11. De wijsheid van de engelen in de drie Hemelen is uit de Heer door het Woord, waarvoor de letterlijke zin daarvan dient tot schraag en grondslag.

27. Vanuit de hemel werd gehoord dat bij de Oudsten op deze aardbol onmiddellijke openbaring was, en dat zij dus niet een geschreven Woord hadden. Maar na die tijd, toen onmiddellijke openbaring niet meer zonder gevaar voor de zielen gegeven noch opgenomen kon worden, behaagde het de Heer het Goddelijk ware te openbaren door het Woord dat door louter overeenstemmingen is geschreven, opdat de vergemeenschapping en de verbinding van de mensen met de hemelen niet verloren zou gaan. Vandaar is het Woord zodanig in de laatste zin, dat het in zich de wijsheid bevat van de engelen der drie hemelen. Deze wijsheid verschijnt niet in ons Woord maar toch is zij daarin. Hoe zij daarin is zal met weinig dingen worden gezegd. Er zijn drie hemelen, de een beneden de ander, en de wereld onder hen; in de hoogste hemel is de engellijke wijsheid in de hoogste graad, die de hemelse wijsheid wordt geheten; in de middelste hemel is de engellijke wijsheid in de middelste graad, die de geestelijke wijsheid wordt geheten; maar in de laatste hemel is de engellijke wijsheid in de laatste graad die natuurlijkgeestelijk en natuurlijk-hemels wordt geheten; in de wereld is, omdat zij beneden de hemelen is, de wijsheid in de laagste graad, die natuurlijk wordt geheten. Al deze graden van wijsheid zijn in het Woord dat in de wereld is, maar in gelijktijdige orde, want de opeenvolgende orde wordt in de afklaring gelijktijdig; vandaar wordt het gelijktijdige de samenvatting van al zijn opeenvolgende dingen. Het hoogste in de opeenvolgende orde wordt het binnenste in de gelijktijdige orde, het middelste wordt het middelste daar, en het laatste wordt het laatste daar. Zo'n gelijktijdige is het Woord in de wereld; in het binnenste daarvan is de Heer zoals een Zon, waaruit het Goddelijk ware en Goddelijk goede, licht en vlam, door middelste tot aan laatste dingen zich ontrolt en voortplant; naastgelegen in dat gelijktijdige is het Goddelijk hemelse zoals het is in de hoogste of derde hemel, waaruit de engelen daar wijsheid hebben. Na dat volgt het Goddelijk natuurlijk geestelijke en natuurlijk hemelse zoals het in de laatste of eerste hemel is, en waaruit de engelen daar wijsheid hebben. De laatste periferie van dit gelijktijdige maakt het Goddelijk natuurlijke zoals het is in de wereld, waaruit de mensen wijsheid hebben; dit laatste omgordt, bindt en houdt aldus de innerlijke dingen samen, opdat zij niet wegvloeien, dus het dient ook tot schraag. Zodanig is ons Woord in de letterlijke zin in het algemeen en ook in elk deel. Wanneer dit derhalve door de mens heilig wordt gelezen, worden de innerlijke dingen daarvan opnieuw verbonden en herweven, en elke hemel put daaruit het zijne, de geestelijke engelen hun Goddelijk geestelijke, en de hemelse engelen hun Goddelijk hemelse, van waaruit zij wijsheid hebben. Dat ons Woord zodanig is, werd niet slechts gezegd en gehoord vanuit de hemel, maar ook met veel ondervinding getoond en bevestigd. Het Goddelijke, neergezonden uit de Heer in de wereld, kon niet anders dan door de hemelen in hun orde heengaan en in de wereld aldus gevormd bestaan, opdat het in eendere orde door de hemelen terug kan keren tot de Heer uit wie het is.

9. ¹ The human race is the foundation on which heaven is built, because man is the final creation; and what is created last is the foundation of all that precedes. Creation began with the highest or inmost, because it came from God, and advanced to the lowest or outermost, and there it first halted. The lowest level of creation is the natural world, containing the globe with its lands and seas together with everything on it. On completion of this stage man was created; and on him was conferred the whole of God's order from first to last. The first principles of that order were conferred upon his inmost nature, the last expressions of it upon his ultimate nature. Thus man was made as a model of God's order. Hence it is that everything in and present with man is of both heavenly and worldly origin. His mental attributes derive from heaven, his bodily attributes from the world. For influences from heaven act upon his thoughts and affections and dispose them in keeping with the way his spirit receives those influences. Influences from the world act upon his senses and appetites and dispose them in keeping with the way his body receives them, but they are adapted to suit the thoughts and affections of his spirit.

[2] Numerous passages in HEAVEN AND HELL can be constituted to prove the truth of this. The whole of heaven taken together relates to a single human being (59-67); likewise each separate community in the heavens (68-72). Consequently each individual angel has a perfect human form (73-77); and this is the result of the Lord's Divine Human (78-86). See further in the sections on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in man (87-102), the correspondence of heaven with everything on earth (103-115) and the arrangement of heaven (200-212).

