1. Prior to the Last Judgment, which was a general judgment, there preceded judgments less general, which could be called preparatory ones, by which those who were more outwardly evil were cast into hells. It should be known that between the time of the judgment executed by the Lord when He was in the world and the judgment which has now taken place, spirits who then lived a moral life outwardly and confessed God with their mouth, but did not do so inwardly or with the heart, ascended upon mountains and hills, and there made for themselves seeming heavens. They ascended upon mountains there by various arts, of which there are many in the spiritual world, all unknown in our world, so that the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, was filled with such heavens, and consequently communication of the Lord and heaven with the human race was interrupted. This also was the reason that the spiritual contents of the Word and doctrines emanating from it were not disclosed until after the Last Judgment; for by that judgment the world of spirits was purified and communication with mankind opened. If they had been revealed sooner, the spiritual contents of the Word and doctrines emanating from it would not have been accepted or understood; and if accepted and understood, still hell, which prevailed at that time, would have stolen them from people's hearts and profaned them. Those counterfeit heavens are the ones meant in the book of Revelation by the heaven and earth which passed away.* They could pass away, but our visible heaven, which is the firmament containing all things, has been so created that it cannot pass away; for if it were to pass away, the angelic heavens would pass away also. It would be like taking away the foundation of a palace or the base of a column, which would cause the building or column to fall. For there is a connection of all things from first to last, from the Lord Himself to the final element of His work, which is the visible heaven and the habitable earth. The same thing would happen if the human race were to perish. In that case also the angelic heavens would collapse, for the same reason. * Revelation 21:1.