65.在启示录，我们读到：
我看见一个大宝座与坐在上面的，从祂面前天地都逃避，再无可见之处了。（启示录20:11）
后面：
我看见一个新天和一个新地，因为先前的天和先前的地已经过去了。（启示录21:1）
我在本书第一章（3节）和别处已说明，新天和新地，以及过去的先前的天和先前的地，不是指可见的天空和我们所居住的大地，而是指天使天堂和教会。因为圣言本质上是属灵的，因而论述属灵事物，也就是与天堂和教会有关的事物。字义上的属世事物用来表示它们，因为属世之物是属灵之物的一个基础；没有这样一个基础，圣言就不是神的工，因为它不完整。属世层，就是神性秩序的最外层或最末层，使属灵和属天的内层变得完整，以便它们能稳固地立于其上，如同房子立于地基之上。
然而，人们因从属世的角度，而不是从属灵的角度来思想圣言的内容，故以为这些和其它经文中提到的天和地是指自然界的天空和这个地球。这就是为何每个人都期盼它们能消失并毁灭，新的随之被创造出来。为防止人们永远保持这种期盼，尽管一个世纪又一个世纪过去了仍不见它发生，圣言的灵义被揭开，好叫人们知道圣言中的许多话的含义。只要我们以纯属世的方式思想所说的话，这些含义就无法出现在我们的理解力里面；这也包括将要过去的先前的天和先前的地的含义。
65. The First Heaven, and How It Was Done Away With
It says in Revelation, “I saw a great throne and the one who sat on it, from whose face earth and heaven fled away. And no place was found for them” (Revelation 20:11), and later, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1).
I explained in the first chapter above [3], and also in what followed, that the new heaven and the new earth and the passing away of the first heaven and the first earth refer not to the heaven we can see and the earth that we live on but to the angelic heaven and the church. In its essence the Word is spiritual and therefore deals with spiritual things; and spiritual things have to do with heaven and the church. In the literal meaning, these are expressed by means of earthly things because earthly things serve as the foundation of spiritual ones; and the Word would not be a divine work if it did not have this kind of foundation, because it would not be complete. The earthly, which is the outermost level of the divine design, brings about completion, so that the inner things, which are heavenly and spiritual, stand firmly on it the way a house stands on its foundation.
[2] However, since people have thought about what it says in the Word on the basis of what is earthly rather than what is spiritual, they have understood the heaven and the earth mentioned in these and other passages to mean nothing but the heavens in the physical world and this planet. That is why everyone expects these to disappear and be destroyed, followed by the creation of new ones. So that people will not keep expecting this forever, though, century after century without it occurring, the spiritual meaning of the Word has been revealed to make known the meaning of many things in the Word. These meanings cannot get through to our comprehension as long as we think in purely earthly terms about what is said, and this includes the meaning of the first heaven and the first earth that will pass away.
65. X. ON THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLITION.
We read in the book of Revelation:
I saw a mighty throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose sight earth and heaven fled, and their place was not found. Revelation 20:11.
And later:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Revelation 21:1.
I showed in the first chapter of this book and elsewhere in it that the new heaven and the new earth and the passing away of the former heaven and the former earth do not refer to the visible sky and the earth on which we live, but to the heaven of angels and the church. For the Word is in essence spiritual and therefore deals with spiritual matters, that is, those which have to do with heaven and the church. Natural things are used in the literal sense to stand for them, because what is natural serves what is spiritual for a base; and without such a base the Word would not be a work of God, because it would be incomplete. It is the natural, standing last in God's order, which completes and gives the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, a base on which to rest, like a house on its foundations.
[2] Because people have thought about the contents of the Word from a natural instead of a spiritual point of view, they have taken heaven and earth in these and other passages to mean the sky in the natural world and the earth similarly. That is why everyone expects them to pass away and be destroyed, and new ones to be created. To prevent this expectation continuing for ever and being frustrated in each century, the spiritual sense of the Word has been opened up, so that the meaning of many expressions in the Word may be known, which cannot fall within our understanding as long as we think in a natural manner about them; and this includes the heaven and earth which will pass away.
65. X. THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLISHMENT.
It is said in the Apocalypse:
I saw a great throne, and One sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and their place was not found (Revelation 20:11).
And afterwards:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had passed away (Revelation 21:1).
That by "a new heaven and a new earth," and by the passing away of the former heaven and the former earth is not meant the visible heaven and our habitable earth, but an angelic heaven and a church, was shown above in the first article, and also in those which follow it. For the Word in itself is spiritual, and therefore treats of spiritual things; and spiritual things are the things of heaven and the church; these are expressed by natural things in the sense of the letter, because natural things serve as a basis to spiritual things, and without such a basis the Word would not be a Divine work, because it would not be complete; for the natural, which is the ultimate in Divine order, completes and makes the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, to subsist upon it, as a house upon its foundation. Now because man has thought of the things of the Word from the natural and not from the spiritual, therefore, by "the heaven and the earth" which are mentioned here and elsewhere, they have understood none other than the heaven and earth which exist in the world of nature; hence it is that everyone expects the passing away and destruction of these, and then also the creation of new ones. But lest they should expect this everlastingly, from age to age in vain, the spiritual sense of the Word is opened, that thus it may be known what is meant by many things in the Word, which, when thought of naturally, do not enter the understanding, and, at the same time, what is meant by "the heaven and the earth" which will pass away.
65. (X.) DE PRIORE CAELO, ET EJUS ABOLITIONE.
Dicitur in Apocalypsi,
"Vidi thronum... magnum, et Quendam insidentem, a Cujus aspectu fugit terra et caelum, quorum locus non inventus est" (Apocalypsis 20:11 1).
Et dein,
"Vidi caelum novum et terram novam; primum caelum et prima terra transiverant" (Apocalypsi 21:1).
Quod per "novum caelum et novam terram," et per transitionem "prioris caeli et prioris terrae," non intellectum sit caelum aspectabile ac terra nostra habitata, sed caelum angelicum et ecclesia, ostensum est in articulo Primo supra, et quoque in sequentibus. Verbum enim in se est spirituale, et ideo de spiritualibus agit, ac spiritualia sunt quae sunt caeli et ecclesiae; haec in sensu litterae exponuntur per naturalia, quia naturalia inserviunt spiritualibus pro basi, ac Verbum absque tali basi non foret Divinum opus, quia non completum; naturale, quod est ultimum in ordine Divino, complet, et facit, interiora, quae sunt spiritualia et caelestia, ut super illo subsistant, sicut domus super suo fundamento. Nunc quia homo ex naturali et non ex spirituali cogitavit de illis quae sunt in Verbo, ideo per "caelum et terram" in illis locis, et quoque in aliis, non aliud intellexit quam caelum quod existit in mundo naturae, nec aliam terram: inde est, quod unusquisque exspectet transitionem et destructionem eorum, et tunc quoque creationem novorum: sed ne illa exspectentur in perpetuum, et quovis saeculo frustra, apertus est sensus spiritualis Verbi, ut sciatur quid intelligitur per plura in Verbo, quae ad intellectum non veniunt dummodo naturaliter de illis cogitatur, et simul quid per "caelum et terram" quae transibunt.
Footnotes:
"1. 11 pro ""10"""