[3] From this ordering of creation it can be seen that the coherent linkage from first things to last is such that taken together they make up a single unit; in this prior cannot be separated from posterior, just as cause cannot be separated from the effect produced by it. Thus the spiritual world cannot be separated from the natural world, nor this from the spiritual. In the same way the heaven where the angels are cannot be separated from the human race, nor the human race from that heaven. It has therefore been provided by the Lord that one should perform services for the other, that is, the heaven of angels should perform services for the human race, and the human race for the heaven of angels.

[4] So it is that the dwellings of angels are in heaven, to all appearance separate from the places where people on earth live; but the angels are still present with human beings in their affections for good and truth. Their being seen to be apart is an appearance, as can be established from the section in HEAVEN AND HELL dealing with space in heaven (191-199).

[5] The following words of the Lord mean that the dwellings of angels are with human beings in their affections for good and truth:

He who loves me, keeps my word, and my Father will love him; and we shall come to him and make our dwelling with him. John 14:23.

[6] The Father and the Lord also there mean heaven, for where the Lord is, there is heaven. The Divine proceeding from the Lord makes heaven (see HEAVEN AND HELL 7-12, 116-125). These words of the Lord also mean the same:

The comforter, the spirit of truth, remains among you and is in you. John 14:17.

The Comforter is Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, which is why He is also called the Spirit of truth. Divine truth makes heaven, and also the angels, because they receive that truth. For the Divine proceeding from the Lord being Divine Truth, the source of the heaven of angels, see HEAVEN AND HELL 126-140.

These words of the Lord too have a similar meaning: The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.

[7] The kingdom of God is Divine good and truth, which angels receive. The presence of angels and spirits with human beings and in their affections has been granted me to see a thousand times from their presence and dwelling with me. But angels and spirits do not know with which human beings they are, neither do human beings know with which angels and spirits they live; the Lord alone knows and arranges this.

In short, all affections for good and truth reach out into heaven, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. All affections for evil and falsity reach out into hell, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. Affections reach out into the spiritual world, almost as the range of sight reaches out into the natural world. The connexions in either place are much alike, the difference being that in the natural world they are with things, in the spiritual world with communities of angels.

[8] This makes it plain that the connexion between the heaven of angels and the human race is such that the existence of one is dependent upon the other. The heaven of angels without the human race would be like a house without a foundation, for heaven comes to an end in humanity and rests upon it. The situation is parallel to that in the individual person: his spiritual side, which is where his thoughts and will reside, acts upon his natural side, which is where his sense-impressions and actions take place, and in this they come to an end and stop. If a person did not have a natural side as well as a spiritual, and so was without those final and last stages, his spiritual side, the thoughts and affections of his spirit, would be dissipated, like things lacking boundaries.

[9] There is a similar event when a person passes from the natural world into the spiritual, which happens at death. Then, since he is a spirit, he stands not on his own base, but upon the common base, namely, the human race. Anyone unfamiliar with the secrets of heaven might think that angels can exist without human beings and human beings without angels. But I can emphatically state from all my experience of heaven, and from all my conversations with angels, that there is no angel or spirit who exists without a human being, and no human being without a spirit or angel; there is a mutual and reciprocal link. These considerations establish firstly that the human race and the heaven of angels make up a single unit, and depend on each other for their continued existence, so that one cannot be taken away from the other.

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14. ¹ III. HEAVEN AND HELL ARE FROM THE HUMAN RACE.

No one in the Christian world is aware that heaven and hell are from the human race. It is believed that angels were created from the beginning, and so heaven was formed; and that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light, but becoming a rebel was cast down together with his crew, and so hell was formed. The angels are exceedingly surprised that such is the belief of the Christian world; and even more so by the fact that people know nothing at all about heaven, when this is a leading point in what the church teaches. Because such ignorance abounds the angels were delighted that it has now pleased the Lord to make further revelations to Christians about heaven, and also about hell; and so as far as possible to dispel the darkness that deepens day by day, because the church has reached its end. The angels therefore wish me to assert as their own statement that the whole of heaven does not contain one angel who was created from the beginning, nor does hell contain any devil who was created an angel of light and then cast down; but that all the inhabitants of both heaven and hell are from the human race. Heaven contains those who lived in the world in a state of heavenly love and faith, hell those who lived in a state of hellish love and faith. They said that it is the whole of hell taken together which is called the Devil and Satan; the rear hell, the home of those called wicked genii, is called Devil, the front hell, the home of those called wicked spirits, is called Satan. ² On the nature of the two hells see the final part of my book HEAVEN AND HELL. The angels explained the reason for the Christian world's belief about the inhabitants of heaven and of hell as the result of a failure to understand certain passages in the Word as anything but literal accounts, instead of interpreting them and illustrating them in the light of the correct teaching from the Word. Yet the literal sense of the Word, unless previously illuminated by the church's correct teaching, causes people's minds to go astray in various directions; and this is the source of ignorance, heresy and error. ³

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