2588. Wife of Abraham means to let spiritual truth unite with heavenly goodness, as established by the following: Sarah as wife represents spiritual truth wedded to heavenly goodness, as noted in §§1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507. And Abraham represents heavenly goodness wedded to spiritual truth, as noted at §§[2010,] 2011, 2172, 2198, 2501. It is all the same whether you say spiritual truth and heavenly goodness, or the Lord, because the Lord is truth itself and goodness itself. He is also the marriage itself of truth with goodness and of goodness with truth.
It is true that the explanation shows how the case stands in all this, but since it is among the harder topics to understand at the present day, let me shed as much light as possible on it.
The theme here is the doctrine of faith, which the Lord thought about in his youth. He asked himself whether it was allowable to delve into it by means of logic and in this way form thoughts about it for himself. It was because of his loving concern for the welfare of the human race that he considered this possibility, humankind being such that we refuse to believe what we cannot grasp rationally. Nevertheless, he perceived from his divinity that he should not do so, and as a result he revealed the doctrine to himself from his divine side. As a further result, he also revealed everything in the universe that is subordinate to that doctrine–namely, everything in the realms of logic and earthly learning.
[2] Section 2568 above explained what our situation is in regard to religious doctrines–that our thoughts on it spring from one of two principles, the negative or the affirmative. People who believe nothing unless convinced by reason and secular facts or even by the evidence of their senses base their thinking on the negative principle. People who believe a thing to be true because the Lord has said it in the Word–people who trust the Lord, in other words–base their thinking on the affirmative principle.
People whose attitude is negative toward the idea that everything in the Word is true say in their hearts, "When reason and fact persuade me, then I am willing to believe." Their plight is that they never come to believe, not even if the evidence itself of their physical senses'sight, hearing, and touch–convinces them. They are always coming up with new opposing arguments, until in the end they completely snuff out any spark of faith. At the same time they blot out the light of reason, turning it into darkness by falsifying it.
On the other hand, people whose attitude is affirmative believe a thing to be true because the Lord has said it. Their situation is one in which logic, fact, and even the evidence of the senses are always confirming their belief and lending light and strength to their ideas. It is only by means of reason and fact that we receive light; everyone relies on these. In the latter people, then, theology "surely lives," and they are said to be cured and bear children. In the former people theology "surely dies," and it is said of them that their womb is tightly closed.
This shows what it is to enter into religious doctrine by way of logic and what it is to enter into logic from religious doctrine. Now some examples to illustrate.
[3] The Word teaches that the first and foremost tenet of doctrine is love for the Lord and charity for our neighbor. If we regard this idea affirmatively, we can enter into any logical or factual analysis we want–even into analysis based on our senses–each of us according to our talents, knowledge, and experience. In fact, the more we enter into these kinds of analysis, the more we strengthen ourselves in the idea, because the whole of creation is full of proof.
If we deny this first and foremost doctrinal premise, however, and demand at the outset to be convinced of its truth by fact and logic, we deny it at heart. Consequently we never do allow ourselves to be persuaded; instead we stand firm for some other principle we believe to be essential. Eventually, in shoring up our own premise, we blind ourselves so badly that we cannot even see what love for the Lord or love for our neighbor is. Because we harden ourselves in our opposition, in the end we also convince ourselves that no other pleasurable type of love can exist than love for ourselves and for the material world. In fact, we even embrace this hellish love in place of heavenly love in our lives, if not in our theology.
With people who are neither negative nor affirmative, though, but are hesitating before they deny or affirm, matters stand as described above at §2568. The people who lean toward living an evil life fall into denial, while the people who lean toward living a good life move toward affirmation.
[4] To take another example, one of the primary teachings of faith is that everything good is from the Lord and everything evil from humankind, or from ourselves. People who affirm that this is true can prove it to themselves by many rational arguments and facts, such as these: Nothing good can possibly enter us unless it comes from goodness itself, that is, from the source of what is good, and so from the Lord; goodness cannot take its start anywhere else. For affirmative people, everything they see in themselves, in others, in the larger community, and even in the whole of creation that is really good illustrates the truth of this proposition. For negative people, on the other hand, everything they ever think confirms them in the opposite opinion'so much so that eventually they cannot tell what is good. They wrangle with each other over the question of the highest good, profoundly unaware that heavenly and spiritual goodness from the Lord is what gives life to any lower kind of good and makes pleasure genuinely pleasurable. Some of them even believe that nothing good can come from anywhere if it does not come from themselves.
