4. Further, to create means in the spiritual sense of the Word to form, set up and regenerate. So to create a new heaven and a new earth means to set up a new church in heaven and on earth. This can be seen from these passages:
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).
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church