Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2118

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2118. The expression 'Last Judgement' is used to mean the final period of a Church, and also to mean the final phase of each person's life. As regards the final period of a Church, the Last Judgement of the Most Ancient Church, which had existed before the Flood, occurred when their descendants perished, whose destruction is described by the Flood. The Last Judgement of the Ancient Church, which existed after the Flood, took place when almost all who belonged to that Church had become idolaters and had been scattered. The Last Judgement of the representative Church, which followed next, among the descendants of Jacob, came about when the ten tribes were led away into captivity and dispersed among the gentile nations; and later on when the Jews after the Lord's Coming were expelled from the land of Canaan and were scattered throughout the whole world. The Last Judgement of the Church existing at present, which is called the Christian Church, is what 'the new heaven and the new earth' is used to mean in John in the Book of Revelation.


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