176 HEAVEN and HELL §319
b. There is a likeness of a marriage between what is good and what is true: 1094 [ 1904 ], 2173 , 2503
[ 2508 ]. What is good and what is true are engaged in a constant effort toward union, with what is
good longing for what is true and for union with it: 9206 , 9207 , 9495. How and in whom this
union of what is good and what is true takes place: 3834 , 3843 , 4096 , 4097 , 4301 , 4345 , 4353 , 4364 ,
4368 , 5365 , 7623 – 7627 , 9258.because heaven fl ows in from above, opens our deeper natures, and fl ows
through those deeper natures into our more outward natures; while the
world fl ows in from below and opens our more outward natures but not
our deeper natures. No infl ow occurs from the natural world into the spir-
itual, only from the spiritual world into the natural; so if heaven is not
accepted at the same time, the deeper levels are closed. We can see from
this who accept heaven into themselves and who do not.
[ 3 ] However, the heaven in one individual is not the same as the
heaven in another. It differs in each according to the affection for what is
good and true. If people are absorbed in an affection for what is good for
the sake of the Divine, they love divine truth, because the good and the
true love each other and want to be united.b Consequently, non-Christian
people who have not had access to genuine truths in the world still accept
them in the other life because of their love.320 There was one spirit from a non-Christian country who had lived a
good and thoughtful life according to his religion in this world. When he
heard some Christian spirits discussing their creeds (spirits talking to
each other reason much more exhaustively and acutely than people on
earth, especially about what is good and true), he was astonished to fi nd
that they quarreled. He said he did not want to listen, since they were
arguing on the basis of deceptive appearances. His advice to them was,
“If I am a good person, I can know what is true simply from its good-
ness, and I can be open to what I do not know.”
321 I have been taught by a great many instances that if non-Christians
have lived decent lives, intent on obedience and appropriate deference
and in mutual thoughtfulness as their religion requires so that they have
acquired a measure of conscience, they are accepted in the other life and
are taught by angels about matters of goodness and truth with most sensi-
tive care. Once they have been taught, they behave unpretentiously, intel-
ligently, and wisely and readily accept and absorb truths. This is because
no false principles have taken form to oppose truths of faith, principles
that would need to be ousted, let alone slanders against the Lord, as is the
case for many Christians whose treasured concept of the Lord is simply of
an ordinary human being. It is different for non-Christians. When they