Explanation of Deuteronomy 2
Nga Alexander Payne
Verses 1-7. Hereditary good nature will not avail for regeneration.
Verses 8-15. The character is not made spiritual by external worship.
Verses 14-15. The loss of self-confidence.
Verses 16-23. The soul must not remain in a state of falsified truths, but pass beyond them.
Verses 24-37. The destruction of the domination of self-love in the external mind.
Heaven and Hell #46
46. Further, people of similar quality all recognize each other there just the way people in this world recognize their neighbors and relatives and friends, even though they may never have seen each other before. This happens because the only relationships and kinships and friendships in the other life are spiritual ones, and are therefore matters of love and faith. 1
I have often been allowed to see this when I was in the spirit and therefore out of body and in the company of angels. Then some of them looked to me as though I had known them from infancy, while others seemed totally unfamiliar. The ones who looked as though I had known them from infancy were the ones who were in a state like that of my own spirit, while the unfamiliar ones were in dissimilar states.
Fusnotat:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] In heaven, all matters of proximity, family, kindred, and apparent blood relationship arise from what is good and depend on its affinities and differences: Arcana Coelestia 695 [685], 917, 1394, 2739, 3612, 3815, 4121.
