1. Every Religion Is a Way of Life, and Its Life Is the Doing of Good

Everyone with any religion knows and acknowledges that someone who lives right is saved, and that someone who does not live right is damned. For he knows and acknowledges that someone who lives right, thinks right, not only about God, but also about the neighbor; but not so someone who does not live right.

A person’s life is his love, and what a person loves he not only freely does, but also freely thinks. We say therefore that his life is the doing of good, because doing right accompanies his thinking right. If these two do not go together, they do not constitute a person’s life.

But this we will show in the following pages.

32. Insofar as Someone Refrains from Evils as Being Sins, So Far He Loves Truths

Two universal emanations radiate from the Lord: Divine goodness and Divine truth. Divine goodness is an attribute of His Divine love, and Divine truth is an attribute of His Divine wisdom. These two are united in the Lord, and they emanate from Him as one. However, they are not received as one by angels in heaven or by people on earth. Some angels and people receive more of the emanation of Divine truth than they do of Divine goodness, and some receive more of the emanation of Divine goodness than they do of Divine truth.

It is owing to this that the heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, the other the spiritual kingdom. The heavens that receive more of the emanation of Divine goodness constitute the celestial kingdom, while those that receive more of the emanation of Divine truth constitute the spiritual kingdom. Regarding these two kingdoms into which the heavens are distinguished, see the book Heaven and Hell 20-28.

But even so, the angels of all the heavens possess wisdom and intelligence in the measure that the goodness in them is united with truth. Goodness that is not united with truth is for them not good. Conversely, truth that is not united with goodness is for them not true.

It is apparent from this that goodness combined with truth is what produces love and wisdom in angels and people. And because an angel is an angel, and a person human, because of the love and wisdom in him, it is apparent that goodness combined with truth is what makes an angel an angel in heaven, and a person part of the church.