314 HEAVEN and HELL §526
526 I have at times talked with angels about this and have said that many
people in the world who have lived intent on evil and have talked with
others about heaven and eternal life say only that getting into heaven is
simply a matter of being let in on the basis of pure mercy. This is true
especially of people who make faith the only means of salvation, since
from this fundamental tenet of their religion they do not focus on life or
on the deeds of love that make up one’s life. As a result, they do not focus
on the other means the Lord uses to instill heaven into us and render us
open to heavenly joy. So since they reject all the actual means, the neces-
sary corollary of their premise is that we enter heaven on the basis of pure
mercy, believing God the Father to be moved to it through the interces-
sion of the Son. [ 2 ] Angels have responded that they know this kind of
dogma follows necessarily from acceptance of the principle of salvation by
faith alone and that this dogma is the head of the others, a head into
which no light from heaven can flow, because it is not true. It is therefore
the source of the ignorance the church is mired in nowadays—ignorance
about the Lord, heaven, life after death, heavenly joy, the essential nature
of love and thoughtfulness, and in general about what is good and its
union with what is true. This results in ignorance about human life, its
source, and its quality. Life is never gained by mere thought, but only by
intent and consequent deeds. It is the result of thought to the extent that the
thought derives from intent, so it is from faith only to the extent that
faith derives from love. Angels grieve that these people do not realize
that faith alone cannot exist in anyone because faith apart from its source,
which is love, is only information, or for some a secondhand belief that
counterfeits faith (see above, § 482 ). This belief is not part of our life but is
outside it, since it is separated from us if it is not coherent with our love.
[ 3 ] Angels have also said that people who are caught up in this kind
of principle concerning the essential means of our salvation inevitably put
their trust in the idea of mercy that is directly granted. Such people can
tell, on the basis of nonspiritual enlightenment and what they have actu-
ally seen, that a faith that is not integrated with life plays no part in deter-
mining how one’s life is lived. Evidence for this can be seen in the fact that
it is possible for those who live evil lives to ponder on and convince them-
selves of the same [religious truths as do those who live good lives]. This
is why people who believe in directly granted mercy think that evil people
can be saved just like good ones, provided that in the hour of their death
they speak with assurance about intercession and the mercy obtained by it.
The angels kept insisting that they have never yet seen people who
lived an evil life accepted into heaven out of sheer mercy, no matter how