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The Last Judgment of the Christian Church

Upon whom among the Reformed the Last Judgment was effected. The Last Judgment was effected upon those only of the Reformed, who in the world confessed God, read the Word, heard preaching, partook of the sacrament of the Supper, and did not neglect the solemnities of the worship of the church; and yet thought that adulteries, various kinds of theft, lying, revenge, hatred, and the like, were allowable.

These although they confessed God, still made no account of sins against Him; they read the Word, and still they made no account of the precepts of life in it; they heard preachings, and still they paid no attention to them; they went to the sacrament of the Supper, and still they did not desist from the evils of their former life; they did not neglect the solemnities of worship, and still they amended their lives in nothing.

Thus they lived as if from religion, in their externals, yet in their internals they had nothing of it. These are they who are meant by “the dragon” in the Apocalypse (chap. 12); for it is there said of the dragon, that it was seen in heaven, that it fought with Michael in heaven, and that it drew down the third part of the stars from heaven; which things are said, because these, by means of the confession of God, by reading the Word, and by external worship, communicated with heaven.
Excerpt from The Last Judgment
Emanuel Swedenborg 1758