10649. 'And sacrifice to their gods' means thus worship springing from the falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'sacrificing' as worship in general, dealt with in 6905, 8680, 8936; and from the meaning of 'the gods of the nations' as falsities of evil, as above in 10648.

2589. THE STATE AND CONDITION IN THE NEXT LIFE OF NATIONS AND PEOPLES BORN OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

It is commonly supposed that those born outside the Church, who are called heathens and gentiles, cannot be saved for the reason that they do not possess the Word and so do not know the Lord, without whom there is no salvation. But that gentiles too are saved may be known from the single consideration that the Lord's mercy is universal - that is, it reaches out to every individual human being. For gentiles are born human beings the same as those within the Church, who are a relative minority; and they are not to blame because they do not know the Lord. Consequently the nature of their state and condition in the next life has in the Lord's Divine mercy been shown to me.