The Last Judgment
Emanuel Swedenborg

The former Heaven and the Last Judgment upon the Reformed - part 1
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(65) It is said in the Apocalypse:

And afterwards:-

That by "a new heaven and a new earth," and by the passing away of the former heaven and the former earth is not meant the visible heaven and our habitable earth, but an angelic heaven and a church, was shown above in the first article, and also in those which follow it. For the Word in itself is spiritual, and therefore treats of spiritual things; and spiritual things are the things of heaven and the church; these are expressed by natural things in the sense of the letter, because natural things serve as a basis to spiritual things, and without such a basis the Word would not be a Divine work, because it would not be complete; for the natural, which is the ultimate ill Divine order, completes and makes the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, to subsist upon it, as a house upon its foundation.

Now because man has thought of the things of the Word from the natural and not from the spiritual, therefore, by "the heaven and the earth" which are mentioned here and elsewhere, they have understood none other than the heaven and earth which exist in the world of nature; hence it is that everyone expects the passing away and destruction of these, and then also the creation of new ones. But lest they should expect this everlastingly, from age to age in vain, the spiritual sense of the Word is opened, that thus it may be known what is meant by many things in the Word, which, when thought of naturally, do not enter the understanding, and, at the same time, what is meant by "the heaven and the earth" which will pass away.

(66) But before showing what is meant by "the first heaven and the first earth," it should be known, that by "the first heaven" is not meant the heaven formed of those who have become angels from the first creation of this world to the present time, for that heaven is abiding, and endures to eternity; for all who enter heaven are under the Lord's protection, and he who has once been received by the Lord, can never be plucked away from Him. But by "the first heaven" is meant that which was composed of others than those who have become angels, and for the most part of those who could not become angels. Who they were, and their quality, shall be told in the following pages. This heaven it is, of which it is said, that it "passed away." It was called heaven, because they who were in it dwelt on high, forming societies upon rocks and mountains, and living in delights similar to natural ones, but still not in any that were spiritual; for very many who come from the earth into the spiritual world, believe themselves to be in heaven, when they are on high, and in heavenly joy, when they are in delights such as they had in the world. Hence it wasn't called heaven, but "the first heaven which passed away."

(67) It is moreover to be known, that this heaven which is called "the first," did not consist of any who had lived before the Lord's coming into the world, but all were from those who lived after His coming, for as was shown above, a Last Judgment is effected at the end of every church, and then the former heaven is abolished, and a new heaven is created or formed; for all who lived in an external moral life, and in external piety and sanctity, although not in any internal, were tolerated from the beginning to the end of the church provided the internals which belong to the thoughts and intentions could be held in bonds by the laws of society, civil and moral; but at the end of the church their internals are disclosed, and the judgment is then effected upon them, Hence it is that a Last Judgment has been effected upon the inhabitants of this planet twice before, and now for the third time (n. 46); thus also a heaven and an earth have twice passed away before, and a new heaven and a new earth have been created; for the heaven and the earth are the church in either world.

Hence it is plain, that "the new heaven and the new earth," mentioned in the prophets of the Old Testament, are not that "new heaven and new earth" mentioned in the Apocalypse, but that the former existed from the Lord when He was in the world, and that the latter exist from Him now. Concerning those in the prophets of the Old Testament, it is thus written:

And in another place:

Besides what is said in Daniel.

(68) Since the first heaven which passed away is the subject now treated of, and since no one knows anything concerning it, I will describe it in order.

I. Of whom the first heaven consisted.
II. What its quality was.
III. How it passed away.

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