On Line Study of the Word of the Divine Human:
Book Heaven and Hell, Third Part: Man's State after Death
What the world of spirits is
By Rev. Paul Booth
Part 2
Book Heaven and Hell, Third Part: Man's State after Death
What the world of spirits is
By Rev. Paul Booth
Part 2
That a man can think from the understanding and not at the same time from
the will is provided in order that man may be capable of being reformed. For man is reformed by means of truths, and truths pertain to the understanding, as has been said. For as to his will man is born into every evil, and therefore from himself wills good to no one but himself; and he who wills good to himself alone delights in the misfortune which happens to others, especially when they tend to his own advantage; for his wish is to divert to himself the goods of all others, whether honors or riches, and so far as he succeeds in this he inwardly rejoices. In order that this will may be corrected and reformed, it is granted to a man to be able to understand truths, and to subdue by means of these truths the affections of evils that spring from the will. This is why man can think from his understanding, and also speak them and do them. But until man is such that he wills truths and does them from himself, that is, from the heart, he is not able to think truths from his will. When he becomes such, whatever things he thinks he thinks from his will belongs to his love. In consequence, faith and love, like understanding and will, are conjoined with him.
One might wonder why a man's mind - his understanding and will - is divided. It is because he is born with the tendency to sin, and this is because of his hereditary nature. Though, if his understanding was not separate from his will, then the state of damnation, in which he is, could not be changed into the state of reformation. He, therefore, would will to do that which is of his love, which is for himself, not for the Lord. It is one's understanding that makes reformation possible. When this is realized through his obedience to the truths that he sees; a new will is formed in him by the Lord, not by himself for his own will is corrupt. This, then, makes it possible for him to be regenerated. Truths proceed to every man from the Lord into the understanding. At first they become known and are there in his memory, and when they are acknowledged they are there for his use during his natural life here on earth. So, all scientifics, natural and spiritual, religious or secular become available for use, their use being subject to the man's will - to his desires. Of himself man delights in acquiring honors, gains of all kinds and power for his self. But, when he learns and obeys what is good and true, he can subdue from his own will the evil desires of his affections that spring from his natural understanding and so can shun them. For man's inborn motives and intentions are evil, because from these he only wants for himself honors and gain; he does not have true faith, but a spurious faith or even no faith at all.
[Nonetheless, a man can will to follow truths and to do them from his heart, that is, from his will or from himself, because it is good and right, and not from his understanding alone. When he does, then there is a marriage of good with truth in his understanding and will. These are then conjoined as one and the man now thinks form his will, the understanding serving as 'it were' the will with new internal truths. These new thoughts belong to and become the man's faith; the new thoughts and ideas that are accepted and acknowledged and done become man's new life.]
[Not only is the understanding and the will conjoined within man, but consequently faith and love are conjoined also. Here, it is that one admits that the faith he now has and the love he now has are not his, but are the Lord's given to him. These - good and truth - has to be appropriated and become 'as if' they were his own, just as he before believed that evil and their falsities were good and that truth was his own.]
When the truths of the understanding and the good of the will are conjoined within man, heaven is in him. Here, we are speaking about a man's state and not the place where he come to. Places in the Spiritual world are only appearances of one's state - as the Heavens, the world of Spirits, and the hells. The conjunction of the good and truth in man's mind appears as Heaven, and when he come into the spiritual degree of life he come into Heaven, for this is with him in his mind, whereas the conjunction of evil and falsity make hell within man and brings him into the state of damnation and so hell.
The falsities and evils with man make hell with him. For this reason a man is held in an intermediate state while he is this world. Thus, he can be reformed and has freedom to choose to believe and to act according to the Truth or not. Thus, he comes into a state of reformation that leads to his regeneration or else he remains in the state of damnation. During his natural state a man is given the opportunity to learn truths from the Lord and he can do them or not.
