357. THE RICH AND THE POOR IN HEAVEN
There are various opinions about reception into heaven. Some are of the opinion that the poor are received and the rich are not, some that the rich and the poor are equally received, some that the rich can be received only by giving up their wealth and becoming like the poor; and everyone confirms his opinion from the Word. But those who make a distinction in regard to heaven between the rich and the poor do not understand the Word. In its interiors the Word is spiritual, but in the letter it is natural. Consequently, those who apprehend the Word only in accordance with its literal sense, and not according to any spiritual sense, err in many respects, especially about the rich and the poor, for example, that it is as difficult for the rich to enter into heaven as for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, and that it is easy for the poor because they are poor, since it is said,
Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens. Luke vi. 20.
But those who know anything of the spiritual sense of the Word think otherwise; they know that heaven is for all who live a life of faith and love, whether rich or poor. But who are meant in the Word by "the rich" and who by "the poor" will be told in what follows. From much conversation and living with angels it has been granted me to know with certainty that the rich enter heaven just as easily as the poor, and that a man is not shut out of heaven on account of his wealth, nor received into heaven on account of his poverty. Both the rich and the poor are in heaven, and many of the rich in greater glory and happiness than the poor.