[5] Take as yet another example the idea that people who love the Lord and show charity for their neighbor can accept theological truth and have faith in the Word, but those who live a life of love for themselves and for worldly gain cannot. To put the same thing another way, people devoted to what is good can believe, but those devoted to evil cannot. Anyone who looks affirmatively on this proposition is capable of supporting it with countless arguments drawn from logic and fact. Logic says that truth and goodness agree with one another but truth and evil do not. Just as all falsity dwells in evil, it also proceeds from evil. If certain evil people do possess truth, it rests on their lips, not in their hearts. Fact has much evidence to offer that truth shuns what is evil and evil spurns what is true.
People who view the proposition negatively, though, justify themselves with the consideration that any of us, no matter what we are like–even if we live a life of unceasing hatred, joy in vengeance, and deceit–can believe just as easily as others. They cling to this line of thinking until they finally rid theology of anything having to do with living a good life. Once they rid doctrine of goodness, they no longer believe anything.
[6] To shed still more light on the situation, take the example of people who affirm that the Word was written to have an inner meaning that is not visible in the letter. Again they are able to reinforce themselves at many points by the use of such logic as this: The Word provides humankind with a link to heaven. A correspondence exists between earthly phenomena and spiritual, though the correspondence is not visible. The thoughts of our inner mind are very different from the matter-based thinking we express in words. While we are living in the world we can also live in heaven because of the Word, which exists for both realms, since we have been born for both kinds of life. A kind of divine light flows into some people's perceptions and feelings when they are reading the Word. It is necessary for some document to exist that has come down from heaven, and such a document cannot be the same in its origin as it is in its literal text. It cannot be holy except as the result of a certain inner holiness. Affirmative people can also find support in facts such as these: In times past people made frequent use of representation, and the writings of the ancient church display this quality. As a result, the writings of many other nations were similar. Consequently this manner of writing was revered as holy among the churches and was admired for its learnedness in nations outside the church. One could also mention the books of many other authors.
People whose attitude is negative, however, do not believe any of this, even if they do not actually deny it. They persuade themselves that the Word is just as it appears to be in its literal text (which appears to be worldly) although it is still spiritual. Where its spirituality lies they do not care. Still, they do want it to be spiritual, for many reasons, and are able to prove in a multitude of ways that it is.
[7] To present the subject even to the grasp of the less educated, let me use an example from science as well. Sight belongs not to the eye but to the spirit, which sees the objects of the world through the eye as an organ in its body. People who approach this idea affirmatively have many arguments with which to confirm it. For instance, the speech that we hear routes itself to a kind of inner eye and turns into something visual, which would not be possible if we did not have inner sight. Any thoughts we think also appear to our inner eye, more clearly in some of us and more dimly in others. Our imagination has a similar way of presenting itself in visual images. What is more, if the spirit inside the body did not see what the organic eye takes in, the spirit would not be able to see anything at all in the other life; yet in reality the spirit must necessarily be destined to see astounding sights beyond number that are invisible to the physical eye. In addition, people who are affirmative can reflect on dreams, especially those of the prophets, who also saw many, many things without using their eyes. Finally, if they are trained in philosophy, they can confirm the idea by this, that what is exterior cannot enter into what is interior, just as a compound cannot enter into its elements. By the same token, physical things cannot enter into spiritual things, only the reverse. Not to mention many other considerations. In the end, the affirmative person becomes convinced that vision is a function of the spirit and not of the eye except under the power of the spirit.
People whose attitude is negative, however, describe all these operations either as physical ones or as flights of fancy. If you tell them that the spirit enjoys much fuller powers of vision than people do in their bodies, they sneer and reject it as nonsense. They believe that once deprived of physical sight they will live in the dark, when to the absolute contrary they will then live in light.
