61. I have been granted the opportunity to talk with any number of individuals after their death who had believed they were going to shine like stars in heaven because, they said, they had revered the Word, had read it through time and again, and had gained much from their reading that served to support the dogmas of their faith. All this led to their being celebrated as scholars, which in turn led them to believe they would become Michaels and Raphaels.

[2] However, many of them were examined to find out what love had inspired their study of the Word, and it turned out that for some it was self-infatuation, a desire to look important in the eyes of the world and therefore be revered as leaders in the church, while for others it was worldliness and a desire for wealth. When they were asked what they had learned from the Word, it turned out that they knew nothing that was really true. All they knew was distorted truth, which is essentially false. They were told that this was because they themselves and the world were their goals - or were what they loved the most, which amounts to the same thing - and not the Lord and heaven. If ourselves and the world are our goals, then when we read the Word our minds are stuck on ourselves and the world. This means that our thinking is constantly focused on our self-importance, which is in darkness with respect to everything that has to do with heaven. People in this state cannot be lifted out of their self-infatuation by the Lord and thus raised up into heaven’s light, so they are not open to any inflow from the Lord through heaven, either.

[3] I have seen them let into heaven, but when it was found that they were lacking in truths, they were expelled. Even so, they retained the prideful conviction that they were worthy.

It worked out otherwise for individuals who studied the Word from a desire to know what was true because it was true and because it could be put to use in their lives not only for their own benefit but for the benefit of their neighbor. I have seen them raised up into heaven and therefore into the light of divine truth there; and at the same time they have been lifted up into angelic wisdom and into its happiness, which is eternal life.

8. VIII. The Lord's marriage with the church, which is the marriage of good and truth in the Word.

It is well known that in the Word the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, and the church bride and wife. The reason these terms are applied to the Lord or the church is because of the linking of good and truth in every individual in heaven and in the church, who has the church within him. For the Lord exerts His influence on an angel or a member of the church from the good of love and charity. The angel or member of the church who is governed by the good of love and charity receives the Lord in the truths of teaching and faith he possesses from the Word. Thus a linking takes place, which is called the heavenly marriage. This marriage is present in the details of the Word, and since it has this in its details the Word may be called the heavenly marriage.

The existence of such a marriage in the details of the Word was demonstrated at length in my Arcana Caelestia and also in the Teaching of the New Jerusalem, ¹ where the Word is discussed. The existence of such a marriage can only be seen by ² those who are concerned for its inner or spiritual sense. For there are everywhere, and quite obviously in the prophetic books, two expressions for one thing, one of which refers to good, and so to the Lord, the other to truth and so to the church. Anyone who knows the correspondences can see this clearly; for there are expressions and words which correspond to good, and there are others ³ which correspond to truths. This then is how the Lord is linked with heaven and with the church by means of the Word.

[2] Since there is a marriage in the Word, it contains a spiritual and a celestial sense. The spiritual sense is for those in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, who make up all the lower heavens; the celestial sense is for those in the Lord's celestial kingdom, who make up all the higher heavens. The angels of the spiritual kingdom possess the truths of the Word, but those of the celestial kingdom its good. When therefore a person reads the Word piously, the spiritual angels perceive by correspondences the truths in it, the celestial angels the kinds of good in it. But, what is a secret, the celestial angels do not perceive the good in it directly from the person, but indirectly through the spiritual angels. The reason is that hardly anyone in the Christian world today possesses the good of celestial love, but some possess only truths. The good of love cannot therefore pass directly from a person to the celestial angels who compose the third heaven, but it passes indirectly through the spiritual angels who compose the second heaven.

Thus the Lord's marriage with the church is also realised in the heavens by means of the Word. For the Word in its spiritual sense deals with the church, but in its celestial sense with the Lord. So the spiritual angels relate everything to the church, but the celestial angels to the Lord. That is why the Lord likens heaven to a marriage and so calls it; and it is the Word which brings about this marriage. But this is a secret which can only dimly be perceived by a person on earth, but it is clearly perceived by an angel in heaven.

[3] The reason why celestial angels can relate to the Lord everything which the spiritual angels relate to the church is that the Lord is everything to the church.

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