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.

66. But before revealing what is meant by the first heaven and the first earth I must make it known that the first heaven does not mean the heaven composed of those who have become angels from the time this world was first created down to the present, for this is a constant heaven which will last for ever. All who reach heaven are under the Lord's protection, and once accepted no one can be torn away from the Lord. Rather the first heaven means the collection of those who have not become angels, and for the most part could not become angels. Who they were and what they were like will be related in the following pages. That is the heaven which is said to have passed away. It is called a heaven because those who were in it lived in communities on rocks and mountains and enjoyed pleasures similar to natural ones, but no spiritual pleasures. Most people who come from earth into the spiritual world think they are in heaven when they are high up and enjoying the same kind of pleasures as they did in the world. That is why it was called a heaven, but the first heaven which passed away.