180 HEAVEN and HELL §325
along with other emotions characteristic of honest people, so that you
could tell they were endowed with thoughtfulness.
I talked with them shortly afterward, and eventually mentioned the
Lord. When I called him “Christ,” I could sense a kind of resistance in
them. The reason for this was uncovered, though. This derived from
their experience in the world, from their having known that Christians
lived worse lives than they did, lives devoid of thoughtfulness. When I
simply mentioned “the Lord,” though, they were deeply moved. Later
they were taught by angels that Christian doctrine more than any other
in the whole world demands love and thoughtfulness, but that there are
not many people who live up to it.
There are non-Christian individuals who during their earthly lives
have learned by hearsay that Christians live evil lives—lives of adultery,
hatred, bickering, drunkenness, and the like—which appalled them
because things like this are contrary to their religion. In the other life they
are particularly hesitant about accepting truths of faith. However, they
are taught by angels that the Christian doctrine and the faith itself teach
something very different, but that Christians do not live up to their doc-
trines as much as non-Christian people do. When they grasp this, they
accept truths of faith and worship the Lord, but only after quite a while.326 It often happens that when non-Christians come into the other life,
if they have worshiped some god in the form of an image or statue or
idol, they are introduced to people who take on the roles of those gods or
idols in order to help rid them of their illusions. After they have been
with these people for a few days, they are taken away.
If they have worshiped particular individuals, then they are intro-
duced either to those people themselves or to individuals who play their
parts. Many Jews, for example, are introduced to Abraham, Jacob, Moses,
or David; but when they realize that they are just as human as anyone
else and that they have nothing special to offer them, they are embar-
rassed, and are taken off to whatever place is in keeping with their lives.
Of non-Christians, the Africans are especially valued in heaven. They
accept the good and true things of heaven more readily than others do.
They want especially to be called obedient, but not faithful. They say
that Christians could be called “faithful,” since they have a doctrine of
faith, but only if they accept the doctrine—or, as the Africans say, if they
can accept it.
327 I have talked with some people who were in the early church. (By
“the early church,” we mean the religious culture [that prevailed] after
the Flood over many kingdoms, throughout Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria,