First of all it must be known who the God of heaven is, since upon
that all the other things depend. Throughout all heaven no other than
the Lord alone is acknowledged as the God of heaven. There it is
said, as He Himself taught,
That He is one with the Father; that the Father is in Him,
and He in the Father; that he who sees Him sees the
Father; and that everything that is holy goes forth from
Him (John 10:30, 35; 14:9-11; 16:13-15).
I have often talked with angels on this subject, and they have
invariably declared that in heaven they are unable to divide the
Divine into three, because they know and perceive that the Divine is
One and this One is in the Lord. They also said that those of the
church who come from this world having an idea of three Divine beings
cannot be admitted into heaven, since their thought wanders from one
Divine being to another; and it is not allowable there to think three
and say one.{1} Because in heaven everyone speaks from his thought,
since speech there is the immediate product of the thought, or the
thought speaking. Consequently, those in this world who have divided
the Divine into three, and have adopted a different idea of each, and
have not made that idea one and centered it in the Lord, cannot be
received into heaven, because in heaven there is a sharing of all
thoughts, and therefore if any one came thinking three and saying
one, he would be at once found out and rejected. But let it be known
that all those who have not separated what is true from what is good,
or faith from love, accept in the other life, when they have been
taught, the heavenly idea of the Lord, that He is the God of the
universe. It is otherwise with those who have separated faith from
life, that 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: