The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 19

by Emanuel Swedenborg

XIX.

THE LAST JUDGMENT ACCOMPLISHED.

HE last judgment does not take place on the earth, but in the spiritual world, where all who have lived from the beginning of creation are together. Since this is so, it is impossible for any man to know when the last judgment is accomplished; for every one expects it to occur on earth, accompanied by a change of all things in the visible heaven, and in the countries of the earth, and in mankind who dwell there.

Lest therefore the man of the church from ignorance should live in such a belief, and lest they who think of a last judgment should expect it for ever, whence at length the belief of those things which are said of it in the literal sense of the Word must perish, and lest haply therefore many should recede from their faith in the Word, it has been granted me to see with my own eyes that the last judgment is now accomplished; that the evil are cast into hell and the good elevated into heaven; and thus that all things are reduced to order,—the spiritual equilibrium between good and evil, or between heaven and hell, being thence restored.

It was granted me to see from beginning to end how the last judgment was accomplished, and also how Babylon was destroyed, how those who are understood by the dragon were cast into the abyss, and how the new heaven was formed, and a new church instituted in the heavens which is understood by the New Jerusalem. It was granted me to see all these things with my own eyes, in order that I might be able to testify of them. This last judgment commenced in the beginning of the year 1757, and was fully accomplished at the end of that year.

But it ought to be known that the last judgment was executed upon those who had lived from the Lord's time to this day, but not upon those who had lived before: for a last judgment had twice before occurred on this earth. Of these two judgments, the one is described in the Word by the flood, the other was effected by the Lord Himself when He was in the world, which moreover is understood by his words, "Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out" (John xii. 31); and "These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye may have peace; be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;" (John xvi. 33, also Isa. lxiii. 1 to 8: and in many other places.)

A last judgment has twice before occurred on this earth, because every judgment occurs at the end of a church; and there have been two churches on this earth, one before the flood and one after it. The church before the flood is described in the beginning of Genesis by the new creation of heaven and earth, and by paradise; its end, by the eating of the tree of knowledge, and the subsequent particulars; and its last judgment by the flood; the whole by mere correspondences, according to the style of the Word; in the internal or spiritual sense of which, by the creation of heaven and earth, the institution of a new church is meant; by the paradise in Eden, its celestial wisdom; by the tree of knowledge and by the serpent, the scientific [or sensual principle] which destroyed it; and by the flood, the last judgment upon the men of whom it consisted.

But the other church which was after the flood, is also described in certain passages in the Word, as in Deut. xxxii. 7 to 14, and elsewhere. This church was extended through much of the Asiatic world, and was continued among the posterity of Jacob. Its end was when the Lord came into the world. A last judgment was then executed by Him upon all who belonged to that church from its first institution; and at the same time upon the residue of the first church. The Lord came into the world for this end, to reduce all things in the heavens to order, and all things in the countries of the earth by means of the heavens, and at the same time to make his Humanity Divine; for if this had not been done, no man could have been saved. . .

The third church on this earth is the Christian. Upon this church, and at the same time upon all those who had been in the first heaven since the Lord's time, the last judgment of which I now treat was executed.

The manner in which this last judgment was executed cannot here be described in all its details, for they are many; but they shall be described in the explication of the Apocalypse. For the judgment was accomplished not only upon all the men of the Christian church, but also upon all who are called Mahometans; and, moreover, upon all the Gentiles in the whole circle of the earth; and it was executed in this order:—first upon those of the Papal religion; then upon the Mahometans; afterwards upon the Gentiles; and lastly upon the Reformed. . .

ARRANGEMENT OF THOSE JUDGED.

The following was seen to be the arrangement in the spiritual world of all the nations and people to be judged:

Collected in the middle, appeared those who are called the Reformed, where they were also distinct according to their countries; the Germans there toward the north; the Swedes toward the west; the Danes in the west; the Dutch toward the east and north; the English in the centre. Surrounding this whole mid-region of the Reformed, appeared collected those of the Papal religion, the greater part of them in the western, some in the southern quarter. Beyond them were the Mahometans, also distinct according to their countries, who all appeared in the southwest. Beyond these, the Gentiles were congregated in vast numbers, constituting the very circumference; and on their outer side an appearance as of a sea, was the boundary.

