452. Verse 9. After these things I saw, and behold a great multitude, signifies all those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, as is evident from this, that "the twelve thousand sealed" out of each tribe meant those who are of the church in which there are genuine truths; for "the twelve tribes of Israel" mean those who are in genuine goods and truths, and in an abstract sense all goods and truths of the church; therefore these now treated of mean those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which nevertheless there are no genuine truths. That this is the meaning of "a great multitude" can be seen also from what follows in this chapter, where it is said, "These are they who come out of the great tribulation" (verse 14), which means out of temptations, for those who are in the good of life according to their religion, in which there are no genuine truths, in the other life undergo temptations, by which the falsities of their religion are scattered, and genuine truths implanted in their place (on this more will be said in what follows). From this it can be seen who are meant by "a great multitude" (which is treated of in what follows to the end of the chapter). It is to be known that no one, either within the church where the Word is or outside of that church, is damned who lives a good life according to his religion, for it is not the fault of such that they are ignorant of genuine truths. Moreover, as the good of life holds deep within it the affection of knowing truths, when such come into the other life they easily receive truths and drink them in. It is altogether different with those who have lived an evil life and have made light of religion. (Those who are not in genuine truths, and thus are in falsities from ignorance, and yet in the good of life, have been treated of above, n. 107, 195, 356; and in the work on Heaven and Hell, where the peoples and nations outside of the church who are in heaven are treated of. Also in the Arcana Coelestia, as follows: There may be falsities of religion that agree with good, and falsities that disagree, n. 9258, 9259; falsities of religion, if they do not disagree with good, produce evil only with those who are in evil, n. 8311, 8318; falsities of religion are not imputed to those who are in good, but only to those who are in evil, n. 8051, 8149; truths not genuine, and also falsities, may be consociated with genuine truths with those who are in good, but not with those who are in evil, n. 3470, 3471, 4551, 4552, 7344, 8149, 9298; falsities and truths are consociated by appearances from the sense of the letter of the Word, n. 7344; falsities are made truthlike by good and become soft when they are applied to good and lead to good, and evil is removed, n. 8149; falsities of religion with those who are in good are received by the Lord as truths, n. 4736, 8149; a good that derives its quality from a falsity of religion is accepted by the Lord if there be ignorance, and if there be in it innocence and a good end, n. 7887; the truths that are with man are appearances of truth and good, tinctured with fallacies, and yet the Lord adapts them to genuine truths in the man who lives in good, n. 2053; there are falsities in which there is good with those who are outside of the church and thence in ignorance of truth, also with those within the church where there are falsities of doctrine, n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 3778, 4189, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256)

4328. I have also been shown the situation in general with regard to the will part of the mind and the understanding part. The most ancient people who constituted the Lord's celestial Church, and who are described in 1114-1123, had a will which contained good and an understanding which contained truth derived from that good; and with them these two parts made one. The ancients however who formed the Lord's spiritual Church had a will that was completely destroyed, but an intact understanding within which, through regeneration, the Lord formed a new area of will, and through this a new area of understanding also, see 863, 875, 895, 927, 928, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256.

[2] What the situation had been in the celestial Church so far as good was concerned was demonstrated by means of a blue-coloured column coming down from the sky, the left side of which was full of light, like the blazing light of the sun. This was a representation of the first state of those people, the blue colour representing their will, which was good, and the blazing light their understanding. After that the blue of the column turned to a dull red, which was a representation of their second state, a state in which their two kinds of life - that of the will and that of the understanding - still acted as one, though this was more dull so far as good from the will was concerned. For blue means good, and blazing light truth derived from good. After that the column became completely black, and surrounding the column there was a brightness which was variegated by means of something glittering and which presented colours. These changes meant the state of the spiritual Church. The black column meant that the will had been completely destroyed and that it was nothing but evil. The light variegated by something glittering meant the understanding in which a new will was provided by the Lord; for in heaven the understanding is represented by brightness.