96.(a) The reason we are condemned if we convince ourselves of the Word’s semblances of truth and thereby destroy the inner genuine truth is that everything in the Word’s literal meaning is in communication with heaven and opens it (see the material in §§62-69 above). This means that when we use that meaning to justify worldly loves that conflict with heavenly loves, the inner content of the Word becomes false. As a result, when an outer (that is, literal) meaning whose inner content is false is communicated to heaven, then heaven is closed because the angels, who treasure the inner content of the Word, reject it. We can see from this that a false inner reading, or distorted truth, deprives us of communication with heaven and closes it. This is why we are condemned if we convince ourselves of some heretical falsity.

96.(b) The Word is like a garden that we should refer to as a heavenly paradise in which there are all kinds of delicacies and delights - delicacies in the form of fruits and delights in the form of flowers - with trees of life in the middle next to springs of living water. Surrounding this garden, though, are the trees of a forest. When our religious perspective is based on divine truths we are in the middle, where the trees of life are, and we actively enjoy their delicacies and delights. When our religious perspective is based not on truths but only on the [Word’s] literal meaning, then we are on the circumference and all we see is forest. If we are devoted to the teachings of a false religion and convince ourselves that its teachings are true, we are not even in the forest; we are outside it, on sand flats where there is not even any grass.

At some other time I will show that people actually do experience conditions like this after death.

46. The literal meaning of the Word is symbolized by the veils and curtains of the tabernacle.

The tabernacle represented heaven and the church, which is why its form was outlined by Jehovah on Mount Sinai. Because of this, everything in the tabernacle - the lampstands, the golden altar of incense, the table for the showbread - represented and therefore referred to holy matters of heaven and the church; and the most holy place, where the ark of the covenant was, represented and therefore referred to the very heart of heaven and the church. Further, the actual law written on the two stone tablets and kept in the ark meant the Lord as the Word. Now, since outer things get their essence from inner things, and both outer and inner things get their essence from the very center, which in this instance was the law, everything in the tabernacle also represented and referred to the holy contents of the Word. It then follows that the outermost features of the tabernacle, the veils and curtains that were coverings and enclosures, meant the outermost features of the Word, which are the true and good elements of its literal meaning. Because this is what they meant, all the curtains and veils were made of fine linen tightly woven, and of blue, purple, and double-dyed scarlet [thread], [and were embroidered] with angel guardians (Exodus 26:1, 31, 36).

The general and specific symbolism and meaning of the tabernacle and everything in it has been explained in the treatment of this chapter in Secrets of Heaven [9593-9692]. It is explained there that the curtains and veils represented outward features of the church and therefore also outward features of the Word. The linen or fine linen meant truth of a spiritual origin, blue meant truth of a heavenly origin, purple meant heavenly goodness, double-dyed scarlet meant spiritual goodness, and angel guardians meant protection for the inner contents of the Word.