Those unfamiliar with the spiritual sense of the Word have understood only that on the day of the Last Judgment everything in the world we see around us will be destroyed. For it is said that then heaven together with the earth will perish, and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. To reinforce this belief it has been noted that it is said that all will then come up out of their graves, and then the good will be separated from the wicked, and so on. But this is said in the literal sense of the Word, a sense which is natural and at the lowest level in God’s order, in which all the details contain a spiritual sense. As a result anyone who takes the Word only in its literal sense may be driven to accept various views, as has happened in the Christian world; this is the reason why there are so many heresies, every one of which is proved from the Word.
[2] Seeing, however, that no one has yet known that every detail of the Word contains a spiritual sense, nor even that there is such a thing as a spiritual sense, those who have taken this view of the Last Judgment should be forgiven. But they ought now to know that it is not the sky we see with our eyes which is to be destroyed nor is it the earth on which we live, both of which will remain in existence; but the ‘new heaven and new earth’ mean a new church, both in the heavens and upon earth. We say a new church in the heavens, because there is a church there just as much as on earth. There the Word is likewise to be found, there sermons are preached, and Divine worship takes place much as upon earth. The difference is that everything there is in a more perfect condition, because it is not in the natural but the spiritual world. So all the people there are spiritual, and not natural as they were in the world. On this subject see my HEAVEN AND HELL, in particular the description there of how heaven is linked with man by means of the Word (HH 303-310) and of Divine worship in heaven (HH 221-227).
Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down upon the earth. The heavens shall perish like smoke, and the earth like a worn-out garment. Isa. 51:6.
Lo, I will create new heavens and a new earth, and the former ones will not be mentioned. Isa. 65:17.
I will make new heavens and a new earth. Isa. 66:22.
The stars of heaven fell to earth, and the heaven departed like a scroll which is rolled up. Rev. 6:13, 14.
I saw a mighty throne and one sitting on it, earth and heaven fled from his gaze, and their place was found no more. Rev. 20:11.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had gone away. Rev. 21:1.
In these passages a new heaven does not mean the sky we see with our eyes, but the real heaven, where the human race is gathered. For heaven is a collection of the whole human race right from the beginning of the Christian church; but those in it were not angels, but spirits from various religious bodies. This is what is meant by the first heaven which is to be destroyed; but how this can be, I shall explain in more detail in what follows. At this point it is merely mentioned so that it may be known what is meant by the first heaven which is to be destroyed. Anyone indeed whose thoughts are at all enlightened can see that it is not the starry sky, the immense firmament of creation, which is meant, but heaven in the spiritual sense, where the angels and spirits are.
The flood-gates on high have been opened, and the foundations of the earth have been shaken. The earth was utterly shattered, the earth quaked exceedingly. The earth reels to and fro like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; and its transgression weighs heavy on it. Isa. 24:18-20.
I will make mankind scarcer than pure gold. Therefore I shall shake the heaven, and the earth will be shaken from its place on the day when Jehovah’s anger is kindled. Isa. 13:12, 13.
The earth quaked before Him; the heavens trembled, the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars withdrew their shining. Joel 2:10.
The earth was shaken and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and were shaken. Ps. 18:7, 8.
There are very many other such passages.
# Earth in the Word means the Lord’s kingdom and the church: (AC 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 9325, 9643). In particular, because earth means the land of Canaan and from the earliest times the church was there, this too is why heaven is called the heavenly Canaan (AC 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9325 9327). Also because earth in the spiritual sense means the people on it and their worship (AC 1262). As a result earth means a number of things connected with the church (AC 620, 636, 1066, 2571, 3368, 3379, 3404, 8732). The people of the earth means those who belong to the spiritual church (AC 2928). An earthquake is a change in the condition of the church (AC 3355). A New heaven and a new earth means a new church (AC 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535, 10373).
The Most Ancient church, which existed before the flood, and the Ancient church which followed the flood, were in the land of Canaan (AC 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9327). At that time all the places there became representative of things in the Lord’s kingdom and in the church (AC 1585, 3686, 4447 5136). Abraham was therefore ordered to go there, since a representative church was to be set up among his descendants starting from Jacob, and among them the Word was to be written; the last sense of this was to be composed of the things there which represented and stood for spiritual ideas (AC 3686, 4447, 5176 6516). Thus it is that earth and the land of Canaan mean the church (AC 3038, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5757, 10568).
A people yet to be created shall praise Jah. Ps. 102:18.
You send forth your breath, they are created, and you make new the face of the earth. Ps. 104:30.
Thus spoke Jehovah, your Creator, Jacob, your Fashioner, Israel. [Do not be afraid,] for I have redeemed you and called you by your name. You are mine. Everyone who is called after my name, and created to be my glory, I have fashioned him and I have also made him. Isa. 43:1, 7 and elsewhere.
This is why a new creation is a person’s reformation, since he becomes a new man, becoming spiritual instead of natural. Consequently a new creation is a reformed person.#
# To create is to create anew or reform and regenerate (AC 16, 88, 10373, 10634). Creating a new heaven and a new earth is setting up a new church (AC 10373). The creation of heaven and earth in the first chapters of Genesis describes in the internal sense the setting up of a celestial church; this was the Most Ancient church (AC 8891, 9942, 10545).
THE REPRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE ON EARTH WILL NEVER CEASE
Those who have made it their belief that at the time of the Last Judgment everything both in the heavens and upon the earth will be destroyed, and their place will be taken by a new heaven and a new earth, are bound as a consequence to believe that new generations and the reproduction of the human race will cease after this. They think that this marks the completion of history and that people will change their state from what it was. But since the day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world as was demonstrated in the last chapter, it also follows that the human race will continue in existence, and reproduction will not cease.
1 The human race is the foundation upon which heaven is built.
2 The human race is the seed-bed of heaven.
3 The extent of the heaven for the angels is so immense that it cannot be filled to all eternity.
4 The numbers in heaven so far are comparatively small.
5 The perfection of heaven increases as its numbers grow.
6 Every work of God reflects infinity and eternity.
[2] Numerous passages in HEAVEN AND HELL can be constituted to prove the truth of this. The whole of heaven taken together relates to a single human being (HH 59-67); likewise each separate community in the heavens (HH 68-72). Consequently each individual angel has a perfect human form (HH 73-77); and this is the result of the Lord’s Divine Human (HH 78-86). See further in the sections on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in man (HH 87-102), the correspondence of heaven with everything on earth (HH 103-115) and the arrangement of heaven (HH 200-212).
[3] From this ordering of creation it can be seen that the coherent linkage from first things to last is such that taken together they make up a single unit; in this prior cannot be separated from posterior, just as cause cannot be separated from the effect produced by it. Thus the spiritual world cannot be separated from the natural world, nor this from the spiritual. In the same way the heaven where the angels are cannot be separated from the human race, nor the human race from that heaven. It has therefore been provided by the Lord that one should perform services for the other, that is, the heaven of angels should perform services for the human race, and the human race for the heaven of angels.
[4] So it is that the dwellings of angels are in heaven, to all appearance separate from the places where people on earth live; but the angels are still present with human beings in their affections for good and truth. Their being seen to be apart is an appearance, as can be established from the section in HEAVEN AND HELL dealing with space in heaven (HH 191-199).
[5] The following words of the Lord mean that the dwellings of angels are with human beings in their affections for good and truth:
He who loves me, keeps my word, and my Father will love him; and we shall come to him and make our dwelling with him. John 14:23.
[6] The Father and the Lord also there mean heaven, for where the Lord is, there is heaven. The Divine proceeding from the Lord makes heaven (see HEAVEN AND HELL 7-12 and 116-125). These words of the Lord also mean the same:
The comforter, the spirit of truth, remains among you and is in you. John 14:17.
The Comforter is Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, which is why He is also called the Spirit of truth. Divine truth makes heaven, and also the angels, because they receive that truth. For the Divine proceeding from the Lord being Divine Truth, the source of the heaven of angels, see HEAVEN AND HELL (126-140).
These words of the Lord too have a similar meaning: The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.
[7] The kingdom of God is Divine good and truth, which angels receive. The presence of angels and spirits with human beings and in their affections has been granted me to see a thousand times from their presence and dwelling with me. But angels and spirits do not know with which human beings they are, neither do human beings know with which angels and spirits they live; the Lord alone knows and arranges this.
In short, all affections for good and truth reach out into heaven, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. All affections for evil and falsity reach out into hell, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. Affections reach out into the spiritual world, almost as the range of sight reaches out into the natural world. The connexions in either place are much alike, the difference being that in the natural world they are with things, in the spiritual world with communities of angels.
[8] This makes it plain that the connexion between the heaven of angels and the human race is such that the existence of one is dependent upon the other. The heaven of angels without the human race would be like a house without a foundation, for heaven comes to an end in humanity and rests upon it. The situation is parallel to that in the individual person: his spiritual side, which is where his thoughts and will reside, acts upon his natural side, which is where his sense-impressions and actions take place, and in this they come to an end and stop. If a person did not have a natural side as well as a spiritual, and so was without those final and last stages, his spiritual side, the thoughts and affections of his spirit, would be dissipated, like things lacking boundaries.
[9] There is a similar event when a person passes from the natural world into the spiritual, which happens at death. Then, since he is a spirit, he stands not on his own base, but upon the common base, namely, the human race. Anyone unfamiliar with the secrets of heaven might think that angels can exist without human beings and human beings without angels. But I can emphatically state from all my experience of heaven, and from all my conversations with angels, that there is no angel or spirit who exists without a human being, and no human being without a spirit or angel; there is a mutual and reciprocal link. These considerations establish firstly that the human race and the heaven of angels make up a single unit, and depend on each other for their continued existence, so that one cannot be taken away from the other.
* [There is no 8 in the first edition.]
[2] It is possible that the human race might perish on planet; this happens if it utterly cuts itself off from the Divine. For then human beings no longer have a spiritual life, but only the natural kind of life animals have. People in that state could not form a community or be held in check by laws, since people lacking the influence of heaven, and consequently God’s control, would be mad, rushing without restraint into every kind of wickedness and falling one upon another.
[3] But although the human race might by losing contact with the Divine perish upon one planet, an event, however, guarded against by the Lord, it would still exist on other planets. For there are in the universe as many as some hundreds of thousands of planets; on this see my short book ON THE EARTHS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, CALLED PLANETS, AND THE EARTHS IN THE STARRY SKY. I have had word from heaven that the human race on this earth would have perished, so that not a single person would survive to-day, if the Lord had not come into the world and on this earth put on His Humanity and made it Divine. This would also have happened, if the Lord had not placed here a Word, which might serve as a basis and a link for the heaven of angels. On the Word as a link between heaven and men see HEAVEN AND HELL (HH 303-310). The truth of this can only be grasped by those who think in a spiritual fashion, those, that is, who by their acknowledgment of the Divine in the Lord are linked with heaven; these are the only people who can think in a spiritual fashion.
[2] The form of heaven resembles that of the human mind. Its perfection increases as truth and good, the sources of intelligence and wisdom, increase. The reason why the form of a human mind possessed of heavenly wisdom and intelligence resembles that of heaven is that the mind is a model of heaven on the smallest scale. That is why the thoughts and affections for good and truth of such people and of the angels are shared in every way with the communities of heaven around them. They reach out further as wisdom increases, that is, the more truths are grasped and planted in the intellect, and the more affections for good are planted in the will; this means in the mind, since the mind is composed of the intellect and the will.
[3] The mind of human beings and of angels is such that it can be enriched to eternity and enrichment increases its perfection. This happens especially when a person is guided by the Lord, for then he is led to real truths which are planted in the intellect and to real kinds of goodness which are planted in the will. Then the Lord arranges the whole structure of such a mind so as to resemble that of heaven, until finally it becomes a small-scale model of heaven. This comparison makes it plain that the increase in the number of angels makes heaven more perfect, since the two cases are similar.
[4] Again, every form is composed of different elements. A form not composed of different elements would not be a form since it would lack a peculiar quality and would not be able to change. The peculiar quality of each form arises from the mutual arrangement of its different elements, from their relationship to each other, and from their unity of purpose which causes every form to be regarded as a unit. The perfection of such a form increases, the more elements there are combined in it in this manner. For each element, as I said before, strengthens and augments the linking, so increasing the perfection. [5] These statements can be better demonstrated by the proofs offered in HEAVEN AND HELL, especially the sections showing that each community in heaven is a small-scale heaven, and each angel a heaven on the smallest scale (HH 51-58); also those dealing with the form of heaven as shown by association and connexion of communities there (HH 200-212), and with the wisdom of the angels of heaven (HH 265-275).