[8] These examples show what it is to examine logic and fact from the viewpoint of truth, and what it is to examine truth from the viewpoint of fact and logic. To do the former is to follow the ordained plan; to do the latter is to violate it. When we follow the ordained plan, we gain light, but when we violate it, we are blinded. The importance of knowing truth and believing it, then, is crystal clear, since truth enlightens us and falsity blinds us. Truth opens up to the rational mind a field that is immeasurable and almost unbounded. Falsity by comparison opens hardly any field at all, even if the appearance is otherwise. That is why angels' wisdom is so vast–because they possess truth. Truth, after all, is the light itself of heaven.
[9] In times past, people who blinded themselves by refusing to believe anything they could not grasp with their senses–so much so that they finally believed in nothing–were called snakes in the tree of knowledge. They spent a great deal of time creating logical constructs on the basis of sense impressions and the illusions these lead to (which humans find it easy to comprehend and accept), and they led many other people astray; see §§195, 196.
In the next life it is easy to tell them apart from other spirits because they argue over the truth of every tenet of faith. You can show them in thousands upon thousands of ways that a thing is true and they still raise doubts and objections to every single proof. This they would continue to do even if the debate went on forever. As a consequence they are so blind that they lack common sense enough to recognize goodness and truth. Yet they each imagine that they have more wisdom than anyone else in the universe, locating wisdom in their ability to break open any divine conundrum and reason their way to a conclusion on it from some starting point in what is physical. Many individuals admired as wise on earth have more of this character than others. The more ingenuity and book learning people have while maintaining a skeptical attitude, the more they outdo others in insanity. On the other hand, the more ingenuity and book learning they have while maintaining an affirmative attitude, the more wisdom they are capable of acquiring.
By no means are we forbidden to cultivate our rational mind by becoming educated; what we are forbidden to do is to make ourselves impervious to the religious truth in the Word.
[10] The inner meaning of the Word has much to say on this subject, especially where the prophetic parts speak of Assyria and Egypt. Assyria symbolizes sophistic reasoning (§§119, 1186), and Egypt symbolizes scholarly learning (§§1164, 1165, 1186, 1462).
Some people try to use fact and logic to investigate religious teachings and divine mysteries and are therefore insane. They are described this way in Isaiah:
I will mix Egypt up with Egypt, and they will fight, a man against his brother and a man against his companion, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst, and its counsel I will swallow up. The water will disappear from the sea, and the river will drain away and dry up. And the streams will recede; the rivers of Egypt will shrink and drain away. Reed and rush will wilt. Any seed of the stream will dry up. Jehovah has mixed up in its midst a spirit of perversities and made Egypt go astray in all its work, like the straying of drunkards in their own vomit. (Isaiah 19:2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 14)
In the same author:
Doom to my defiant children, who leave to go down into Egypt (but have not asked of my mouth), to strengthen themselves with Pharaoh's strength, and to trust in Egypt's shadow. And for you Pharaoh's strength will turn to shame, and trust in Egypt's shadow to disgrace. (Isaiah 30:1, 2, 3)
In the same author:
Doom to those going down into Egypt for help! And on horses they rely, and they trust in chariots (that they are numerous), but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and Jehovah they do not seek. And Jehovah will stretch out his hand; the helper will stumble and the one helped will fall, and they are all consumed together. And Assyria will fall by a sword that is not a man's, and a sword that is not a human's will devour him. (Isaiah 31:1, 3, 8)
In Jeremiah:
Two evils my people have done: they have deserted me–the spring of living water–to carve out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that do not hold water. Isn't Israel a bondman? If he is a home-born [slave], why has he become plunder? Aren't you doing this to yourself, when you desert Jehovah your God at the time when he is leading you in the way? And now why should you go to Egypt to drink the waters of the Sihor, or why should you go to Assyria to drink the waters of the river? You [current] generation, see the Word of Jehovah! Have I been Israel's wilderness? A land of darkness? Why have my people said, "We will be in charge; we will not come to you anymore"? Why do you go so energetically to change your way? By Egypt as well you will be shamed, just as you were shamed by Assyria. (Jeremiah 2:13, 14, 17, 18, 31, 36)
In the same author:
Listen to the word of Jehovah, remnant of Judah! This is what Jehovah Sabaoth God of Israel has said: "If you resolutely set your face to come into Egypt, and you come to stay there, then it will happen that the sword that you are fearing will seize you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine that you are dreading will cling to you there in Egypt, so that you die there. And it will happen that all the men who set their faces to come into Egypt to stay there will die by sword, famine, and contagion, and they will not have a survivor or an escapee from the evil that I am bringing on you." (Jeremiah 42:15, 16, 17, and following verses)
