The Last JudgmentEmanuel Swedenborg
The Last Judgment
Emanuel Swedenborg
The Day of the Last Judgment does not mean the Destruction of the
World
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(1) Those who have not known the spiritual sense of the Word, have understood that everything in the visible world will be destroyed in the day of the Last Judgment; for it is said, that heaven and earth are then to perish, and that God will create a New Heaven and a New Earth. In this opinion they have also confirmed themselves because it is said, that all are then to rise from their graves, and that the good are then to be separated from the evil, with more to the same purport. But this is said in the sense of the letter of the Word...
He who comprehends the Word only according to the sense of the letter, may be led into various opinions, as indeed has been the case in the Christian world, where so many heresies have thus arisen, and everyone of them is confirmed from the Word. But since no one has hitherto known, that in the whole and in every part of the Word there is a spiritual sense, nor even what the spiritual sense is; therefore they who have embraced this opinion concerning the Last Judgment are excusable.
But still they may now know, that neither the visible heaven nor the habitable earth will perish, but that both will endure; and that by "the New Heaven and the New Earth" is meant a New Church, both in the heavens and on the earth.
It is said a New Church in the heavens, for there is a church in the heavens, as well as on the earth; for there also is the Word, and likewise preachings, and Divine worship as on the earth; but with a difference, that there all things are in a more perfect state, because there they are not in the natural world, but in the spiritual; hence all there are spiritual men, and not natural as they were in the world. That it is so, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell...
(2) The passages in the Word, in which mention is made of the destruction of heaven and
earth, are the following :
Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the earth beneath; the heavens are about to
perish like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment (Isa. 51:6). Behold, I am about to create new heavens, and a new earth; neither shall the former
things be remembered (Isa. 65:17). I will make new heavens and a new earth (Isa. 66:22). The stars of heaven have fallen to the earth, and heaven has departed like a book
rolled together (Apoc. 6:13, 14). I saw a great throne, and One sitting thereon, from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and their place was not found (Apoc. 20:11). I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away (Apoc. 21:1).
In these passages, by "a New Heaven" is not meant the visible heaven, but heaven itself where the human race is collected... Every one who thinks from a somewhat enlightened reason may perceive that it is not the starry heaven, which is here meant, but that it is heaven in the spiritual sense, where angels and spirits are.
(3) That by "the new earth" is meant a New Church on earth, has hitherto been
unknown, for everyone by "earth" in the Word has understood the earth, when yet
by it is meant the church; in the natural sense, earth is the earth, but in the spiritual
sense it is the church, because they who are in the spiritual sense, that is, who are
spiritual, as the angels are, when "the earth" is named in the Word, do not
understand the earth itself, but the nation which is there, and its Divine worship; hence
it is that by "earth" is signified the church... I will here adduce one or two
passages from the Word, by which in some measure it may be comprehended, that
"earth" (land) signifies the church:
The cataracts from on high were opened, and the foundations of the earth were shaken;
in breaking, the earth is broken; in agitating, the earth is agitated; in reeling, the
earth reels like a drunkard; it moves to and fro like a cottage; and heavy upon it is the
transgression thereof (Isa. 24:18-20). I will cause a man to be more rare than pure gold; therefore I will remove the heaven,
and the earth shall be removed out of her place, in the day of the fierce anger of Jehovah
(Isa. 13:12, 13). The earth was agitated before Him, the heavens have trembled, the sun and the moon are
become black, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor (Joel 2:10). The land was shaken and agitated, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and
were shaken (Ps. 18:7, 8).
(4) "To create" in the spiritual sense of the Word also signifies to form, to
establish, and to regenerate; so by "creating a new heaven and a new earth"
signifies to establish a New Church in heaven and on earth, as may appear from the
following passages:
The people who shall be created shall praise Jah (Ps. 102:18). Thou sendest forth the spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the faces of the
earth (Ps. 104:30). Thus said Jehovah, thy Creator, O Jacob, thy Former, O Israel, for I have redeemed
thee, and I have called thee by thy name, thou art Mine; everyone called by My name, and
for My glory I have created, I have formed him, yea, I have made him (Isa. 43:1, 7).
Hence it is, that "the new creation" of man is his reformation, since he is made anew, that is, from natural he is made spiritual; and hence it is that "a new creature" is a reformed man.
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