This arrangement of the nations in the various quarters, was an arrangement according to each nation's common faculty of receiving divine truths; for in the spiritual world every one is known from the quarter and the part of it in which he dwells; and, moreover, in a society with many he is known from his tarryings being made with reference to the quarters. It is the same when he goes from place to place. All advance to the quarters is then effected according to the successive states of the thoughts derived from the affections which belong to his proper life; in accordance with which all those who are spoken of in what follows, were led to their own places. In a word, the ways in which every one walks in the spiritual world are actual determinations of his thoughts; whence it is, that ways, walkings, and the like, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signify the determinations and progressions of spiritual life [because of their correspondence].

In the Word, the four quarters are called the four winds, and a gathering is called a gathering from the four winds; as in Matthew, where the last judgment is the subject treated of, "He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other" (xxiv. 31); and again, "All nations shall he gathered together before the Son of Man, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on the right and the goats on the left" (#Matthew xxv. 31, 32); which signifies that the Lord will then separate those who are in truths and at the same time in good, from those who are in truths and not in good; for in the spiritual sense of the Word, the right signifies good, and the left truth; and sheep and goats signify the same.

The last judgment was executed upon these alone,—the evil who were in no truths being in the hells already; for all the wicked who have denied the Divine in their hearts, and have rejected the truths of the church as incredible, are cast thither when they die, and therefore before the judgment. The first heaven which passed away, consisted of those who were in truths and not in good; and the new heaven was formed of those who were in truths, and at the same time in good.

The judgment upon the Mahometans and Gentiles, was effected thus: The Mahometans were led forth from their places where they were gathered together in the southwest, by a way round the Christians, from the west through the north to the east, as far as its southern confine; and the good were separated from the evil in the way—the evil being cast into marches and lakes, many too being scattered about in a certain remote desert. But the good were led through the east to a land of great extent near the south, and habitations were there given them. They who were led thither had in the world acknowledged the Lord as the greatest Prophet, and as the Son of God, and had believed that He was sent by the Father to instruct mankind, and at the same time had lived a moral-spiritual life in accordance with their religion. Most of these, when instructed, receive faith in the Lord, and acknowledge Him to be one with the Father. Communication is also granted them with the Christian heaven, by influx from the Lord; but they are not commingled with it, because religion separates them.

All of this religion, as soon as they come into the other life among their own, first seek Mahomet; yet he does not appear, but in his place two others who call themselves Mahomets, and who have obtained seats in the middle, under the Christian heaven toward the left part of it. These two are in the place of Mahomet, because all after death, whatever be their religion, are first led to those they had worshiped in the world (for every one's religion adheres to him); but they secede on perceiving that these can render them no assistance. They are thus yielded up to their own religion at first, as the only possible means of effecting their withdrawal from it. Where Mahomet himself is, and what he is, and whence come those two who fill his place, shall be told in the book in which the Apocalypse is explained.

The judgment was executed upon the Gentiles in nearly the same manner as upon the Mahometans; but they were not led like them in a circuit, but only a short way in the west, where the evil were separated from the good, the evil being there cast into two great gulfs, which stretched obliquely into the deep. But the good were conducted above the middle, where the Christians were, toward the land of the Mahometans in the eastern quarter, and dwellings were given them behind and beyond the Mahometans, to a great extent in the southern quarter.

But those of the Gentiles who in the world had worshiped God under a human form, and had led lives of charity according to their religious principles, were conjoined with Christians in heaven, for they acknowledge and adore the Lord more than others. The most intelligent of them are from Africa. The multitude of the Gentiles and Mahometans who appeared was so great, that it could be numbered only by myriads. The judgment on this vast multitude was effected in a few days.

From all these particulars appears the truth of the Lord's prediction concerning the last judgment, that "They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God," Luke xiii. 29. (L. J. n. 45-52.)