Such an infinite variety in details is caused by the fact that all things owe their origin to the Divine, who is infinite. There is thus a certain image of the infinite everywhere, so that all things may be looked upon by the Divine as His work, and at the same time that all things may reflect the Divine as being His work.
A rather trivial example may serve to illustrate how everything in Nature reflects infinity and eternity. Every seed, whether the fruit of a tree, a cereal or a flower, is so created that it is capable of infinite multiplication and eternal duration. For a single seed may produce many more, perhaps five or ten or twenty or a hundred, and each of these may produce as many more. If the fruitfulness of a single seed continued without a break, it might in only a hundred years cover the surface of not merely one planet, but of tens of thousands of planets. The seeds too are so created that they can continue in existence for ever. So it is plain how these contain the idea of infinity and eternity; and likewise other things.
The heaven of angels is the reason why everything in the universe has been created. For the heaven of angels is the purpose for which the human race was created, and the human race is the purpose for which the visible heavens and the planets it contains were created. Consequently that work of God, the heaven of angels, primarily has regard to infinity and eternity, and thence to its unlimited reproduction, for it is there the Divine Himself resides. From this it may be established that the human race will never come to an end; for if it did, the work of God would be restricted to a fixed number, and thus would cease to reflect infinity.
HEAVEN AND HELL ARE FROM THE HUMAN RACE
No one in the Christian world is aware that heaven and hell are from the human race. It is believed that angels were created from the beginning, and so heaven was formed; and that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light, but becoming a rebel was cast down together with his crew, and so hell was formed. The angels are exceedingly surprised that such is the belief of the Christian world; and even more so by the fact that people know nothing at all about heaven, when this is a leading point in what the church teaches. Because such ignorance abounds the angels were delighted that it has now pleased the Lord to make further revelations to Christians about heaven, and also about hell; and so as far as possible to dispel the darkness that deepens day by day, because the church has reached its end. The angels therefore wish me to assert as their own statement that the whole of heaven does not contain one angel who was created from the beginning, nor does hell contain any devil who was created an angel of light and then cast down; but that all the inhabitants of both heaven and hell are from the human race. Heaven contains those who lived in the world in a state of heavenly love and faith, hell those who lived in a state of hellish love and faith. They said that it is the whole of hell taken together which is called the Devil and Satan; the rear hell, the home of those called wicked genii, is called Devil, the front hell, the home of those called wicked spirits, is called Satan.# On the nature of the two hells see the final part of my book HEAVEN AND HELL. The angels explained the reason for the Christian world’s belief about the inhabitants of heaven and of hell as the result of a failure to understand certain passages in the Word as anything but literal accounts, instead of interpreting them and illustrating them in the light of the correct teaching from the Word. Yet the literal sense of the Word, unless previously illuminated by the church’s correct teaching, causes people’s minds to go astray in various directions; and this is the source of ignorance, heresy and error.#
# The hells taken together, or their inhabitants taken together, are called the Devil and Satan (AC 694) Those who were devils in the world become devils after death (AC 968).
## The church’s teaching is to be drawn from the Word (AC 3464, 5402, 6832, 10763, 10765). The Word cannot be understood without teaching (AC 9025, 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10582). True teaching is a lamp to readers of the Word (AC 10400). Correct teaching must come from those who are enlightened by the Lord (AC 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105). Those who without the benefit of teaching follow the literal sense of the Word cannot achieve any understanding of Divine truths (AC 9409, 9410, 10582). They fall into many errors (AC 10431). The nature of the difference between those whose teaching and learning is based on the church’s teaching derived from the Word, and those who rely only on the literal sense of the Word (AC 9025).
* [14, 15, 16, 18, 20 and 21 are repeated with minor changes from HH 311-316.]
[2] But I have been allowed, so as to convince people that this is untrue, to associate with angels and to talk with those in hell, and this for many years now, sometimes from morning till evening without a break, and so to learn about heaven and hell. This has been allowed in order to prevent people in the church from persisting in their mistaken belief about resurrection on the day of Judgment, about the state of the soul meanwhile, as well as about angels and the Devil. This being a belief in what is false, brings with it darkness, and plunges into doubt those who use their own intelligence to think about these subjects, so that they end up denying them. For they say to themselves, ‘How can the vastness of the sky with all its many constellations, along with the sun and the moon, be destroyed and scattered? How can the stars then fall out of the sky upon the earth, when they are bigger than the earth? And how can bodies which have been eaten by worms, or rotted away and scattered to the four winds, be reconstructed to join their souls? Where do souls live meanwhile, and what are they like if they lack the power of sensation they had in the body?’ They add many similar arguments which, being incomprehensible, pass belief, and in many cases destroy belief in personal everlasting life, heaven and hell, and consequently all the rest of the church’s beliefs. [3] The destruction of faith is plain from people who say: ‘Who has come to us from heaven and told us that it exists? What about hell? Is there such a place? What about people being tortured in fire for ever? What is the day of Judgment? Have not people been waiting for it for ages, and in vain?’ And a great deal more, which leads to a denial of everything. So to prevent those who think like this – and most of those do who have a reputation as educated and learned men as the result of their worldly wisdom – going on upsetting and leading astray those who have a simple belief and affection, throwing the darkness of hell over God, heaven, everlasting life and the other beliefs dependent on these, the Lord has laid open the interiors of my spirit. I have thus been permitted to speak after their death with all the people whom I had known in bodily life. In some cases this has been for days, in others for months, with others for a year, as well as with so many others that a hundred thousand would be an underestimate. Many of these were in the heavens and many in the hells. I have also spoken with some only two days after they died, and told them that their funerals and burial-services were being arranged. In reply they said they were happy to cast off what had served them for a body and its functions in the world, and they wanted me to say that they were not dead, but were living as human beings just as much as they were before, having only passed from one world into another. They said they were unaware of having suffered any loss, since they still had a body and bodily sense-perceptions as before, as well as an intellect and a will as before, so that their thoughts and affections, their sense-perceptions, pleasures and desires were all similar to those they had had in the world.
[4] Most of the recently dead on seeing that they were living as human beings as before were filled with unexpected joy at being alive, saying that they had never believed it would be so. Everyone’s state after death is at first like that he experienced in the world; but this gradually changes into heaven or hell. They were very surprised at their previous ignorance and blindness about how they would live after death; and the more so in the case of church members, who ought above all others in the whole world to be enlightened on these subjects.#
[5] It was then that they first saw the reason for their ignorance and blindness. It was that external matters, worldly and bodily concerns, had so taken up and filled their minds, that they could not be lifted into the light of heaven, so as to view religious matters beyond the level of the church’s teaching. When bodily and worldly concerns are as popular as they are to-day, utter darkness pervades the mind of anyone who wants to think about heavenly matters beyond the scope of the faith taught by his church.
# Few people in Christendom to-day believe that people rise again at once after death (AC, Preface to Genesis chapter 16, 4622 and 10758) They think rather that this will occur at the time of the Last Judgment, when the visible world will cease to exist (AC 10595). The reason for this belief (AC 10595, 10758). In fact people rise again at once after death, and they are then human beings in every detail (AC 4527, 5006, 5078, 8939, 8991, 10594, 10758). The soul which survives death is a person’s spirit, constituting his essential personality, and in the other life it is endowed with a perfect human form (AC 322, 1880-1, 3633, 4622, 4735, 5883, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10594). Experiences supporting this (AC 4527, 5006, 8939) and passages from the Word (AC 10597). An explanation of the meaning of the dead seen in the Holy City (Matt. 27:53, AC 9229). An experience showing how a person is brought back to life from the dead (AC 168-189). His condition after being brought back to life (AC 317-19, 2119, 5070, 10596). False views about the soul and resurrection (AC 444-5, 4527, 4622, 4658).
# In man the spiritual world is linked with the natural world (AC 6057) A person’s internal is designed to be an image of heaven, his external to be an image of the world (AC 3628, 4523-4, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472).
This view is the foundation of the teaching about resurrection, and the belief that soul and body will be united on the coming of the Last Judgment. For granting that hypothesis about the soul, this is the inescapable conclusion when combined with the church’s belief in man’s everlasting life. This is why, if anyone’s idea of the soul is based upon the teaching and that hypothesis together, he is quite unable to grasp that the soul is a spirit, and a spirit has a human form. Another reason is the fact that hardly anyone to-day knows what spiritual means, much less that spiritual beings, such as all spirits and angels, have a human form.
This is why almost all who come from the world are extremely surprised to find themselves alive and just as much human beings as before, so that they experience no difference at all. When they get over their surprise at their own state, they go on to be surprised that the church knows nothing about this being the state of people after death, though all the people who have ever lived in the world are in the other life, and alive as human beings. Because they have also wondered that people have not had this made plain to them by visions, they were told from heaven that this might have happened, since nothing is easier if it is the Lord’s good pleasure; but they still would not have believed, even if they saw it for themselves, if they had convinced themselves of false counter-arguments. They were also told that it is dangerous for anything from heaven to be plainly displayed to those who are sunk in worldly and bodily concerns; for this would make them believe at first, and later deny it, so profaning that very truth. Profaning is believing and later denying; and those who do this are plunged into the lowest and worst of all hells. This is the danger meant by what the Lord said:
He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, to prevent them seeing with their eyes and understanding with their hearts, so that they might turn themselves and I should heal them. John 12:40.
The disbelief of those sunk in the love of worldly and bodily things is meant by these words:
Abraham said to the rich man in hell, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. But he said, No, father Abraham; but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent. But Abraham said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:29-31.
# A person’s life has as many levels as there are heavens; and these are opened to him after death depending on how he lived (AC 3747, 9594). Heaven is inside people (AC 3884). People whose lives are dictated by love and charity have angelic wisdom in them, but it is then hidden, only being made available after death (AC 2494). People in the Word are described as angels, if they receive the good of love and of faith from the Lord (AC 10528).
This too is what is meant by the description of man and his creation in the first chapter of Genesis:
God said, Let us make* man in our image, according to our likeness. And God created man in His image, in the image of God did He create him. Male and female He created them; and God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Gen. 1:26-28.
Creating in the image of God and in the likeness of God means conferring on him the whole of God’s order from first to last, and so making him an angel as regards the interiors of his mind.
* [Reading faciamus as AC for faciemus (We shall make).]
Look at my hands and my feet, see that it is I myself. Touch Me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me have. Luke 24:36-39.
In these words He indicated that He was man, not only in spirit but also in body.
# People rise again only as spirits (AC 10593-4). The Lord alone also rose again bodily (AC 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825).
ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER BEEN BORN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF CREATION AND HAVE DIED ARE IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL
This is the consequence, first of the statements and demonstrations of the last chapter, showing that heaven and hell are from the human race. Secondly, from the fact that after his life in the world everyone lives for ever. Thirdly, it follows that all people who have ever been born from the creation of the world and have died are either in heaven or in hell. Fourthly, since all who will be born hereafter will also come into the spiritual world, it follows that this is in size and nature beyond comparison with the natural world in which people on earth live. In order to make the perception of all these statements more exact and their truth more obvious, I should like to explain and describe them one by one.
[2] It is the spiritual man who thinks and wills, for the natural man cannot do this of himself. And thought and will are all-in-all to the natural man, for he is acted upon as the spiritual man wills, and he speaks as the spiritual man thinks, so much so that action is nothing but willing and speech is nothing but thinking. For if you take away willing and thinking, speech and action come instantly to a stop. From this it is plain that the spiritual man really is the man, present in every detail of the natural man; so its outward form must be similar, since any part or particle of the natural man not subject to the action of the spiritual is lifeless. However, the spiritual man cannot become visible to the natural man, for the natural cannot see the spiritual, though the spiritual can see the natural. This is in accordance with the rules of order, but the reverse would be contrary to them, since it is possible for the spiritual to influence the natural (and this applies to sight, since it is a form of influence), but not the reverse. The spiritual man is what is called a person’s spirit, which is seen in the spiritual world in complete human form and which lives on after death.
