2. Before the New Jerusalem and its doctrine are treated of, something shall be said of the New Heaven and the New Earth. What is meant by "the first heaven and the first earth," which passed away, is shown in the small work Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed. Immediately after that event, that is, after the Last Judgment was completed, a New Heaven was created or formed by the Lord. This heaven was formed of all those who, from the coming of the Lord to the present time, had lived the life of faith and charity, since these alone were forms of heaven. For the form of heaven, according to which all consociations and communications therein are effected, is the form of the Divine truth from the Divine good proceeding from the Lord; and this form man as to his spirit acquires by a life according to the Divine truth. That the form of heaven is thence may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 200-212), and that all the angels are forms of heaven (n. 51-58, and 73-77). From these things it may be known, who they are of whom the New Heaven consists; and thereby what its quality is, namely, that it is altogether unanimous. For he who lives the life of faith and charity, loves another as himself, and by love conjoins him to himself, and thus reciprocally and mutually; for in the spiritual world, love is conjunction. Wherefore, when all act thus, then from many, yea from innumerable individuals consociated according to the form of heaven, unanimity exists, and they become as one; for then nothing separates and divides, but everything conjoins and unites.

4492. All that went out of the gate of his city. That this signifies that they would recede from the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients, is evident from the signification of “going out,” as here being to recede; and from the signification of the “gate of a city,” as being doctrine (see n. 2943, 4477), here the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients, because it was the gate of “his city,” that is, of Shechem, for by Shechem is represented the truth of the Church among the Ancients (n. 4454). As before said, by the Church among the Ancients is meant that which was from the Most Ancient Church. How the case herein is will appear from what now follows.

65. X. ON THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLITION.

We read in the book of Revelation:

I saw a mighty throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose sight earth and heaven fled, and their place was not found. Revelation 20:11.

And later:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Revelation 21:1.

I showed in the first chapter of this book and elsewhere in it that the new heaven and the new earth and the passing away of the former heaven and the former earth do not refer to the visible sky and the earth on which we live, but to the heaven of angels and the church. For the Word is in essence spiritual and therefore deals with spiritual matters, that is, those which have to do with heaven and the church. Natural things are used in the literal sense to stand for them, because what is natural serves what is spiritual for a base; and without such a base the Word would not be a work of God, because it would be incomplete. It is the natural, standing last in God's order, which completes and gives the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, a base on which to rest, like a house on its foundations.

[2] Because people have thought about the contents of the Word from a natural instead of a spiritual point of view, they have taken heaven and earth in these and other passages to mean the sky in the natural world and the earth similarly. That is why everyone expects them to pass away and be destroyed, and new ones to be created. To prevent this expectation continuing for ever and being frustrated in each century, the spiritual sense of the Word has been opened up, so that the meaning of many expressions in the Word may be known, which cannot fall within our understanding as long as we think in a natural manner about them; and this includes the heaven and earth which will pass away.