§322 non-christians 177
c. The difference between the good that non-Christians are engaged in and the good that Chris-
tians are engaged in: 4189 , 4197. On truths among non-Christians: 3263 , 3778 , 4190. The deeper
levels are not as closed in non-Christians as they are in Christians: 9256. Neither can there be
such dense clouds for non-Christians who have lived by their religions in mutual thoughtfulness
as there are for Christians who have lived in no thoughtfulness at all, and the reasons this is so:
1059 , 9256. Non-Christians cannot profane the holy matters of the church the way Christians
can, because they do not know them: 1327 , 1328 , 2051. They are afraid of Christians because of the
way Christians live: 2596 , 2597. The ones who have lived well according to their religious princi-
ples are taught by angels and readily accept truths of faith and confess the Lord: 2049 , 2595 , 2598 ,
2600 , 2601 , 2603 , 2661 [ 2861 ], 2863 , 3263.
hear that God became a person here and made himself known in the
world, they acknowledge it immediately and revere the Lord. They say
that of course God made himself known; after all, he is the God of heaven
and earth, and the human race belongs to him.c
It is a divine truth that there is no salvation apart from the Lord, but
this needs to be understood as meaning that there is no salvation that
does not come from the Lord. There are many planets in the universe, all
full of inhabitants. Hardly any of them know that the Lord took on a
human nature on our planet. Still, though, since they do revere the
Divine Being in human form, they are accepted and led by the Lord. On
this matter, see the booklet [Other] Planets in the Universe.
There are wise and simple people among non-Christians just as there 322
are among Christians. To show me what they were like, I have been
allowed to talk with both kinds, sometimes for hours and even for days.
Nowadays, though, there are not wise ones like those of ancient times,
especially in the early church (this covered much of the Near East and
was the source from which religion spread to many non-Christian peo-
ples). I have been allowed to carry on personal conversations with some
of them in order to fi nd out what they were like.
One particular individual was with me who had been one of the
wise at one time and who was therefore well known in the scholarly
world. I talked with him about various subjects and was given to believe
that he was Cicero. Since I knew that he was wise, we talked about wis-
dom, intelligence, the pattern of reality, the Word, and fi nally about the
Lord. [ 2 ] On wisdom, he said that there was no wisdom that was not a
matter of life, and that wisdom could not be an attribute of anything
else. On intelligence, he said that it came from wisdom. On the pattern
of reality, he said that the pattern comes from the Supreme Deity, and
that living in accord with this pattern is being wise and intelligent. As to
the Word, when I read him something from the prophets he was utterly