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:

4229. CHAPTER 32

In Volume Three ¹ an explanation was begun of what the Lord has foretold in Matthew 24 about the Last Judgement. The explanation stands in the preliminary sections to the final chapters of that volume and has been taken as far as Matthew 24:31, see 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3897-3901, 4056-4060. The internal sense in brief of all that He foretold is evident from the explanations contained in those paragraphs; that is to say, He foretold the progressive ruination of the Church and the establishment at length of a new Church, in the following order:

1. People ceased to know what good or truth was, and instead began to argue with one another about these.

2. They treated them with contempt.

3. They did not in their hearts acknowledge them.

4. They profaned them.

5. And because the truth of faith and the good of love would continue to exist with some who are called the elect, the state of faith as this will be at that time is described.

6. Then the state of charity as this will be.

7. And finally the beginning of a new Church is dealt with, which is meant by the words which were explained last of all, namely,

And He will send out His angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other end of them. Verse 31.

These words are used to mean the beginning of a new Church, see the end of 4060.

Footnotes:

2901. Genesis 23

1. And the life ¹ of Sarah was a hundred and twenty-seven years - the years of the life ¹ of Sarah.

2. And Sarah died in Kiriath Arba, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

3. And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,

4. I am a stranger and an inhabitant among you; give me possession of a grave among you, and I will bury my dead from before me.

5. And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,

6. Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God in the midst of us; in the choicest of our graves bury your dead; none of us will withhold his grave from you, from burying your dead.

7. And Abraham rose up and bowed to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth.

8. And he spoke to them, saying, If you are willing ² to let me bury my dead from before me, hear me and intercede for me with Ephron the son of Zohar.

9. And let him give me the cave of Machpelah which is his, which is at the end of his field; for the full price ³ let him give it to me in the midst of you, as a possession for a grave.

10. And Ephron was sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, in the ears of the sons of Heth, to all entering into the gate of his city, saying,

11. No, my lord, hear me; the field I give to you, and the cave that is in it I give to you; before the eyes of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.

12. And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.

13. And he spoke to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, Even so, please hear me; I will give the price ⁴ of the field; accept it from me, and I will bury my dead there.

14. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,

15. My lord, hear me; the land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver; what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.

16. And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had spoken of in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current with the merchant.

17. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah - which was before Mamre - the field and the cave which was in it, and every tree which was in the field, which was in all its borders round about, was made over

18. To Abraham as an acquisition, before the eyes of the sons of Heth, in [the presence] of all entering the gate of his city.

19. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife at the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

20. And the field and the cave which was in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a grave, from the sons of Heth.

CONTENTS

The subject here in the internal sense is the new spiritual Church which was raised up by the Lord after the previous one had altogether breathed its last, and also the reception of faith among those who belonged to the Church. 'Sarah' here is Divine truth that breathed its last; 'burial' is a raising up again; 'Ephron' and 'the sons of Heth' are those people among whom the good and truth of the Church was received; 'Machpelah, which was before Mamre' is regeneration; 'Hebron in the land of Canaan' is a new Church.

Footnotes: