Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)
Echoing Jesus’ words, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) wrote, “It is not so hard to lead a heaven-bound life as people think it is” (Heaven and Hell #528).
A reader named Rob is not so sure. In a recently submitted spiritual conundrum he asks:
What if I cannot attain to the kind of life Swedenborg says I need to to go to heaven? The demands are too burdensome. I try and fail. Spectacularly.
Am I doing something wrong here? Are some people just born with a better disposition and can do the good easily?
Thanks, Rob, for the great questions!
My sense from what you write, and from your earlier comments here on Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life, is that life has been difficult and painful for you. You question in your heart whether someone like you can really find your way to happiness and to heaven. It seems to you unlikely, if not impossible. It seems that you may be fated for pain and sorrow, and for eternal darkness.
Is it really so easy to get to heaven? Or is it hard . . . maybe impossible? Is it even worth trying?
The short answer is: It’s both easy and hard to get to heaven.
As Swedenborg says, living a life that leads to heaven is really not all that hard. We don’t have to be perfect, pious people who spend all of our time praying and never have an evil thought. Mostly, we just have to avoid doing dishonest and destructive things, and make ourselves useful to our fellow human beings.
Unfortunately, there is often huge resistance, both within us and around us, to living the way our better self wants to live. We have an ideal for ourselves, and we just can’t seem to live up to it. We keep on thinking, wanting, and doing the things we swore we’d stop doing.
There are also a lot of misconceptions floating around about what type of person we have to be to get to heaven. Heaven has room for all different kinds of people, not just for the bubbly, cheerful types that are held up to us as shining examples of what a “real Christian” is supposed to look like. In fact, heaven needs all different types of people.
Even though you may think that with your particular character, disposition, struggles, and failures, there will be no room for you in heaven, it’s very possible that heaven needs someone exactly like you.
How did things get so messed up?
I don’t know your story. I can’t say why life is hard and painful for you, and why heaven seems unlikely. It’s different for different people who feel this way—and you are by no means the only one.
Perhaps you grew up with fire-and-brimstone preachers who threatened you with the eternal fires of hell. Perhaps your parents tore you down and told you that you were no good. Perhaps you were mistreated and abused. Perhaps you were born with a naturally introverted, “antisocial” personality. Perhaps you have done some things that you just can’t forgive yourself for. Perhaps it’s none of these things, and there are other issues I can’t guess at.
For whatever reason, the type of active, loving, happy social and spiritual life that seems possible and even easy for other people just doesn’t seem like a real possibility for you. This can make life feel dark and hopeless.
What if life is hard?
Then Jesus comes along and says, “My yoke is easy.”
And Swedenborg comes along and says, “It’s not so hard to get to heaven.”
But when life is hard, those words ring hollow.
Let me first assure you that the reason Jesus, and later Swedenborg, even talked about the path being easy, and not being so hard, is that they both knew from personal experience just how hard life can be. They were not denying the hard realities of life, but offering the hope of solace and comfort in the midst of the pain and sorrow of life.
Theirs is not a glib “positive thinking” that seeks to ignore the reality of human suffering by flooding the brain with endorphins. Rather, what they offer is a path through the reality of pain and suffering toward something better. That something better does not deny the evil that exists within and around us. Rather, it offers a way to rise above the evil even while we may still be experiencing it.
If we look at Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, we find that it was anything but easy. The moment he was born, a plot was hatched to kill him, forcing his parents to flee to a foreign land. As soon as he began his public ministry, he came under attack by the powerful religious leaders of the day. For him, that life of conflict and struggle continued right to the end of his life: he was brutally executed by his enemies.
We can know, then, that when Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” he does not mean that he had an easy life.
In many ways, Emanuel Swedenborg’s life was quite comfortable. He was born of wealthy, educated stock, and lived a relatively privileged life. In fact, by the time he was fifty, he was all set to be a brilliant, celebrated scholar who would be a household name for his political, scientific, and philosophical achievements.
But God had other plans for him. By the time he was fifty-five, Swedenborg was making the difficult choice to give up all of his dreams of worldly wealth and fame, and take up a new task in life—a task for which he, too, would be attacked and vilified by the religious authorities of the day.
Swedenborg’s struggle and suffering was not in the same league as that of Jesus. He was able to live comfortably to his dying day. But we know from his private diaries that he went through great psychological and spiritual pain in giving up all of his dreams of fame and renown, and instead taking a path that would subject his name to attack and ridicule by those in positions of power. In order to take on the task that God had given him, he had to battle down his own overactive ego.
So we can know that when Swedenborg says, “It is not so hard to lead a heaven-bound life as people think it is,” he does not mean that the life that leads to heaven is going to be simple, painless, and conflict-free.
In fact, both Jesus and Swedenborg spend a great deal of time talking about the conflict, pain, and struggle of life.
Still, they offer the hope of an easier way, and of a path through the pain and suffering.
And while it may seem counterintuitive, walking the path of spiritual rebirth that Jesus taught and Swedenborg expanded upon requires us not to deny, but to face and accept the reality of pain, suffering, sin, and struggle.
