329. We can tell what a useful function is from the goal of the creation of the universe. The goal of the creation of the universe is to bring about an angelic heaven; and since an angelic heaven is the goal, so is humanity or the human race, since that is where heaven comes from. It follows, then, that everything that has been created is an intermediate goal, and that the functions are useful in the sequence, on the level, and in the specific way that they relate to humanity, and through humanity to the Lord.

795. This being so, and since I have day by day talked with nations and peoples of this world, not only those from Europe, but also those from Asia and Africa, as well as those of other religions, I shall add as a supplement to this book a short description of the condition of some of them. It needs to be grasped that the condition in the spiritual world both of each nation and people in general and of each individual in particular depends on their acknowledgment of God and their worship of Him. All who at heart acknowledge God, and from this time on who acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as God the Redeemer and Saviour, are in heaven. Those who do not acknowledge Him are below heaven, and are there taught; those who accept the teaching are raised to heaven. Those who reject it are cast down into hell; these include also those who, like the Socinians, have approached only God the Father, and those who, like the Arians, have denied the divinity of the Lord's Human. For the Lord said:

I am the way, truth and life; no one comes to the Father except through me.

And He said to Philip, who wanted to see the Father:

He who sees and knows me sees and knows the Father, John 14:6ff.