of religious teaching is false and who have become inwardly adamant
about that falsity are not even in the forest; they are outside it on sand
flats where not even grass will grow. In fact, this is the actual condition
in which they find themselves after death, as the work Heaven and Hell
has shown.260 It is important to know as well that the literal meaning is a protec-
tion to prevent harm to the genuine truths that lie inside it. The nature
of this protection is that the literal meaning can be turned this way and
that and explained to different levels of comprehension without damag-
ing or violating what is inside. It does no harm if one person takes the lit-
eral meaning one way and another takes it another way. It isharmful,
however, if people bring in false ideas that go against divine truths. Only
people who are adamant about falsities do this. Doing so does violence to
the Word. The literal meaning offers protection to prevent this from hap-
pening. It also offers protection to people who have been given false ideas
by their religion but have not become adamant about them.
The angel guardians in the Word both stand for and portray the pro-
tecting role of the Word’s literal meaning. This protection is the meaning
of the angel guardians who were placed at the entrance of the garden of
Eden after Adam was thrown out with his wife. About this we read,
When Jehovah God expelled the human, he made angel guardiansdwell
on the east side of the garden of Eden and made the flame of a sword
turning this way and that to guard the pathway to the tree of life.
(Genesis 3 : 23 , 24 )
[ 2 ] No one could see what these details mean without knowing the
meaning of “angel guardians,” “the garden of Eden,” the garden’s “tree of
life,” and “the flame of a sword turning this way and that.” These details
have been explained in the relevant chapter of Secrets of Heaven,pub-
lished in London [§§ 305 – 313 ]. To be specific, the “angel guardians” mean
protection. The “pathway to the tree of life” means the access to the Lord
available to people through the truths in the Word’s spiritual meaning.
The “flame of a sword turning” means divine truth on the outermost
level, which is like the Word in its literal meaning; it is similarly capable
of being turned this way and that.
The same thing is meant by the angel guardians made of goldthat
were placed on the two ends of the mercy seat that was on top of the
ark in the tabernacle (Exodus 25 : 18 – 21 ). The “ark” meant the Word