A rocky path
(Photo credit: Ian – Into The Mountains)
The trials of temptation
It helps to understand that when we experience difficult and painful struggles in life, and when we experience the feeling that there is no hope—that we simply cannot live a good life according to our beliefs—this is actually a normal, natural part of our spiritual growth process.
For some people these periods of struggle, doubt, and failure (by our own lights) are shorter and less severe. For others they are long, deep, and very severe and painful.
Those of us who experience the deeper and more severe forms may think this puts us outside the pale of a truly spiritual life, and closes the doors of heaven for us. We may believe that because we have such difficulty living the way we believe we should, that means we will inevitably end up in hell rather than heaven.
But here’s the thing: when we feel this way, we are already in hell.
Among other things, hell is a state of separation and alienation from God and from loving and caring human society. If we’re experiencing this in our life here on earth, then hell already has its hooks in us.
I say this, not to make things seem even more hopeless, but to put some light on the reality of our situation. The question is not so much whether we’ll go to hell after we die, but whether we’ll get out of hell while we are still here on earth.
These days it is unfashionable to talk about evil spirits influencing us. But Jesus tells us in the Gospels that evil spirits are very real, and that they are quite capable of taking over our life. Swedenborg was allowed by God to see that there are indeed evil spirits with us all the time, continually working on us and attempting to drag us down toward hell.
The solution is not to deny their existence. The solution is not to deny the existence of evil, and attempt to drown it out with positive thinking, love, and light. Rather, the solution is to recognize and accept that the evil within and around us is real—and to do the work required to extricate ourselves from it. (But it’s really God doing the work.)
That’s what temptation is all about.
Temptation is a battle within us between the evil spirits and evil influences that are making our life into hell, and the good spirits and angels who come to us with the power of God to overcome that evil and lift us out of hell.
Struggles are a sign of life
Consider this: The very fact that you battle and struggle against the evil within and around you, and fear that you will lose the battle, shows that you are not spiritually dead. It shows that you are on a path that can lead to heaven.
If you simply gave in and willingly led an evil and destructive life, then the hope for you to find your way to heaven would indeed be slim. You would be on a path toward destruction without offering any resistance. Your life might be “peaceful,” but it would be the “peace” of a canoe sliding effortlessly down the river toward Niagara Falls.
I sense from your comments and your conundrum that you do struggle intensely with the feeling that you have failed to live a good life, and that you will keep failing to live a good life, and that therefore you will most likely end out in hell.
The fact that you are struggling is good!
It shows that you have not given up and given in. It shows that unlike those who just let themselves go, your struggles across those dangerous currents may bring you to the safety of shore before you go over the falls.
What you are experiencing is what the Bible calls “temptation.” Temptation is not so much about wanting to do something we know is wrong. It’s about facing the ultimate struggle between hope for heaven and the despair of hell.
As long as you are engaged in that struggle, you have not given in. What you are experiencing is not the road to hell, but the path out of hell.
It can be a long, difficult, and painful road. It can and will test us to the depths of our souls. It will “sift us like wheat” (see Luke 22:31–32). There will be many parts of ourselves—parts that we may hold onto dearly—that will have to be blown away like the chaff so that only the wheat of a good heart and mind remain in us.
In other words, what you are going through is a normal part of the process of spiritual rebirth. Even if you may be experiencing it in a more severe fashion than others seem to experience it, there is nothing wrong with you. You struggle and feel pain and failure because you are alive spiritually. You struggle because you are treading the path out of hell—and hell does not want to let go of you.
Your struggles and even your sense of failure have a purpose.
The success of failure
In our success-driven culture, it’s a temptation to think that when we fail, we have failed. But failing does not make us a failure.
Let me explain.
Failure is often necessary for success.
Inventors such as Thomas Edison commonly fail hundreds, if not thousands of times before finally coming up with something that works. Every single one of those failures was necessary. Each one showed them what doesn’t work, and got them one step closer to what does work. The specific nature of each failure suggested what might need to change in order to achieve success.
The same is true in business. Failed product lines and failed ventures often teach much more about what works and what doesn’t than successful ones.
When we fail, we analyze our failures. We seek to learn what went wrong. We look for solutions. We try to figure out how to succeed instead of failing. So we usually learn much more from our failures than from our successes.
Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).
It’s not just joy over someone becoming righteous. If that were the issue, then there would be more joy over the ninety-nine righteous persons.
No, failing and then overcoming failure gives us many qualities that we don’t have if all we experience is success.
Those qualities include depth and strength of character. Those who have struggled deeply in their souls come out with a gritty ability to survive that is lacking in those who have had an easy life. In the face of adversity, those who have struggled against adversity will survive. Those who have led soft, easy lives will quickly crumble.
The longer and more intense our struggles have been, the greater the strength, endurance, and depth of character we will develop.
Heaven needs people with depth and strength of character. God needs angels to send to those who are in the midst of struggle, suffering, and pain. Those who have had easy lives will not be up to the task. Only those who have experienced pain and suffering themselves can be truly helpful to people still caught in the dark coils of trial and temptation in this world.
That may not be much comfort when we’re in the middle of the struggles, when we feel we’ve failed, and when the outcome is uncertain. However, to quote the Psalms, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). There will come a time when the worst of our struggles are over, and we are left with the depth and strength of character that we developed in the process.
When our struggles are over, we will have become people, and then angels, who are able to do the heavy lifting that God needs in order to pull this world of ours out of its darkness and into the light.
Our failure is God’s success
Another quality developed by struggle and failure is trust in God rather than trust in ourselves.
These days, the virtues of self-reliance and self-determination are preached far and wide in both secular and sacred circles. And there is a certain virtue in pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We must engage in the struggle as if it were all up to us, and all about us. It’s not “spiritual” to sit idly by with our hands hanging down waiting for God to do all the work.
No, it doesn’t work that way. Even if we’re driven by selfishness at first, we must roll up our sleeves and “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (see Philippians 2:12–13).
However, as we struggle along our spiritual path, eventually we will come to a point at which we realize that our own strength is not enough. We will come to a point at which we realize that by ourselves we will fail, but with God’s strength, we can be victorious.
According to Swedenborg, one of the purposes of temptation is to get us to the point where we realize that on our own, we are failures.
Why?
Because as long as we think we can handle our own problems, we will not open up our soul to God, nor to our friends and family who love us and want to help us. As long as we try to be a rock and an island, we will be alone, and will remain in our own private hell.
But when we reach the point at which we realize that we have given it our best shot, and we have failed, that is precisely when we are finally ready to turn our life over to God.
Oh, we may have thought that we were living a religious and godly life before. But as long as we think we are good and virtuous, and can do this “spiritual” thing all by ourselves, we are living in an illusion. We are still in the grip of evil and of hell. We are living, not from the love and wisdom of God, but from the pride and folly of our own ego.
Temptation is specifically designed to break up our ego. It is designed to bring us so low that we admit defeat.
Because the fact is, hell is much stronger than we are. We may think that we’re some sort of spiritual macho stud. Hell is there to prove that even if we put out our best effort, and expend all the strength, energy, and acumen at our disposal, we will be squashed like a bug under the sheer weight and depth of human evil.
The only one who is strong enough to overcome the overwhelming power of our deeper evils is God. And for Christians, it is only by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ that we can gain the strength to move from our failure to God’s success.
It is precisely when we admit failure, and turn our lives over to God unconditionally, that we can finally begin to win the battles. Life will still be a struggle. But we will have turned around. We will be battling upward through the power of God instead of fighting a rearguard, downward, losing battle through our own strength.
In short, we must put out our best effort. But once our own efforts have failed, God can finally begin to succeed spiritually in our lives.
Okay, then where does the “easy” part come in?
Wow, all of this sounds very . . . hard.
Where does the “easy” part come in? Does it ever become “not so hard,” as Swedenborg says?
Jesus was not deceiving us when he said that his yoke is easy. And Swedenborg spoke from hard experience when he said that the life that leads to heaven is not so hard.
Perhaps this is a paradox. But living a spiritual life is actually quite easy. It is light, joyful, even effortless, because it simply involves allowing the love and wisdom of God to flow through us.
The hard part is getting to the easy part.
The hard part is that we resist living in that easy way. Our ego, our prior training and experience, and yes, the evil spirits who are with us are continually fighting against our acceptance of the easy yoke and the path that is not so hard.
Here’s an example that may help:
In ordinary driving conditions, when does a car’s engine have to expend the most power? When is the car’s drive train under the most strain? It’s not when the car is moving along the road, or even when it’s cruising along at highway speed—even though that’s when the car is “getting the most work done.”
No, the engine has to put out the most effort when it is starting the car from a stop. The greatest mechanical strain takes place just getting the car going. Once it is underway, the engine still has to work. But now it has momentum on its side. Now it has to produce only enough power to keep the car going in the direction it already “wants” to go.
It’s the same for us spiritually. Except it’s as if the car is going 100mph in reverse, and we’ve got to hit the brakes and gear it down to get it to a stop, and only then begin to put out the torque needed to get it going forward.
Jesus’ yoke, and Swedenborg’s road that is not so hard, is about the time when we’ve gotten the car going in the right direction, and we’re cruising along the highway. Yes, we’ll have some hills to climb and some valleys to get through. But it will be nothing we can’t handle with the “engine” of God powering our lives.
Unfortunately, we usually get going in reverse in our younger years. That may be because of bad influences when we are growing up. Or it may be because of bad choices we made as young adults. Sometimes we have to spend much of our lives just coming to a stop. And that “stop” may feel like the failure of everything we have ever tried to accomplish with our lives. We may feel like our life has come to an end. But we must come to that stop before finally getting ourselves going forward toward heaven. And that will be a serious struggle of its own.
Keep in mind, though, that our time here on earth is only the beginning of our real life in heaven. We spend a few decades, or maybe even a century here. That is only a tiny slice of life compared to the eternity that we will spend in the spiritual world. Even if it takes us sixty, seventy, or eighty years to get our lives going on a positive path, all of the pain, suffering, struggle, and failure that we experience here will seem like nothing compared to the joy that will come with the “morning” of our spiritual rebirth and our life in the eternity of heaven.
That is what Jesus was talking about when he said:
Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:20–22)
This article is a response to a spiritual conundrum submitted by a reader.
For further reading:
- If You Think You’re Going to Hell, Please Read This First
- What does Jesus Mean when He Says we Must be Born Again?
- Viktor Frankl on Meaning in the Midst of Suffering
- Can Gang Members Go to Heaven? (Is Life Fair?)
- If God is Love, Why all the Pain and Suffering?
- Heaven, Regeneration, and the Meaning of Life on Earth
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Lee Woofenden is an ordained minister, writer, editor, translator, and teacher. He enjoys taking spiritual insights from the Bible and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and putting them into plain English as guides for everyday life.
Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 
‘The hard part is getting to the easy part’ – bout sums it up hey 😉
Nice write – enjoyed reading this – you wrote it well with great analogies and good flow from one point to another. It is so hard to keep such topics short though isn’t it?
In an age where we are ‘fast’ everything…people also want a speed dial to the easy yolk – jeepers – I have been going along for many many years now – messing up left and right and all over the place – and only JUST reaching that ‘easy’ — which does not remove the physical ‘hard’ part truly. Yet in confidence – all of it does not matter because there is the peace that comes with knowing what you know you know that gives everything a different perceptive…
I like to think that when you are in that place of ‘relearning’ everything about your perceptions that if it is easy then you are not going the right way! It is when it is hard that you can be at peace to know that you are on the right track. ANd how I like to explain it to my son is similar to the analogy you used oddly:
When you are rowing up the stream – it is hard work. Your friends will be cruising along enjoying the sunshine and laying back going with the current. But you keep rowing for that day because you know what you are striving for that is UP stream NOT down. It will be hard to keep rowing sometimes and you will meet rapids and even crocodiles along the way….but just when you think you may not be able to row anymore – you will see a small place to pull into where you can rest in the shelter for a while – or a day or two. AND then BACK to rowing. In the meantime – your mates will be laughing and calling to you to join them and in their fun – they will wonder why you are going the way you are when it is so much EASIER to go the other way…until they see the falls. Perhaps you will be in a place where you may be able to throw them a rope by then. THAT is what friends do to look out for each other.
I think so many people feel that acts are the whole deal – where as God sees the heart – the will – the determination to be better – the attempt. The rowing and the direction chosen…and he certainly provides the hands along the way to pull us along. AND gives rest – for he will not stretch us beyong=d what we can bare.
I like chatting here – thank you.
I hope your reader whom asked the question finds peace in their efforts at finding the direction – even if the oars keep slipping and they have to catch hold of them from time to time. The direction is paramount – NOT the speed not the equipment used to move up the stream….just keep moving I figure.
Hi idiotwriter,
Thanks for your insightful comment, which adds some nice dimensions to the article. And thanks for the kudos, which I do appreciate.
To take up just one of the many themes you mention, when we are “at rest” spiritually, it doesn’t mean we’re doing nothing. It means we have no inner conflict about what we are doing, and can therefore do it single-mindedly without internal resistance. In fact, in this state we are often much busier, and accomplish much more, than when we are spiritually “laboring.” To go back to the car analogy, when the car is cruising along the highway, it is covering great ground, but it’s just purring along doing what it’s made to do. It is in its “heaven.”
I have also found that it helps to realize that we have multiple layers of mind. If, instead of completely immersing ourselves in the struggles of the moment, we keep access to some sliver of a higher level of our mind where we can observe ourselves from above the fray, it makes it possible for us to realize that though our struggles are real, there is something above and beyond the struggles that is also “us.” There is a point of peace within us even when we are laboring and in conflict.
Indeed – rest is not a physical concept within the context of the conversation right 😉 YET all CAN be conveyed in physical terms too I guess – ie – when with children creating and instillling the ability on a physical level to push beyond those comfort zones to get to a BETTER place.
It is the ability to have things flow better and in as such on EVERY level it requires WORK. A term that is bantered around lightly today. People want – without working for it. ‘all hard work pays a profit’ 😀 in ALL senses. ‘SEEK – ye shall find’ the seeking can take time and be darn hard – but if you keep looking – you WILL find treasure. ….but you already understand all this hey 😉
Nice to speak again –
Reading this article again after a long time. Its still super hard to be good when you see the world as the enemy. And now being chronically fatigued has made it even harder. It seems the best I can do is to say Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.
Hi Rob,
Good to hear from you again. Life certainly can be a long, drawn-out struggle. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
I just want to say thank you for this wonderful article. I started off on your article “If You Think You’re Going to Hell, Please Read This First”.. I had been struggling with the doubt of my salvation. I’m 23 and have been pursuing a life in Christ.
I find myself constantly analyzing myself at times when I should be at peace, and not analyzing myself when I most likely should be. (around friends, work, ect) This has inevitably made me very scared about how my heavenly father sees me. It’s almost debilitating and strikes me with spiritual paralysis. All I can find myself doing is praying and repenting, hoping that God will change my heart to better serve him.
This article brought to light that the path to our Heavenly Father isn’t an easy one, it’s a very complex and humbling one at that. I must TRUST in my heavenly father and his promises. Only through him can I find salvation.
I’m just terrified that somewhere along my spiritual journey, that if I were to die before I met my spiritual maturity, would it all be for not? I pray that I make it.
Thank you, thank you for this wisdom our lord as imparted to you.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for stopping by, and for your good and thoughtful comment.
Yes, the path to eternal life is a complex and humbling one. It consists of many, many small steps, much of it over the rocky and thorn-infested soil of our rather selfish and unregenerate self. That’s why God gives us a lifetime to make that journey.
And if we die along the way, my belief is that as long as we were traveling in the right direction, God will welcome us into one of those many mansions of heaven.
Meanwhile, godspeed on your spiritual journey!
is it easier to thread the eye of a needle with a camel, than it is to get into the kingdom heaven; what verse in the BIBLE states this?
Hi Orlando,
The verse you’re thinking of is more specific than that:
And don’t forget that just two verses later, Jesus says:
To a reader named hardenedheart1973:
I’m sorry not to approve your comment, but per our comments policy, please do not leave comments in ALL CAPS. Meanwhile, in response to your comment, I invite you to read these two articles:
I hope these are helpful to you. Meanwhile, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Why does God let so much suffering happen to innocent people?
Also, doesn’t everything have an origin? How could God have just existed?
And, is it possible for people on the world of spirits/heaven/hell to send you signs? If so, why don’t they in the hardest parts of your lives?
Lastly, why does God not send you signs of the afterlife if you are truly open to it and it will benefit your spiritual growth?
On your first question, please do read this article, which has four parts:
How can we have Faith when So Many Bad Things happen to So Many Good People? Part 1
I believe I linked a couple of other articles on this question for you earlier. This is too big a question to answer in a comment.
Yes, everything has to have an origin. God is that origin. What other origin would there be? If God came from something else, than that would be God.
Yes, it is possible for angels and spirits to send us signs when the Lord allows it. But these tend not to happen at the hardest part of our lives, because if there were spiritual intervention at these times, it would take away our freedom and our humanity.
The hardest times of our lives are the times when we are making the agonizing decisions in our heart that will determine whether we go up or down, and what sort of person we will be. God is actually closer to us at these times than at any other time, because when we are making these decisions, that is when we are at our most human. But if we were aware of how close God is to us at those times, and how it is really God doing the fighting for us, we would lose our sense of self and identity, and with it our humanity. We must make these tough, grinding choices as if we were making them by ourselves. But after we have chosen the good, God and the angels will come more strongly into our life, and we will realize that they were with us all along.
A popular illustration of this is the “Footprints” poem. It was also Jesus’ experience in his temptation in the desert, after which, it says, “angels came and waited on him” (see Matthew 4:1–11).
The answer to your final question is similar. God knows better than we do whether signs from heaven would actually be helpful to us, and would benefit our spiritual growth. We may think that if God would just give us a sign from heaven, then we would have what we need to move forward with our spiritual life. But Jesus himself told us that this is not necessarily so in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31:
God has sent us “Moses and the Prophets,” meaning the Bible, and by extension other spiritual writings, and in them has given us everything we need to make the choice for good, and to live a spiritual life. If we are not willing to listen to what God tells us in the Bible and through the various spiritual teachers God has sent, then we will not believe even if an angel comes to us and speaks to us. That may seem hard to believe, but it is true.
Why does it say in that excerpt that the man still suffered? He showed that he was sorry for what he had done, so how come he wasn’t allowed to come to heaven?
Hi Luna,
If you read the parable carefully, you will see that the rich man doesn’t say he’s sorry for living a life full of luxury and pleasure while letting poor Lazarus starve at his gate. In fact, after ignoring the pain and suffering of Lazarus, even though he could have easily helped him, he still wanted Lazarus to come help him with his own pain and suffering. No apology. No recognition that he had had no compassion whatsoever for the poor man at his gate. He was still thinking only of himself and his own family, and not of anyone else. He was so oblivious to his own wrong behavior that he thought the very person he had wronged should now serve him. It was precisely because he was not at all sorry for what he had done that he was in hell, not in heaven.
I thought the pain and agony were only figurative? Why is the man in actual pain while God just watches him suffer? Also, doesn’t he still have some good in him if he is asking Lazarus to warn his brothers?
Hi Luna,
The pain and agony in the parable are figurative, not literal. People in hell aren’t literally roasting in fire. The “fires of hell” are the figurative fire of the evil and destructive desires of the people who live there. For more on this, please see:
Is There Really a Hell? What is it Like?
As for the rich man wanting God to warn his brothers, people commonly think of their families as an extension of themselves.
Organized crime families, for example, are often very close and very devoted to the family. They will stand up for one another protect one another from all comers, including from the police, and especially from rival crime families, because they see the family as their family, and as an extension of themselves. But as soon as anyone in the family defies the family and opposes anything it does, you will see just how much they really “love” their family members.
If the rich man had asked God to go warn other people outside of his family, then it might have counted for something. But in asking God to warn his own family members, he was just looking out for his own. There’s no particular virtue in that. He still had no regard whatsoever for Lazarus, who wasn’t part of his family.
What about this verse?
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:14)
Cheers.
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for stopping by, and for your comment and question. Here is the short version of the answer:
For the long version, please go to this article:
Response to a Calvinist Critique of my article “Faith Alone Does Not Save”
Then scroll down and start reading at the section titled, “Matthew 7:13–14: The narrow gate.”
