Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
During all the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)During all the days of the earth.
That this signifies all time, is evident from the signification of "day" as being a time; wherefore "the days of the earth" here mean all time so long as there is earth [terra], or inhabitant upon the earth [tellure].
An inhabitant first ceases to be on the earth when there is no longer any church. For when there is no church, there is no longer any communication of man with heaven, and when this communication ceases, every inhabitant perishes.
IT IS WITH THE CHURCH —
AS WITH THE HEART AND LUNGS IN MAN
So long as the heart and lungs are sound, so long the man lives; and such also is the case with the Grand Man, which is the universal heaven, so long as the church lives; and therefore it is here said — "during all the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." From this it also may appear that the earth will not endure to eternity, but that it too will have its end; for it is said, "during all the days of the earth" that is, as long as the earth endures.But as to believing that the end of the earth will be the same thing as the last judgment, foretold in the Word — where the consummation of the age, the day of visitation, and the last judgment are described — this is a mistake; for there is a last judgment of every church when it has been vastated, or when there is no longer in it any faith.
OF THE MOST ANCIENT CHURCH
The last judgment of the Most Ancient Church was when it perished, as in its last posterity just before the flood.OF THE JEWISH CHURCH
The last judgment of the Jewish Church was when the Lord came into the world.OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
There will also be a last judgment when the Lord shall come in glory; not that the earth and the world are then to perish, but that the church perishes; and then a New Church is always raised up by the Lord; as at the time of the flood was the Ancient Church, and at the time of the coming of the Lord the Primitive Church of the Gentiles.And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. ... And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.The Abomination of Desolation
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (see Daniel chapter 2 and 9), then let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains: let him which is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. ... For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase [dead body] is, there will the eagles be gathered together.The Coming of the Son of Man
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (from Matthew 24)
A CHURCH THAT WILL ENDURE FOREVER
— THE NEW JERUSALEM —
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2:43. 44)So also will there be a New Church when the Lord shall come in glory, which is also meant by the new heaven and new earth, in like manner as with every regenerate man, who becomes a man of the church, or a church, and whose internal man, when he has been created anew, is called a new heaven, and his external man a new earth.
And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty is the temple of it, and the Lamb, signifies that in this church there will not be any external separated from the internal, because the Lord Himself in His Divine Human, from whom is the all of the church is alone approached, worshiped, and adored.
By "I saw no temple therein" is not meant that in the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, there will not be temples, but in it there will not be an external separated from the internal. The reason is because by "a temple" is signified the church as to worship, and, in the highest sense, the Lord Himself as to the Divine Human, who is to be worshiped.
And since the all of the church is from the Lord, therefore it is said, "for the Lord God Almighty is the temple of it, and the Lamb" by which is signified the Lord in His Divine Human.
By "the Lord God Almighty" is meant the Lord from eternity who is Jehovah Himself, and by "the Lamb" is signified His Divine Human. (Apocalypse Revealed 918)
OF EVERY MAN
Moreover there is also a last judgment for every man when he dies, for then, according to what he has done in the body, he is adjudged either to death or to life. That nothing else is meant, consequently not the destruction of the world, by the consummation of the age, the end of days, or the last judgment, is clearly evident from the words of the Lord in Luke:In that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken and the other shall be left; there shall be two women grinding together, the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left (Luke 17:34-36)where the last time is called "night" because there is no faith, that is, no charity; and where by some being "left" it is clearly indicated that the world will not then perish.
(from Arcana Coelestia 931)