The Writings offer a tremendous amount of material on angels. The book "Heaven and Hell" offers detailed discussions as it describes heaven; "Conjugial Love" has much to say about marriage and romantic love in heaven; "Divine Love and Wisdom" offers insight into how angels in their nature reflect the nature of the Lord. So we'll offer some basics here and recommend those books to those who want more detail.

(References: Divine Love and Wisdom 231; Divine Providence 60-67)

Basically, the Writings say that if people in this life open themselves to the Lord, follow the Lord's teachings and let the Lord change their selfish desires into generous loves, they will go to heaven as angels after they die. If they don't, and instead embrace their selfishness, they will go to hell as evil spirits. The Writings also say that this is the only source of angels and evil spirits - they were all once people. There is no separately created race of angels, no fallen angel Lucifer who is now the Devil; that belief is based solely on a few lines of misinterpreted scripture.

This makes sense if you look at it logically. If the Lord could create beings that would live in love and harmony with him with no possibility of evil, why would He have bothered with us? Why not just make more of them? The fact is, such beings would not have any choice in their actions, making them no better than animals. And ultimately, if they were purely good then they would really just be extensions of the Lord, so in loving them He would be loving Himself. The reverse is true of the idea of Satan or "the" Devil. The Lord creates us from love so that he can love us, bring us to heaven and make us happy. For Satan to exist, the Lord would have had to create him, and it would be contrary to His essence to create something that was not intended for heaven, for joy, and for union with the Lord.

So angels were once people, who got to be angels by embracing the idea of being good and followed the Lord's teachings as best they could. The Writings make it clear these people can come from anywhere, from any religious background. Some churches may have doctrine that is closer to the truth than others, but the point of any religion is for people to desire to be good and try to be good using the tools they have.

When those people die, they go first to a place called the "world of spirits." There everyone who has recently died can learn about the Lord and spiritual life and prepare for heaven. There also, people's inner affections start showing on the surface; those who are ultimately evil start losing the ability to cover it up, and the love starts shining through for those who are ultimately good. As this continues and as people learn more, they naturally start congregating with others who have similar loves. This way evil people eventually take themselves to hell, where they can be with others who share their evil. Good people, on the other hand, can be prepared for heaven.

Two important things have to happen for us to truly enter fully into heaven. First, the Lord will push aside our remaining evil desires, so they cannot hurt us or tempt us anymore; angels are in a marvelous state of peace, with no active evil to trouble them. Second, we will each be led by the Lord to the perfect married partner, the one whose soul matches ours, the one we can love blissfully to eternity. All angels are married, because the marriage of a man and a woman represents the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord, and also the marriage of the desire for good and understanding of truth in each of us. Because of this, we can only fully receive and return the Lord's love as married partners, and heaven is suffused with the sphere of marriage and the love of marriage.

The angelic couples will find their way to communities of other angels whose loves match their own, people with whom they can share the deepest friendships imaginable. They will have houses which reflect the character of their loves, and will be given work to do that springs from their loves and fills them with joy. Beyond that, their lives are much as life might be in this world, though free of sickness and aging and boredom and conflict. They have bodies that are human in form - no wings! - but a beauty in face and form that reflects the good loves they have inside. They eat and drink and laugh and sleep and have parties and games; all filled with the delight of mutual love.

The Writings tell us the work angels do is varied far beyond what we can imagine, though they only describe a few aspects. Among other things, angels care for people in this life, passing on to them true ideas and desires for good from the Lord. They also teach those in the World of Spirits, greet those who have just died, raise those who died as children, keep order in hell and do many other things.