I hope this helps.
Hi Lee,
I have a question regarding “doppelgängers” and OBE experiencers experiencing a barrier or “electrical fence or an ornate ceilings etc”?
The video was called “Workshop Jürgen Ziewe – Teil1 from a person named Johann Nepomuk Maier – Beyond the Tangible who says in the description: “The findings of many researchers and scientists from many parts of the world are now presented as follows: Beyond the Tangible shows documentaries and interviews with leading researchers from relevant fields on the phenomena and anomalies occurring worldwide in our reality. I have been researching in the field of fringe science for decades.
In dialogue with the researchers, demonstrated pathological, psychological and physical anomalies and paradoxes. These clearly show that we are being shown and taught a largely outdated materialistic worldview.
But I’ve heard this before from various psychologists and doctors like the author Casanova who draws this conclusion by saying that spiritual experiences are just you experiencing a connection to your doppelgänger?
And my second question is regarding ”barriers”?
In the video they talk about:
“spiritual authority no longer existed for me because no longer existed for me because I had my silent companion companion who always looked over my shoulder, sometimes the case that there was strong power grid around the earth and I had to find gaps in had to find gaps in order to be able to electrify myself through it.”?
There are other “explorers” who say similar things as, “I lifted off the ground but somehow did not manage to gain any great height. Wherever I looked I saw high voltage wires crisscrossing the landscape and I was eager to find a gap, anxious not to get electrocuted. At the same time I was puzzled by the strange subconscious forces which had put them there. Were they the creation of some unknown fear of mine or the work of some unknown adversaries trying to block my escape? With a strong effort of will I shot through a gap between the wires and into the sky. I sailed easily over open countryside and then I came to an abrupt stop. I looked around. I was in the corner of a small grey room. I walked towards a window, took to the air again and zoomed off, only to find myself trapped in the same little room again. Again I climbed out of the window, and this time I was over the open countryside. But when I looked down I saw to my amazement that everything had turned white. What I saw was not countryside at all but wrinkled bed sheets. All of a sudden I had a powerful flashback to my childhood, when my brother and I jumped from a chest of draws onto the bed pretending to be aeroplanes, and then me lying on my side studying the wrinkles of the sheet. I considered the possibility that my flying had triggered a memory from my childhood when I ‘flew’ from the sideboard, looking down onto the landscape of sheets. With these thoughts still clearly in my mind I opened my physical eyes. For a few moments I considered how powerful the force of our subconscious is, that it is able to create whole worlds that feel as physical as anything on Earth. The implications for our future in the next dimension seemed overwhelming. I tried to go back to sleep, but as soon as I closed my eyes I was back in the countryside again, fully lucid and awake. It was like walking out of the bedroom door into another room. This experience spurred me on to experiment with flipping between the states of full waking consciousness in the other dimension and physical waking consciousness in this one. I discovered that there was no difference at all.”
And
“It was pitch black around me. I reasoned that there should have been at least some ambient level of light falling through the window from the street lights into the room, but the black was solid. For a moment I considered whether I had gone blind during the night and Whether the grain of sand was not sand at all but a curious and sudden eye infection. I groped around but could not feel the bed. This was confusing. When I got up I noticed a strange absence of body weight which told me that I had woken in my subtle body, while physically I was still asleep. I focused all my energy on regaining my vision and slowly the room began to emerge like out of a dark mist. I moved around until my surrounding was established in all its reality. The third time I used my mantra, its stupendous power accelerated me into deep space. The further I travelled, the greater the pleasure I felt. There was no stopping now now. The mantra gave me total assurance and protection. I felt safe and I travelled through space with the greatest ease, exhilarated by a freedom unknown before. Then, without warning, I hit a barrier in the middle of space. When I looked I found enormous flower petals, miles in diameter, pulsating and breathing and impregnable. I had come to a full stop. I considered using my mantra, but something told me that this was the end of my journey – a natural limitation. I decided to return to my body to consider my options. To establish full waking consciousness I focused on my hand as I had done many times in the past, but I had no body. Only with great concentration did it start to emerge. My hands first, appearing like maggots out of eggs, forming into embryonic visions. Finally they looked human. From the roof I went back into my room, still focusing on my hands, while fighting against the blurriness of my vision.
Gradually the room brightened up and I could make out the pattern of the wallpaper, which was odd, because our physical flat was painted plainly with emulsion. I realised that I was on another level. I noticed also that a variety of strange emotions were drifting through me like a circus procession. They didn’t seem to belong to me. With detachment I watched them marching through me and away. I decided it was time to meet the barrier. I was already on another level and thought it should be easier to get higher this time. I only made it to the ceiling, not even the roof. Again I was stopped by the flower petal and nothing I could do would move it.
