118. This enabled it to be made plain that God became man. This is the first and most essential purpose of the Word's existence. For no one can believe in God and love Him, unless he can grasp Him in some form. Consequently those who acknowledge an invisible and therefore incomprehensible deity slip into thinking of nature as god, and so come to believe in no god at all. The Lord was therefore pleased to be born here, and to make that known by means of the Word, so that it should be known, not only on this globe, but by this means it should be made plain to spirits and angels from other worlds too, as well as to the heathen from our world.# # In the next life the heathen are taught by angels, and those who have lived good lives in accordance with their own religion accept the truths of faith and acknowledge the Lord (AC 2049, 2595, 2598, 2600-1, 2603, 2861 [2661 in original], 2863, 3263).