Heaven’s Form, Which Determines How People Associate and Communicate There

TO some extent, we can determine what heaven’s form is like on the basis of what has been presented in the preceding chapters—that heaven has a basic similarity in its greatest and its smallest instances (Section 72); that therefore each community is a heaven in lesser form, and each angel in least form (Sections 51–58); that as heaven as a whole resembles a single person, so every community of heaven resembles a person in lesser form and every individual angel in least form (Sections 59–77); that the wisest people are at the center, with the less wise around them all the way to the borders, and that the same holds true for each community (Section 43); and that people who are engaged in the good of love live along the east-west axis and people who are engaged in truths that derive from the good along the south-north axis, which also holds true for each community (Sections 148–149). All these things are determined by heaven’s form, so we can figure out what that form is like in a general sense.

We need to know what heaven’s form is like because it determines not only how angels associate with each other but also how all their communication takes place; and since all their communication is also an outreach of their thoughts and affections, this means all their intelligence and wisdom. This is why the extent to which we are in heaven’s form (are forms of heaven) determines how wise we are. It amounts to the same thing whether you say “in heaven’s form” or “in heaven’s design,” since the form of any entity comes from its design and is determined by it.

One thing needs to be said first, namely what it is to be in heaven’s form. We have been created in the image of heaven and in the image of this world, our inner being in the image of heaven and our outer in the image of this world (see above, Section 57). Whether you say “in the image” or “according to the form,” it amounts to the same thing. However, since by the evils of our intention and the distortions of our thinking we have destroyed the image and therefore the form of heaven within us, and in its place have imported the image and form of hell, our inner being is closed from the time of birth. This is why we, unlike all other kinds of animal, are born into utter ignorance.

However, for the image or form of heaven to be restored for us, we need to be educated in the principles of the design; for the form, as explained above, depends on the design. The Word contains all the laws of the divine design, for the laws of the divine design are the precepts we find there. To the extent that we know them and live by them, our inner being is opened, and in it the design or form of heaven is formed anew. We can see from this what it is to be in heaven’s form—namely, it is living according to what is in the Word.

from Heaven and Hell, Sections 200-202

Notes:

Section 72: Published 3/8/2018

Sections 51-58: Published 2/13/2018-2/15/2018

Sections 59-77: Published 3/3/2018-3/10/2018

Section 43: Published 5/7/2017

Sections 148-149: Published 7/13/2017-7/14/2017

So God Became Man in Ultimates

Thus God became Man, as in first principles so also in ultimates. . . God from the beginning was Man in first principles, though not in ultimates; yet after He took on the Human in the world, He also became Man in ultimates. This follows from the things proved above,–that the Lord united his Human to his Divine, and thus made his Human also Divine. It is from this that He is called “the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega:” as in the Apocalypse: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, said the Lord: He who is, and who was, and who is to come; the Almighty” (Apocalypse 1:8, 11,13, 17; 2:8; 21:6; 22:12-13).

And in Isaiah: “Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth: I am the First and the Last” (Isaiah 44:6; 48: 12).

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 144-145

The Maternal and Paternal Human (Continued)

Since the Lord, with the Divine and Human united in one, ascended into heaven, and sat “at the right hand of God” (by which Divine Omnipotence is signified), it follows that his Human substance or essence is as his Divine. To think otherwise, would be like thinking that his Divine was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God, and not Human at the same time.

This is contrary to Scripture, and also contrary to the Christian doctrine, which is “That God and Man in Christ are as the soul and the body,” to separate which would be contrary to sound reason.

This union of the Father and the Son, or of the Divine with the Human, is meant also in the following passages: “I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28). “I go away, and come to Him who sent me” (John 7:33; 16:5, 16; 17:11, 13; 6:62; 3:13). Every man who is saved “ascends into heaven;” yet not of himself, but of the Lord. The Lord alone ascended of Himself.

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 144

The Maternal and Paternal Human (Continued)

As the Lord’s Human was glorified, that is, made Divine, therefore After death He rose again on the third day with the whole Body; which is not the case with any man; for a rises again only as to his spirit, but not as his body. That man might know, and no one doubt, that the Lord rose again with the whole Body, He not only said it by the angels who were in the sepulchre, but also showed Himself in his Human Body before the disciples; saying to them, when they believed that they saw a spirit, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; feel of me, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you as me have. And when He has said this, He showed them his hands and his feet” (Luke 24:39-40; John 20:20, 27-28).