In Ezekiel:
"And let all the inhabitants of Egypt recognize that I am Jehovah. Because these have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, when you seize it in your palm, you will be shattered to pieces and split every shoulder of theirs, and when they lean on you, you will be broken and bring every haunch of theirs to a standstill." Therefore this is what the Lord Jehovih has said: "Watch: I am bringing a sword on you and will cut human and animal off from you, and the land of Egypt will become a ruin and wasteland–and they will know that I am Jehovah–because [Pharaoh] has said, 'The river is mine, and I myself have made it.'" (Ezekiel 29:6, 7, 8, 9, and following verses)
In Hosea:
Ephraim was like a stupid pigeon; on Egypt they called; to Assyria they went. When they go, I will spread my net out over them. Doom to them, because they wandered away from me! (Hosea 7:11, 12, 13)
In the same author:
Ephraim is grazing on a breeze and pursuing an east wind. Every day he multiplies lies and devastation; and with Assyria they strike a pact, and oil is carried off into Egypt. (Hosea 12:1)
In the same author:
Israel whored against her god; you delighted in the wage you earned on all the grain-threshing floors. Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean. For look! They have left on account of the ruination. Egypt will gather them; Moph will bury them. What is desirable of their silver the thorn will possess; the thistle will be in their tents. Ephraim has been struck; their root has dried up; they will not make fruit. Even when they give birth, I will kill the desired things of their belly; my God will reject them because they did not hear him, and they will be wanderers among the nations. (Hosea 9:1, 3, 6, 16, 17)
In Isaiah:
Doom to Assyria, the rod of my anger! And he is the staff of my outrage in their hand. He thinks what is not right, and his heart contemplates what is not right, because it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations, since he says, "Aren't my chieftains all monarchs?" I will exact punishment on the fruit of the pride of heart of Assyria's king because he has said, "In the strength of my hand have I done this, and in my wisdom, because I have understanding; and I will move the borders of the peoples, and their treasuries I will rob, and as a mighty man I will cast down the inhabitants." Therefore the Lord of lords Sabaoth will send gauntness among his fat ones; and in place of his glory, a burning like the burning of fire will burn. (Isaiah 10:5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16)
[11] In all these passages, Assyria symbolizes sophistic reasoning, as shown. Egypt and Pharaoh symbolize scholarly learning. Ephraim symbolizes the functions of the intellect, and here and in many other places he depicts the quality of human rationality in people who reason about religious truth from a negative standpoint.
A similar meaning was involved when the Rabshakeh was sent by the king of Assyria to speak against Jerusalem and King Hezekiah. The angel of Jehovah in the camp of Assyria's king then struck one hundred eighty-five thousand, as related in Isaiah 36, 37, which symbolizes the way people slaughter their rational powers when they argue against divine realities, even if it looks to the people themselves as though they are then being wise.
[12] In many places this kind of reasoning is also called whoredom with the sons of Egypt and with the sons of Assyria, as in Ezekiel:
You whored with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, who were great in flesh, and multiplied your whoredom, and you whored with the sons of Assyria, without being satisfied. (Ezekiel 16:26, 28; 23:3, 5-21; see §2466)
[13] But some people investigate logic and fact from the viewpoint of religious teachings and are therefore wise. They are described in Isaiah:
On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Jehovah along its border, and it will serve as a sign and as a witness to Jehovah Sabaoth in the land of Egypt. For they will cry out to Jehovah because of their oppressors, and he will send them a deliverer and chieftain, who will rescue them. And Jehovah will become known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will recognize Jehovah on that day. And they will offer sacrifice and minha and swear an oath to Jehovah and fulfill it. (Isaiah 19:18-21)
In the same author:
On that day there will be a path from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and the Egyptians will serve Assyria. On that day Israel will be a third to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the earth, whom Jehovah Sabaoth will bless, saying, "A blessing on my people Egypt and on the work of my hands, Assyria, and on my inheritance, Israel!" (Isaiah 19:23, 24, 25)
This is about a spiritual religion. Its spiritual part is Israel, its rational part is Assyria, and its factual knowledge is Egypt, and these three constitute its intellectual possessions. The three come in this order, which is why it says, "On that day Israel will be a third to Egypt and Assyria," and "A blessing on my people Egypt, on the work of my hands, Assyria, and on my inheritance, Israel."
