It is in accordance with the Lord's words that a Christian who marries more than one wife commits natural adultery. He laid down that it is not allowable to divorce a wife, because they have from the beginning been created so as to be one flesh; if anyone divorces his wife without just cause and marries another, he commits adultery (Matt. 19:3-11). Thus he does so even more, if he does not divorce his wife, but keeps her and brings another one home as well. This law on marriage laid down by the Lord has an inward reason derived from the spiritual marriage; for whatever the Lord said is in itself spiritual. This is the meaning of these words:

The words I speak to you are spirit and life (John 6:63).

The spiritual meaning of this statement is that a polygamous marriage in the Christian world profanes the marriage of the Lord and the church, and likewise that of good and truth, as well as the Word, and the church together with the Word. To profane these is to commit spiritual adultery. It can be seen proved in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (134) that the profanation of the church's good and truth from the Word corresponds to adultery, hence it is spiritual adultery. The same is true of the falsification of good and truth, but this is less serious.

[2] The reason why polygamous marriages among Christians profane the marriage of the Lord and the church is that there exists a correspondence between that Divine marriage and marriages among Christians (on which see 83-102 above). This correspondence is utterly destroyed, if one wife is added to another; and when it is destroyed, the married person is no longer a Christian. The reason why polygamous marriages among Christians profane the marriage of good and truth is that marriages on earth are derived from this spiritual marriage. Marriage among Christians differs from that of other nations in that, just as good loves truth and truth loves good and they become one, so do a wife and a husband. If therefore a Christian were to add one wife to another, that spiritual marriage would split apart; thus he would profane the source of his marriage, so as to commit spiritual adultery. On marriages on earth being derived from the marriage of good and truth see 116-131 above. The reason why by a polygamous marriage a Christian would profane the Word and the church is that the Word regarded in itself is a marriage of good and truth, and so likewise is the church, in so far as it is based on the Word (see 128-131 above).

[3] Now since a Christian, because he knows the Lord, has the Word, and since the Lord places the church in him through its means, it is obvious that he is more able than the non-Christian to be reborn, so becoming spiritual, and to achieve truly conjugial love, since these go together. Since those among the Christians who marry more than one wife commit not only natural adultery, but at the same time also spiritual adultery, it follows that polygamous Christians are after death more grievously damned than those who commit only natural adultery. When I asked about their condition after death, I received the reply that heaven is completely shut to them; and they are to be seen in hell as if lying in warm water in a bath-tub. They look like this seen from a distance, even though they are standing on their feet and walking about. This is the result of their intrinsic madness. A few of them have been cast into the quagmires which are at the worlds' ends.