[3] Since intelligent people have, as I said before, known nothing about the spiritual world, and thus about a person’s spirit, they have therefore got the idea that a person cannot have a personal life until his soul returns to his body and resumes its senses. This is the origin of such empty notions about personal resurrection, for instance, that although bodies have been eaten by worms or fishes or have collapsed into dust, they will by God’s almighty power be brought together again and reunited with souls; or that these events will only occur at the end of the world, when the visible universe will come to an end; and many similar ideas, all of which are beyond our grasp and at first sight appear impossible and contrary to God’s order. Consequently many people have their faith weakened by these ideas. For those who think wisely can only believe what they to some extent understand; one cannot believe the impossible, that is, what one judges to be impossible. So those who do not believe in life after death use this argument to infer a proof of their negative attitude. However, it may be seen in numerous chapters of HEAVEN AND HELL that people rise again at once after death, and are then endowed with complete human form. These remarks are intended as additional confirmation of the statement that heaven and hell are from the human race; from which it follows that all people who have ever been born from the beginning of creation and have died are in heaven or in hell.
[2] Man has also been created so as mentally to be a model of heaven. The form of heaven derives from the Divine itself, as was shown in HEAVEN AND HELL (The Lord’s Divine makes and forms heaven, HH 7-12, 78-86); man was created so as to be a model of heaven on the smallest scale (HH 57); heaven taken all together resembles a single human being (HH 59-66). Hence an angel has a perfect human form (HH 73-77). An angel is a human being in his spiritual aspect.
[3] I have had a number of conversations with angels on this subject. They were extremely surprised that there are very many among those reputed intelligent in the Christian world, and believed to be intelligent by other people, who have totally rejected any idea that their life is not subject to death, but believe that the soul of a human being is dispersed after death like that of an animal. They fail to perceive the difference in the way human beings and animals live. Human beings have thoughts that can rise above themselves, and they can think about God, heaven, love, faith, spiritual and moral good, truths and such matters, thus rising to the Divine itself, and being linked to Him by all these means. Animals, however, cannot rise above their natural level so as to entertain such thoughts. As a result their spiritual side cannot be separated from their natural after death,# and live on by itself as a human being’s can. That too is the reason why an animal’s life* is dispersed together with its natural life.
[4] The angels said that the reason why many so-called intelligent people in the Christian world do not believe their life is immortal is that at heart they deny the existence of the Divine and acknowledge Nature in His place. Those who think from such premises cannot imagine how they can live for ever by being linked with the Divine, and consequently that the condition of human beings is any different from that of animals; for when they banish the idea of the Divine from their thoughts, they also banish that of eternity.
[5] They went on to say that every individual has a highest or most inward degree of life, something highest and inmost on which the Lord’s Divinity primarily and most closely acts, and from which He controls the remaining interiors belonging to the spiritual and natural man and arranged in ordered sequence in them. They called this highest or most inward part the Lord’s entrance into man and His truest abode with man. It is this highest or most inward part which gives man his humanity and sets him apart from dumb animals, which lack it. This is why men can, unlike animals, have their interiors, which belong to their minds and characters, raised by the Lord to Himself. Thus they can believe in Him, feel love for Him, and receive intelligence and wisdom and speak rationally.
[6] When asked whether those who deny the existence of the Divine and the Divine truths which link a person’s life with the Divine Himself none the less live on for ever, they said that these had the ability to think and will, and thus to believe and love what proceeds from the Divine equally with those who acknowledge Him; and that this ability to think and will enables them equally to live for ever. They added that this ability results from that highest or most inward part everyone possesses which was mentioned just above. I have demonstrated at length that even those in hell have this ability, which enables them to reason and speak against Divine truths. This is why every person, irrespective of what sort of person he is, lives for ever.
[7] Because after death everyone lives for ever, no angel or spirit can think about death; in fact, they do not know what it is to die. Whenever therefore death is mentioned in the Word, the angels understand it as damnation, which is death in the spiritual sense, or the continuation of life and resurrection.## These remarks are intended as confirmation that all people who have ever been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are alive, some in heaven and some in hell.
# The spiritual world exercises an influence on the life of animals too, but this is generalised, not a specific one as in the case of human beings (AC 1633, 3646). The difference between human beings and animals is that human beings can be raised above their own level to the Lord, so as to think about and love the Divine, and thus be linked with the Lord, which confers everlasting life. Animals differ in not being able to be so raised up (AC 4525, 6323, 9231).
## When death is mentioned in the Word, it is understood in heaven as meaning the damnation of the wicked; this is spiritual death and also hell (AC 5407 6119, 9008). Those who possess different kinds of good and truth are called alive, those who possess different kinds of evil and falsity are called dead (AC 81, 290, 7494). When good people are dying, death is understood in heaven as resurrection and the continuation of life, since a person then rises again, continues his life and enters upon everlasting life (AC 3498, 3505, 4618, 4621, 6036, 6222).
* [Perhaps we should read ‘soul’ for ‘life’ here.]
[2] I have several times seen, when my eyes were opened, what a countless multitude of people there is there already. It was so great it could hardly be counted, for there were tens of thousands in only one place and one district. So how many must there be in the rest? All there are gathered into communities, which are very numerous, and each community in its own position forms three heavens with three hells beneath. So there are some who are high up, some mid-way, some beneath them, and there are some in the lowest regions or hells under them. Those in the upper levels live like people in cities with populations as large as some hundreds of thousands. From this it is plain that the natural world, inhabited by people on earth, cannot be compared to that world in point of the numbers of people there. So when a person passes from the natural world into the spiritual, it is like going from a village to a large city.
[3] Neither can the natural world be compared with the spiritual in terms of its character. A further proof of that is that not only do all the things appear there which exist in the natural world, but countless more in addition, never seen in this world nor capable of being seen. For there spiritual things are expressed each according to its own model, looking like natural things and with infinite variety between them. The spiritual surpasses the natural in quality to such an extent that there are few things which can be perceived by natural senses; for these do not grasp a thousandth part of what the spiritual mind can. All the activity of the spiritual mind is expressed in forms visible to people there. This is why the magnificent and astonishing sights of the spiritual world are indescribable. These too are increasing as the numbers of the human race in the heavens multiply. For everything there takes on the appearance of forms corresponding to each person’s state in respect of love and faith, and hence of intelligence and wisdom. Thus as the numbers increase, so continually does their variety. That is why people who have been raised up into heaven have said that they saw and heard there what no eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard.
[4] These proofs are enough to establish that the spiritual world is such that the natural world cannot be compared with it. See further on what it is like in HEAVEN AND HELL, in the sections on the two kingdoms of heaven (HH 20-28); the communities of heaven (HH 41-50); representations and appearances in heaven (HH 170-176); and the wisdom of the angels of heaven (HH 265-275) But the descriptions there are only a small selection.
THE LAST JUDGMENT IS TO BE WHERE ALL ARE TOGETHER, AND SO IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, NOT ON EARTH
The general belief about the Last Judgment is that the Lord accompanied by angels will appear in glory in the clouds of heaven, and He will then raise up from their graves all who have ever lived from the beginning of creation, clothe their souls with a body, and, when they have been summoned to meet, judge them, sending those who have lived good lives to everlasting life or heaven, and those who lived wicked lives to everlasting death or hell.
[2] The churches have taken this belief from the literal sense of the Word, and there was no possibility of removing it so long as it remained unknown that everything mentioned in the Word has a spiritual sense; and this sense is the real Word, the literal sense serving as its basis or foundation. Without this kind of literal sense the Word could not have been Divine, and have served both heaven and the world as a means of instruction on how to live and what to believe, and as a means of linking. So if anyone knows the spiritual facts corresponding to natural ones in the Word, he can know that the Lord’s coming in the clouds of heaven does not mean His appearance there, but His appearance in the Word. The Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth. The clouds of heaven in which He is to come are the literal sense of the Word, and the glory is its spiritual sense. The angels are heaven, from which He appears, and they are also the Lord as regards Divine truths.# This makes plain the meaning of these words, namely, that when the church comes to an end the Lord will open up the spiritual sense of the Word, and thus reveal the essential nature of Divine truth. This will be a sign that the Last Judgment is at hand.
[3] For a demonstration that everything said in the Word, even every expression, contains a spiritual sense, and what this is like, see ARCANA CAELESTIA. This book expounds in full detail the contents of Genesis and Exodus in accordance with their spiritual sense. Some selected passages dealing with the Word and its spiritual sense may be found in my small work ON THE WHITE HORSE described in Revelation.
# The Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth in heaven (AC 2533, 2813, 2859, 2894, 3397, 3712). The Lord is the Word because the Word comes from Him and is about Him (AC 2859). It is about nothing but the Lord, especially in its inmost sense about the glorification of His Humanity, so that the Lord Himself is contained in it (AC 1873, 9357). The Lord’s coming is His presence in the Word and the revelation of this (AC 3900, 4060). A cloud in the Word means the letter of the Word, or its literal meaning (AC 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, 8781, 9430, 10551, 10574). Glory in the Word means Divine truth such as it is in heaven and in the spiritual sense (AC 4809, 5922, 8267, 8427, 9429, 10574). Angels in the Word mean Divine truths coming from the Lord, since angels are the means by which they are received, and they do not utter them of themselves but from the Lord (AC 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 4295, 4402, 6280, 8192, 8301). The trumpets and horns then blown by angels mean Divine truths in heaven and revealed from heaven (AC 8815, 8823, 8915).
[2] While a spirit is in such a state, he is to be seen in many different places, apparently present in each in bodily form; but this is no more than an appearance. As soon therefore as he is brought by the Lord into his dominant love, he vanishes at once from the eyes of others, and finds himself in the community to which he is attached. This is a special feature of the spiritual world and surprises those who are unaware of the reason. This then is why, as soon as spirits are collected together and separated from others, they are also judged, and each immediately finds his own place, the good in heaven and in company with their own people there, the wicked in hell and in company with their own people there.
[3] This is another proof that the Last Judgment can only take place in the spiritual world, both because each person there is a likeness of the way he has lived, and because he is associated with those who share a similar way of life, so he is with his own people. The case is different in the natural world; there the good and the wicked can be together without one knowing what the other is like, nor are they mutually separated depending upon the love that governs their lives. Nor indeed can anyone with a natural body be in heaven or in hell. So to reach either destination he must shed his natural body, and after this be judged in his spiritual body. This is why, as was said before, it is the spiritual, not the natural man who is judged.
THE LAST JUDGMENT TAKES PLACE WHEN A CHURCH COMES TO AN END, AND THIS HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS NO FAITH BECAUSE THERE IS NO CHARITY
There are many reasons why the Last Judgment takes place when a church comes to an end. The primary one is that the equilibrium between heaven and hell then begins to be destroyed, and together with it man’s true freedom. When man’s freedom is destroyed, he can no longer be saved. For then his loss of freedom carries him to hell, and he cannot be brought in freedom to heaven. No one can be reformed without freedom, and a person’s freedom is wholly dependent upon the equilibrium between heaven and hell. This can be established from the two chapters in HEAVEN AND HELL, which deal with the equilibrium between heaven and hell (HH 589-596) and man’s freedom being maintained by this equilibrium (HH 597-603). It is also shown there that no one can be reformed except in freedom.
The Lord foretells that there will be no faith at the end of a church:
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8.
and also that then there will be no charity:
At the ending of the age lawlessness will be increased many times, the charity of many will grow cold; and this gospel will be preached throughout the world. Then the end will come. Matt 24:12, 14.
The ending of the age is the final period of a church. In that chapter the Lord describes the progressively declining state of the church as regards love and faith; but the description is given only by means of correspondences. The Lord’s predictions therefore cannot be understood without knowing the spiritual sense which corresponds to each item. For this reason I have been permitted by the Lord to explain everything in that chapter and part of the following chapter, dealing with the ending of the age, the Lord’s coming, the progressive laying waste of the church and the Last Judgment. This is to be seen in ARCANA CAELESTIA (3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4414, 4635-4638, 4661-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071).
[2] It makes no difference whether you say will or love, since each person loves what he wills and wills what he loves. The will acts as a receiver for love, the intellect, whose function is thinking, as a receiver for faith. A person may know, think and understand many things, but those which are not in harmony with his will or his love he casts away, as soon as he is left alone to reflect on them from the point of view of his will or love. So he also casts them away after bodily life, when he lives in the spirit. As I said shortly before, the only thing which remains in a person’s spirit is what has entered into his will or love. All else is after death looked on as foreign, and being no part of his love is thrown out of doors and treated with loathing.
