206. What group of people believes more firmly that their eyes are open and that like God they can identify good and evil than those who admire themselves and at the same time boast a good secular education? But what group is more blind? Just ask them and you will find that they have no idea of the existence of spirit, let alone a belief in it. Spiritual life and heavenly life they know nothing about. Eternal life they do not acknowledge, since they believe they will die like brute animals. They positively refuse to recognize the Lord, worshiping themselves and the material world instead. ¹ Those who want to speak cautiously say that some Supreme Entity rules all things, although they do not know what it is.

[2] These are their principles, and privately they use many arguments from the senses and from the academic disciplines to prove them. They would do so publicly as well, if they dared.

Such people want to be recognized as gods or as fonts of wisdom, but if you ask them whether they know what it is to lack selfhood, they will answer that it is nonexistence; once deprived of it, they would be nothing. If you ask whether they know what it is to live from the Lord, they consider the concept a fantasy. If you inquired whether they knew what conscience was, they would describe it as nothing more than an imaginary something-or-other good for keeping the common people under control. If you inquired whether they knew what perception was they would do nothing but sneer and call it a sign of religious mania.

This is their wisdom. These are the people who have their eyes open; these are the people who are gods. Principles like these, which they consider clearer than daylight, are their starting points. From there they go on to reason about the mysteries of faith. What is the result but a chasm of the deepest darkness? Such people more than any are snakes that lead the world astray [Revelation 12:9].

But the descendants of the earliest church were not yet like this. What verses 14-19 of the current chapter say about them shows what they were later to become.

Footnotes:

4214. And Laban got up early in the morning symbolizes the enlightenment of that goodness by the Lord’s earthly divinity. This can be seen from the symbolism of rising early in the morning as enlightenment (discussed at §§3458, 3723) and from the representation of Laban as the kind of goodness that characterizes non-Christians (discussed in §4189). Context shows that the enlightenment of this goodness (the enlightenment meant here) comes from the Lord’s earthly divinity.

In regard to enlightenment, all enlightenment comes from the Lord by way of the goodness in a person, and the nature of the goodness determines the quality of the light.

[2] Most people consider someone who can argue about goodness and truth, evil and falsity, to be enlightened. They believe one’s state of enlightenment improves with one’s ability to discuss such topics subtly and shrewdly, to confirm them with an abundance of facts, and to make one’s claims sound likely — mainly through comparison with empirical evidence but also through other methods of persuasion. Such a person might be devoid of enlightenment, though, despite having the ability to imagine and perceive.

This ability comes in two forms, one provided by heaven’s light, and the other by false light. On the outside the two look the same, but on the inside they are totally different. What comes from heaven’s light resides in goodness; that is, it is found in people who have goodness. From goodness they are able to see truth and to tell as clear as day whether something is so or not. By contrast, what comes from false light resides in evil; that is, it is found in people who have evil. They can philosophize about these subjects, because they have some capacity for learning about them, but they have no desire to put their knowledge into practice. This is not the same as being enlightened, as anyone can see.

[3] Here is what happens with false light in the other life: People who enjoyed that light while they lived in the world enjoy the same kind in the other life. There too they argue about goodness and truth, evil and falsity, only much more perfectly and skillfully than during physical life. Their reasoning improves because their thoughts are not held back or hindered by bodily and worldly cares and are not as narrowly bounded by those concerns as when they lived in their body in the world. Yet it is immediately apparent to good spirits and angels (though not to these people themselves) that their reasoning is the product of false light. The light flowing into them from heaven changes into false light instantly. In them heaven’s light meets one of three fates: It can be smothered, as sunlight is when it falls on something dark and turns black. It can be rejected, as it is in people whose assumptions are wrongheaded. Or it can be corrupted, as sunlight is when it shines on foul, disgusting objects, creating horrible colors and smells. That is what happens with people who enjoy false light and consider themselves more enlightened than others because they can reason intelligently and wisely even though they live evil lives.

[4] The identity and nature of these people is apparent in everything they say, provided they do not try to trick others by pretending to be good. They include the following kinds:

those who deny or belittle the Lord and privately sneer at anyone who acknowledges him;

those who love adultery and deride anyone who considers marriage holy and inviolable;

those who view religious precepts and doctrines as useful for keeping the lower classes in check, but worthless for themselves;

those who attribute everything to nature and consider others naive dupes if they claim it all for the Divine;

those who ascribe absolutely everything to their own good judgment, saying that the Supreme Being rules some things on the large or universal scale but nothing on the small or particular scale, and confirming this opinion in themselves.

And so on.

[5] People like this see by a false light, even in the other life, and they argue dexterously with others like them, but when they near any heavenly community their light goes out and becomes dark. Their minds are so clouded that they cannot even think, because they find heaven’s light painful, and in them it is smothered, rejected, or corrupted, as was noted. So they hurry away and throw themselves into hell, where the light is false.

This discussion shows that goodness from the Lord sheds true enlightenment and that wickedness from hell sheds false enlightenment.