1. I. THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED

My earlier work on THE LAST JUDGMENT dealt with the following subjects:

The day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world (The Last Judgment 1-5).

The reproduction of the human race will never cease (6-13).

Heaven and Hell are from the human race (14-22).

All people who have ever been born since the beginning of creation and have died are in heaven or in hell (23-27).

The Last Judgment is to be where all are together, and so in the spiritual world, not on earth (28-32).

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 (33-39).

All the predictions made in the Book of Revelation are today fulfilled (40-44).

The Last Judgment has taken place (45-52).

On Babylon and its destruction (53-64);

on the former heaven and its abolition (65-72);

on the future state of the world and the church (73-74).

24. It requires no further explanation to see that the statement that all people who have ever been born since the beginning of creation and have died are in heaven or in hell is the consequence of what has been said in the previous chapter, where it was shown that heaven and hell are from the human race. Up to now it has been generally believed that people will not go to heaven or to hell before the day of the Last Judgment, when souls will return to their own bodies so that they can enjoy what are believed to be the peculiar properties of the body. Simple people have been brought to believe this by those who have made a profession of being wise and have enquired into people's inner state. These have had no idea of the spiritual world, but only the natural one, and so no idea of the spiritual man either. They have therefore been unaware that the spiritual man, which everyone has within his natural man, has human form just as the natural man. Neither has it occurred to them that the natural man gets his human form from his spiritual man. Yet they could have seen that the spiritual man acts at will upon every detail of the natural man, who is unable to do anything of himself.

[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.

1. THE DAY OF THE LAST JUDGMENT DOES NOT MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD.

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 (303-310) and of Divine worship in heaven (221-227).