[14] In the same author:
It will happen on that day that a large horn will be blown, and people perishing in the land of Assyria and outcasts in the land of Egypt will come and bow down to Jehovah on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 27:13)
In the same author:
This is what Jehovah has said: "The labor of Egypt, and the wares of Cush and of Seba's inhabitants–tall men–will pass over to you and will belong to you. They will walk after you, and to you they will bow down. To you they will pray: 'Only among you does God exist, and there is no other god besides.'" (Isaiah 45:14)
Cush and Seba's inhabitants are religious knowledge (§§117, 1171). In Zechariah:
Egypt will go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah Sabaoth. (Zechariah 14:17, 18)
In Micah:
I am looking to Jehovah; I await the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. The day for building your bulwarks is this day, and they will come all the way to you from there, from Assyria, and [to] the cities of Egypt, and from there, from Egypt, all the way to the river. (Micah 7:7, 11, 12)
[15] In Ezekiel:
This is what the Lord Jehovih has said: "At the end of forty years, I will gather Egypt from the peoples where they have been scattered, and I will bring Egypt back from captivity." (Ezekiel 29:13, 14)
In the same author:
Here, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in its branch, and [forming] a shady forest, and lofty in its height; and its branch was surrounded by thickets. The water made it grow; with its rivers [the depth] was meandering around the place of its planting and sent out its channels of water to all the trees of the field. Therefore its height became higher than all the trees of the field, and its branches multiplied, and its branches grew long because of the many waters. In its branches every bird of the heavens nested, and under its branches every wild animal of the field gave birth, and in its shade all the great nations lived. And beautiful it became in its size, in the length of its branches, because its root was [going out] to many waters. The cedars did not hide it in the garden of God. The firs were not equal to its branches; no tree in God's garden was equal to it in its beauty. Beautiful I made it in the profusion of its branches, and all the trees of Eden in God's garden strove to match it. (Ezekiel 31:3-9)
These verses depict the earliest church (a heavenly church), the nature of its rationality, and so its wisdom and understanding. That church viewed lower things from the standpoint of divine things, so it viewed truth and therefore anything subordinate to truth from the standpoint of goodness itself. Assyria, the cedar, is rationality. The thickets surrounding its branch are facts. The rivers and water are spiritual kinds of goodness, which is where its root lay. The height and length of its branches is the extent of its reach. God's garden is a spiritual religion. The trees of Eden are perceptions.
This passage and the previous ones show what the rational and factual dimensions in a human being are like when they are subordinate to divine truth and serve to confirm it.
[16] The command to the children of Israel to borrow articles of gold and articles of silver and clothes from the Egyptians (Exodus 3:22; 11:2; 12:35, 36) represented and symbolized the fact that logic and facts serve as means to wisdom for people whose attitude is affirmative. So does the repeated statement in the Word that they would come into possession of the goods, houses, vineyards, olive groves, and so on of the surrounding nations. Likewise the claim that the actual gold and silver taken from those nations would become holy, as in Isaiah:
Jehovah will visit Tyre, and it will go back to its wage as a harlot and will whore with all the monarchies of the earth on the face of the ground. And its merchandise and its harlot's wage will become holy to Jehovah; they will not be hidden away and will not be hoarded; because the people living in view of Jehovah will have its merchandise for eating till they are full and for an ancient covering. (Isaiah 23:17, 18)
Tyre's merchandise stands for religious knowledge (§1201), which serves as a harlot's wage for people whose attitude is negative but as a holy blessing for people whose attitude is affirmative.
Something similar is also meant by the Lord's words:
Make yourselves friends by unjust mammon, so that when you pass away, they will take you into the eternal dwelling places. If you do not become faithful in [using] unjust mammon, who will entrust the true [mammon] to you? (Luke 16:9, 11)
The Lot and Condition in the Other World of Nations and Peoples Born outside the Church
