918. 21:22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. This symbolically means that the New Church will have no external element divorced from an internal one, because it turns to the Lord Himself in His Divine humanity, from whom comes everything connected with the church, and worships and adores Him alone.

John's not seeing a temple in the city does not mean that the New Church, or New Jerusalem, will not have any temples in it, but that it will not have any external element without an internal one. That is because a temple symbolizes the church in respect to its worship, and in a higher sense the Lord Himself in respect to His Divine humanity, which is to be worshiped, as may be seen in nos. 191, 529, 585 above. Moreover, because everything connected with the church comes from the Lord, therefore we are told that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the city's temple, which symbolizes the Lord in His Divine humanity. The Lord God Almighty means the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself, and the Lamb symbolizes His Divine humanity, as we have said many times above.

331. And behold, there was a great earthquake. This symbolizes the state of the church among those people completely changed, and their terror.

Earthquakes symbolize changes in the state of the church because the earth symbolizes the church (no. 285), and because in the spiritual world, when the state of the church is corrupted somewhere and a change is made, an earthquake occurs. And because this presages the people's destruction, they are in terror. For lands in the spiritual world are in appearance like lands in the natural world (no. 260). But because lands there, like everything else in that world, have a spiritual origin, therefore those lands change in accordance with the state of the church among the inhabitants upon them, and when the state of the church is corrupted, the lands tremble and quake, even sinking down and being moved from their location.

That this is what happened when the Last Judgment was imminent and taking place may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment.

It can be seen from this what quakes, shakings and removals of the earth symbolize in the following places:

...there will be pestilences, famines, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7, cf. Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11)

(These things are said there of the Last Judgment.)

...in the fire of My wrath I have spoken, if in that day there is not a great earthquake... so that... every person on the face of the earth shakes... and the mountains are overthrown... (Ezekiel 38:18-20).

...there was a great earthquake, such as had not occurred since people came on the earth. (Revelation 16:18)

...I will shake the heavens, and the earth will be moved out of her place, in the wrath of Jehovah of hosts... (Isaiah 13:13)

...the foundations of the earth are shaken... The earth is shaken exceedingly...(because) its transgression is heavy upon it... (Isaiah 24:18-20)

The earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the hills..., because He was angry. (Psalms 18:7)

The mountains quake before (Jehovah)...and the rocks are overthrown... (Nahum 1:5-6)

So likewise in other places, as in Jeremiah 10:10; 49:21, Joel 2:10, Haggai 2:6-7, Revelation 11:19, and elsewhere.

These things, however, must be understood as taking place in the spiritual world, and not in the natural world. In the natural world they symbolize such things as stated above.