14. III. HEAVEN AND HELL ARE FROM THE HUMAN RACE.
It is altogether unknown in the Christian world that heaven and hell are from the human race; for it is believed that angels were created at the beginning, and that heaven was formed of them; and that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light, who, becoming rebellions, was cast down with his crew, and that this was the origin of hell. The angels are greatly astonished at such a faith in the Christian world, and still more, that nothing at all is there known of heaven, when yet it is a primary doctrine in the church; and since such ignorance prevails, they are rejoiced in heart that it has now pleased the Lord to reveal to men many things concerning heaven, and also concerning hell; and by this means, as far as possible, to dissipate the darkness which daily increases, because the church has come to its end. Wherefore they wish me to declare from them, that there is in the universal heaven not one who was created an angel from the first, nor any devil in hell who was created an angel of light, and cast down, but that all both in heaven and in hell are from the human race; in heaven those who had lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, and in hell those who had lived in infernal love and faith; and that hell in the whole complex is called the Devil and Satan; that the hell behind, where those are who are called evil genii, is the Devil, and the hell in front, which is the abode of evil spirits, is Satan.# What the nature of one hell is, and what the other, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, towards the end. The angels said, that the Christian world have conceived such a belief about those in heaven and hell, from certain passages in the Word no otherwise understood than according to the sense of the letter, and not illustrated and explained by genuine doctrine from the Word; when yet the sense of the letter, if the genuine doctrine of the church does not shine before it, draws the mind away into various opinions; whence come ignorance, heresies, and errors.##
# The hells, or the infernals, taken together, are called the Devil and Satan (n. 694). They who have been devils in the world, become devils after death (n. 968).
## The doctrine of the church must be from the Word (n. 3464, 5402, 6832, 10763, 10765). The Word is not understood without doctrine (n. 9021, 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10582). True doctrine is a lamp to those who read the Word (n. 10401). Genuine doctrine must be from those who are in illustration from the Lord (n. 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105). They who are in the sense of the letter of the Word without doctrine, can come into no understanding of Divine truths (n. 9409, 9410, 10582). And they are led into many errors (n. 10431). The difference between those who teach and learn from the doctrine of the church from the Word, and those who teach and learn only from the sense of the letter of the word (n 9025).
