956. And no one was able to enter into the temple, signifies that it is in obscurity before the understanding. This is evident from the signification of the "temple," as being the Word (see above); therefore "not to enter the temple on account of the smoke" signifies that the Word is in obscurity before the understanding. The Word is in obscurity even so as not to be understood because in the end of the church there are no truths, and thus all things of the Word are falsified; therefore until genuine truths have been disclosed the Word is in obscurity before the understanding.
(Continuation respecting the First Commandment)
[2] As man from a general influx out of heaven sees in his spirit that God is Man, it follows that those who are of the church where the Word is, if they shun and turn away from evils as sins, see, from the light of heaven in which they then are, the Divine in the Lord's Human, and the trine in Him, and Himself to be the God of heaven and earth. But those cannot see this who by intelligence from what is their own [proprium] have destroyed in themselves the idea of God as Man; neither do they see from the trinity that is in their thought that God is one; they call Him one with the lips only. But those who have not been purified from evils, and therefore are not in the light of heaven, do not in their spirit see the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth; but in place of the Lord some other being is acknowledged; by some of these someone whom they believe to be God the Father; by others someone whom they call God because he is especially powerful; by others some devil whom they fear because he can bring evil upon them; by others nature, as in the world; and by others no God at all. It is said "in their spirit," because they are such after death when they become spirits; therefore what lay concealed in their spirit in the world then becomes manifest. But all who are in heaven acknowledge the Lord only, since the whole heaven is from the Divine that proceeds from Him, and relates to Him as Man; and for this reason no one can enter heaven unless he is in the Lord, for he enters into the Lord when he enters into heaven. If others enter they become impotent in mind and fall backwards.
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