Since his Body was not now material, but Divine-substantial, He therefore came in to the disciples “while the doors were shut” (John 20:19, 26); and after He had been seen, “He became invisible” (Luke 24:31). The Lord being now such, was taken up, and sat at the right hand of God (Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19). To “sit at the right hand of God” signifies Divine Omnipotence.

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 143-144

The Maternal and Paternal Human (Continued)

That the Human of the Lord was glorified, is evident from the things which are said concerning his glorification in the Evangelists, as from these; in John: “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. . . He said, Father, glorify they name. There came a voice from heaven, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:23, 28). Because the Lord was glorified by successive steps, it is therefore said, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (also John 13:31-32; 17:1, 5; Luke 24:26.)

These things are said concerning his Human. The Lord said, “God is glorified in Him; God will also glorify Him in Himself; and, “Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify Thee.” The Lord said these things, because the union was reciprocal, of the Divine with the Human, and of the Human with the Divine; wherefore He had also said, “I am in the Father, and The Father in Me” (John 14:10-11); also, “All mine are thine, and ll thine are mine” (John 17:10). Thence the union was full. It is the same with all union; unless it be reciprocal, it is not full. Such, also, there must be, of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord; as He teaches in John: “At that day ye shall know that . . . ye are in me, and I in you” (John 14:20); and elsewhere: “Abide in me, and I in you: . . . he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit” (John 15:4-5).

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 142-143

The Maternal and Paternal Human (Continued)

That the Lord put off the human from the mother, and put on the Human from the Divine in Himself which is called the Father, is manifest also from this, that whenever He spake to the mother with his own mouth, He did not call her mother, but “woman.”

We read only three times times in the Evangelists that He spake with his own mouth to the mother and of her; and then did not acknowledge her as mother. We read in John, twice, that He called her “woman:” (John 2:3-4; 19:26-27.) Once that he did not acknowledge her; in Luke: (Luke 8:20-21; Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35.)

In other places Mary is called his mother, but not his own mouth. This is also confirmed by his not acknowledging Himself to be the son of David; for we red in the Evangelists: “Jesus asked the Pharisees, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He? They say to Him, David’s. He said to them, How, then, doth David in spirit call Him his Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool. If, then, David calleth Him Lord, how is He his son? And no one was also to answer Him a word” (Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Psalm 110:1).

From these passages it is evident that the Lord, as to the glorified Human, was not the son of Mary nor of David. What his glorified Human was, He showed to Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured before them, in that “His face shone as the sun, and his garments were as the light; . . . and then a voice out of the cloud said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him” (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). The Lord was also seen by John, “As the Sun shining in his strength” (Revelation 1:16).

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 141-142

The Maternal and Paternal Human (Continued)

Now because the Lord had from the beginning a human from the mother, and put this off successively, therefore while He was in the world He had two states, which are called the state of humiliation, and the state of glorification or of union with the Divine which is called the Father,–the state of humiliation so far as and when He was in the human from the mother, and the glorification so far as and when He was in the Human from the Father.

In the state of humiliation He prayed to the Father, as to one other than Himself; but in the state of glorification He spake with the Father as with Himself. In the later state, He said that the Father was in Him, and He in the Father, and that the Father and He were one; but in the state of humiliation He underwent temptations, and suffered the cross, and prayed that the Father would not forsake Him; for the Divine could not be tempted, and still less suffer the cross.

From these things it is now manifest, that by temptations, and continual victories in them and by the passion of the cross which was the last of the temptations, He fully conquered the hells, and fully glorified the Human, as was shown before.

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 140-141

Non-Christians, or People Outside the Church, in Heaven

The general opinion is that people who have been born out side the church, the people called “the nations” or “non-Christians,” cannot be saved because they do not have the Word and therefore do not know the Lord; and with out the Lord there is no salvation. They could know, however, that these people too are saved simply from the fact that the Lord’s mercy is universal, that is, it is extended to all individuals.

Non-Christians are born just as human as people within the church, who are in fact few by comparison. It is not their fault that they do not know the Lord. So anyone who thinks from any enlightened reason at all can see that no one is born for hell.

