them from others who passed them on from still others who first learned
them from the ancient Word that we mentioned earlier [§§ 264 – 266 ].
The writers of natural theology, too, derive none of this type of thought
from themselves; they merely use their rationality to establish concepts
they learned from their church, which has the Word. There may even be
some among them who defend spiritual concepts and yet do not believe
them themselves.274 I have been given the opportunity to see people born on islands who
were reasonable about civic issues but knew nothing at all about God. In
the spiritual world they look like baboons. Because they have been born
human and therefore have a capacity for receiving spiritual life, they are
taught by angels and are brought to life by concepts of the Lord as a
human being.
What human beings are like when left to themselves becomes obvi-
ous from the people who are in hell. Some such people are scholars and
leaders of the church who do not want even to hear about God; they cer-
tainly cannot mention God themselves. I have seen people like this and
have talked to them. I have also talked to people who would explode
with rage and anger when they heard anyone talk about the Lord.
On this basis, then, consider what people would be like if they had
never heard about God, when this is what some people are like even though
they have spoken about God, written about God, and preached about God.
People are like this because of their wills, which are evil. Their wills,
as I said before, control their intellects and take away the truth that is in
them from the Word.
If people had the capability of knowing on their own that there is a
God and a life after death, why would they not know that we live on as
people after death? Why would they believe that our soul or spirit is like
wind or ether? Why would they imagine the spirit to be something that
has no eyes to see with, no ears to hear with, no mouth to speak with—at
least not before it rejoins its corpse and skeleton?
Imagine a body of teaching that was hatched solely by the light of
our own reason. Would it not teach that the proper object of worship
ought to be we ourselves? This has in fact been taught for centuries and is
still being taught now by people who know from the Word that God
alone is to be worshiped. No other form of worship generated by us is
possible—not even worship of the sun or the moon.
275 Since the earliest times, religion has existed and the inhabitants of
our planet have known about God and something about life after death.
People did not receive this knowledge from themselves or their own