established, and that the Word might be written, the ultimate of which should consist of representatives and significatives which are there (n. 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516). Hence it is that "earth" and "the land of Canaan," when they are mentioned in the Word, signify the church (n. 3038, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5757, 10568).

4454. 'And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers' means counsel taken by the truth from the ancient Divine stock with the good and truth of this semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in this case as taking counsel; from the representation of 'Shechem' as the truth from the ancient Divine stock, dealt with above in 4447; from the meaning of 'father', who in this case is Jacob, as the good of truth, dealt with in 4273, 4337; and from the meaning of 'brothers', who in this case are the sons of Jacob, as truths, dealt with above. It is evident from the references quoted above in 4447 that Shechem means truth from the ancient Divine stock; for Hamor the Hivite together with his nation and family in the land of Canaan were part of the remnants of the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial. This Church, more than all other Churches in the whole world, was in origin Divine, for the good of love to the Lord was present in it. Will and understanding with them made one, and so one mind, and on that account they had from good a perception of truth. For the Lord was flowing in by an internal route into the good present in their will and from this into the good present in their understanding, that is, into their truth, as a consequence of which that Church more than all others was called Man, 477-479, and also the Likeness of God, 51, 473, 1013. From this one may see why Hamor and Shechem are said to be from the ancient Divine stock, as previously in 4399. The fact that the Most Ancient Church, which was called 'Man', or to use the Hebrew word 'Adam', was located in the land of Canaan, as stated above in 4447, is quite evident from their descendants who were called the Nephilim, Genesis 6:4. The presence of the latter in the land of Canaan is referred to in Numbers 13:33; see 581. But at that time the expression 'the land of Canaan' was used to mean all the land from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, Genesis 15:18.