I sank into my bed and then into my body. I surrendered from the battle and felt strangely peaceful. Gradually a deep inner contentment filled my whole being. I was, I existed, I am. There was nothing to aim for, nothing to gain. There were no mountains to climb, there was no space to conquer there was only the eternal peace of the present. I am. That morning I had left my body several times during meditation but had come back just as quickly. Using the force of natural desire, I focused on my mother’s house in Germany. Suddenly I was torn out of my body and catapulted through the air so swiftly that I didn’t know what had hit me. Instead of being taken to the front garden of her house as I had expected, I was catapulted into a deep black abyss. It was as if I was traveling though a tunnel miles in diameter. For a moment I considered what the outcome would be if I had the courage to allow myself to be dropped into this awesome void – whether I would come out of it alive. I had no guarantee that this would not be my final moment: my life sealed with a spectacular drop into a black abyss. I felt the risk was too great and instead decided to chant my mantra to take control. I was torn out of the hole instantly and tossed into the air like a ball. I clung stubbornly to my mantra, refusing to be the subject of some natural or unnatural force wanting to take control of me. Gradually my movements calmed down and instead of being torn and kicked I was blown and rocked gently like a feather in a mild summer’s breeze. But still I had no control. Whether it was the mantra that was the primal automotive force or some other power, I wanted to be the one to decide where I would go, so I made a powerful effort of will to rise as high as I could in order to penetrate the next higher dimension. I rose higher but then I hit a sudden barrier. I saw an intricate, richly ornate ceiling. If it hadn’t caused my sudden dead-end, I would have enjoyed looking at the ceiling; but anyway, that wasn’t why I was here. No matter how hard I pushed, the ornate barrier did not move. I tried to employ my mantra, but it was no use. I cried for help and assistance, but I was on my own. No matter what I tried, the ceiling was solid, stretching infinitely across the sky. There was no way around or through it. I became frustrated and then angry until I cried. I sobbed like a child. The barrier remained. I was astonished by the power of my emotion and the hurt, the kind of which I hadn’t experienced since early childhood when I first realised that I could not control the world and then exploded into a tantrum. Emotionally exhausted, I woke up in my body. I felt disappointed and let down for the rest of the day.”
And
The whole wall was covered in moving images and it reminded me of some multi-media content from a traditional computer screen. Seeing my perplexity, he told me that these images were informing them of any event that went on that they might be interested in. They could quickly select anything of any interest, keeping a ‘printout’ of the event on the wall. Curious about the technology behind it, I asked him how these systems worked. He told me there was a very elaborate and sophisticated communication network behind all this into which all the events anyone wanted to communicate were fed, and a filter system designed by the tastes of the individual ‘subscriber’ would highlight anything that could be of any value. I was stunned, as before me was an enhanced version of our internet. imagined that in a few years from now such a system may well be implemented here on our physical Earth (and by the time this book is out may be it already is). Out of curiosity I asked him whether they used any form of electricity to communicate this information, He took me outside the house and pointed towards a mast a few hundred feet away. ‘Come along,’ he said. ‘I’ll show you.’With that we were airborne and drifted towards the top of the mast. I was aware of some kind of energy radiating from the top in all directions. ‘Stand in front of the stream.’
I was a little anxious I might experience some form of unpleasant electro-cution. He laughed and took the lead. As I reached the top I instantly became aware of a stream or burst passing through me, evoking a rather pleasant different emotion that I hadn’t expected at all and found hard to explain. After this I asked other questions, not all of which I can remember, but one I was keen to know the answer to was whether there was some kind of administration system in place or gov-ernment. There is no such thing as govern, ment or administration here as you know it in your world,’ he said. ‘Every-thing seems to govern itself, No higher authority is required. Although there are plenty of people who consider themselves to be authorities, but their attempts at assuming some kind of power or authority soon fall flat, simply because there is no power to wield as everything follows the principles of nature.’ He then showed me an image of somebody at one time trying to assert some form of authority. All he achieved was to annoy people and attract ridicule. He soon disappeared from the scene. Upon waking, I decided next time I was to venture into this world I would prepare myself with a clear task sheet to conduct a proper survey. Since this event a few years ago our technology has accelerated and we have already seen similar types of wall-projection technology in development. There are several types of technologies I have observed over the years, some of which I mentioned in my previous book. Others were not paid much attention to, simply because I didn’t know what to make of at the time. It is worth noting everything observed and recording it as accurately as possible, because sooner or later it may pop up on the physical level.
But wouldn’t this be that a persons’ state isn’t compatible with the community they want to enter? Like how Swedenborg talks about spirits wanting to visit Heaven and they were taken up and felt great distress? And maybe these people are interpreting it as electricity or some technology because that what corresponds to their state/community of spirits?
And with doppelgängers wouldn’t the more accurate definition be relating to our spiritual community and the spirits thoughts that are flowing in rather than “syncing up” with someone else’s thoughts and that’s what’s going on which feels like a weak materialist debunking attempt sorta like psycons?
And my apologies for the long quotes as well! I wanted to include them as references to what I was talking about.
Thank you very kindly Lee
Hi Sam,
I hope you don’t mind if I edited out the fund-raising appeal and all the hashtags from the first quote. They’re just a distraction here.
About doppelgangers, sometimes even on earth people meet someone who is very similar to them, but who is unrelated to them. It’s an interesting phenomenon, but honestly, I haven’t looked into it all that much. I do suspect that if it’s an experience in the spiritual realm, it’s simply someone from the same spiritual community as the person who is having the experience is associated with spiritually due to their spiritual character and mindset. Swedenborg says that when people first enter their community in heaven after they die and complete their time in the world of spirits, they feel as if they’ve know the people of that community all their lives. They all immediately feel like brothers and sisters.