[3] The case is different, if a person not only believes the church’s teachings drawn from the Word, but actually wills and does them, for then he has real faith. Faith is an affection for truth arising from willing what is true because it is true, for this is the real spiritual element in a person. It is far removed from the natural, which is willing what is true not for its own sake, but to get for oneself glory, fame and gain. If truth is regarded as remote from such considerations, it is spiritual, because it is in essence Divine. So willing what is true because it is true is also acknowledging and loving the Divine; these two things are so closely linked that in heaven they are looked on as one. The Divine which proceeds from the Lord in heaven is Divine truth (see HEAVEN AND HELL 128-132); and those who receive it and make it part of their lives are angels in the heavens. These remarks are intended to make it known that faith is not just believing, but also willing and doing, so there can be no faith if there is no charity. Charity or love is willing and doing.
They were given a vivid proof of this. Those who were falsely persuaded that they had faith were brought to a community of angels who possessed real faith; and when they could communicate they perceived clearly that they had no faith, a fact which they then admitted before many witnesses. The same proof was given in other ways in the case of those who professed faith and thought they had believed, but who had not lived a life of faith, which is charity. Each of them admitted that he had had no faith, because the life of his spirit was devoid of faith, but it had remained outside his life as something thought about, while they lived in the natural world.
[2] Moreover, every church is spiritual to begin with, since it starts from charity. But in course of time it turns aside from charity to faith, and then becomes an external instead of an internal church. When it becomes external, it reaches its end since then all importance is attached to knowledge and little if any to life. As a person becomes external instead of internal, so proportionately is spiritual light darkened for him, until he is unable to see Divine truth from truth itself, that is, in the light of heaven, the light of heaven being Divine truth, but only in natural light. This is such that, when it is alone and not accompanied with spiritual light, he sees Divine truth as it were at night-time, and he has no other way of recognising whether it is truth than from its being preached by a prelate and generally received by its hearers. That is why their intellectual faculty could not be enlightened by the Lord; for the brighter natural light shines in the intellect, the more spiritual light is dimmed. Natural light shines brightly in the intellect, when worldly, bodily and earthly concerns are loved more than spiritual, heavenly and Divine ones; and to that extent a person is external.
ON FAITH
If anyone does not know that all things in the universe relate to truth and to good and that they have both to be linked for anything to be produced, he also does not know that all things in the church relate to faith and to love and to their linking (AC 7752-7762, 9186, 9224). All things in the universe relate to truth and good and to their linking (AC 2451, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122, 10555). Truths belong to faith, and kinds of good to love (AC 4352, 4997, 7178, 10367).
[2] If anyone does not know that every detail in the make-up of a human being relates to the intellect and the will and to their linking, which must happen for the person to be human, neither do they know that everything in the church relates to faith and love and to their linking, which must happen for the church to be present in a person (AC 2231, 7752-7754, 9224, 9995, 10122). A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other the will (AC 641, 803, 3623, 3539). The intellect is assigned to the reception of truths, and so of things to do with faith; the will is assigned to the reception of kinds of good, and so of things to do with love (AC 9300, 9930, 10064). Hence it follows that it is love or charity which makes a church and not faith alone, that is, faith separated from love and charity (AC 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 5826).
[3] Faith separated from charity is no faith (AC 654, 724, 1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2343, 2349, 2417, 3419, 3849, 3868, 6348, 7039, 7342, 9783). A faith of this kind is lost in the other life (AC 2228, 5820). Teachings about faith alone destroy charity (AC 6353, 8094). Those who separate faith from charity are represented in the Word by Cain, Ham, Reuben, by the first-born of the Egyptians and by the Philistines (AC 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093). The further charity is withdrawn, the stronger becomes the dogma of faith alone (AC 2231). A church in course of time turns aside from charity to faith, and finally to faith alone (AC 4683, 8094) In the final period of a church there is no faith because there is no charity (AC 1843, 3489, 4689). If anyone regards faith alone as offering salvation, he is excusing wickedness of life; and those who lead wicked lives have no faith, because they have no charity (AC 3865, 7766, 7778, 7790, 7950, 8094). These people are inwardly subject to the falsities of their own evil, although they do not know it (AC 7790, 7950). Consequently good cannot be linked to them (AC 8981, 8983). In the other life too they oppose good and those who have good in them (AC 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502, 7545, 8096, 8313). Those who are simple at heart know better than the wise what constitutes goodness of life, and so charity, but not what faith is separately (AC 4741, 4754).
[4] Good is being and truth is coming into existence from this being. Thus the truth of faith has its being in life from the good of charity (AC 3049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9154). Consequently the truth of faith is given life by the good of charity; so the life of faith is charity (AC 1589, 1947, 1997, 2571, 4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154, 9667, 9841, 10729). A person’s faith is not alive when he merely knows and thinks about matters to do with faith, but only when he wills them and by willing does them (AC 9224). The Lord is not linked with a person by faith, but by the life of faith, which is charity (AC 9380, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10648). Worship based on the good of charity is true worship; but if it is based upon the truth of faith without the good of charity it is only an external act (AC 7724).
[5] Faith alone, that is, separated from charity, is like light in wintertime when everything on earth is sluggish and no growth takes place. But faith with charity is like light in spring and summertime, when everything flowers and grows (AC 2231, 3146, 3412, 3413). Winter light, that given by faith separated from charity, is in the other life turned into thick darkness, when light pours in from heaven. Those whose faith is of that kind are then reduced to blindness and stupidity (AC 3412, 3413). Those who separate faith from charity are in darkness, or in ignorance of the truth, so they are subject to falsities; for these are darkness (AC 9186). They plunge themselves into falsities and so into evils (AC 3325, 8094); the errors and falsities into which they plunge (AC 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224). The Word is a closed book to them (AC 3773, 4783, 8780). They do not see or pay attention to all the Lord’s many statements about love and charity (AC 1017, 3416). Neither do they know what good or heavenly love or charity are (AC 2057, 3603, 4136, 9995).
[6] Charity makes the church, not faith separated from charity (AC 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844) How much good there would be in the church, if charity were regarded as its primary concern (AC 6269, 6272). If charity were its essential element, there would be one church, not a division into many; and it would then not matter if their teachings about faith and external forms of worship were different (AC 1285, 1316, 2385, 2853, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452). Everyone in heaven is seen from the point of view of charity, and no one from that of faith without charity (AC 1258, 1394, 2364, 4802).
[7] The Lord’s twelve disciples represented the church as regards the whole of faith and charity taken together, in the same way as the twelve tribes of Israel (AC 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397). Peter, James and John represented respectively faith, charity and the good works of charity (AC 3750). Peter stands for faith (AC 4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580); John the good works of charity (AC preface to chapters 18 and 22 of Genesis). There being in the final periods no faith in the Lord because there is no charity was represented by Peter’s thrice-repeated denial of the Lord before the cock crew the second* time; for Peter in the representative sense there is faith (AC 6000, 6073). Cock-crow and twilight mean in the Word the final period of a church (AC 10134). Three or thrice means final completion (AC 2788, 4495, 5159, 9198, 10127). There is a similar meaning in the Lord’s words to Peter, when he saw John follow the Lord, ‘What is it to you, Peter? Follow me, John.’ For Peter said about John ‘What of him?’ John 21:21, 22 (AC 10087). John reclined on the Lord’s breast, because he represented the good works of charity (AC 3934, 10081). All personal and place names in the Word stand for abstract qualities (AC 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329).
ON CHARITY
[8] Heaven is divided into two kingdoms, one called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom. Love in the celestial kingdom is love to the Lord, called celestial love, and love in the spiritual kingdom is charity towards the neighbour, called spiritual love (AC 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9835, 9961). The division of heaven into those two kingdoms is described in HEAVEN AND HELL (HH 20-28). The Lord’s Divine in the heavens is love to Him and charity towards the neighbour (HH 13-19).
[9] There is no knowledge of what good and truth are without knowledge of what love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour are, since all good has to do with love and charity, and all truth has to do with good (AC 7255, 7366). Knowing truths, willing truths and having affection for truths for truths’ sake, that is, because they are true, is charity (AC 3876, 3877). Charity consists in an inward affection for doing what is true, and not in an outward affection without an inward one (AC 2439, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8073). Charity equally consists of performing services for their own sake and its nature depends upon the services performed (AC 7078, 8253). Charity is a person’s spiritual life (AC 7081). The whole of the Word is a lesson in love and charity (AC 6632, 7261). There is ignorance to-day about what charity is (AC 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632). Still one can know even by the light of one’s own reason that it is love and charity that make one a person (AC 3957 6273); also that good and truth are in harmony, and belong each to the other, and so do charity and faith (AC 7627).
[10] In the highest sense the Lord is the neighbour, because He is to be loved above all. Consequently everything that proceeds from Him and in which He is present, and so good and truth, are the neighbour (AC 2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124). The difference between one neighbour and another depends upon the nature of good, and so on the Lord’s presence (AC 6707-6710). Every person and every community, as well as one’s country and one’s church, and in the universal sense the Lord’s kingdom, are the neighbour. Loving the neighbour is doing good to them appropriately to their condition. So the neighbour is the good of those for whom one should take thought (AC 6818-6824, 8123). Civic good, which is justice, and moral good, which is goodness of life in the community, are the neighbour (AC 2915, 4730, 8120-8122). Loving the neighbour is not loving a person, but what he possesses which gives him his nature, so his good and truth (AC 5025, 10336). Those who love a person, and not what he possesses and which gives him his nature, love evil as much as good (AC 3820). These people do good to wicked as much as to good people, yet doing good to the wicked is doing harm to the good; and this is not loving the neighbour (AC 3820, 6703, 8120). A judge, who punishes the wicked to reform them and to prevent the good being infected by their evil, is loving the neighbour (AC 3820, 8120, 8121).
[11] Loving the neighbour is doing good, behaving fairly and correctly in every task and in every office (AC 8120-8122). Thus charity towards the neighbour extends to every single thing a person thinks, wills and does (AC 8124). Doing what is good and true for the sake of goodness and truth is loving the neighbour (AC 10310, 10376). Those who do this love the Lord, who is in the highest sense the neighbour (AC 9210). A life of charity is living in accordance with the Lord’s commands, so living in accordance with Divine truths is loving the Lord (AC 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10645).
[12] True charity seeks no reward (AC 2027, 2273,** 2380, 2400, 3887, 6388-6393), because it comes from inward affection, so from the pleasure of doing good (AC 2273, 2400, 3887, 6788-6393). In the other life, those who separate faith from charity regard faith and what seem outwardly like good deeds they have done as deserving reward (AC 2273).
[13] The teaching of the Ancient Church was about how to live, which is teaching about charity (AC 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628). The ancients who belonged to the church reduced the good deeds of charity to an order and divided them into classes, giving each its name. This was the source of their wisdom (AC 2417, 6629, 7259-7262). The wisdom and intelligence of those who have lived a charitable life in the world increase immeasurably in the other life (AC 1941, 5849). The Lord fills charity with Divine truth, because this is the real life of a person (AC 2363). A person resembles a garden when charity and faith are linked in him, a desert when they are not (AC 7626). In so far as a person departs from charity he equally departs from wisdom (AC 6630). Those who lack charity are ignorant about Divine truths, however wise they think themselves (AC 2417, 2435). The life of angels consists in performing the good deeds of charity, which are services (AC 454). Spiritual angels are models of charity (AC 553, 3804, 4735).
ON THE WILL AND THE INTELLECT
[14] A person has two faculties, one called the intellect, the other called the will (AC 35, 641, 3539, 10122). Those two faculties constitute the true person (AC 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284). The nature of those faculties determines the person’s nature (AC 7342, 8885, 9282, 10064, 10284). These faculties serve to distinguish man from animals, because the human intellect can be uplifted by the Lord so as to see Divine truths; and likewise the will can be uplifted so as to perceive Divine kinds of goodness. Thus a person can be linked to the Lord by the two faculties which constitute him. But the case is different with animals (AC 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231). Because man is superior to animals in having that ability, he is unable to die as regards the interiors which belong to his spirit, but he lives for ever (AC 5302).
[15] All things in the universe relate to good and truth; so all things in a person relate to the will and the intellect (AC 803, 10122), because the intellect receives truth and the will receives good (AC 3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). It comes to the same thing whether you speak of truth or of faith, since faith has to do with truth and truth with faith. It comes to the same thing whether you speak of good or of love, since love has to do with good and good with love. A person calls true what he believes and he calls good what he loves (AC 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367). It follows from this that the intellect is a receiver for faith and the will for love (AC 7179, 10122, 10367). Because a person’s intellect is capable of receiving faith in God and his will is capable of receiving love to God, he can by faith and love be linked to God; and being capable of this, he cannot ever die (AC 4525, 6323, 9231).