The Lord is actually love itself, and his love is an intent to save every one. So he provides that everyone shall have some religion, an acknowledgment of the Divine Being Heaven through that religion, and an inner life. That is, living according to one’s religious principles is an inner life, for then we focus on the Divine; and to the extent that we do focus on the Divine, we do not focus on the world but move away from the world and therefore from a worldly life, which is an outward life.

People can realize that non-Christians as well as Christians are saved if they know what constitutes heaven in us. The heaven within us is our acknowledgment of the Divine and our being led by the Divine. The beginning and foundation of every religion is its acknowledgment of the Divine Being; a religion that does not acknowledge the Divine Being is not a religion at all. The precepts of every religion focus on worship, that is, on how the Divine is to be honored so that we will be acceptable in its sight; and when this fully occupies the mind (or, to the extent that we intend this or love this) we are being led by the Lord.

The heaven in one individual is not the same as the heaven in another. It differs in each according to the affection for what is good and true. If people are absorbed in an affection for what is good for the sake of the Divine, they love divine truth because the good and the true love each other and want to be united. Consequently, non-Christian people who have not had access to genuine truths in the world still accept them in the other life because of their love.

From Afterlife, Pages 131-132

The Maternal and Paternal Human

The Lord successively put off the human taken from the mother, and put on the Human from the Divine in Himself, which is the Divine Human and the Son of God–That the Lord had a Divine and a human,–the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and a human from the virgin Mary,–is known. Thence it is that He was God and Man; and thus He had a Divine essence and a human nature,–the Divine nature from the Father and the human nature from the mother; and thence He was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human: also (as the doctrine of faith which is called the Athanasian Creed teaches), that He did not transmute this human nature from the mother into the Divine essence, nor commix it with it; for the human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commixed with it.

And yet from the same creed is our doctrine, that the Divine took on the Human, that is, united itself to it, as the soul unites itself to its body, until they were not two, but one Person. From this it follows, that He put off the human from the mother, which in itself was like the human of another man and thus material, and put on the Human from the Father, which in itself was like his Divine, and thus substantial; from which the Human also was made Divine. Thence it is that the Lord in the Word of the Prophets, even as to the Human is called “Jehovah” and “God;” and in the Word of Evangelists “the Lord,” “God,’ “The Messiah” or Christ, and “the Son of God,” in whom men are to believe, and by whom they are to be save.

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 139-140

The Culmination in the Cross (Continued)

From these Passages it may be seen that the Divine of the Lord (which is called “the Father,” and here “Jehovah” and “God”), and the Divine Human which is called “the Son,” and here “Redeemer and Saviour,” also “Former” (that is, Reformer and Regenerator), are not two, but one: and not only is it said, “Jehovah God and the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer and Saviour,” but it is also said, “Jehovah the Redeemer and Saviour;” yea, it is said also, “I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Saviour.” From which it is clearly manifest that the Divine and the Human in the Lord are one Person, and that the Human is also Divine; for the Redeemer and Saviour of the world is no other than the Lord as to the Divine Human, which is called “the Son:” for redemption and salvation constitute the proper attribute of his Human, which is called merit and justice; for his Human endureth temptations and the passion of the cross, and thus by the Human He redeemed and saved.

Now because, after the union of the Human with the Divine in Himself, which was like that of the soul and the body in man, there were no longer two, but one person, according to the doctrine of the Christian world: therefore the Lord as to both, is “Jehovah” and “God:” wherefore it is sometimes said, “Jehovah” and “the Holy One of Israel, the Redeemer and Saviour” and sometimes “ehovah the Redeemer and Saviour” as may be seen from the passges quoted. It is there said,

“The Saviour Christ” (Luke 2:10, 11; John 4:42)

“God, and the God of Israel, the Saviour and Redeemer” (Luke 1:47; Isaiah 45:15; 54:5; Psalm 128:35)

“Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel, the Saviour and Redeemer” (Isaiah 41:14; 43:3, 11, 14, 15; 48:17; 44:7; 54:5)

“Jehovah, the Saviour, Redeemer and Reformer” (Isaiah 44:6; 47:4; 49:26; 54:8; 63:16; Jeremiah 1:34; Psalm 19:14; 130:7, 8; 2 Samuel 22:2, 3)

“Jehovah God, the Redeemer and Saviour, and besides me there is no other” (Isaiah 43:11; 44:6; 45:14, 15, 21, 22; Hosea 13:4)

from The Human Made Divine, Pages 137-139