We would finally note that there are three degrees of angelic life, based on the loves people embraced in this life. The first, lowest heaven, called the "natural heaven," is filled by those who are in the love of service. Angels there love to do what's right because they know it is right. The second, middle heaven, called the spiritual heaven, is filled by those who are in the love of the neighbor. Angels there love to engage their minds with spiritual questions to gain an ever-deeper understanding of how to be loving to one another. The third, highest heaven, known as celestial, is filled with those who are in love of the Lord Himself. From that love they have such innocence that they look like children, and they instantly perceive what is true, in all its variety, from the light of that love.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 818; Arcana Coelestia 228-233, 454, 1802, 2551, 2572 [3-4], 5470, 6872 [2-3], 8747, 9503 [1-3], 9814 [2], 10604 [2-4]; Conjugial Love 44 [6-10], 52; Divine Love and Wisdom 19, 63, 71, 115, 116, 202, Divine Love and Wisdom 321, 322, 334; Heaven and Hell 75, 133, 266, 267, 304, 311, 415)

10601. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-9 And Jehovah said to Moses, Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. And be ready by the morning; and you shall come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and you shall stand with Me there on the top of the mountain. And no one shall come up with you, and also no one shall be seen on all the mountain; also no flock or herd shall feed before this mountain. And he hewed two tablets of stone like the first ones; and Moses rose early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Jehovah had commanded him, and took the two tablets of stone in his hand. And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. And Jehovah passed through above his face, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering with regard to anger ¹ , and great in goodness and truth, keeping goodness for thousands, bearing iniquity and transgression and sin; and He does not at all absolve ² , visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons and on the sons of sons, on the third and on the fourth [generations]. And Moses made haste and bowed to the earth, and adored. And he said, If now I have found grace in Your eyes, O Lord, let [my] Lord, I beg You, go in our midst, for they are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin ³ , and make us Your inheritance.

'And Jehovah said to Moses' means the conclusion regarding the Israelite nation. 'Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones' means the kind of outward form that the Word, the Church, and worship take on account of that nation. 'And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke' means the Divine celestial and spiritual realities belonging to the interior level of these three entities, which are present also in those external things. 'And be ready by the morning; and you shall come up to Mount Sinai' means a new beginning in the revelation of Divine Truth. 'And you shall stand with Me there on the top of the mountain' means coming from the inmost heaven, where Divine Love is. 'And no one shall come up with you' means that the Israelite nation is incapable of standing in Divine Truth. 'And also no one shall be seen on all the mountain' means that they are entirely remote from that Truth, and so stand outside it. 'Also no flock or herd shall feed before this mountain' means that neither were they capable of receiving instruction concerning the interior and exterior good of the Church, worship, and the Word. 'And he hewed two tablets of stone like the first ones' means the kind of outward form that the Word, the Church, and worship take on account of the Israelite nation. 'And Moses rose early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai' means a new beginning in the revelation of Divine Truth. 'As Jehovah had commanded him' means that such a thing should be done because of their insistence. 'And took the two tablets in his hand' means the kind of outward form that the Word, the Church, and worship take on account of the Israelite nation. 'And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there' means the outward form that the Word takes, in which the Divine is present. 'And proclaimed the name of Jehovah' means worship of the Lord springing from the truths and forms of the good of faith and love, and so preparation for reception. 'And Jehovah passed through above his face' means the internal and Divine realities above the external things. 'And proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, God, merciful and gracious' means the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine proceeding, the Source of everything good. 'Long-suffering with regard to anger' means Divine leniency. 'And great in goodness and truth' means that He is absolute Goodness and absolute Truth. 'Keeping goodness for thousands' means eternally so. 'Bearing iniquity, transgression, and sin' means shifting evil and its falsity away in order that it may not be apparent. 'And He does not at all absolve' means allowing them to exist until they reach their closing stage. 'Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons and on the sons of sons' means the rejection and condemnation of evils and of a long line of falsities arising from them. 'On the third and on the fourth [generations]' means the condemnation of falsities and the evils arising from them. 'And Moses made haste and bowed to the earth, and adored' means the reception at that time of what flowed into the outward form, and worship as a result of humility. 'And he said, If now I have found grace in Your eyes, O Lord' means because such an outward form was accepted. 'Let [my] Lord, I beg You, go in our midst' means in order that what is Divine may be inwardly present in it. 'For they are a stiff-necked people' means even though the Israelite nation does not accept what is Divine from an interior level. 'And pardon our iniquity and our sin' means being so in order that the things interiorly present within them, which teem with falsities and evils, may be shifted away. 'And make us Your inheritance' means in order that nevertheless the Church may exist there.

Footnotes: