1. I. THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED

My earlier work on THE LAST JUDGMENT dealt with the following subjects:

The day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world (The Last Judgment 1-5).

The reproduction of the human race will never cease (6-13).

Heaven and Hell are from the human race (14-22).

All people who have ever been born since the beginning of creation and have died are in heaven or in hell (23-27).

The Last Judgment is to be where all are together, and so in the spiritual world, not on earth (28-32).

The Last Judgment takes place when a church comes to an end; and this happens when there is no faith because there is no charity (33-39).

All the predictions made in the Book of Revelation are today fulfilled (40-44).

The Last Judgment has taken place (45-52).

On Babylon and its destruction (53-64);

on the former heaven and its abolition (65-72);

on the future state of the world and the church (73-74).

23. IV. ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER BEEN BORN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF CREATION AND HAVE DIED ARE IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL.

This is the consequence, first of the statements and demonstrations of the last chapter, showing that heaven and hell are from the human race. Secondly, from the fact that after his life in the world everyone lives for ever. Thirdly, it follows that all people who have ever been born from the creation of the world and have died are either in heaven or in hell. Fourthly, since all who will be born hereafter will also come into the spiritual world, it follows that this is in size and nature beyond comparison with the natural world in which people on earth live. In order to make the perception of all these statements more exact and their truth more obvious, I should like to explain and describe them one by one.

64. On the state of those who come there from earth henceforward. Since the Last Judgment has now been completed and by this means all has been reduced to order by the Lord, those who were inwardly good being taken up into heaven and those who were inwardly wicked being cast down into hell, it is not allowed henceforth that there should be, as formerly, any communities below heaven and above hell, nor that they should have any contact with others. But as soon as people arrive there, as happens to every person after he dies, they are completely separated and after spending some time in the world of spirits they are taken to their appointed places. Those therefore who profane what is holy, those, that is, who claim for themselves the power of opening and closing heaven and of remitting sins, powers which belong to the Lord alone, and those who put papal bulls on the same level as the Word, with power as their aim in view, these people from now on are immediately taken to the black sea, or to the chasms where are the hells of those who commit profanation. But I was told from heaven that those whose religious belief makes them like this pay no attention to life after death, because at heart they deny there is any; they think only of life in the world. As a result they treat as a matter of no importance the kind of fate which awaits them when they die, laughing at it as if it were a trifle, although it is one which will last for ever.