330. Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal. (6:12) This symbolizes an examination by the Lord of the states of life of people who were inwardly evil, on whom the Last Judgment would fall.

That these people are the subject is apparent from what now follows. But for those things to be understood, two secrets need to be revealed:

First, that the Last Judgment was not executed on any but people who in outward appearance seemed to be Christians, professing with their mouth matters having to do with the church, but who in their inner makeup or heart were in opposition to them. And because they were of such a character, therefore as to their outward lives they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, and as to their inner ones, with hell.

Second, that as long as they were conjoined with the lowest heaven, the inner qualities of their will and love were kept closed off, so that they did not appear evil to others. But when they were separated from the lowest heaven, then their inner qualities were disclosed, which were in total opposition to their outer qualities, qualities by which they had pretended and feigned themselves to be angels of heaven and the places where they dwelled to be heavens. These so-called heavens were the ones that passed away at the time of the Last Judgment (Revelation 21:1).

More on this subject, however, may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment, nos. 70, 71, and in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, no. 10.

10. 2. Who the people of the first heaven and the first earth were and what they were like. This has also been described in the booklet Last Judgment [§§68–71], but since understanding what follows depends on a recognition of who they were and what they were like, I need to say more about them now.

All those people who gathered below heaven and made pseudo-heavens for themselves in various places (which they actually called “heavens”) were closely connected with angels of the lowest heaven. The connection, though, involved only outward matters, not inward ones. Many were “the goats” mentioned in Matthew 25:41–46 or members of their family. They were people who had not done evil things in the world and who had lived good moral lives, but who had not done what was good for good reasons; they had in fact separated faith from caring and had therefore not regarded evil deeds as sins. Since they had lived like Christians outwardly, they were closely connected with the angels of the lowest heaven, who resembled them outwardly, although not inwardly. These angels were in fact the sheep [mentioned in Matthew 25:31–40]. They were people of faith too, but in their case their faith was the result of their caring.

Because of this close connection, there was no way to avoid making allowances for the goats, since separating them before the Last Judgment would have been harmful to the people in the lowest heaven. These people would actually have been dragged down with the others into destruction. This is what the Lord foretold in Matthew:

Jesus spoke a parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people slept, an enemy of his came and sowed tares and went away. When the grain had sprouted and bore fruit, the tares also appeared. The servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Lord, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Do you want us to go and gather in the tares?’ But he said, ‘No, because while gathering in the tares, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First gather the tares and bind them in bundles for burning; then gather the wheat into the barn.”’ The one who sowed good seed is the Son of Humanity; the field is the world; the good seeds are the children of the kingdom; the tares are the children of the evil one; the harvest is the close of the age. As the tares are gathered and burned, so it will be at the close of the age.” (Matthew 13:24–30, 37–40)

The close of the age is the last time of the church; the tares are people who are inwardly evil; the wheat is people who are inwardly good; binding the former in bundles for burning is the Last Judgment on them; “because while gathering in the tares, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow until the harvest” means that by separating them before the Last Judgment harm might have been done to good people.