Week 7
Day 3

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Resurrection

The Purpose of Creation

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
Yea, my flesh shall dwell securely.
For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
Thou wilt not give over Thy merciful one to see corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of life;
In Thy presence is the satisfaction of gladness;
In Thy right hand
There are pleasant things perpetually.
Psalm 16:9-11

The Divine Providence of the Lord has for its end a heaven from the human race. By long continued conversation with angels and spirits it has been made known to me and proved that heaven is not from any angels created such from the beginning, and that hell is not from any devil created an angel of light and cast down from heaven, but that both heaven and hell are from the human race—heaven from those who are in the love of good and thence in the understanding of truth, and hell from those who are in the love of evil and thence in the understanding of falsity....

[2] Now since heaven is from the human race, and heaven is an abiding with the Lord to eternity, it follows that this was the Lord’s end in creation; and since this was the end in creation, it is also the end of His Divine Providence. The Lord did not create the universe for His own sake, but for the sake of those with whom He will be in heaven. For spiritual love is such that it wishes to give what is its own to another; and so far as it can do this, it is in its being, in its peace, and in its blessedness. Spiritual love derives this property from the Lord’s Divine Love, which is such in an infinite degree. From this it follows that the Divine Love, and consequently the Divine Providence, has for its end a heaven which should consist of people who have become, and who are becoming angels, upon whom the Lord can bestow all the blessings and felicities that belong to love and wisdom, and bestow these from Himself in them. DP 27

It is the dictate of sound reason that all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell; for all are born human beings, and consequently the image of God is in them. DP 322

But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matthew 22:31, 32

A person has common sense, and this is one with that influx from heaven into the interiors of his mind from which, inwardly in himself, he perceives truths and sees them, as it were; and especially this truth, that he lives as a human being after death, happy if he has lived well, unhappy if he has lived ill. For who does not think this, when he elevates his mind a little above the thought next to his senses, as is the case when... he lies upon his bed about to die and awaits the end; likewise when he hears about the deceased and their lot.... Everyone perceives within himself that he lives as a man after death. What man who has loved his wife and his infants and children, if in thought he is elevated above the sensual things of the body, does not say within himself when they are dying or have died, that they are in God’s hand, and that he will see them again after his own death, and will again be conjoined with them in a life of love and joy? CL 28

It has been observed that when a person is in what is sensuous, and is not elevated from it, he thinks of nothing else than what is of the body and of the world, and then does not want to know anything about what belongs to eternal life, and is even averse to hearing of that life. That I might know that this is the case, I have sometimes been let down into what is sensuous, and then such things instantly presented themselves, and then also the spirits who were in that grosser sphere poured in base and scandalous things. But as soon as I was withdrawn from what is sensuous, such things were dissipated.... In order for a person to be uplifted from these spirits, he must think about eternal life. AC 6201

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