877. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. This symbolizes the heavens formed, not by the Lord, but by the people themselves who came into the spiritual world from the Christian world, all of which were dispersed at the time of the Last Judgment.

That these heavens and no others are the heavens meant by the first heaven and the first earth that had passed away, may be seen in no. 865 above, where we explained the words, "I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face heaven and earth fled away" (Revelation 20:11), and where we showed that the statement symbolizes a universal judgment executed by the Lord on all the former heavens that were occupied by people possessing a civil and moral goodness, but no spiritual goodness, thus who gave the appearance of being Christians outwardly, but who inwardly were devils; whose heavens with their lands were totally dispersed.

More on this subject may be seen in the short work, The Last Judgment (London, 1758), and in A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment (Amsterdam, 1763), to which it is unnecessary to add more.

631. 14:8 And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city." This symbolically means that the Roman Catholic religion has now been dispelled with respect to its dogmas and doctrines.

Another angel symbolizes something new now from the Lord, as in no. 626 above. The great city Babylon symbolizes the Roman Catholic religion with respect to its dogmas and doctrines. To fall means, symbolically, to be dispersed, for falling is said of a city, but dispersed is said of a religion and its doctrine, which is what the city Babylon symbolizes. That a city symbolizes doctrine may be seen in no. 194 above.

This declaration is now made about Babylon because after the Lord formed the New Christian Heaven, He at the same time formed a new one with people who were of the Roman Catholic religion. The reason is that the Christian heaven composed of the Protestant Reformed forms the core, and Roman Catholics are situated round about it. Consequently, when the core is new, what is on the peripheries is at the same time new. For the Divine light, which is Divine truth, propagates itself from the middle as a center into the peripheries round about, and the things that are in them are also put in order. It is for this reason that this brief reference to Babylon is made now, even though it is the subject taken up specifically in chapters 17, 18.

That Protestant Christians constitute the core, and Roman Catholics form the great peripheral area surrounding it, and that spiritual light, which is the Divine truth emanating from the Lord, radiates from the center all around to the peripheral areas, even to the last of them, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture, nos. 104-113 and in the small work, The Last Judgment48.

It may be seen from this that after dealing with the New Christian Heaven and preaching the gospel, the declaration regarding Babylon follows in the sequence. This, too, is the symbolic meaning of the word "followed."