[16] A person’s will is the real being of his life, because it serves to receive love or good. His intellect is the coming-into-existence of his life from this source, because it serves to receive faith or truth (AC 3619, 5002, 9282). Thus it is the life of the will which is the chief element in a person’s life, and the life of the intellect is derived from it (AC 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110); similarly light comes from fire or flame (AC 6032, 6314). A person makes his own what enters into the intellect and at the same time into the will, but not what only enters into the intellect (AC 9009, 9069, 9071, 9128, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110). What is received by the will becomes part of a person’s life (AC 3161, 9386, 9393). It follows from this that what makes a person human depends on his will and on his intellect derived from it (AC 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110). It is also true that every individual is loved and esteemed by others in proportion to the good of his will, and thus of his intellect. Anyone who wishes well and understands well is loved and esteemed, and anyone who understands well but does not wish well is rejected and criticised (AC 8911, 10076).
After death a person remains in the state of his will and intellect derived from it (AC 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153). Matters of the intellect which are not at the same time matters of will then fade away, because they are not in the person (AC 9282). To put it another way, a person’s state after death remains such as was his love and thus his faith, or such as was his good and thus his truth. Matters which have to do with faith, but not also with love, or matters to do with truth, but not also with good, then fade away, because they are not in the person or part of him (AC 553, 2363, 10153). A person can grasp intellectually what he does not willingly do; that is, he can understand what he cannot will, because it opposes his love (AC 7539). The reason why people have difficulty in making the distinction between thinking and willing (AC 9995).
[17] How perverse is the state of those whose intellect and will do not act as one (AC 9075) This state is found in hypocrites, tricksters, toadies and charlatans (AC 3573, 4327, 4799, 8250).
[18] All willing of good and thus understanding of truth is from the Lord; but not the understanding of truth separated from the willing of good (AC 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153). It is the intellect which is enlightened by the Lord (AC 6222, 6608, 10659). This enlightenment occurs to the extent that a person receives truth in his will, that is, to the extent that he wishes to act in accordance with truth (AC 3169). The intellect depends upon light from heaven, just as sight depends on light from the world (AC 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128). The nature of the intellect is determined by the nature of the truths derived from good by which it is formed (AC 10064). The intellect is properly formed by truths derived from good, but not by falsities derived from evil (AC 10675). It is the function of the intellect on the basis of experience to see truths, causes, connexions and logical consequences (AC 6125). It is the function of the intellect to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved, not to be able to prove anything whatever (AC 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780). The ability to see and perceive whether a thing is true before it is proved is only possible for those who have an affection for truth for truth’s sake, those, that is, who enjoy spiritual light (AC 8521). The light afforded by proofs is natural light, which even the wicked may possess (AC 8780). All dogmas, however false, can be proved to the point where they appear to be true (AC 2482, 2490, 5033, 6865, 7950***).
* [The first edition has ‘the third time’.]
** [The first edition gives the references 2340 and 2373. The numbers in the text seem most likely to have been intended.]
*** [The first two references appear to be incorrect.]
ALL THE PREDICTIONS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION ARE TO-DAY FULFILLED
No one can know what is meant by and involved in the book of Revelation without knowing the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. The whole of its contents is written in a style similar to that of the prophetic books of the Old Testament, in which every expression has a spiritual meaning not to be seen in the literal sense. Moreover, the contents of Revelation can only be explained in their spiritual sense by those who know what happened to the church up to its end; and only in heaven can this be known. This is the subject of Revelation, for the spiritual sense of the Word everywhere deals with the spiritual world, that is, the state of the church both in the heavens and upon earth. That is why the Word is spiritual and Divine. The state of the church is there expounded in due sequence. This can serve to establish that the contents of Revelation could not be explained except by someone who had received a revelation of the successive states of the church in the heavens. There is equally a church in the heavens as on earth, and some remarks on it will follow.
[2] Now because Revelation in its spiritual sense describes the state of the church as regards love and faith, no one can know what lies hidden within its whole narrative, unless it has been revealed to him from heaven, and he has been allowed to know the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. I can declare with assurance that all the details there, down to the individual words, contain a spiritual sense, which provides a full description of everything to do with the church as regards its spiritual state from beginning to end. Since every single word in it has some spiritual meaning, none can be omitted without changing the train of ideas in the internal sense. That is why at the end of Revelation we read:
If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy God will take away* his share in the book of life and in the holy city, and in what is written in that book. Rev. 22:19.
[3] It is much the same with the books of the Old Testament Word. In those each subject and each word contains an internal or spiritual sense; so neither there can any word be taken away. That is why by the Lord’s Divine providence those books have been kept intact down to the last jot from the time when they were written by the care taken by many scribes who counted even the smallest details in them. This provision by the Lord was to guard the holiness which each jot, letter and word in them possesses.
* [The first edition has ‘may God take away’, but this is probably a printer’s error; the usual form occurs in AR and this agrees with the Greek.]
* [This promise was fulfilled in 1766 by the publication of THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. See further in Translator’s Preface.]
THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS TAKEN PLACE
It was shown in the chapter on this subject above [28-32] that the Last Judgment is not to take place on earth, but in the spiritual world, where all are gathered who have lived since the beginning of creation. This being so, no human being could possibly be aware when the Last Judgment took place. For everyone expects it to happen on earth with everything in the visible sky and on the earth being changed at the same time, and affecting human beings on earth. So to prevent people in the church living with that belief out of ignorance, and those who think about the Last Judgment perpetually waiting for it, which would eventually result in people disbelieving what the literal sense of the Word says about it; and to prevent more people losing their faith in the Word, I have been allowed to see with my own eyes that the Last Judgment has now taken place. I have seen the wicked cast into the hells, and the good raised to heaven, thus restoring all to order and so re-establishing the spiritual equilibrium between good and evil, or between heaven and hell. I was allowed to see how the Last Judgment took place from beginning to end; and also how Babylon was destroyed, and how those who are meant by the dragon were cast into the abyss; and then again how the new heaven was formed, and the new church meant by the New Jerusalem was set up in the heavens. I was allowed to see all this with my own eyes so that I could bear witness. This Last Judgment started at the beginning of last year, 1757, and was fully completed by the end of the year.
Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out. John 12:31.
also:
I have said this to you so that in Me you should have peace; be confident, I have overcome the world. John 16:33.
also these words in Isaiah:
Who is this who comes from Edom, striding out in the excess of his strength? Mighty [am I] to save. I have trodden the wine-press alone. Therefore I trod them down in my anger. Hence their victory is sprinkled over my clothing. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. Therefore he became a saviour. Isa. 63:1-8.
There are many other such passages.
[2] The reason why there have been two previous last judgments on this planet is that every judgment occurs at the end of a church, as was shown above in the chapter on this subject [33-39]; and on this earth there have been two earlier churches, the first before the flood, the second after it. The church before the flood is described in the first chapters of Genesis by the new creation of heaven and earth, and by the garden [of Eden]. Its end was described by eating of the tree of knowledge, and the incidents which followed. Its last judgment was described by the flood. All of these were described by straight correspondences after the manner of the Word’s style. In the internal or spiritual sense the creation of heaven and earth means the setting up of a new church (see the first chapter [1-5] above). The garden in Eden means the wisdom of that celestial church. The tree of knowledge means the factual knowledge which destroyed that church, and so does the serpent there. The flood means the last judgment on those who belonged to that church.
[3] The second church, however, which came after the flood, is also described in several passages of the Word (such as Deut. 32:7-14 and elsewhere). This extended over much of the Asian continent, and was continued by the descendants of Jacob. It came to an end when the Lord came into the world. He then carried out a last judgment on all who had lived from the date on which that church was first set up, and at the same time on all the survivors of the first church. The Lord’s purpose in coming into the world was to reduce to order everything in the heavens, and by their means everything on earth, and at the same time to make His human Divine. No one could have been saved if this had not been done. The existence of two churches on this earth before the Lord’s coming was demonstrated in various passages of ARCANA CAELESTIA; a summary of these will be found in the notes at the end of this chapter.# It was also shown that the Lord came into the world to reduce to order everything in the heavens and by their means everything on earth, and to make His human Divine.##
The third church on this earth is the Christian. It was on this, and at the same time on all in the first heaven from the time of the Lord, that the last judgment now being described took place.
# The first and most ancient church on this earth was that described in the first chapters of Genesis; this was above all a celestial church (AC 607, 895, 920, 1121-1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545). The nature in heaven of those who come from that church (AC 1114-1125). They enjoy the strongest light (AC 1117). There were various churches after the flood, which are collectively called the Ancient church (AC 1125-1127, 1327, 10355). Through how many kingdoms in Asia the Ancient church spread (AC 1238, 2385). The nature of the people in the Ancient church (AC 609, 895). The Ancient church was a representative church (AC 519, 521, 2896). The nature of this church at the beginning of its decline (AC 1128). The difference between the Most Ancient and the Ancient church (AC 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493). The church started by Eber, called the Hebrew church (AC 1238, 1241, 1343, 4516, 4517). The difference between the Ancient church and the Hebrew church (AC 1343, 4874). The church established among the descendants of Jacob or the Children of Israel (AC 4281, 4288, 4310, 4500, 4899, 4912, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10396, 10526, 10535, 10698). The rules, judgments and laws which were imposed on the Children of Israel were in part similar to those of the Ancient church (AC 4449). The differences in representative rituals in the church established among the Children of Israel and those of the Ancient church (AC 4288, 10149). In the Most Ancient church revelation was directly from heaven; in the Ancient church by means of correspondences; in the church among the Children of Israel by direct speech, and in the Christian church by means of the Word (AC 10355). The Lord was the God of the Most Ancient church and also the Ancient church, being called Jehovah (AC 1343, 6846).
## When the Lord was in the world, He reduced to order everything in the heavens and the hells (AC 4075, 4287, 9937). The Lord then set free the spiritual world from the people who lived before the flood (AC 1266). Their nature (AC 310, 311, 560, 562, 563, 570, 581, 586, 607, 660, 805, 808, 1034, 1120, 1265-1272). By temptations and victories over them the Lord subdued the hells and reduced everything to order, at the same time glorifying His human (AC 4287, 9937). The Lord did this of Himself, that is, by His own power (AC 1692, 9937). It was the Lord alone who fought (AC 8273). As a result the Lord alone became righteousness and merit (AC 1813, 2025-2027, 9715, 9809, 10019). The Lord thus united His human with the Divine (AC 1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286). The passion on the cross was the last temptation and the complete victory by which He glorified Himself, that is, made His human Divine, and subdued the hells (AC 2776, 10655, 10659, 10828). The Lord could not be tempted in respect of the Divine itself (AC 2795, 2803, 2813, 2814). That was why He took upon Himself the human derived from His mother, and it was this which was subject to temptations (AC 1414, 1444, 1573, 5041, 5157, 7193, 9315). He cast out everything He inherited from His mother and stripped off the human He had from her, until He was at last no more her son, and He put on the Divine Human (AC 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10830). By subduing the hells and glorifying His human the Lord saved mankind (AC 4180, 10019, 10152, 10655, 10659, 10828).
* [Although Swedenborg wrote a very detailed commentary on Revelation down to Chapter 19, he never completed it, but he published instead in 1766 a shortened version under the title THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED.]
** [i.e. those belonging to the Reformed churches.]
The reason the nations were thus arranged by districts was that their position depended upon the shared ability of each group to receive Divine truths. As a result, everyone in the spiritual world can be recognised by the quarter and place where he lives, and also within a large community by the location of his residence, on this see HEAVEN AND HELL (148, 149). Much the same happens when they travel from one place to another; then they always move in directions answering to the successive states of their thoughts arising from the affections for the particular way they live. These determine their proper places, to which they are taken, as will be described. In short, the roads along which one walks in the spiritual world are realisations of thoughts in the mind. That is why roads, walking and the like in the Word mean in the spiritual sense realisations and advances in spiritual life.
He will send his angels, and they will gather the chosen from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Matt. 24:31.
And elsewhere:
There will be gathered before the Son of Man all nations, and he will separate one group from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and he will place the sheep to the right and the goats to the left. Matt. 25:32, 33.
