gullible, and timid people, who [think they] see what they do not see.
Humans, including themselves, they think of as being much like ani-
mals; they think the same fate awaits humans and animals after death.
[ 4 ] This is what their inner selves think, no matter how differently
their outer selves may talk. For, as I said, all people have an inner and an
outer self. Their inner self is their real self, called their spirit. It is the part
that lives after death. Their outer self, in which they practice hypocrisy
through [apparent] morality, will be buried in the grave. Then because
they denied the existence of God they will be condemned.
All of us on earth are associated in spirit with those in the spiritual
world who are like ourselves; we are in a sense united to them. Quite
often, in fact, I have been allowed to see the spirits of people who were
still alive on earth. In some cases the spirits of these people were in angelic
communities; in some cases, in hellish communities. I have even been
allowed to spend days talking with the spirits of people. It has amazed me
that the people themselves still alive in their bodies were completely
unaware that this was happening. From these experiences it became clear
to me that those who deny the existence of God are already among the
damned. After death they are gathered to their people.
8. Nothing about the church is integrated in people who acknowledge 15
many gods rather than one.People who acknowledge one God in their belief
and worship one God in their heart are in the communion of saints on
earth and the communion of angels in the heavens. Each of these groups
or communions is called a partnership, and is a partnership, because there
is one God among its people, and they are in the one God. These same
people also have a partnership with the entire angelic heaven. I would even
go so far as to say they have a partnership with each and every one in
heaven. For they are all like children and descendants of one parent, with
such similar minds, mannerisms, and looks that they recognize each other
as relatives. The angelic heaven is laid out in communities on the basis of
all the varieties of love for what is good. All these kinds of love aim at one
most universal love: love for God. All people who direct the acknowledg-
ment of their faith and the worship of their heart to one God who is the
Creator of the universe and also the Redeemer and the Regenerator are
descended from that love.
[ 2 ] Exactly the opposite is true of people who adore, and seek help
from, many gods instead of one. The opposite is also true of those who
say one God but think three. This is the practice of people in the church
today who divide God into three persons and hail each person as a God
in his own right, and who attribute different qualities or properties to
§15 god the creator & creation 21