Manželství dobra a pravdy lze považovat za spojení mezi naší touhou po dobrém a pochopením toho, jak být dobrým. Tento vztah není statický, ale dynamický; dobro nás vede k hledání pravdy a pravdy stojí nezávisle na našich změnách stavu, takže se můžeme proti nim měřit a rozhodnout se, že je použijeme ve svém vlastním životě jako dobro. Tento proces je základem lidské regenerace.

Od dětství se všichni zabýváme bojem mezi naším srdcem a myslí, mezi relativně sobeckými věcmi, které chceme, a více vznešenými věcmi, o kterých víme, že jsou správné. Čím více děláme to, co víme, má pravdu, tím více bude Pán pomalu schopen začít měnit naše srdce a odstraňovat sobectví kousek po kousku, aby mohla projít skutečná láska. Je to celoživotní proces, ale nakonec můžeme dosáhnout stavu, kdy opravdu milujeme dělat to, co je správné, a naše srdce a mysl mohou být „ženatí“, aby mohli pracovat jako sjednocený celek.

Všechno ve stvoření je formou tohoto manželství. V lidské společnosti to lze nalézt mnoha způsoby. Může existovat uvnitř každé osoby samostatně. Může existovat mezi manželem a manželkou, protože ženy mají dary pro přijímání touhy po dobru a muži mají dary pro přijímání pochopení pravdy. Může to být vytvořeno skupinou lidí jako kostel. A existuje mezi Pánem jako ženichem a církví jako nevěstou.

Když Bible mluví o manželství, manželství a svatbě, mluví také o hlubší úrovni o duchovním manželství dobra a pravdy.

(Referenser: Nebeská tajemství 2466; Manželská láska 44 [6])

45. THE STATE OF MARRIED PARTNERS AFTER DEATH

We have just shown in the preceding chapter that marriages exist in heaven. In this chapter we will now show whether or not a marriage covenant contracted in the world will continue and remain in force after death.

It is necessary that I make this known, because it is not a matter of judgment but of personal experience, and I have had this experience through association with angels and spirits. Nevertheless, I must make it known in such a way that reason may also assent.

Among the prayers and yearnings of married partners, moreover, is a wish to know the state of married partners after death. For men who have loved their wives wish to know - if their wives have died - whether it is well with them. So, too, wives who have loved their husbands. And they want to know whether they will meet again.

Many married couples also would like to know in advance whether partners separate after death or whether they stay together. Those who are discordant in spirit wish to know whether partners separate. And those who are concordant in spirit wish to know whether they stay together.

Because these are some of the things people would like answers to, they will be made known, and this will be done in the following order:

1. In every person after death, love for the opposite sex continues to be what it was like inwardly, that is, what it was like in the person's inner will and thought in the world.

2. Likewise conjugial love.

3. Most married couples meet after death, recognize each other, associate again, and live together for a time, which occurs in their first state, thus while they are still maintaining the outward aspects of their lives as they did in the world.

4. Progressively, however, as married partners put off outward appearances and enter into their inward qualities, they gradually perceive what sort of love and mutual feeling they had had for each other, and consequently whether it is possible for them to live together or not.

5. If it is possible for married partners to live together, they remain partners. But if it is not possible, they separate, the husband sometimes separating from the wife, the wife sometimes from the husband, and both of them sometimes from each other.

6. A man is then given a suitable wife, and a woman, likewise, a suitable husband.

7. Married couples enjoy the same intimate relations with each other as in the world, only more delightful and blessed, but without begetting children. Instead of or to take the place of begetting children, they experience a spiritual procreation, which is one of love and wisdom.

8. This is what happens in the case of people who come into heaven. It is different, however, with those who go to hell.

Development of this outline now follows, elucidating and supporting the various statements:

1298. 'They had brick for stone' means that they had falsity in place of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'brick' as falsity, dealt with just above, and also from the meaning of 'stone' in the broad sense as truth, dealt with already in 643. The reason 'stones' meant truth was that the most ancient people used to mark out boundaries by means of stones and raise up stones to testify that something was so, that is, was the truth. This is clear from the stone which Jacob set up as a pillar, Genesis 28:22; 35:14; from the pillar of stones placed between Laban and Jacob, Genesis 31:46-47, 52; and from the altar which the children of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh erected beside the Jordan as an altar of witness, Joshua 22:10, 28, 34. Consequently 'stones' in the Word means truths, so much so that not only the stones of the altar but also the precious stones in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement meant the holy truths of love.

[2] Regarding the altar, when sacrificial worship on altars was introduced, an altar in that case meant representative worship of the Lord in general. 'The stones' themselves however meant the holy truths belonging to that worship. This was why it was commanded that the altar had to be built of whole and not of hewn stones, and why it was forbidden to use any iron tool on them, Deuteronomy 27:5-7; Joshua 8:31. The reason was that hewn stones, and those on which an iron tool had been used, meant artificialities and thus fabrications in worship. That is to say, they meant things that derive from the proprium, or from the inventions of man's own thought and heart, which was to profane worship, as is clearly stated in Exodus 20:25. For the same reason no tool of iron was used on the stones of the Temple, 1 Kings 6:7.

[3] That the precious stones set in the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod and in the breastplate of judgement in a similar way meant holy truths has been shown already in 114. This is clear also in Isaiah,

Behold, I will set your stones in carbuncle and lay your foundations in sapphires; and I will make your suns (windows) of ruby, and your gates into precious stones, and all your border into pleasant stones And all your sons will be taught by Jehovah, and great will be the peace of your sons. Isaiah 54:11-13

The stones mentioned here stand for holy truths, and this is why it is said that 'all your sons will be taught by Jehovah'. It is also the reason why it is said in John that the foundations of the wall of the city, holy Jerusalem, were adorned with every kind of precious stone, which are each mentioned by name, Revelation 21:19-20. 'The holy Jerusalem' stands for the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, the foundations of which kingdom are holy truths. Holy truths were similarly meant by the tables of stone on which the commandments of the Law, or Ten Commandments, were written. This was why they were made of stone or had a stone base, concerning which see Exodus 24:12; 31:18; 34:1; Deuteronomy 5:22; 10:1; for the commandments themselves are nothing else than truths of faith.

[4] Now because stones in ancient times meant truths, and because later on when worship on pillars, on altars, and in the Temple began, pillars, altars, and the Temple meant holy truths, the Lord also is therefore called 'a Stone': In Moses,

The Mighty One of Jacob - from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. Genesis 49:24.

In Isaiah,

The Lord Jehovih said, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tested Corner-Stone, precious, of sure foundation. Isaiah 28:16.

In David,

The Stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner Psalms 118:22.

The same is meant in Daniel 2:34-35, 45, by the stone cut out of the rock which smashed Nebuchadnezzar's statue to pieces.

[5] That 'stones' means truths is clear in Isaiah,

By this the iniquity of Jacob will be expiated, and this will be the full fruit to remove his sin, when He makes all the stones of the altar like chalk-stones scattered about. Isaiah 27:9.

'The stones of the altar' stands for truths in worship that have been dissipated. In the same prophet,

Make level the way of the people; level out, level out the highway; gather out the stones. Isaiah 62:10.

'The way' and 'the stones' stand for truths. In Jeremiah,

I am against you, O destroying mountain. I will roll you down from the rocks and I will make you into a mountain of burning. And they will not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations. Jeremiah 51:25-26.

This refers to Babel. 'A mountain of burning' is self-love. 'Taking no stone from it' means that there is no truth from this source.