This means that the Lord will separate those who possess truths and also good from those who possess truths without good; for in the spiritual sense of the Word, right means good and left means truth, and much the same is meant by sheep and goats. Nor was judgment carried out on any others; for the wicked who possessed no truths were long since in the hells. That is where all the wicked are cast after death, without waiting for a judgment, who in their hearts deny the Divine and reject any belief in the church’s truths. The former heaven which passed away was composed of those who possessed truths without good; and the new heaven was formed from those who possess truths and at the same time good.
[2] Most of these, when instructed, accept belief in the Lord and acknowledge Him as being one with the Father. They are also in touch with the Christian heaven by means of an inflow from the Lord; but they do not mix because their religion is a barrier. All of that religion immediately on joining their fellows in the other life start by looking for Mohammed. But he is not to be seen, his place being taken by two others who call themselves Mohammeds. They have been given a central position, below the Christian heaven but towards the left.
The reason for the two substitutes for Mohammed is that after death all of them of whatever religion are first taken to those whom they had favoured in the world, for each person s religion clings to him. But when they realise that they can give them no help, they desert them. For no one can be withdrawn from his religious belief except by first being introduced into it. The whereabouts of Mohammed himself and his nature, as well as the origin of his two substitutes will be dealt with in the book explaining Revelation.*
* [This promise was not fulfilled in either the published or the unpublished book on Revelation, but elsewhere; see in particular CONTINUATION ON THE LAST JUDGMENT 68-72.]
Then they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and recline in the kingdom of God. Luke 13:29.
BABYLON AND ITS DESTRUCTION
All the predictions made in the book of Revelation have to-day been fulfilled (see above 40-44). The last chapter demonstrated that the Last Judgment has already taken place, and showed how it took place on the Mohammedans and the heathen. The next subject is how it took place on the Roman Catholics, who are what is meant by Babylon as mentioned in many passages of Revelation, and in particular its destruction in chapter 18. This is described thus:
The angel cried out in a loud voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and become the dwelling of demons, and the prison of every impure* spirit, and the prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Rev. 18:2.
But before the story of how the destruction happened some preliminary remarks are needed:
(i) What is meant by Babylon and what it is like.
(ii) What the people from Babylon are like in the other life.
(iii) Where their dwellings have been up to now.
(iv) Why their presence there was tolerated up to the day of the Last Judgment.
(v) How they were destroyed and their dwellings turned into a desert.
(vi) Those of them who had an affection for truth arising from good were preserved.
(vii) The future state of those who come from earth from that source.
*[In AR the translation follows the Greek more exactly in using the word for ‘unclean’ of both the spirit and the bird.]
[2] Another such attempt at control was begun and set up in Babel, as is clear from the passage of Daniel which tells of Nebuchadnezzar setting up an image which all were to worship (Daniel 3:1 to end). It is also meant by Belshazzar drinking with his nobles from the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from the temple at Jerusalem; and at the same time worshipping gods of gold, silver, copper and iron. Therefore it was written on the wall, He has numbered, weighed and divided. And the king was killed that same night (Daniel 5:1 to end). The vessels of gold and silver from the temple at Jerusalem mean the kinds of good and truth possessed by the church; drinking from them, and at the same time worshipping gods of gold, silver, copper and iron means profaning them. The writing on the wall and the king’s death mean visitation and destruction with which those were threatened who used Divine forms of good and truth as means.
[3] There are numerous descriptions in the Prophets of what the people called Babylon are like, as in Isaiah:
You are to bring out this parable about the king of Babylon. Jehovah has broken the rod of the irreligious, the sceptre of the rulers. You, Lucifer, have fallen from heaven, you are cut down right to the ground. You said in your mind, I will climb the heavens, above the stars of God I shall set my throne on high, and I shall sit on the mountain of meeting, on the north side; I shall become like the Most High. Yet will you be brought down to hell, beside the pit. I will cut off the name of Babylon and what is left of her, and make her a possession inherited by the vulture.* Isa. 14:4, 5, 12-15, 22, 23.
Elsewhere in the same book:
The lion said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and cast down are all the graven images of her gods. Isa. 21:9.
See further in Isaiah chapter 47:1 to end, chapter 48:14-20; and in Jeremiah chapter 50:1-3. This makes it plain what Babylon is.
[4] It needs to be known that a church becomes Babylon when charity and faith cease to exist and self-love begins to reign in their stead. This love rushes as fast as it is given its head, not only to exercise control over all on earth it can make its subjects, but even over heaven. Nor does it rest there; it climbs as far as the throne of God and takes His Divine power for itself. The passages quoted from the Word prove that this also happened before the Lord’s coming. But that Babylon was destroyed by the Lord when He was in the world, both by their becoming utter idolaters and by the last judgment upon them at that time in the spiritual world. This is meant by the passages in the Prophets about Lucifer, who is there Babylon, being cast down to hell, and the fall of Babylon; and also by the writing on the wall and by the death of Belshazzar; and by the stone hewn from the rock which destroyed the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream [Dan. 2:33, 34].
* [The exact identification of this bird is disputed.]
[2] The Roman Catholics acknowledge and worship the Lord without having any power to save. They totally divide His Divine from His human, and transfer to themselves His Divine power, which belonged to His human.# For they forgive sins, grant entry to heaven, cast into hell, and save whomsoever they wish, putting a price on salvation and so claiming for themselves the prerogatives which belong to God’s power alone. By exercising that power, it follows that they make themselves into gods, each in his own rank down to the lowest, by deriving it from their chief, whom they call the Vicar of Christ. Thus they look on themselves as the Lord and worship Him not for His sake, but for their own.
[3] They not only adulterate and falsify the Word, but even deprive the people of it, so that not a glimmer of the truth reaches them. Nor is this enough for them, they actually reduce it to nothing by accepting the decrees of Rome as containing a Divine element superior to that in the Word. By so doing they bar the way to heaven for all; for the way to heaven is the acknowledgment of the Lord and faith in Him and love to Him, and it is the Word which teaches the way. As a result, without the Lord acting by means of the Word, salvation is impossible. They devote their best efforts to quenching the light of heaven which comes from Divine truth, putting in its place ignorance, the more welcome to them the denser it is. They quench the light of heaven by preventing people reading the Word, and books containing teachings from the Word; and by establishing worship in the form of masses in a language simple people do not understand, and lacking any Divine truth. Moreover, they fill their world with false ideas, which are utter darkness, absorbing and scattering the light. They also persuade the common people that it is their faith that gives them life, that is, someone else’s faith, not their own.
[4] In addition, they make all worship a matter of outward holiness, with no inward holiness; this they make empty, because it is devoid of the knowledge of good and truth. Yet Divine worship can only be outward to the extent that it is inward, for the outward comes from the inward. Besides this they bring in idolatrous practices of many kinds. They create saints in large numbers, and watch tolerantly while they are adored and have prayers addressed to them almost as if they were gods. They set up statues of them on every side, boast of their numerous miracles, making them patrons of their towns, churches and monasteries, and taking their bones – such utter trash – out of their graves and turning them into holy relies. By such means they divert the minds of all from the worship of God to the worship of human beings.
[5] Moreover, they have employed much skill in preventing anyone being brought out of that murky darkness into light, from the worship of idols to the worship of God. They have built numbers of monasteries to supply spies and guardians whom they post everywhere. They extort heartfelt confessions, even of thoughts and intentions, and if they do not succeed they frighten people’s minds with hell-fire and the torments of purgatory. Those who dare to utter a word against the Papal throne and their power they shut up in a repulsive prison, called that of the Inquisition.
[6] Their only purpose in all these acts is to possess the world and its treasures, and to indulge their fancy making themselves supreme and all the rest their slaves. But such rule is not that of heaven over hell, but of hell over heaven, for the stronger the love of power grows in a person, especially if he belongs to a church, the more hell reigns in him. This is the reigning love of hell and makes it hell (see HEAVEN AND HELL 551-565). These facts can establish that what we have there is no church, but a Babylon; for a church is where the Lord Himself is worshipped and the Word is read.
# It was disclosed from heaven that the church’s attribution of two natures to the Lord, thus separating His Divine from His human, took place in a Council for the Pope’s sake, so that he should be recognised as Christ’s vicar (AC 4738).
The life led by the people now under discussion is likewise exactly as it was in the world, but with the difference that the secrets of their hearts are then disclosed. For they are then in the spirit, which is where the more inward levels, those of thoughts and intentions, reside; and these they kept hidden in the world, covering them over with an outward show of holiness.
[2] Since these then were revealed, one could perceive that more than half of them, those who had usurped the power of opening and closing heaven, are completely godless. But because their minds cling to the power they exercised in the world, and this is based upon the principle that the Lord had all power given to Him by the Father, and this was then handed on to Peter, and in due succession to the prelates of the church, they still keep alongside their ungodliness the practice of confessing the Lord with the lips. But this only lasts so long as they can keep some power by its means. The rest, however, who are not godless, are so vacuous that they know nothing whatever about people’s spiritual life, the means of salvation, the Divine truths which point the way to heaven, nor anything about heavenly faith and love, believing that by the Pope’s favour heaven can be granted to anyone, no matter what sort of person he is.
[3] Each person has the same sort of life in the spiritual world as he had in the natural world, with no difference so long as he is not in heaven or in hell; this may be seen in HEAVEN AND HELL (453-480). In external appearance the spiritual world is exactly like the natural world (HH 170-176). As a result their moral and civil lives are similar, and in particular their worship is similar, since it is rooted and clings to the inmost levels of a person; and no one can be diverted from it after death, unless he has the good which comes from truths and the truths which come from good. It is, however, more difficult to divert the people under discussion than other peoples from their form of worship, because they lack the good which comes from truths, not to mention the truths which come from good. The truths they have do not come from the Word with few exceptions, and these they have falsified by employing them to establish their power. As a result they have no good either, except a spurious kind of good; for the nature of truths determines the nature of good. These remarks are intended to convey the idea that the worship this group practises in the spiritual world is exactly the same as it was in the natural world.
[4] After this introduction I should like to report something about their worship and their life in the spiritual world. They have a Council chamber to replace the Council chamber or Consistory in Rome, where their leaders meet to deliberate about various ecclesiastical matters, above all how to keep the common people subject to blind obedience, and how to enlarge their power over them. This Council chamber is situated in the southern quarter near the eastern border. But no one who had been Pope in the world, nor any who had been a cardinal, dares to enter it, because by claiming for themselves in the world the Lord’s power they have implanted in their minds an image of Divine authority. So as soon as they present themselves there, they are taken away and cast out to join their peers in the desert. Those of them, however, who were of upright character and had not so convinced themselves of that belief as to usurp such power, are in a dimly-lit room behind the Council chamber.
[5] They have another meeting-place in the western quarter near the north, where their business is the admission of the credulous common people into heaven. There they arrange around them a number of communities devoted to various outward pleasures. In some they go in for gaming, in some for dancing, in some for all kinds of jokes and amusements to make people smile, in some for friendly conversation, in one place talking about politics, in another about religious affairs, in another about indecent subjects, and so on. They admit their clients to one of these communities in response to their desire, calling that heaven. But after a few hours spent there they all become bored and go away because these are merely outward, not inward pleasures. Many are also thus led away from believing their teaching about being admitted to heaven.
[6] In detail their worship is almost the same as in the world. It consists, as in the world, of masses, which are held not in the ordinary language used by spirits, but in a concoction of high-sounding phrases which strikes terror into them by its outward sanctity, but remains unintelligible. They adore saints in the same way and display their statues. But the Roman Catholic saints are themselves nowhere to be seen, for all of them whose ambition was to be worshipped as deities are in hell, and the rest who had no such ambition are among the spirits of the common people. Their dignitaries are aware of this, for they seek out the saints and find them, and therefore come to disparage them. But they conceal this from the people, so that the saints can go on being worshipped as guardian deities, and the prelates themselves, who are in charge of the people, as lords of heaven.
[7] As in the world they similarly build numbers of churches and monasteries. They similarly amass wealth, collecting heaps of precious objects and hiding them in cellars. The spiritual world has precious objects just as much as the natural world, but many more of them. Similarly there they send out monks to induce peoples to adopt their religion, and thus make them subject to their rule. It is a widespread practice to have look-out towers constructed in the middle of their group, so that they can watch all the surrounding areas. By various tricks and devices they get in touch with people both near and far, and bind them with treaties to get them on their side.
