532.
To this I shall add an account of an experience.
I was once carried up in my spirit to the heaven of angels, and to one community there. Then some of their wise men came to me asking, 'What is the
news from earth?' I told them that the news was that the Lord has revealed secrets far surpassing in excellence any so far revealed since the church began. 'What are they?' they asked.
I said that
these were: (a) In every detail the Word contains a spiritual sense corresponding to the natural sense, and by means of that sense the Word forms a link between people in the church and the Lord. It
also creates an association with angels, and the holiness of the Word resides in that sense.
[2] (b) The correspondences of which the spiritual sense is composed have been disclosed. 'Did not the
inhabitants of the earth,' asked the angels, 'previously know about correspondences?' I told them that they knew nothing about them at all, since they had been lost to sight for thousands of years, in
fact, since the time of Job. The people of that and earlier ages regarded a knowledge of correspondences as the supreme science, and it was the source of their wisdom, because it was knowledge of spiritual
matters to do with heaven and so with the church. But because the science turned into an idolatrous one, it was by the Lord's Divine providence so thoroughly wiped out and lost that no one could
see any trace of it. Now, however, it has been disclosed by the Lord, so that people belonging to the church may be linked with Him and associated with angels. Both of these take place by means of the
Word, every detail of which is a correspondence.
The angels were extremely happy that it had pleased the Lord to reveal this great secret which has lain so deeply hidden for thousands of years.
Thay said that the reason it was done was in order that the Christian church, which is based upon the Word, and is now at its end, should be revived and draw breath from the Lord through heaven. They
enquired whether by this science it had been disclosed what was the meaning of baptism and the Holy Supper, which up to now have been the subject of so many speculations. I replied that it had.
[3]
(c) I went on to say that at the present time the Lord had made a revelation about life after death. 'Why about life after death?' said the angels. 'Surely everyone knows that a person lives on after
death?'
'They do and they do not,' I replied. 'They say that what lives on is not the person, but his soul, and this lives as a spirit. Their notion of a spirit is that it is like the wind or the
ether; and they say that the person will only live after Judgment Day. At that time their bodily remains which they left in the world, however eaten away by worms, rats or fish, will be gathered together
again and reconstructed to form a body; and this is how people will be brought to life again.'
'What an idea!' said the angels. 'Everyone knows that a person goes on living as a person after death
with the single difference that he lives as a spiritual person, and a spiritual person can see another spiritual person, just as a material person can see a material person. They are unaware that
there is any difference, except that they are in a more perfect state.'
[4] (d) The angels asked, 'What do they know of our world and about heaven and hell?' I replied that they knew nothing, but
that at the present time the Lord had disclosed what that world where angels and spirits live is like, and so what heaven and hell are like. It has also been revealed that angels and spirits are linked
with human beings, and many other surprising facts. The angels were glad that the Lord had been pleased to disclose such matters, so that mankind should no longer be driven by ignorance to doubt its
own immortality. [5] (e) I went on to speak of another matter revealed by the Lord at the present time. 'Your world has a different sun from ours. The sun of your world is undiluted love, the sun
of our world is undiluted fire. Consequently all the radiation from your sun, being undiluted love, has something of life in it; all the radiation from ours, being undiluted fire, has no life in it.
This is the origin of the distinction between spiritual and natural, a distinction hitherto unknown, which has also been disclosed. From these facts it has become known what is the source of the light
which enlightens the human intellect with wisdom, and what is the source of the heat which fires the human will with love.
[6] (f) 'In addition it has been disclosed that there are three degrees of
life, and that there are consequently three heavens, and a person's mind is divided into those three degrees, so that as a result a person corresponds to the three heavens.' 'Did they not know this
before?' said the angels. I replied that they knew about the degrees between greater and less, but nothing about degrees between prior and posterior.
[7] (g) The angels asked whether there had been
more revelations than these. I said there had. These were about the Last Judgment, and the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth; that God is one both in person and in essence, and in Him is the
Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord. Other revelations were about the new church to be established by the Lord and the teaching of that church; about the holiness of Sacred Scripture (the Book of Revelation
too had been revealed, and not a single verse in it could have been revealed except by the Lord); moreover, about the inhabitants of the planets and the other worlds in the universe. Furthermore
many wonders and accounts of experiences had been reported from the spiritual world, by means of which a great deal of wisdom from heaven had been disclosed.
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