that they could become respected leaders of the church. Others were
motivated to study by love for the world so as to increase their wealth.
When they were subjected to another examination to find out what they
knew from the Word, it was discovered that their knowledge of it con-
tained nothing genuinely true. All they knew was what is called falsified
truth that is actually putrid falsity,so called because in heaven it smells
like something that has gone bad. They were informed that this had hap-
pened to them because their objective in reading the Word was not to
find a truth to believe or a good way to live but to reach some selfish or
worldly goal. When people have themselves or something worldly as
their objective, as they read the Word their mind is preoccupied with
themselves or the world. As a result, they are constantly thinking of their
own self-importance, and human self-importance is in pitch darkness
when it comes to anything related to heaven and the church. People who
are in this condition cannot be raised by the Lord into the light of
heaven; they cannot accept any influence from the Lord through heaven.
I have seen these people let into heaven. When it was discovered
there that they had no truths, they were thrown out. Nevertheless a mis-
placed pride and a feeling that they were deserving stayed with them.
There was an entirely different outcome for people who had been
motivated to study the Word by a desire to know the truth because it is
true and because it is helpful and useful not only for their own lives but
also for their neighbors’ lives. I have seen these people raised into heaven
into the light of divine truth there and lifted into angelic wisdom and the
happiness that heaven’s angels enjoy.6
The Word’s Literal Meaning
Provides a Connection to the Lord
and Association with Angels234 The Word provides a connection to the Lord because he is the Word;
that is, he is the divine truth and the divine goodness within it. The lit-
eral meaning provides this connection because in this meaning the Word
has its completeness, holiness, and power, as I have shown in the relevant