79. That to commit adultery in the spiritual sense means to adulterate the Word’s goods and falsify its truths is clear from the following:

Babylon...has made all nations drink of the wine...of her licentiousness. (Revelation 14:8)

(The angel said, ) “...I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed whoredom....” (Revelation 17:1-2)

(Babylon made) all nations (drink) of the wine of the wrath of her licentiousness, and the kings of the earth have committed whoredom with her.... (Revelation 18:3)

(God) has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her licentiousness.... (Revelation 19:2) Licentiousness is attributed to Babylon because Babylon means people who arrogate the Lord’s Divine power to themselves and profane the Word by adulterating and falsifying it. Consequently Babylon is also called “the mother of the whoredoms and abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5).

[2] Licentiousness also has the same symbolic meaning in the Prophets, as in Jeremiah:

In the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking obstinacy in committing adultery and walking in lies. (Jeremiah 23:14) In Ezekiel:

...two women, the daughters of one mother, ...committed harlotry in Egypt; they committed harlotry in their youth.... (One) played the harlot under Me, and she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians.... She committed her harlotries with them.... (Yet) she has never given up her harlotries in Egypt....

(The other) corrupted her love more than she, and her harlotries more than her sister’s harlotries.... She increased her harlotries..., she loved (Chaldeans).... Then the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their licentiousness. (Ezekiel 23:2-17) The reference here is to the Israelite and Jewish churches, which in this passage are the daughters of one mother. Their harlotries mean adulterations and falsifications of the Word. And because Egypt in the Word symbolizes knowledge, Assyria reasoning, Chaldea the profanation of truth, and Babylon the profanation of good, therefore we are told that they committed harlotry with them.

[3] The same is said in Ezekiel of Jerusalem, which symbolizes the church in respect to doctrine:

(O Jerusalem, ) you trusted in your beauty, and played the harlot because of your fame, so that you poured out your harlotries on everyone passing by.... You committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your neighbors, enormously fat, and increased your harlotry.... You played the harlot with the Assyrians.... When you were not satisfied by those with whom you played the harlot, you increased your harlotry as far as the land of the Chaldean trader.... Adulterous woman, who takes strangers instead of her husband! All men make payment to their harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, ...to come to you from all around for your harlotries.... Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah! (Ezekiel 16:15, 26, 28-29, 32-33, 35ff.) That Jerusalem means the church may be seen in The Doctrine Regarding the Lord 62-63.

References to licentiousness have the same symbolic meaning in Isaiah 23:17-18, 57:3; in Jeremiah 3:2, 6, 8-9, 5:1, 7, 13:27, 29:23; in Micah 1:7; in Nahum 3:3-4; in Hosea 4:2, 10-11; also in Leviticus 20:5; Numbers 14:33, 15:39; and elsewhere.

For this reason, too, the Lord called the Jewish nation “an adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39, 16:4, Mark 8:38).

62. The New Church Is Meant by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation

After the book of Revelation describes what the state of the Christian Church would be at its end, and what it is now, and after those people of that church who are meant by the false prophet, the dragon, the harlot, and beasts have been cast into hell, thus after the Last Judgment had been accomplished, we are told then:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.... Then I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.... And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And (He) Himself will be with them and be their God.... He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:1-3, 5)

The new heaven and new earth that John saw, after the first heaven and first earth had passed away, do not mean a new stellar or meteorological heaven visible to human eyes, nor a new earth for people to dwell on. Rather they mean the new existence of a church in the spiritual world, and the new existence of a church in the natural world.

[2] Since the new existence of a church in both worlds, spiritual and natural, was brought about by the Lord when He was in the world, therefore a similar prediction is made in the Prophets, namely that a new heaven and new earth would then come into existence, as said in Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, and elsewhere. And these cannot mean, therefore, a new heaven visible to the eyes, or an earth inhabitable by people.

By the spiritual world we mean the world where angels and spirits dwell, and by the natural world we mean the world where people dwell.

The new existence of a church has been recently brought about in the spiritual world, and the new existence of a church will be brought about in the world, as we have shown several times in the short work The Last Judgment, and as we will show more fully in its Continuation.