About the barriers, yes, these would be images or experiences representing psychological or emotional or spiritual barriers.
We created humans are not infinite, but finite. We have our limits, which means there are “barriers” beyond which we cannot go. Those barriers may be temporary ones that later on we may grow spiritually enough to pass through. Or they may be permanent ones that we will never pass through. For example, that we will live forever in the spiritual heaven, not in the heavenly heaven, because our state of mind as developed on earth is spiritual (i.e., head-centered), not heavenly (i.e., heart-centered). For us, in the spiritual world the spiritual barrier may be expressed in something that looks and feels like an actual physical barrier.
Perhaps the reason this person was so frustrated is that he seemed to think that his mind is infinite, so that there should be no barriers, but in fact his mind, like every created human being’s mind, is finite, which means that it does have its limits, or barriers, beyond which it cannot go.
When I was a kid I sometimes had dreams in which I would be flying in the schoolyard of the school I used to go to. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get above the roofline of the school, which was three stories high. That annoyed me. But as a kid, I reasoned that since I had never actually seen the roof of the building from above, and didn’t know what it looked like, my mind wouldn’t let me go up there and see it in a dream. I don’t think that’s a hard-or-fast rule for dreams and visions, but it made sense to me at the time. There was a limitation to my knowledge, and my mind couldn’t get past the “barrier” of that limitation even in my dreams.
In near-death experiences it is common for people who become conscious in the spiritual world to come up against some sort of line or barrier that they either can’t go past at all, or that they realize that if they do go past it, they won’t go back to their body, but will die permanently and continue to live in the spiritual world. Correspondentially, these are “gates” that involve passing from one state of life to another. This is another type of “barrier” that isn’t necessarily impenetrable, but that if you pass through it, you’ll never be able to go back to your previous life.
This type of “gate” occurs at various times in our life here on earth, such as when we graduate school, or get married, or have children, or start on a new career, or retire. We pass through “barriers” that mean that we have entered a new phase of our life. This would be the meaning of the barriers that the astral traveler came up against, but then was able to pass through.
Of course, there are also gates that we go in and out of. Not all gates are one-way. Every time we go from home to work, or from work to home, we pass through the “gate” between our personal life and our work life. This is a gate that many people go back and forth through every day.
There are also spiritual “walls,” which are protective barriers to keep disturbing elements out, and also to give clear shape and definition to the character of the person or people within. An example of this is the walls of Jerusalem, or the walls of the New Jerusalem, in the Bible. These correspond to the fundemantal truth, or basic teachings, of our church or religion. These are what define, by our belief in them, whether or not we are part of that religion. The people living inside the walls are part of that church or religion because they believe what it teaches. The people living outside the walls are not part of it because they have different beliefs—although they may visit sometimes for business or pleasure.
In short, there are many different kinds of barriers, some of which we can pass back and forth through all the time, others of which we can pass through only once, and can never go back, and others of which we cannot pass through at all, because they represent the limits of our finite mind and heart.
Hi Lee,
Thank you so much as always for your help on understanding these subjects! Also, my apologies as well I should’ve known the hashtags would’ve been too much. I didn’t think of it at the time. I just wanted to include the whole thing but reflecting back I can see it’s definitely too distracting.
And that makes a lot of sense regarding doppelgänger’s being similar spiritual communities rather than a materialistic version that some people have that it’s some Psychic link then the spiritual world which doesn’t make any sense, or even in other spiritual circles, which would say that they are part of your soul group or soul family and that you and the other person are part of that over soul which that does not resonate with me of what’s true.
Also, regarding barriers, I have had similar experiences in my dreams, like how you experienced in yours and how in every day life we experience barriers like walls and gates, which I never thought about it in that way before, but it makes a lot of sense how all of these experiences represent our current finite state and heart. When they talked about having to shock themselves With the grid around the Earth or trying to find a hole in the grid, wouldn’t that be just another representation of bringing something to your attention so it would take on the form of a shock?
Thank you very much again Lee
Hi Sam,
Sometimes the barriers we pass through are a shock to the system. Think of a young man suddenly finding out that his girlfriend is pregnant. His life is never going to be the same again. Or a woman discovering that her husband has been cheating on her. The life she has had up to that point is now over, and the transition from one to the other is anything but pleasant.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of making hard choices and putting in herculean efforts to get past something that’s been holding us back. Maybe our old job has finally reached the point where it’s boring and oppressive and we’re just rotting away in it, but at least it’s secure. The comfortable, safe thing to do is just to keep working the old job anyway. It can be hard, and even painful, to muster up the motivation to make the difficult push from that security to something that is new and risky, but has the possibility of moving us toward much greater accomplishments.
So yes, passing through barriers can definitely involve mental and emotional shocks.
Hi Lee,
That would definitely be a shock! And makes sense! It’s amazing in the spiritual world how it’s so representative of our state and what’s around us is a direct reflection so we can constantly know where we stand and what we need to work on which that’s why God probably gave us the ability to dream to give us glimpses on our spiritual heart’s state and use that to help guide our choices here in the physical.
Thank you again Lee for the clarification