Heaven and its Wonders and Hell | Page 3

is, who have not lived according to the precepts of true faith.
{Footnote 1} Christians were examined in the other life in regard to their idea of the one God and it was found that they held the idea of three Gods (n. 2329, 5256, 10736, 10738, 10821). A Divine trinity in the Lord is acknowledged in heaven (n. 14, 15, 1729, 2005, 5256, 9303).
3. Those within the church who have denied the Lord and have acknowledged the Father only, and have confirmed themselves in that belief, are not in heaven; and as they are unable to receive any influx from heaven, where the Lord alone is worshiped, they gradually lose the ability to think what is true about any subject whatever; and finally they become as if dumb, or they talk stupidly, and ramble about with their arms dangling and swinging as if weak in the joints. Again, those who, like the Socinians, have denied the Divinity of the Lord and have acknowledged His Humanity only, are likewise outside of heaven; they are brought forward a little towards the right and are let down into the deep, and are thus wholly separated from the rest that come from the Christian world. Finally, those who profess to believe in an invisible Divine, which they call the soul of the universe [Ens universi], from which all things originated, and who reject all belief in the Lord, find out that they believe in no God; since this invisible Divine is to them a property of nature in her first principles, which cannot be an object of faith and love, because it is not an object of thought.{1} Such have their lot among those called Naturalists. It is otherwise with those born outside the church, who are called the heathen; these will be treated of hereafter.
{Footnote 1} A Divine that cannot be perceived by any idea cannot be received by faith (n. 4733, 5110, 5663, 6982, 6996, 7004, 7211, 9356, 9359, 9972, 10067, 10267).
4. Infants, who form a third part of heaven, are all initiated into the acknowledgment and belief that the Lord is their Father, and afterwards that He is the Lord of all, thus the God of heaven and earth. That children grow up in heaven and are perfected by means of knowledges, even to angelic intelligence and wisdom, will be seen in the following pages.
5. Those who are of the church cannot doubt that the Lord is the God of heaven, for He Himself taught,
That all things of the Father are His (Matt. 11:27; John 16:15; 17:2).
And that He hath all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18).
He says "in heaven and on earth," because He that rules heaven rules the earth also, for the one depends upon the other.{1} "Ruling heaven and earth" means to receive from the Lord every good pertaining to love and every truth pertaining to faith, thus all intelligence and wisdom, and in consequence all happiness, in a word, eternal life. This also the Lord taught when He said:
He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life (John 3:36).
Again:
I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die (John 11:26, 26).
And again:
I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
{Footnote 1} The entire heaven is the Lord's (n. 2751, 7086). He has all power in the heavens and on the earths (n. 1607, 10089, 10827). As the Lord rules heaven He rules also all things that depend thereon, thus all things in the world (n. 2026, 2027, 4523, 4524). The Lord alone has power to remove the hells, to withhold from evil and hold in good, and thus to save (n. 10019).
6. There were certain spirits who while living in the world had professed to believe in the Father; but of the Lord they had the same idea as of any other man, and therefore did not believe Him to be the God of heaven. For this reason they were permitted to wander about and inquire wherever they wished whether there were any other heaven than the heaven of the Lord. They searched for several days, but nowhere found any. These were such as place the happiness of heaven in glory and dominion; and as they were unable to get what they desired, and were told that heaven does not consist in such things, they became indignant, and wished for a heaven where they could lord it over others and be eminent in glory like that in the world.

7. II. IT IS THE DIVINE OF THE LORD THAT MAKES HEAVEN.
The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they constitute heaven; and yet that