XVII. The Resurrection

HD 223. Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he can believe in and also love God, and thus be conjoined to God by faith and love; and to be conjoined to God is to live to eternity.

HD 224. This internal is with every man who is born; his external is that by which he brings into effect the things which are of his faith and love. The internal is called the spirit, and the external is called the body. The external, which is called the body, is accommodated to the uses in the natural world, this is rejected when man dies; but the internal, which is called the spirit, is accommodated to the uses in the spiritual world, this does not die. This internal is then a good spirit and an angel, if the man had been good in the world; but an evil spirit if man had been evil in the world.

HD 225. The spirit of man after the death of the body, appears in the spiritual world in a human form, in every respect as in the world. He enjoys the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of speaking, and of feeling, as in the world; and he is endowed with every faculty of thinking, of willing, and of acting, as in the world; in a word, he is a man as to each and everything, except that he is not encompassed with the gross body which he had in the world. This he leaves when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.

HD 226. This continuation of life is meant by the resurrection. The reason why men believe that they will not rise again before the Last Judgment, when the whole visible world will perish, is because they have not understood the Word, and because sensual men place all their life in the body, and believe that unless this shall live again, it will be all over with the man.

HD 227. The life of man after death is the life of his love and the life of his faith; hence such as his love and faith had been, when he lived in the world, such his life will remain to eternity. With those who loved themselves and the world above all things, it is the life of hell; and with those who had loved God above all things, and the neighbor as themselves, it is the life of heaven. The latter are they who have faith; but the former are they who have no faith. The life of heaven is called eternal life; and the life of hell is called spiritual death.

HD 228. That man lives after death, the Word teaches; as that:--

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there (Matt 8:11; 22:31, 32; Luke 20:37, 38). Jesus said to the robber, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

HD 229. It is unnecessary here to adduce anything from the Arcana Coelestia, since the things concerning the resurrection and the life of man after death have been fully treated in the work on Heaven and Hell, where they may be seen under the following articles: I. Every Man is a Spirit as to His Interiors (HH 432-444). II. Of Man’s Resuscitation from the Dead, and His Entrance into Eternal Life (HH 445-452). III. After Death Man is in a Perfect Human Form (HH 453-460). IV. After Death Man has every Sense, and all the Memory, Thought, and Affection, which He had in the World; and that He Leaves Nothing but His Terrestrial Body (HH 461-469). V. Man after Death is Such as his Life had Been in the World (HH 470-484). VI. The Delights of Every one‘s Life are Turned into Corresponding Things (HH 485-490). VII. Of Man’s First State after Death (HH 491-498). VIII. Of Man‘s Second State after Death (HH 499-511). IX. Of Man’s Third State after Death, which is a State of Instruction for Those that Come into Heaven (HH 512-520). X. That Heaven and Hell are from the Human Race (HH 311-317). Concerning the Last Judgment, (n. 226), see The Last Judgment, and Babylon Destroyed, from the beginning to the end; where it is shown that the Last Judgment will not be attended with the destruction of the world.