9. Engelen, door hun wijsheid, gaan een stapje verder. Zij zeggen niet alleen dat al het goede en ware uit de Heer is, maar ook alles van het leven. Zij bevestigen dit hiermee: iets kan nooit uit zichzelf ontstaan maar alleen uit iets wat daaraan voorafgaat. Dus alle dingen ontstaan uit een Eerste, wat zij het Zijn (Esse) zelf van alles noemen. Eveneens blijft alles bestaan, want blijven bestaan is een voortdurend ontstaan, en wat niet constant door tussenliggende dingen in verbinding met een Eerste wordt gehouden, verdwijnt onmiddellijk en wordt geheel teniet gedaan. Verder zeggen ze ook dat er slechts één bron van leven bestaat, en dat het leven van de mens daar een beekje uit is. Indien deze stroom niet voortdurend uit haar bron zou blijven komen, zou ze onmiddellijk wegvloeien. En verder dat uit die ene bron van leven, die de Heer is, niets anders voortkomt dan het Goddelijk goede en het Goddelijke ware en dat dit iedereen beïnvloedt afhankelijk van hoe het opgenomen wordt. Zij die het opnemen in geloof en leven, vinden daarin de Hemel; maar zij die het verwerpen en verstikken, veranderen het in een hel, want zij veranderen goed in slecht en wat waarheid is in valsheid, dus het leven in de dood. Het feit dat alles van het leven vanuit de Heer is, ondersteunen zij ook hiermee, dat alle dingen in het heelal betrekking hebben op het goede en het ware, het leven van een mens zijn wil, wat het leven van zijn liefde is, heeft betrekking op het goede, en het leven van een mens zijn verstand, wat het leven van zijn geloof is, heeft betrekking op het ware. En aangezien al het goede en ware van boven komt, volgt daaruit dat ook alles van het leven van boven komt. Omdat dit het geloof van de engelen is, weigeren zij alle dankbetuigingen voor het goede wat ze doen en worden ze verontwaardigd en trekken zich terug, indien iemand hun het goede toeschrijft. Zij zijn hoogst verwonderd als iemand gelooft dat hij vanuit zichzelf wijs is of vanuit zichzelf goed doet. Als iemand ter wille van zichzelf het goede doet, noemen zij dit niet het goede, omdat het vanuit de persoon zelf gebeurt; maar het goede doen ter wille van het goede zelf noemen zij het Goddelijke goede, en ze zeggen dat dit het goede is wat de hemel maakt, omdat dit Goede de Heer is.
The Last Judgement #25
25. After his life in the world everyone lives for ever. This is evident from the fact that he is then no longer natural but spiritual; and a spiritual person once separated from the natural stays in the same state for ever, since a person's state cannot change after death. Moreover every person's spiritual side is linked with the Divine, since it can think about and also love the Divine, and be acted upon by all the influences coming from the Divine, much as the church teaches. The spiritual side can as a result be linked to the Divine by willing and thinking, the two faculties of the spiritual man which make up his life. Thus a link can be made with the Divine which can never die, for the Divine is present with him and links him to Itself.
[2] Man has also been created so as mentally to be a model of heaven. The form of heaven derives from the Divine itself, as was shown in HEAVEN AND HELL (The Lord's Divine makes and forms heaven, 7-12, 78-86); man was created so as to be a model of heaven on the smallest scale (57); heaven taken all together resembles a single human being (59-66). Hence an angel has a perfect human form (73-77). An angel is a human being in his spiritual aspect.
[3] I have had a number of conversations with angels on this subject. They were extremely surprised that there are very many among those reputed intelligent in the Christian world, and believed to be intelligent by other people, who have totally rejected any idea that their life is not subject to death, but believe that the soul of a human being is dispersed after death like that of an animal. They fail to perceive the difference in the way human beings and animals live. Human beings have thoughts that can rise above themselves, and they can think about God, heaven, love, faith, spiritual and moral good, truths and such matters, thus rising to the Divine itself, and being linked to Him by all these means. Animals, however, cannot rise above their natural level so as to entertain such thoughts. As a result their spiritual side cannot be separated from their natural after death, 1 and live on by itself as a human being's can. That too is the reason why an animal's life 2 is dispersed together with its natural life.
[4] The angels said that the reason why many so-called intelligent people in the Christian world do not believe their life is immortal is that at heart they deny the existence of the Divine and acknowledge Nature in His place. Those who think from such premises cannot imagine how they can live for ever by being linked with the Divine, and consequently that the condition of human beings is any different from that of animals; for when they banish the idea of the Divine from their thoughts, they also banish that of eternity.
[5] They went on to say that every individual has a highest or most inward degree of life, something highest and inmost on which the Lord's Divinity primarily and most closely acts, and from which He controls the remaining interiors belonging to the spiritual and natural man and arranged in ordered sequence in them. They called this highest or most inward part the Lord's entrance into man and His truest abode with man. It is this highest or most inward part which gives man his humanity and sets him apart from dumb animals, which lack it. This is why men can, unlike animals, have their interiors, which belong to their minds and characters, raised by the Lord to Himself. Thus they can believe in Him, feel love for Him, and receive intelligence and wisdom and speak rationally.
[6] When asked whether those who deny the existence of the Divine and the Divine truths which link a person's life with the Divine Himself none the less live on for ever, they said that these had the ability to think and will, and thus to believe and love what proceeds from the Divine equally with those who acknowledge Him; and that this ability to think and will enables them equally to live for ever. They added that this ability results from that highest or most inward part everyone possesses which was mentioned just above. I have demonstrated at length that even those in hell have this ability, which enables them to reason and speak against Divine truths. This is why every person, irrespective of what sort of person he is, lives for ever.
[7] Because after death everyone lives for ever, no angel or spirit can think about death; in fact, they do not know what it is to die. Whenever therefore death is mentioned in the Word, the angels understand it as damnation, which is death in the spiritual sense, or the continuation of life and resurrection. 3 These remarks are intended as confirmation that all people who have ever been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are alive, some in heaven and some in hell.
Voetnoten:
1. The spiritual world exercises an influence on the life of animals too, but this is generalised, not a specific one as in the case of human beings (1633, 3646). The difference between human beings and animals is that human beings can be raised above their own level to the Lord, so as to think about and love the Divine, and thus be linked with the Lord, which confers everlasting life. Animals differ in not being able to be so raised up (4525, 6323, 9231).
2. [Perhaps we should read 'soul' for 'life' here.]
3. When death is mentioned in the Word, it is understood in heaven as meaning the damnation of the wicked; this is spiritual death and also hell (5407, 6119, 9008). Those who possess different kinds of good and truth are called alive, those who possess different kinds of evil and falsity are called dead (81, 290, 7494). When good people are dying, death is understood in heaven as resurrection and the continuation of life, since a person then rises again, continues his life and enters upon everlasting life (3498, 3505, 4618, 4621, 6036, 6222).
