Editing Swedenborgianism (section)

== Afterlife ==
New Church adherents believe that there was no space and time before the universe was created, and the realm beyond space, time and material creation is the spiritual world. The spiritual world, which is divided between heaven and hell, is where the soul is realized. "All who die and become angels put off those two things proper to nature, which{{nbsp}}[…] are space and time; for they enter then into spiritual light, in which the objects of thought are truths, and the objects of sight are similar to the objects in the natural world, but correspondent to their thoughts."<ref>DLW, n. 70.</ref> States of being replace time, love replaces space or distance, and perception of truth replaces material substance <ref>DLW, n. 70, 73.</ref>

These correspondences to time, space, and substance fill the spiritual world with correspondences to things of the material world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swedenborg |first=Emanuel |title=New Jerusalem |publisher=Swedenborg Foundation |year=2016 |edition=New Century |pages=163 (par. 258)}}</ref> In heaven there are landscapes and cities appearing like those of earth, and in hell the landscape appears cavernous and filthy. The presence of the lord appears like a sun above in heaven, its light and heat are truth and goodness,<ref name=":3" /> while hell is dark and cold. There are heavenly delights and acts of service to the neighbor, and hellish delights which bring about only suffering. The soul is given a new mind and body, or "a human form that is visible in the spiritual world [... where] Our spirit enjoys the abilities to see, hear, speak, and have sensations just as it did in this world, and is endowed every faculty of thinking, willing, and doing...".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swedenborg |first=Emanuel |title=New Jerusalem |publisher=Swedenborg Foundation |year=2016 |edition=New Century |pages=147}}</ref>

=== Origin of the soul ===
New Church adherents believe that the soul is the recipient of life from God, and the body is its clothing. The beginning of life (the soul) comes from the seed of the father, and the external body comes from the mother.<ref>TCR, n. 103, 112, 166.</ref> Since most Christians believe that Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, his soul was God itself and he always preexisted as Jehovah.<ref>DL, n. 92, 103.</ref> Since souls originate from the seed of the father, New Church adherents do not believe in [[reincarnation]].<ref>TCR, n. 77, 171.</ref>

Spirits and angels, through whom one approaches heaven or hell (depending on one's actions), are associated with a person during their life. Although direct communication between spirits and humans does not generally occur, it was more widespread in ancient times. Angels and spirits retain their memories from earthly and heavenly life (their earthly mental faculties of memory replaced with corresponding spiritual ones) and, in a mental state where communication is open, a person may experience a spirit's memory as if it were their own. This mental state (which may be achieved under hypnosis) resembles [[past life regression]] and was how some ancients came to believe in the preexistence of souls and reincarnation.<ref>Swedenborg, Emanuel. ''Heaven and Hell'', 1758 (HH). Rotch Edition. New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1907, in ''The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem'' (2012), n. 256.</ref> However, the New Church does not consider this to be true, instead believing that one lives only once, and how one lives this life determines one's eternal destiny. At death, the soul sheds the physical body, is born into a spiritual mind and body, and becomes aware of the spiritual society with which one's soul was associated.<ref>HH, n. 438, 497.</ref>

=== Judgment ===
New Church adherents do not believe in [[purgatory]]; punishment occurs only in hell. Immediately after death, one enters the spirit world (in this case, meaning an intermediary state between heaven and hell) and awaits judgment of whether they will enter heaven or hell.<ref>TCR, n. 784.</ref> Since the evil try to appear good and the good retain false ideas, one remains in this intermediate state until they are examined.<ref>HH, n. 423–426.</ref> Those who are profoundly good and know truth go immediately to heaven, and those who are profoundly evil flee from heaven's perceived blinding light and burning heat, and go to hell.

Otherwise, one gradually withdraws from exterior appearances and fallacies into one's interior intentions and affections <ref>HH, n. 491, 496, 499.</ref> "Thus hidden things are laid open and secret things are uncovered, according to the Lord's words: 'There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known: whatsoever ye have said in the darkness, shall be heard in the light, and what ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be preached on the housetops' (Luke 12:2–3). And in another place: 'I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment' (Matthew 12:36)."<ref>HH, n. 507.</ref>

These intentions and affections determine whether one, in a state of absolute freedom from external controls, will be attracted by heavenly light or hellish delight. Ultimately, judgement is an unimpeded choice between heaven and hell; the good, by nature of their goodness, will choose heaven, and the evil, by nature of their evil, will choose hell.

=== Hell ===
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When all external restraints are removed in the spirit world, nothing remains to stop evil spirits except punishment. Since evil spirits act in accordance with their nature, they are drawn towards hell:

{{blockquote|Every evil brings with itself punishment, the two making one; whoever therefore is in evil, is also in the punishment of evil. But still no one in the other world suffers punishment on account of the evils which he had done in this world, but on account of the evils which he then does. Yet it amounts to the same, and is the same thing, whether it be said that men suffer punishment on account of their evils in the world, or that they suffer punishment on account of the evils which they do in the other life, inasmuch as every one after death returns into his own life, and thus into similar evils, his nature remaining the same as it had been in the life of the body. That they are punished, is because the fear of punishment is the only means of subduing evils in this state. Exhortation is no longer of any avail, neither instruction, nor the fear of the law and loss of reputation, since every one now acts from his nature, which cannot be restrained nor broken except by punishments.<ref name="HH, n. 509">HH, n. 509.</ref>}}

New Church adherents believe that God sends no one to heaven or hell; since hell is the internal state of evil and heaven the internal state of good, each person enters a state matching his or her internal nature.<ref name="HH, n. 509"/> Because every spirit joins the like-minded group after death in which it feels the most comfortable according to Swedenborg, hell is believed to be a place of happiness for the spirits which delight in evilness. Each person will remain eternally in accordance with their will or love.<ref>HH, n. 480.</ref>

=== Heaven ===
New Church adherents believe that heaven proceeds from God,<ref>HH, n. 5, 7.</ref> who is seen by the angels as the light of heaven and occasionally appears in angelic form.<ref>HH, n. 117–118.</ref> Jesus said that he was the light of the world, and the apostles once saw his face shining like a sun. For this reason, the ancients aligned their temples with the rising sun.<ref name=":3">HH, n. 119.</ref> In heaven, countless societies fulfill a particular purpose, each according to their love.<ref>HH, n. 41–77.</ref>

Since angels and demons were human, angels have a human form. There is no individual devil (or Satan): "In the whole heaven there is not one angel who was so created from the beginning, nor in hell any devil 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 lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, in hell those who lived in infernal love and faith; and that hell taken as a whole is what is called the devil and satan."<ref>HH, n. 311.</ref>