Here, in the natural state, a man has some knowledge of truths and is able to give
thought to them and to act accordingly if he chooses even though it might be little or not at all. In which case, the man acts contrary to goods and truths and instead is in accordance to evils and falsities. This intermediate state can be called the state of equilibrium and it remains with man while he is in the natural world, but upon coming into the world of spirits where the goods and truths or the evils and falsities are manifested openly in his body. [There in the world of spirits] he is either raised up into heaven or casts himself down into hell after his preparation is complete.
In heaven angels cannot have a divided mind like men do on earth nor like evil spirits in hell do. What an angel understands he wills. The understanding and willing of good and truth are what makes Heaven in angels and in men on earth who have chosen to acknowledge, that is, to do what the Lord teaches in His Word. However, it is the knowledge of falsities and the application of them for the good of self that are what makes hell in him. The state of good and truth conjoined in man is the degree of a man's regeneration and the state of evil and falsity cooperating in man is the degree of his damnation. The state of reformation is when one is being led to know and to love the Lord and to act with that love toward the neighbor.
Therefore, it is said willing good, because it is good, is the Lord's love within a man that believing or understanding truth, because it is the truth from the Lord within a man, is the man's state of reformation after in which he comes into a state of regeneration. While not willing good from the Lord but from what is one's own becomes a spurious understanding of truth, because it helps a man to gain wealth and honor and becomes falsities with the man. Because of that a man remains in a state of damnation and when he comes into the world of spirits his destination is hell.
Thus, it has been made possible that a man, while in the natural state, to put away falsity and to appropriate good and truth and, so, puts on truths that agree and harmonize with good. Here, it is that one sees that falsities attracts evils while truths attract goods when acted upon for the sake of either the truth and good for the sake of the Lord, or contrary, for the sake of one's self, or that which is one's own. From this you can get a picture of what the world of spirits is - people whose natural bodies are put off - spirits that were prepared according to their life lived while on earth either for Heaven of hell.
426. In the world of spirits there are vast numbers because the first meeting of all is there, and all are there examined and prepared. The time of their stay in that world is not fixed. Some merely enter it, and are soon either taken into heaver or are cast down into hell; some remain their only a few weeks, some several years, but not more than thirty. These differences in the time they remain depend on the correspondence of lack of correspondence of man's interiors with his exteriors. How man is led in that world from one state into another and prepared will be told in what follows.
All people upon death of the natural body come into the world of spirits from this world, so there are always many, many people there. They enter there before they can enter either Heaven or hell. A person must be prepared before he/she enters heaven. The goods and truths within him from the Lord need to be arranged before receiving the Lord's mercy. This preparation is begun with some while still in the natural world, others enter the world of spirits having the good and truth of the Lord that has not been arranged in their new rational. This [arrangement] must happen before there can be a conjunction within the [new] rational from the Lord, for in the rational is where the Lord dwells and reigns within man. There is where the Lord is with man. This is his preparation that he may enter Heaven.
The state of man upon entering the world of spirits determines a person's stay before entering either heaven or hell. A man's state of reformation must be completed before the state of regeneration. There are natural ideas and thoughts that correspond to the spiritual ones that remain with man, but all that was not confirmed by acceptance and willing - those only in one's memory - are lost upon coming into the world of spirits. If only their ideas and thoughts are evil and are confirmed on earth they remain and the person is prepared for hell.
All natural thoughts and ideas, all truths are seen or understood in appearances or in what appears to be the truth; they are not the genuine truths, but only appear as the truth according to one's state. These may be replaced by spiritual truths which correspond to natural ones when the man comes into the world of spirits. The natural good and truth with such a man become spiritual while natural evil and falsity in an unregenerate man become substantial evil and falsity. The regenerate man has within interior spiritual thoughts. It is in this way that a person is made into an image of the Lord God and after His likeness, but the unregenerate person becomes an image and likeness of evil and hell. In the regenerate person there are interior thoughts and affections - spiritual truths and goods - that correspond to the Lord's Good or Love and to His Truth or Wisdom.
