1106. VASTATIONS

There are many people who, when they were in the world, out of simplicity and ignorance absorbed falsities in respect to religious faith, but who possessed a kind of conscience that was in keeping with the basic assumptions of their faith. They did not live as others - hating, getting revenge, and committing adultery. In the next life those people cannot be admitted into heavenly communities as long as they are under the influence of falsity, for in that condition they would pollute those communities. They are detained therefore on the lower earth for a considerable length of time so as to get rid of those false assumptions. The length of time they stay there, long or short, depends on the nature of the falsity and of the life acquired from it, and on the extent to which those assumptions have been confirmed with them. Some there suffer quite severely, others not so. The experiences they undergo are called vastations, which receive considerable mention in the Word. When the period of vastation is completed they are carried into heaven and as newcomers receive instruction in the truths of faith, which is given by the angels who receive them.

493. There is no need to pause too long over the consideration that 'days' and 'years mean periods of time and states. Only this need be stated here, that in the world periods of time and measurements to which numbers may be applied are indispensable, for they belong within the ultimate realms of nature. But whenever such application occurs, the numbers of days and years, and also the numbers applied to measurements, mean something which is completely different from periods of time or from measurements, and which is determined by the meaning of the number used, as in the statements about there being six days for work, and the seventh being holy, which are dealt with above; in the statement about a jubilee having to be announced every forty-ninth year and celebrated in the fiftieth; about the tribes of Israel being twelve, the same number as the Lord's Apostles; and about there being seventy elders, the same number as the Lord's disciples. And there are many other examples where the numbers mean some special characteristic completely different from the persons or objects to which they apply. And when completely separated one from the other the states meant by the numbers are then left.