This can also be illustrated by analogy with our higher and lower self.
The higher self is strong as long as the lower self is obediently fulfilling its
obligations; but if the lower self is resistant rather than obedient, and
worse yet if it attacks the higher self, the higher self eventually becomes
weak and finally gets carried away by the lower self ’s pleasures until the
higher self agrees and goes along with the lower self.
This can also be illustrated by comparison with people standing on a
mountain who notice that the land below is flooded and the water is ris-
ing higher and higher. When it reaches the level where they are standing,
unless they can ensure their own safety by getting on some life raft
washed to them on the floodwaters, they too are submerged.
Likewise when people on a mountain see a thick fog rising higher
and higher above the ground, covering the fields, villages, and cities.
Finally, when the fog reaches them, they do not see a thing—not even in
the spot where they themselves are standing.
[ 3 ] It is like this for angels. When the church on earth dies, the lower
heavens also disintegrate. The reason is that the heavens consist of people
from the world. When there is nothing good left in the human heart and
no truth from the Word, the heavens are flooded with evils that rise up;
they are choked by them as by the waters of the Styx. Nevertheless the
Lord hides [good spirits] somewhere else and preserves them till the day
of the Last Judgment, then lifts them into a new heaven.
The Book of Revelation refers to these good spirits in the following
statements:
I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the sake
of God’s word and for the testimony that they had given. They were
shouting with a loud voice saying, “How long, Lord, you who are holy
and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on
those who live on earth?” They were given white robes and were told
that they should rest a little longer until they were all together, they
and their fellow slaves, and their brothers and sisters who were going to
be killed as they had been. (Revelation 6 : 9 , 10 , 11 )
If there had been no redemption by the Lord, injustice and malice 120
would have spread throughout the Christian realm in both worlds (the
earthly and the spiritual).
There are many reasons for this. One is that all human beings after
death come into the world of spirits. They are exactly the same then as
they were before. When they first enter that world, none of them can be
§120 the lord the redeemer & redemption 171