End.
the will is provided in order that man may be capable of being reformed. For man is reformed by means of truths, and truths pertain to the understanding, as has been said. For as to his will man is born into every evil, and therefore from himself wills good to no one but himself; and he who wills good to himself alone delights in the misfortune which happens to others, especially when they tend to his own advantage; for his wish is to divert to himself the goods of all others, whether honors or riches, and so far as he succeeds in this he inwardly rejoices. In order that this will may be corrected and reformed, it is granted to a man to be able to understand truths, and to subdue by means of these truths the affections of evils that spring from the will. This is why man can think from his understanding, and also speak them and do them. But until man is such that he wills truths and does them from himself, that is, from the heart, he is not able to think truths from his will. When he becomes such, whatever things he thinks he thinks from his will belongs to his love. In consequence, faith and love, like understanding and will, are conjoined with him.
One might wonder why a man's mind - his understanding and will - is divided. It is because he is born with the tendency to sin, and this is because of his hereditary nature. Though, if his understanding was not separate from his will, then the state of damnation, in which he is, could not be changed into the state of reformation. He, therefore, would will to do that which is of his love, which is for himself, not for the Lord. It is one's understanding that makes reformation possible. When this is realized through his obedience to the truths that he sees; a new will is formed in him by the Lord, not by himself for his own will is corrupt. This, then, makes it possible for him to be regenerated. Truths proceed to every man from the Lord into the understanding. At first they become known and are there in his memory, and when they are acknowledged they are there for his use during his natural life here on earth. So, all scientifics, natural and spiritual, religious or secular become available for use, their use being subject to the man's will - to his desires. Of himself man delights in acquiring honors, gains of all kinds and power for his self. But, when he learns and obeys what is good and true, he can subdue from his own will the evil desires of his affections that spring from his natural understanding and so can shun them. For man's inborn motives and intentions are evil, because from these he only wants for himself honors and gain; he does not have true faith, but a spurious faith or even no faith at all.
[Nonetheless, a man can will to follow truths and to do them from his heart, that is, from his will or from himself, because it is good and right, and not from his understanding alone. When he does, then there is a marriage of good with truth in his understanding and will. These are then conjoined as one and the man now thinks form his will, the understanding serving as 'it were' the will with new internal truths. These new thoughts belong to and become the man's faith; the new thoughts and ideas that are accepted and acknowledged and done become man's new life.]
[Not only is the understanding and the will conjoined within man, but consequently faith and love are conjoined also. Here, it is that one admits that the faith he now has and the love he now has are not his, but are the Lord's given to him. These - good and truth - has to be appropriated and become 'as if' they were his own, just as he before believed that evil and their falsities were good and that truth was his own.]
- 424 To the extent, therefore, that the truths of the understanding and th3e goods of
When the truths of the understanding and the good of the will are conjoined within man, heaven is in him. Here, we are speaking about a man's state and not the place where he come to. Places in the Spiritual world are only appearances of one's state - as the Heavens, the world of Spirits, and the hells. The conjunction of the good and truth in man's mind appears as Heaven, and when he come into the spiritual degree of life he come into Heaven, for this is with him in his mind, whereas the conjunction of evil and falsity make hell within man and brings him into the state of damnation and so hell.
The falsities and evils with man make hell with him. For this reason a man is held in an intermediate state while he is this world. Thus, he can be reformed and has freedom to choose to believe and to act according to the Truth or not. Thus, he comes into a state of reformation that leads to his regeneration or else he remains in the state of damnation. During his natural state a man is given the opportunity to learn truths from the Lord and he can do them or not.
Here, in the natural state, a man has some knowledge of truths and is able to give
thought to them and to act accordingly if he chooses even though it might be little or not at all. In which case, the man acts contrary to goods and truths and instead is in accordance to evils and falsities. This intermediate state can be called the state of equilibrium and it remains with man while he is in the natural world, but upon coming into the world of spirits where the goods and truths or the evils and falsities are manifested openly in his body. [There in the world of spirits] he is either raised up into heaven or casts himself down into hell after his preparation is complete.
In heaven angels cannot have a divided mind like men do on earth nor like evil spirits in hell do. What an angel understands he wills. The understanding and willing of good and truth are what makes Heaven in angels and in men on earth who have chosen to acknowledge, that is, to do what the Lord teaches in His Word. However, it is the knowledge of falsities and the application of them for the good of self that are what makes hell in him. The state of good and truth conjoined in man is the degree of a man's regeneration and the state of evil and falsity cooperating in man is the degree of his damnation. The state of reformation is when one is being led to know and to love the Lord and to act with that love toward the neighbor.
Therefore, it is said willing good, because it is good, is the Lord's love within a man that believing or understanding truth, because it is the truth from the Lord within a man, is the man's state of reformation after in which he comes into a state of regeneration. While not willing good from the Lord but from what is one's own becomes a spurious understanding of truth, because it helps a man to gain wealth and honor and becomes falsities with the man. Because of that a man remains in a state of damnation and when he comes into the world of spirits his destination is hell.
Thus, it has been made possible that a man, while in the natural state, to put away falsity and to appropriate good and truth and, so, puts on truths that agree and harmonize with good. Here, it is that one sees that falsities attracts evils while truths attract goods when acted upon for the sake of either the truth and good for the sake of the Lord, or contrary, for the sake of one's self, or that which is one's own. From this you can get a picture of what the world of spirits is - people whose natural bodies are put off - spirits that were prepared according to their life lived while on earth either for Heaven of hell.
426. In the world of spirits there are vast numbers because the first meeting of all is there, and all are there examined and prepared. The time of their stay in that world is not fixed. Some merely enter it, and are soon either taken into heaver or are cast down into hell; some remain their only a few weeks, some several years, but not more than thirty. These differences in the time they remain depend on the correspondence of lack of correspondence of man's interiors with his exteriors. How man is led in that world from one state into another and prepared will be told in what follows.
All people upon death of the natural body come into the world of spirits from this world, so there are always many, many people there. They enter there before they can enter either Heaven or hell. A person must be prepared before he/she enters heaven. The goods and truths within him from the Lord need to be arranged before receiving the Lord's mercy. This preparation is begun with some while still in the natural world, others enter the world of spirits having the good and truth of the Lord that has not been arranged in their new rational. This [arrangement] must happen before there can be a conjunction within the [new] rational from the Lord, for in the rational is where the Lord dwells and reigns within man. There is where the Lord is with man. This is his preparation that he may enter Heaven.
The state of man upon entering the world of spirits determines a person's stay before entering either heaven or hell. A man's state of reformation must be completed before the state of regeneration. There are natural ideas and thoughts that correspond to the spiritual ones that remain with man, but all that was not confirmed by acceptance and willing - those only in one's memory - are lost upon coming into the world of spirits. If only their ideas and thoughts are evil and are confirmed on earth they remain and the person is prepared for hell.
All natural thoughts and ideas, all truths are seen or understood in appearances or in what appears to be the truth; they are not the genuine truths, but only appear as the truth according to one's state. These may be replaced by spiritual truths which correspond to natural ones when the man comes into the world of spirits. The natural good and truth with such a man become spiritual while natural evil and falsity in an unregenerate man become substantial evil and falsity. The regenerate man has within interior spiritual thoughts. It is in this way that a person is made into an image of the Lord God and after His likeness, but the unregenerate person becomes an image and likeness of evil and hell. In the regenerate person there are interior thoughts and affections - spiritual truths and goods - that correspond to the Lord's Good or Love and to His Truth or Wisdom.
End.
| About |
| Doctrine
Site Content Copyright 2001 by The Lord's New Chapel All Rights Reserved
Site Concept and Creation Copyright 2001 by Stealth Media Solutions All Rights Reserved