4391. CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT. Whatsoever the Lord said concerning the Last Judgment, is no where to be understood concerning the destruction of the world, but concerning the last time of the church in general, and of each church in particular, which is when there is no longer any faith, that is, when there is no charity. For example, what the Lord said about the tossing of the sea is to be understood of heresies and controversies, especially of those which arise from scientifics. So the obscuration of the sun means that love and charity [shall be extinguished]; that of the moon, that faith, and that of the stars, that the knowledges of faith [shall perish]; nation rising against nation, that the evil shall be against the evil, and so on. He spoke thus for many hidden reasons, concerning which it would not be in place here to write. In like manner in John and the prophets where it is treated concerning the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem, that is, the church.