En un sentido general, las puertas en la Biblia representan los deseos iniciales del bien y los conceptos de la verdad que introducen a las personas a nuevos niveles de amor y comprensión e incluso al propio Señor. Las referencias a los postes y dinteles de las puertas también hacen una distinción entre los bienes introductorios y las verdades introductorias. Sin embargo, hay muchas especificidades basadas en el contexto. Dado que una "casa" representa los deseos, afectos y pasiones de una persona, la puerta sirve para introducir ideas verdaderas que puedan poner en marcha esos deseos. En casos más amplios, la puerta conduce al propio cielo. Y en algunos casos el significado se lleva a un nivel muy específico. Por ejemplo, las casas de los tiempos bíblicos solían tener puertas interiores y exteriores para protegerse. Cuando Lot trató de convencer a los hombres de Sodoma de que no molestaran a los ángeles que le visitaban en Gn. 19, en realidad salió por la puerta interior pero se quedó dentro de la puerta exterior. La puerta exterior representa un deseo de bien que se resiste a la falsedad representada por los hombres de Sodoma; la interior representa las ideas verdaderas que surgen de ese deseo de bien. Alguien que alimenta un deseo de bien podría ser admitido por la primera puerta, pero tendría que aprender la verdad sobre cómo expresar ese deseo antes de ser admitido por la segunda.

(Odkazy: Apocalipsis Explicado 260 [2]; Arcana Coelestia 2356 [2], Génesis 19, Génesis 19:6; Juan 10:7; Apocalipsis 3:8, 4:1)

2357. 'And shut the door behind him' means to prevent them doing violence to good that flows from charity and denying the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy proceeding. This is clear from what has been stated so far. 'Shutting the door' is preventing their entrance, in this case into good meant by 'the house', and so reaching the Lord's Divine Human and His Holy [proceeding].

[2] These words embody even deeper arcana, the meaning and conception of which angels enter into when these words are read. The deeper arcana are these: People who lead lives of evil are not allowed to go beyond the point of mere knowledge of good and of the Lord. They are not allowed to go on to genuine acknowledgement and faith itself, the reason being that as long as they are governed by evil they cannot at the same time be governed by good. Nobody can serve two masters simultaneously. Once a person acknowledges and believes, he profanes that which is good and holy if he goes back to a life of evil. But a person who does not acknowledge and believe is not able to profane. The Lord's Providence therefore guards against anyone being allowed to go on to acknowledge and have faith itself in the heart, except insofar as he can then be maintained in that acknowledgement and faith. And He does so on account of the punishment that goes with profanation, which in hell is most severe.

[3] This is the reason why at the present day so few people are allowed to believe from the heart that the good which flows from love and charity is heaven itself within man, and that the whole of the Divine is within the Lord, for they lead lives of evil. This then is the more interior meaning of the statement 'to shut the door behind him', for 'the door' (ostium) was an inner door leading into the house itself where the angels were, that is, into good which has the Lord within it.