[8] That is their general condition. But in detail most of the prelates of that religion rob the Lord of all power and claim it for themselves; and because they do this, they do not acknowledge the Divine. In outward show they put on a counterfeit appearance of holiness, holiness which is essentially a profanity, because it contains no inward acknowledgment of the Divine. As a result their outward holiness allows them to make contact with some communities of the lowest heaven and their inward profanity to make contact with the hells, so that they are in both places at once. For this reason they attract simple good spirits, giving them dwellings close to their own, and groups of malicious spirits, whom they arrange around their own group. In this way they are linked through the simple good with heaven and through the malicious with hell. Thus they devise unspeakable crimes which they commit under guidance from hell. For the simple good in the lowest heavens do not see beyond their external holiness, and their most devout adoration of the Lord in outward show, and so they are favourably disposed to them because they fail to see their crimes. This is their best protection; but still they all in course of time drop their outward show of holiness, and are then cut off from heaven and cast into hell.
[9] This will give some idea of what the people from Babylon are like in the other life. I know people in the world will be surprised at such things happening there, since they have only a vague and vacuous idea of people’s condition after death and of heaven and hell. But a person is just as much a person after death, he lives in society as in the world, dwells in houses, listens to sermons in churches, performs duties and sees sights in that world similar to those in the one he has just left. All this can be proved from the reports in HEAVEN AND HELL of things seen and heard.
You are Peter and upon this rock* I will build my church. Matt. 16:18ff.
This does not mean that any power was given to Peter, but to truth arising from good; for all power in the heavens belongs to truth arising from good, or to good acting by means of truth, and because all good and truth come from the Lord, and nothing is from man, all power belongs to the Lord.
On hearing this they were indignant and wanted to know whether that was the spiritual sense of the words. So they were given the Word as it is in heaven, which contains the spiritual but not the natural sense, since it is for angels, and they are spiritual. On the existence of such a Word in heaven see HEAVEN AND HELL (259, 261). When they read this they saw plainly that there was no mention of Peter in it, but in his place truth from good coming from the Lord.# On seeing this they angrily rejected the Word, and would almost have torn it in pieces with their teeth, if it had not been instantly snatched away. Thus they were convinced, although against their will, that that power belongs to the Lord alone; far less does it belong to any human being, because it is Divine.
# The Lord’s twelve disciples represented the church in all respects concerning truth and good or faith and love, in the same way as the twelve tribes of Israel (AC 2129, 3354, 3488, 3858, 6397). Peter, James and John represented faith, charity and the good deeds of charity (AC 3750). Peter stands for faith (AC 4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580). Peter being given the keys of the kingdom of the heavens means that all power belongs to truth coming from good, or faith coming from charity which is from the Lord; and so that all power belongs to the Lord (AC 6344). A key is the power of opening and closing (AC 9410). Good has all power by means of truths, in other words, truths have all power from good which is from the Lord (AC 3091, 3563, 6344, 6423, 6948, 8200, 8304, 9327, 9410, 9639, 9643, 10019, 10182). Rock in the Word means the Lord as regards Divine truth (AC 8581, 10580). All personal and place names in the Word mean things and states (AC 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329). These names do not pass into heaven, but are turned into things they mean; neither can the names be spoken in heaven (AC 1876, 5225, 6516, 10216, 10282). It can be shown by examples how elegant the internal sense of the Word is, where it consists of nothing but names (AC 1224, 1264, 1888).
* [In Greek Petros and petra.]
[2] I shall now relate how they lived before their dwellings were utterly destroyed and turned into a desert. Most of them lived in the south and the west, only a few in the north and the east. Those who lived in the south were those who were more intelligent than the rest and had convinced themselves of their religious belief; and there too lived a large number of nobles and wealthy people. They did not live above ground there, but underground for fear of robbers, with guards at the entrances. In that quarter there was a large city, extending almost from the east to the west of it, and also a short distance into the west, occupying the position nearest to the centre where the Reformed were. That city was the home of tens of thousands of people or spirits. It was full of churches and monasteries. The ecclesiastics also brought together into that city all the precious objects they were able to amass by various devices, and hid them there in their cells and underground crypts. These crypts were so elaborately constructed that no one else could find their way in, since they were entered circuitously as in a maze. Their heart was in the treasures heaped up there, and they were confident that they could never be destroyed. I visited the crypts and was surprised to see how cunningly they were contrived and how they could be enlarged without limit. Most of those belonging to what they call the Society of Jesus were there, and they kept up friendly relations with the wealthy who were all round them. In that quarter there was towards the east a Council chamber, where they deliberated about extending their power and about methods of keeping the people in blind obedience (on this see above 56). So much for their dwellings in the southern quarter.
[3] In the north were living those who were less intelligent and had less convinced themselves of their religious belief, because their powers of perception were dim and they lived in blind faith. There was not such a large number there as in the south. Most of them were in a large city extending in length from the eastern corner towards the west, and a short distance into the west. This city too was full of churches and monasteries. On its extreme eastern edge were many from different religions including some of the Reformed. A few districts in that quarter outside the city were also occupied by Roman Catholics.
[4] In the east lived those of them whose chief delight in the world had been in ruling; and they enjoyed a natural kind of illumination. They were to be seen in the mountains there, but only on the side facing north, not on the other side facing south. In the corner towards the north there was a mountain, on the summit of which they placed someone out of his mind, whom they could influence to give any orders they wished by a method of sharing thoughts well known in the spiritual world, but unknown in the natural. They gave it out that he was the God of heaven Himself appearing in human form, and thus secured Divine worship for him. This was because the people wanted to abandon their idolatrous worship, so they had thought up this means of holding them to their obedience.
[5] That is the mountain meant in Isaiah (14:13) by the mountain of meetings on the sides of the north; those who live in the mountains are meant by Lucifer there (v. 12). For those of the Babylonian crowd who were in the east had more illumination than the rest, but it was artificial illumination they had contrived for themselves. Some were to be seen building a tower intended to reach heaven where the angels are; but this was only a representation of their designs. For designs are presented in the spiritual world by many things visible to those standing a way off, though they are not really produced among the people devising them. This is a common event there. By means of this appearance I was given to understand the meaning of the tower, the top of which was in heaven, from which the place was called Babel (Gen. 11:1-10). So much for their dwellings in the east.
[6] In the west towards the front lived those of that religion who had lived during the Dark Ages, most of them underground, one generation beneath another. The whole front region, which faces north, was as if hollowed out and filled with monasteries. Their entrances were through caves with covers over them. They went in and out through these caves, but rarely talked with those who had lived in later centuries since they differed in character. They were not so malicious, because in their time there had been no struggle with the Reformed, so they did not have such cunning and malice arising from hatred and a desire for vengeance. In the western quarter beyond that region there were many mountains inhabited by the most malicious of this people, who denied the Divine at heart, although their oral confession and their pious gestures displayed a more pious attitude than that of the rest. The people there had thought out unspeakable schemes to keep the common herd obedient to their rule, and to force others to submit to it. I am not allowed to describe those schemes because they are unspeakable, but there is a general account of their nature in HEAVEN AND HELL (580).
[7] The mountains where they lived are what is meant in the book of Revelation by the seven mountains, and those who lived there are meant by the woman mounted upon the scarlet beast in this passage:
I saw a woman mounted on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names and having seven heads and ten horns. She had a name written on her forehead, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of whoredoms and abominations of the earth. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits. Rev. 17:3, 5, 9.
Woman in the internal sense means the church; here in the contrary sense a profane religious system. The scarlet beast means the profanation of heavenly love; and the seven mountains the profane love of ruling. So much for the dwellings of those in the west.
[8] The reason why their homes are in different quarters is that all in the spiritual world move to a quarter and a place within the quarter corresponding to their affections and loves, and none can go anywhere else; on this see the discussion of the four quarters of heaven in HEAVEN AND HELL (141-153).
[9] Generally speaking all the deliberations of these Babylonian people have the tendency to establish their rule not only over heaven, but also over all the earth, and so to possess heaven and earth, earth by means of heaven and heaven by means of earth. To achieve this they continually think out and devise new rules and new teachings. They labour to produce the same kind of results in the other life as in the world, for each individual remains after death such a person as he was in the world, especially as regards his religious belief. I was allowed to listen to some of their prelates deliberating about a doctrine to serve as a standard for the ordinary people. It contained a number of paragraphs, but they were all intended to seize control over the heavens and lands upon earth, claiming all power for themselves and allowing none to the Lord. These doctrinal statements were later read to those present upon which they heard a voice from heaven declaring that, although they were unaware of it, these statements had been dictated from the deepest hell. To prove this a crowd of devils of the blackest and foulest appearance came up from that hell, and tore the statement away from them, not with their hands, but with their teeth, and carried it down to their hell. The ordinary people who witnessed this were thunderstruck.
[2] Such people are also like the Scribes and Pharisees, whom the Lord describes in these words:
They sit in Moses’ chair. Everything they tell you to observe, observe and do it; but do not do works such as they do, for they speak of them but do not do them. They do all their works so as to gain men’s regard. They shut the kingdom of the heavens to men, but do not enter it themselves. They devour widows’ houses, and make a show of uttering long prayers. Woe to you, hypocrites, you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of robbery and injustice. Clean first the inside of the cup and plate, so that the outside too may be clean. You are like whitewashed tombs which are fair to look on outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones. Thus you appear outwardly righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Matt. 23:1-34.
[3] Another reason why they were tolerated is that each person retains after death the religious belief he accepted in the world. He is therefore put into that state as soon as he comes into the other life. Religious belief has been implanted in this people by those who have made a parade of holiness in speech and made a pretence of it in behaviour, also impressing on them the belief that they can offer them salvation. That too is why such persons were not taken away from them, but were kept among their own people.
[4] The chief reason is that all are preserved from one judgment until the next who have outwardly led a life resembling a spiritual one, mimicking inward piety and holiness, so that simple people can be taught and guided by them. For those of simple faith and heart do not look further than the outside they can see with their own eyes. This is why all of this nature from the beginnings of the Christian church have been tolerated down to the day of judgment. It was shown above that a last judgment has happened twice before, and is now happening for the third time. All these are those who made up the former heaven and are meant by those who were not from the first resurrection (Rev. 20:5, 6). But because their nature was such as described above, that heaven was destroyed and those who were from the second resurrection were cast out.
[5] But it should be known that the only ones to be preserved were those who had allowed themselves to be held in check by civil as well as spiritual laws, since these could be kept together in a community. But those who could not be held in check by these laws were not preserved; they were thrown into hell long before the day of the Last Judgment, for communities were continually being purified and purged of such people. Hence it is that those who have led a life of crime and have induced the common people to do wicked deeds, entering into unspeakable tricks such as are practised by those in the hells (described in HEAVEN AND HELL 580), have been expelled from their communities, and this has happened from time to time.
[6] Equally the inwardly good too are removed from communities, so that they are not contaminated by those who are inwardly wicked. For those who are good perceive what is within and pay no attention to exterior appearance, except so far as it matches the interior. From time to time before judgment these are sent to places of instruction (on which see HEAVEN AND HELL 512-520), and from there are carried off to heaven. These are those who will compose the new heaven and who are meant by those from the first resurrection. This has been said to make it known why so many of those of the Roman Catholic religion were tolerated and preserved until the day of the Last Judgment. More on this subject will be said in the next chapter, which will deal with the former heaven which passed away.
[2] Following this smoke, as after a fire, began to rise from the whole district, and finally thick dust; this was carried out to sea by the east wind and settled as a layer on it. All their treasuries were turned to dust, together with all the possessions they held sacred. The reason the dust was scattered on the sea was that such dust means that which is damned.
[3] Finally a black shape was seen flying over that whole district, which on closer view looked like a dragon – a sign that the whole of that great city and the district had become a desert. The reason it so appeared was that dragons mean the falsities of such a religion, and their home means a desert following overthrow (as in Jeremiah 9:12; 10:22; 49:33; Malachi 1:3).
[4] Some were also seen having what looked like a millstone round their left arm; this representation showed that they had proved their unspeakable dogmas from the Word. Such is the meaning of a millstone; so it was plain what these words in Revelation mean:
An angel picked up a stone like that of a large mill and threw it into the sea, saying, So shall Babylon, that great city, be sent hurtling down, and it shall be found no more. Rev. 18:21.
