2. The Lord is God of Heaven

First and foremost, we need to know who the God of heaven is, since everything else depends on this. Throughout the whole of heaven, no one is acknowledged as God of heaven except the Lord. Angels say what he himself taught, namely that he is one with the Father, that the Father is in him and he in the Father, that anyone who sees him sees the Father, and that everything holy emanates from him (John 10:30, 38; 14:9-11, 16; 16:13-15). I have often talked with angels about this, and their consistent testimony has been that in heaven they cannot divide the Divine into three because they both know and perceive that the Divine is one and that this "one" is in the Lord. They have also told me that when people arrive from earth with the idea of three divine beings they cannot be admitted to heaven. This is because their thinking vacillates between one opinion and the other, and in heaven they are not allowed to think "three" and say "one." ¹

In heaven people actually speak directly from their thought, so that we have there a kind of thoughtful speech or audible thought. This means that if people have divided the Divine into three in the world and held a separate image of each one without gathering and focusing these three into one, they cannot be accepted. In heaven, there is a communication of all thoughts, so if people arrive who think "three" and say "one," they are recognized immediately for what they are and are sent away.

Still, it needs to be realized that in the other life any people who have not put "good" in one compartment and "true" in another - who have not separated faith from love - accept the heavenly concept of the Lord as God of the universe once they have been taught. It is different, though, with people who have separated their faith from their lives, that is, who have not lived by the guiding principles of true faith.

Voetnoten:

1408. The events described here and in what follows took place in history as they are recorded, yet the historical events as described are representative, and every word carries a spiritual meaning. This is so in all of the historical parts of the Word, not only in the Books of Moses but also in those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, all of which books contain nothing else than historical narratives. But although they are historical narratives in the sense of the letter, in the internal sense there are arcana of heaven lying hidden there. These arcana cannot possibly be seen as long as the mind keeps its eye fixed on the historical details, nor are they disclosed until the mind removes itself from the sense of the letter. The Word of the Lord is like a body that has a living soul within it. The things that belong to the soul are not apparent as long as the mind is fixed on those of the body, so much so that it scarcely believes it possesses a soul, even less that it will be alive after death. But as soon as the mind departs from bodily things, those belonging to the soul and to life show themselves; and in this lies the reason not only why bodily things must die before a person can be born anew or be regenerated, but also why the body must die so that he can enter heaven and behold heavenly things.

[2] The same applies to the Word of the Lord Its bodily parts are the things that constitute the sense of the letter, and when the mind is fixed on these the internal things are not seen at all. But once the bodily parts so to speak have died, the internal for the first time are brought to view. All the same, the things constituting the sense of the letter are like the things present with man in his body, namely the facts belonging to the memory which come in through the senses and which are general vessels containing interior or internal things. From this one may recognize that the vessels are one thing and the essential elements within the vessels another. The vessels are natural, and the essential elements within the vessels are spiritual and celestial. In the same way the historical narratives of the Word, as with each individual expression in the Word, are general, natural, indeed material vessels that have spiritual and celestial things within them. These things never come into sight except through the internal sense.

[3] This may become clear to anyone simply from the fact that many matters in the Word have been stated according to appearances, indeed according to the illusions of the senses, such as that the Lord is angry, punishes, curses, slays, and many other such statements, when in fact the internal sense contains the reverse, namely that the Lord is never angry or punishes, still less curses or slays. All the same, no harm at all is done to people who in simplicity of heart believe the Word as they find it in the letter so long as they are leading charitable lives, the reason being that the Word teaches nothing other than this - that everyone ought to live in charity with his neighbour and to love the Lord above all things. People doing this are in possession of the internal things, and thus with them the illusions acquired from the sense of the letter are easily dispersed.

2441. That 'the sun had gone forth over the earth' means the final period which is called the Last Judgement is clear from the meaning of 'sunrise' when the subject is the times and states of the Church. That the times of the day, like the seasons of the year also, in the internal sense mean the consecutive states of the Church has been shown already in 2323, and that 'the dawn' or 'the morning' means the coming of the Lord or approach of His kingdom, in 2405. Thus 'sunrise' or its going forth over the earth is His actual arrival or presence, the reason being that both the sun and the east where it rises mean the Lord - 'the sun', see 31, 32, 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 2120, and 'the east', 101.

