2. The Lord is God of Heaven

First and foremost, we need to know who the God of heaven is, since everything else depends on this. Throughout the whole of heaven, no one is acknowledged as God of heaven except the Lord. Angels say what he himself taught, namely that he is one with the Father, that the Father is in him and he in the Father, that anyone who sees him sees the Father, and that everything holy emanates from him (John 10:30, 38; 14:9-11, 16; 16:13-15). I have often talked with angels about this, and their consistent testimony has been that in heaven they cannot divide the Divine into three because they both know and perceive that the Divine is one and that this "one" is in the Lord. They have also told me that when people arrive from earth with the idea of three divine beings they cannot be admitted to heaven. This is because their thinking vacillates between one opinion and the other, and in heaven they are not allowed to think "three" and say "one." ¹

In heaven people actually speak directly from their thought, so that we have there a kind of thoughtful speech or audible thought. This means that if people have divided the Divine into three in the world and held a separate image of each one without gathering and focusing these three into one, they cannot be accepted. In heaven, there is a communication of all thoughts, so if people arrive who think "three" and say "one," they are recognized immediately for what they are and are sent away.

Still, it needs to be realized that in the other life any people who have not put "good" in one compartment and "true" in another - who have not separated faith from love - accept the heavenly concept of the Lord as God of the universe once they have been taught. It is different, though, with people who have separated their faith from their lives, that is, who have not lived by the guiding principles of true faith.

Footnotes:

1659. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The details contained in this chapter appear as if they were not representative, for the subject is merely the wars between a number of kings, and Lot's reclamation by Abram, and, towards the end, Melchizedek; so that these details do not seem to possess a single heavenly arcanum within them. Yet like all such details, these conceal very deep arcana in the internal sense which follow in a continuous sequence from the things preceding them, and also link themselves in a similar sequence to those that follow.

[2] The descriptions which precede have dealt with the Lord and the instruction He received, and also with His External Man which was to be joined to the internal by means of knowledge and cognitions. But because His external Man was such, as has been stated, that from what was inherited from the mother it had within it things which prevented their becoming joined together, things which had first to be cast out by means of conflicts and temptations before His external Man could be united to the Internal - that is, His Human Essence to the Divine Essence - this chapter therefore deals with those conflicts themselves. The latter in the internal sense are represented and meant by the wars which it describes. Within the Church it is well known that Melchizedek represented the Lord, and that the Lord is thus meant in the internal sense when Melchizedek is spoken of. From this one may also conclude that not only such details regarding Melchizedek but all others are indeed representative, for not one small word can have been written in the Word that has not been sent down from heaven and consequently in which angels do not see heavenly things.

[3] In most ancient times furthermore many things were represented by wars, which people called 'The Wars of Jehovah'. The latter meant nothing other than the conflicts fought by the Church and by those who belonged to the Church, that is, their temptations, which are nothing else than battles and wars against the evils present within themselves and so against the devil's crew who activate evils and endeavour to destroy the Church and the member of the Church. That wars in the Word have no other meaning becomes quite clear from the fact that the Word cannot have as its subject anything other than the Lord, His kingdom, and the Church, since it is Divine, not human, and consequently heavenly, not worldly. This being so the wars described in the sense of the letter cannot have any other meaning in the internal sense. This may become clearer still from what follows.

3353. The majority of people believe that when the Last Judgement comes everything visible in the world is going to perish - that is to say, the earth will go up in flames, the sun and moon will be reduced to nothing, and the stars will disappear; and after that a new heaven and a new earth will come into being. They have acquired this idea from the prophetical revelations, among which such occurrences are mentioned. But what will in fact happen at that time is quite different, as becomes clear from what has been shown already concerning the Last Judgement in 900, 931, 1850, 2117-2133. Those paragraphs show that the Last Judgement is nothing else than the end of the Church with one group of people and the beginning of it with another. This end with one and beginning with another occurs when the Lord is not acknowledged any longer, or what amounts to the same, when there is no faith any longer. No acknowledgement or faith exists any longer when there is no charity any longer, for faith is in no way possible except with those in whom charity is present. In those circumstances the Church comes to an end and is transferred to others, as is plainly evident from all the things that the Lord Himself taught and foretold in the Gospels concerning the last day or the close of the age - in Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21. But since nobody without the key, which is the internal sense, is able to understand those things foretold by Him there, let them be explained one after another.

[2] Here first let the following words be explained which appear in Matthew,

The disciples came to Jesus, saying, Tell us. when will those things take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the close of the age? And Jesus answering said to them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and they will lead many astray. But when you hear of wars and rumours of wars, see that you are not alarmed; for all things must take place; but the end is not yet. For nation will be roused against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, and plagues, and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of sorrows. Matthew 24:3-8.

Those who confine themselves to the sense of the letter cannot know whether these words and those that follow in this chapter refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews, or whether they refer to the end of days which is called the Last Judgement. But those admitted into the internal sense see clearly that the end of the Church is being referred to, this end being that which here and in other places is called 'the coming of the Lord' and 'the close of the age'. And inasmuch as the end of the Church is meant one is able to see that all these statements made by the Lord mean such things as have to do with the Church. But their overall meaning may be seen from the individual meaning below which each of them has in the internal sense.

Many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ; and they will lead many astray. 'Name' here does not mean name, nor 'the Christ' the Christ, but 'name' means that by which the Lord is worshipped, 2724, 3006, while 'the Christ' means truth itself, 3009, 3010. Thus the meaning is that people will come who say that this is the sum and substance of faith, that is, it is the truth, when in fact it is neither the sum and substance of faith, nor the truth, but falsity.

They will hear of wars and rumours of wars means that arguments and disagreements over truths will arise which are wars in the spiritual sense.

Nation will be roused against nation and kingdom against kingdom means that evil will conflict with evil, and falsity with falsity, 'nation' meaning good, but in the contrary sense evil, see 1259, 1260, 1416, 1849, and 'kingdom' meaning truth, but in the contrary sense falsity, 1672, 2547. And there will be famines, and plagues, and earthquakes in various places means that no cognitions of good and truth will exist any more, and thus that the state of the Church is altered, meant by 'an earthquake'.