[5] However, as for those who were in the Council chamber, in the same quarter but further to the east, where debates were held about methods of extending their rule and of keeping the people in ignorance and so in blind obedience (on this Council chamber see 58 above), they were not thrown into the black sea, but into a chasm which opened up lengthwise and to a great depth beneath and around them. This is how the Last Judgment took place on the Babylonians in the southern quarter.
[6] The Last Judgment on those who lived forward in the western quarter and on those in the northern quarter, where the large city was, happened like this. After huge earthquakes which convulsed everything there to its foundations (these are the earthquakes meant in the Word, Matt. 24:7; Luke 21:11; and similar ones in Rev. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13; 16:18, and in the prophetic books of the Old Testament – not earthquakes on this earth), an east wind swept from the south through the west to the north, and stripped that whole region bare. It hit first the forward region in the western quarter, where those who had lived in the Dark Ages had their underground dwellings, and then the large city which extended from that quarter right through the north as far as the east. As they were laid bare all their contents were to be seen. But because there were not such large treasures stored there, there was no volcanic eruption with its sulphurous fire to burn up the treasures; there was only an overthrow and destruction, with everything finally going up in smoke. It was the east wind which swept to and fro, overthrowing, destroying and carrying everything away.
[7] The monks together with the common people were brought out in tens of thousands, and some were thrown into the black sea on the side facing west, some into the great southern rift (mentioned above), some into the western chasm, some into the hells of the heathen.
For some of the people from the Dark Ages were idolaters like the heathen. Smoke was seen rising from there, reaching as far as the sea and drifting over it, and forming a black coating on it. For the part of the sea into which they were thrown had a hard covering of dust and smoke, into which their dwellings and riches dissolved.
So the sea was no longer to be seen, and its place was taken by a piece of black ground, underneath which was their hell.
[8] The Last Judgment on those who lived on the mountains in the eastern quarter (on whom see above 58) took place like this. The mountains were seen to sink into the depths and all on them were swallowed up. The one who had been placed on one of the mountains and proclaimed to be God, turned black and then fiery, and he was hurled headlong into hell along with them. For the monks of various orders who were on those mountains claimed that he was God and they were themselves Christ; and wherever they went, they took with them the shocking persuasion that they were Christ.
[9] Finally a judgment took place on those who lived further out in the western quarter on the mountains there, the people meant by the woman mounted on the scarlet beast, having seven heads which are seven mountains (she was mentioned above, 58). Their mountains too were seen, some split open in the middle forming a huge chasm spiralling downwards, and those on the mountains were thrown into it. Some of the mountains were torn up by the roots and so turned upside down that their summits were at the bottom. The people from the plains there were deluged with a kind of flood and covered over. But those among them who were from other quarters were thrown into chasms. The present remarks are but a small part of all that I saw; more will be given in the explanation of Revelation. These events happened and were completed at the beginning of the year 1757.
[10] As for the chasms into which all were thrown except those who ended up in the black sea, there are many of them. Four were shown to me: a large one towards the east of the southern quarter; a second towards the south in the western quarter; a third towards the north in the western quarter; a fourth further out in the corner between west and north. The chasms and the sea are their hells. This much I saw, but there was much more which I did not see. The hells of the Babylonian people are kept apart to match the different ways in which they profane spiritual things, which relate to the church’s good and truth.
ON THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLITION
We read in the book of Revelation:
I saw a mighty throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose sight earth and heaven fled, and their place was not found. Rev. 20:11.
and later:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Rev. 21:1.
I showed in the first chapter of this book and elsewhere in it that the new heaven and the new earth and the passing away of the former heaven and the former earth do not refer to the visible sky and the earth on which we live, but to the heaven of angels and the church. For the Word is in essence spiritual and therefore deals with spiritual matters, that is, those which have to do with heaven and the church. Natural things are used in the literal sense to stand for them, because what is natural serves what is spiritual for a base; and without such a base the Word would not be a work of God, because it would be incomplete. It is the natural, standing last in God’s order, which completes and gives the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, a base on which to rest, like a house on its foundations.
[2] Because people have thought about the contents of the Word from a natural instead of a spiritual point of view, they have taken heaven and earth in these and other passages to mean the sky in the natural world and the earth similarly. That is why everyone expects them to pass away and be destroyed, and new ones to be created. To prevent this expectation continuing for ever and being frustrated in each century, the spiritual sense of the Word has been opened up, so that the meaning of many expressions in the Word may be known, which cannot fall within our understanding as long as we think in a natural manner about them; and this includes the heaven and earth which will pass away.
Behold, I shall create a new heaven and a new earth, and the former ones will not be remembered. Isa. 65:17.
and elsewhere:
I shall make a new heaven and a new earth. Isa. 66:22.
It is also said in Daniel.
(i) The people composing the first heaven.
(ii) Its nature.
(iii) How it passed away.
[2] I shall give a brief description of their nature. They were those who in the world had put on an outward show of a holy life, though lacking any inward basis, but who had been upright and honest because they were compelled by civil and moral laws, but not the laws of God. Thus they were external or natural people, not internal or spiritual people. They included those who possessed the church’s teachings and were able themselves to teach, though they did not live in accordance with what they taught; also those who held various offices and performed services, though not for the sake of being of service. It was these and those like them all the world over, who lived after the Lord’s coming, that made up the first heaven. This heaven there fore had the same nature as the world and the church on earth, which is composed of those who do not do good because it is good, but because of legal penalties and fear of losing their reputations, honours and advantages. Those who do good for no other reason fear not God but men, and have no conscience.
[3] In the first heaven composed of the Reformed the greater number were those who had believed in salvation by faith alone, not by a life of faith, which is one of charity, and who had been eager to be highly regarded by men. While all these were formed into communities, they had their interiors closed so that they could not be seen; but they were opened up when the Last Judgment was at hand. Then it was learnt that they were inwardly obsessed by every kind of evil and falsity, being opposed to the Divine and in reality in hell. For each person immediately after death is attached to people like him, the good to those like them in heaven, the wicked to those like them in hell, but they do not go to join them until their interiors are revealed. In the meantime they can associate with those who resemble them in externals.
[4] But it should be known that all who were inwardly good, and so spiritual, were separated from them and raised into heaven. All who were not only inwardly but also outwardly wicked were also separated from them and cast into hell. This has happened from the earliest times following the Lord’s coming and down to the last, when the judgment took place. The only ones who were left to form their own communities which made up the first heaven, were those whose nature was such as described above.
[2] The Lord teaches in this passage that this was why they were tolerated until the final period:
The servants of the head of the household came to him and said, Was it not good seed you sowed in your field? Where then do the weeds come from? And they said, Do you want us then to go and gather them? But he said, No, for fear that in gathering the weeds you uproot the wheat together with them. So let them both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest-time I shall say to the reapers, Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into the barns. He who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed is the children of the kingdom, the weeds the children of evil; the harvest is the ending of the age. As therefore the weeds are gathered and burnt with fire, so shall it be at the ending of this age. Matt. 13:27-30, 37-42.
The ending of this age is the final period of the church; the weeds are those who are inwardly wicked; the wheat those who are inwardly good; their gathering and tying in bundles for burning is the Last Judgment.#
[3] A similar meaning is conveyed by the Lord’s parable in the same chapter about the gathering of fish of every kind, when the good were put into vessels and the bad thrown out; of these too it is said:
So shall it be at the ending of the age; the angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous. Matt. 13:47-49.
They are compared to fish, because in the spiritual sense of the Word fish mean those who are natural and external, good as well as wicked; on the meaning of the righteous see at the end of the chapter.##
# Bundles in the Word mean the arrangement of the truths and falsities a person has into groups, so also groupings of People possessing those truths and falsities (AC 4686, 4687, 5339, 5530, 7408, 10303). The Son of Man is the Lord as regards Divine truth (AC 1729, 1733, 2159, 2628, 2803, 2813, 3773, 3704, 7499, 8897, 9807). Sons are affections for truth coming from good (AC 489, 491, 533, 2623, 3373, 4257, 8649, 9807); so the children of the kingdom are those with affections for truth coming from good, and the children of evil are those with affections for falsity coming from evil. Consequently the latter are called weeds, and the former good seed, for weeds mean falsity coming from evil and good seed means truth coming from good. The seed of the field is truth coming from good which a person has from the Lord (AC 1940, 3038, 3310, 3373, 10248, 10249). In the contrary sense seed is falsity from evil (AC 10249). The seed of the field is also the nourishment of the mind by means of Divine truth from the Word; to sow is to instruct (AC 6158, 9272). The ending of the age is the final period of the church (AC 4535, 10622).
## Fish in the spiritual sense of the Word mean the factual knowledge of the natural or external man; and thus also natural or external people, both good and wicked (AC 40, 991). Animals of every kind correspond to the kind of things in a person’s character (AC 45, 46, 246, 714, 716, 719, 2179, 2180, 3519, 9280, 10609). In the Word people are called righteous if the Lord’s righteousness and merit is attributed to them, but unrighteous if self-righteousness and self-acquired merit is attributed to them (AC 3648*, 15069, 9263).
* [This number seems to be incorrect; a possible reference would be 9486.]
After these had received a visitation and had their interior natures exposed, they were split up and divided into groups determined by their evils and resultant falsities and by their falsities and resultant evils, and thrown into hells corresponding to their loves. Their hells were on every side around the centre. For the Reformed were in the centre, the Roman Catholics around them and the Mohammedans around these, and the heathen in the outermost circle (see above 48). Those not thrown into hells were driven out into deserts. But some were taken down into the plains in the southern and northern quarters, to form communities in which they could be instructed and prepared for heaven. These are the ones who were preserved. But it is impossible to describe here in detail how all these events occurred, for the judgment on them took a long time and happened by successive stages. Since I then saw and heard much that deserves to be related, I should like to present these incidents in due order in the explanation on Revelation.
THE FUTURE STATE OF THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH
The future state of the world will be exactly the same as it has been up to now; for the mighty change which has taken place in the spiritual world does not cause any change in the external appearance of the natural world. So just as before there will be politics, peace-treaties, alliances and wars, and all the other general and particular features of society. When the Lord said:
There will be wars, and then nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues and earthquakes in various places. Matt. 24:6, 7.
He did not mean such events in the natural world, but corresponding ones in the spiritual world. For the Word in its prophecies is not concerned with kingdoms on earth or the peoples on it, so not with their wars either; nor is it concerned with famine, plague and earthquakes on earth, but with the events in the spiritual world which correspond to them. The nature of these has been explained in ARCANA CAELESTIA, a collection of references to which may by seen at the end of the chapter.#
[2] The future state of the church, however, will not be the same. It may seem much the same in outward appearance, but inwardly it will be different. In outward appearance the churches will be divided from one another as before, their teachings will differ as before, and so will the religious systems of the heathen. But people in the church will henceforward have more freedom in thinking about matters of faith, and so about the spiritual matters which have to do with heaven, because of the restoration of spiritual freedom. For now everything in the heavens and the hells has been restored to order, and it is from there that all thought is influenced about Divine matters or against them; from the heavens when thought favours what is Divine, from the hells when it opposes it. But people will be unaware of this change of state, since they do not reflect on it, nor indeed do they know anything about spiritual freedom or influence from the spiritual world. However, in heaven this is perceived, and people after their deaths can do so too. It is because people have had their spiritual freedom restored that the spiritual sense of the Word has now been disclosed, and by this means Divine truths of a more inward kind have been revealed. For in their previous state people would not have understood them, and if anyone did so, he would have profaned them. It may be seen in HEAVEN AND HELL (597 to end) that people’s freedom depends upon an equilibrium between heaven and hell; and that people can only be reformed, if they enjoy freedom.
# Wars in the Word mean spiritual battles (AC 1659, 1664, 8295, 10455). Thus all the weapons of war, such as bow, sword and shield, have some meaning relating to spiritual battles (AC 1788, 2686). Kingdoms mean churches as regards truths and falsities (AC 1672, 2547). Nations mean those who have different kinds of good and of evil (AC 1059, 1159, 1205, 1258, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 6306, 7830*, 8054, 8317, 9320, 9327). Famine means the failure of knowledge of truth and good (AC 1460, 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5893); also the desolation of the church (AC 5279, 5415, 5576, 6110, 6144, 7102). Plague means the laying waste and ending of good and truth (AC 7102, 7505, 7507, 7511). Earthquakes mean changes in a church’s state (AC 3355).
* [Reference apparently incorrect.]
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