[2] The reason the Lord's arrival or presence coincides with the final period called the judgement is that His presence separates the good from the evil, and leads on to the good being raised into heaven and the evil casting themselves down into hell. For in the next life the Lord is the Sun of the whole of heaven, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531. Actually it is the Divine celestial manifestation of His Love which appears before their very eyes as the sun and produces the light itself of heaven. To the extent therefore that those in the next life abide in celestial love they are raised up into that celestial light which comes from the Lord. But to the extent they are remote from celestial love they cast themselves away from that light into the darkness of hell.

[3] This then is the reason why 'sunrise' which means the Lord's arrival or presence entails both the salvation of the good and the condemnation of the evil; and why at this point it is first stated that 'Lot came to Zoar', that is, that people represented here by Lot were saved, and immediately after this that 'Jehovah rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire', that is, the evil were condemned.

[4] To those there who are immersed in the evils of self-love and love of the world, that is, who hate all things to do with love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, the light of heaven actually appears as thick darkness. This is why it is said in the Word that to those people the sun was darkened, which means that they rejected everything to do with love and charity and accepted everything contrary to these, as in Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

Anyone may see that 'covering the heavens', 'darkening the stars', 'covering the sun', and 'making the bright lights dark' mean different things from these.

[5] Similarly in Isaiah,

The sun will be darkened in its going forth and the moon will not give its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

And in Joel,

The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:2, 10.

This therefore shows what is meant by these words spoken by the Lord when He was describing the final period of the Church which is called the judgement, in Matthew,

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven. Matthew 24:29.

'The sun' is not used to mean the sun, nor 'the moon' the moon, nor 'stars' the stars, but 'the sun' is used to mean love and charity, 'the moon' faith derived from these, and 'the stars' cognitions of good and truth, which are said to have been darkened, to lose their light, and to fall from heaven when the acknowledgement of the Lord, and love to Him and charity towards the neighbour, cease to exist any longer. And when these have become non-existent self-love together with falsities deriving from it take possession of man; for the one thing results as a consequence of the other.

[6] This also explains the following in John,

The fourth angel poured out his bowl into the sun and it was allowed to scorch men with fire; therefore men were burned by the fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God. Revelation 16:8-9.

This too refers to the last times of the Church when all love and charity is being annihilated, or to express it in ordinary language, when no faith exists any longer. The annihilation of love and charity is meant by the statement that the bowl was poured out into the sun; consequently it is in that case self-love and its desires that are meant by the statement that men were scorched with fire and that they were burned by a fierce heat; and this led to their blaspheming the name of God.

[7] By 'the sun' the Ancient Church understood nothing other than the Lord and the Divine celestial manifestation of His love. It was their custom when praying therefore to turn towards the rising of the sun - yet without giving any thought at all to the sun itself. Later on however when their descendants had lost even this together with every other representative and meaningful sign they began to worship the sun and moon themselves. This kind of worship spread to very many nations, so much so that they dedicated temples to the sun and to the moon, and erected pillars. And because the sun and moon now assumed an opposite meaning they mean self-love and love of the world, which are the complete reverse of celestial and spiritual love.

[8] In the Word therefore worshipping the sun and moon is used to mean worship of self and of the world, as in Moses,

Lest you lift your eyes to heaven and you see the sun and moon and stars, all the host of heaven, and you are drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Deuteronomy 4:19.

And in the same author,

If anyone has gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, and to the sun or moon, or to all the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, you shall stone them with stones, and they shall die. Deuteronomy 17:3, 5.

People turned the worship of old into such idolatry when they no longer believed that anything internal was meant in the religious observances of the Church, only that which is external.

[9] Similarly in Jeremiah,

At that time the bones of the kings of Judah, of the princes, of the priests, of the prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they will spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven which they have loved and which they have served. Jeremiah 8:1-2.

'The sun' stands for self-love and its desires. 'Spreading out the bones' means the hellish things which such people possess. In the same prophet,

He will break down the pillars of the house of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Jeremiah 43:13.

'The pillars of the house of the sun' stands for worship of self.