318. Non-Christians, or People outside the Church, in Heaven

The general opinion is that people who have been born outside the church, the people called "the nations" or "non-Christians," cannot be saved because they do not have the Word and therefore do not know the Lord; and without the Lord there is no salvation. They could know, however, that these people too are saved simply from the fact that the Lord's mercy is universal, that is, it is extended to all individuals. Non-Christians are born just as human as people within the church, who are in fact few by comparison. It is not their fault that they do not know the Lord. So anyone who thinks from any enlightened reason at all can see that no one is born for hell. The Lord is actually love itself, and his love is an intent to save everyone. So he provides that everyone shall have some religion, an acknowledgment of the Divine Being through that religion, and an inner life. That is, living according to one's religious principles is an inner life, for then we focus on the Divine; and to the extent that we do focus on the Divine, we do not focus on the world but move away from the world and therefore from a worldly life, which is an outward life. ¹

Footnotes:

6700. As regards the worship of God which the inhabitants of other worlds offer Him, all there who are not idolaters acknowledge the Lord as the one and only God. None but a very few, it is true, know that the Lord assumed the Human on our planet and made that Human Divine. Yet they adore God not as a Deity who is altogether unknowable but as One who can be known through a human form. For when the Divine shows Himself to them He does so within that form, as He also did in former times to Abraham and to others on our planet. And since they adore the Divine under a human form they adore the Lord. They also know that no one can be joined to the Divine in faith and love unless He is present in a form that people can have some conception of. If He did not present Himself in such a form their conception of Him would be lost, like sight looking at outer space. When they have been told by spirits from our planet that the Lord assumed the Human on our planet, they have pondered on it a little and soon said that this happened for the sake of the salvation of the human race. They have also said that the Divine whom they adore and offer the holiest worship to shines in heaven as the Sun and, when He appears, presents Himself in visible Human form. Regarding the Lord's appearance in the next life as the Sun and the fact that all the light of heaven is derived from Him, see 1053, 1521, 1529-1531, 3636, 3643, 4060, 4321 (end), 5097. But more on these matters in particular is to be mentioned in later sections.