And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.   And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.  (Revelation  21:1-7)

The New Church may be growing slowly in the earth, but it is growing.  History has proven that prior to the last judgment of every Church—beginning with the Most Ancient and ending with the Primitive Christian Church—a new revelation has come into the earth to re-present the Lord as one Divine Person.

In the Most Ancient Church, all of the creation mirrored to man the love and wisdom of the Lord, until man began to look at it from himself and distort what he saw.  Had the integrity which he had immediately from the Lord—his love to give of himself to others outside of himself so that others felt that love as their own—never been lost, there would have been no need for a judgment; man would have abided in the paradise forever.  Yet, when man insisted on seeing things and others from himself, from his own proprium and not from the Lord, (See AC 210), the world of spirits became commingled with the good and the evil, as they began to depart their bodies.  Hence, a judgment had to occur.  The world of spirits was tainted.  For the first time a secure place had to be established where the good could be set aside and assured of the love and joy which they had chosen while in their bodies, this being their life.  The same was true for those who insisted on seeing things from themselves and not from the Lord; a hell should be provided.

Judgment, which occurs in the world of spirits, separating the true from the false, the good from the evil, can only take place on the basis of new light.  It is truth that judges or separates.  Hence, a new revelation precedes every judgment, a new light that can exist in the world of spirits and also establish a new church on the earth.

The revelation given to the Noachian people prior to the flood was such a revelation.  A spiritual genius would come forth from them, those whose understanding could be separated from their will, and from a new understanding, a conscience be given, a new will implanted by the Lord, which will would be according to the doctrinal things of faith.  This ancient church would be a representative church.  They could enter the ark until the vastation was complete and then come forth in freedom.  Why the Noachian people? Because of their Gentile state.  This people had a quality of innocence, a longing and a willingness to be instructed, a desire to learn; they hungered for something more than the status-quo.  These were a remnant of the Most Ancient Church as it came to its consummation.  Though there was no church with them, yet in their innocence, they readily accepted the new revelation and built an ark.  However, this representative church too would perish and then a semblance of a church, a church of representatives would be instituted among the posterity of Abraham from Jacob.  They too would be of a Gentile character.  Yet even as their predecessor, in time their Word became of no affect because of the doctrine of men.  For the most part, their doctrinal things were not true.   The reason is that the Divine passing through heaven, which was the Divine Human before the Lord's coming, could not reach them, and consequently when they acted according to their truth, it was not good.  (Good has its quality from truths.)  So when they put off their bodies, they were kept in the lower earth in the spiritual world, places called pits, beset about by hells where they were much infested by falsities, yet they were guarded by the Lord.  It would require the Lord's coming into the world, making the Human in Himself Divine to save them.  A spiritual heaven would have to be formed.  The Lord would have to descend into the lower regions and liberate those who were bound. (See AC 6427; 6854; 6858; 8054)

We know that prior to this New Word coming—the Lord’s first advent—preparation was made.  John the Baptist came preparing the way (Isa 40).  An axe had to be laid to the root of the trees that were growing and fruit suitable for repentance had to be bought forth, if this New Word was to be received.  John preached: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:11-12)

A judgment was surely coming.  John introduced the letter of this New Word, but the spirit of it was about to arrive on the scene.  Yet those who should have received it, rejected it.  They were steeped in sensuality.  His own received Him not. (John 1:11)  But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

It was not a different Word that came forth.  It was the same Word, but this time it was made flesh.  It existed livingly in the Lord’s own mind.  The revelation (the Old Testament) which had been accommodated to the sensual man was now being accommodated on a higher level.  It was being infilled.  The bosom of the Father was being declared.  The Divine Human would be revealed.

In order for the spiritual genius to be saved, a spiritual heaven would have to be established, just as a celestial heaven had previously been prepared at the judgment of the flood, and the channel for influx which had become congested in the world of spirit again would have to be opened and a new church set up on the earth.  This could only be accomplished by the Lord bowing the heavens and coming down.  The truth, this time, was His own Word in His own natural finite mind, and it would be glorified.  Good and truth would be united.  And because it would be worked out in His own natural mind, the light of that truth would be in the world of spirits at the same time bringing about a judgment, clearing away all of the imaginary heavens.  Too often we do not consider we are residents of two worlds—both the spiritual world and the natural.  Our minds are in the world of spirits, though while we are in our bodies, we are only conscious of being in this natural world, yet, when we disengage our bodies we become more conscious of the spiritual world.

Before the coming of the Lord the Divine Human was Jehovah in the heavens, for by passing through the heavens He presented Himself as a Divine Man before many on earth. But at that time the Divine Human was not so completely one with the Divine Itself which is called the "Father," as when the Lord made it in Himself altogether one. That before this they were as it were distinct, is plain from the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, where it is said, "Jehovah caused it to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Jehovah out of heaven" (verse 24; see n. 2447). The "day when it was not day nor night," is when the Lord was born; for it was then "evening," that is, the end of the representatives of the church; the "light about the time of evening" is the Divine truth which would then appear. (from AC 6000)

[3] As regards the very origin of light, this has been from eternity from the Lord alone; for Divine good itself and Divine truth, from which light comes, is the Lord. The Divine Human, which was from eternity (John 17:5), was this light itself. And whereas this light could no longer affect the human race, which had removed itself so far from good and truth, thus from light, and had cast itself into darkness, therefore the Lord willed to put on by birth the human itself; for thus He could illumine not only the rational but also the natural things of man; for He made both the rational and the natural in Himself Divine, in order that He might also be a light to those who were in such gross darkness. 

[4] That the Lord is light, that is, good itself and truth itself, and that thus from Him is all intelligence and wisdom, consequently all salvation, is evident from many passages in the Word, as in John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John came to bear witness of the light; he was not that light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. That was the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:1, 4, 7-9). The "Word" was the Divine truth, thus the Lord Himself as to the Divine Human, concerning which it is said that "the Word was with God, and God was the Word."

[8] Again in Isaiah: The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory; thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for Jehovah shall be thine everlasting light (Isa. 60:19-20). "The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee" denotes that this will be the case with the things not of natural, but of spiritual light, which is signified by "Jehovah being an everlasting light." That "Jehovah" as mentioned here and elsewhere in the Old Testament, is the Lord, may be seen above (n. 1343, 1736, 2156, 2329, 2921, 3023, 3035).  (from AC 3195)

The Heavenly Doctrine also reveals:

[7] From the time of the first promise (spoken of in Gen. 3:15) the faith of love in the Lord who was to come effected conjunction. But when there was no longer any faith of love remaining in the whole world, then the Lord came and united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence, so that they were altogether one, as He Himself clearly says; and at the same time He taught the way of truth, that everyone who should believe in Him - that is, who should love Him and the things that are His, and who should be in His love which is love toward the universal human race, thus in love toward the neighbor-should be conjoined and saved.

[8] When, in the Lord, the Human was made Divine, and the Divine Human, the result was an influx of the Infinite or Supreme Divine with man that otherwise could not possibly have existed; and an additional result was the dispersion of the direful persuasions of falsity and the direful cupidities of evil with which the world of spirits was brimful, and with which it was continually being filled full from the souls arriving from the world; and they who were in those persuasions and cupidities were cast into hell, and thereby were separated. Unless this had been done, the human race would have perished, for the Lord rules the human race by means of spirits. Nor could they have been dispersed in any other way, for no operation of the Divine was possible through man's rational things into those of internal sense, because these are far below the Supreme Divine when not so united; not to mention still deeper arcana that cannot be explained to the apprehension of any man. (from AC 2034)  See also AC 6371-6372.

The Lord working from first through last to intermediates would bring the way, the truth and the life into the earth.  A nucleus - an egg - a new church would be set up with the twelve as the Lord instructed them in His ministry.  Keep in mind; this is all that the Lord left in the earth, a receptacle that had the capacity to receive Divine influx.  Though He had many things He wanted to reveal to His disciples, they were not yet able to bear what He had to say at that time. (See John 16:12-13; 25)  The Primitive Christian Church, even after the Lord’s resurrection, still vacillated in an apparent sense of the revelation and would like its predecessors fall away into idolatry, and a judgment would have to occur in the world of spirits once again.  But this would be the final judgment.  The natural heaven would be established.  Every judgment thereafter would be with the individual as he entered the world of spirits never to return.

When the Primitive Christian Church had destroyed the new revelation of the Lord as one Divine Person through the councils in 325AD, establishing a dominion through the priesthood, and then later, those who imbibed into their life the doctrine of faith alone, the Church would arrive at what Daniel described as the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.  The sun would be darkened and the moon turned to blood and the stars fall from heaven to the earth.  When the foundation of the Church, the revelation of Christ the Son of the Living God perished, it shook the heavens; for the Church on earth is the foundation of heaven.  Genuine faith had perished in the Church because charity had grown cold; it had been sifted as wheat.  (Luke 22:31-32)  It had all occurred according to the Lord’s prediction.  (Matthew 24)  And because of these things the Lord’s return was eminent.  A final judgment would occur and the final heaven would be established.  But before this could occur, there would have to be new light.  The Divine truth would come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  That which obscured the spiritual sun would be dissipated.  A more interior sense of the Word would be given; the Father would be seen plainly.  (John 16:25)  This is exactly what we have with the Arcana Coelestia—the Word in its most interior sense.

Yet who are they that will receive this Heavenly Doctrine?  It certainly will not be received by those who hold to the old.  Rarely, if ever, is a new church set up with any from the old.  The reason why a new church is set up by the Lord among the Gentiles is that they have no principles of falsity contrary to the truths of faith, for they are ignorant of these truths.  Principles of falsity imbued from infancy, and afterwards confirmed, must be shaken off before the man can be regenerated and become a church.  In fact the Gentiles cannot by evils of life profane holy things, for no one can profane what is holy who knows not what it is (AC. 593, 1008, 1010, 1059). As the Gentiles are in ignorance, and are free from stumbling-blocks [or difficulties], they are in a better state for the reception of truths than those who are of the church; and all those among them who are in the good of life receive truths easily. (Concerning these things see AC. 932, 1032, 1059, 1327, 1328, 1366, 2049, 2051, 2589-2604.)  See AC 2986.  Only those classified as Gentiles, those with whom the salt has not lost its savor, will receive the new revelation and from them, can the New Jerusalem be established.  There is now an influx from the Lord through the Celestial, Spiritual, and Natural heavens; it draws near to us on earth as we read the Heavenly Doctrines.  And as the Heavenly Doctrines—the New Jerusalem—is formed in our mind, the Lord is able to enlighten us and the revelation increases and spreads.  The Lord God Jesus Christ is worshipped, not just externally but from a man’s internals; for like the oak tree that has oakness in its every detail, so is a good tree—it brings forth good fruit.