A Shinto Shrine around Tokyo
Souls of the Rich in Heaven?
According to Swedenborg, there are souls of rich men in the spirit world and even in Heaven.
Rich men who earned and spent big money not for their own interest but for promoting the divine will and achieving holy purpose can enter into Heaven. Indeed, Christ Jesus did not say that rich men could not 100% enter into Heave. However, the emphasis of His saying is not on the fact that even rich men can be accepted into Heaven. His intention is still to give a warning to those who want to be rich in this world.
Those who think that they need money to perform the teaching of God and thus earn big money to be eventually rich must not be rich at all in the worldly sense. Such men must be still poor inside, although he has earned big money to achieve divine purpose. Such men should not live rich, eat rich, or equip themselves rich. Their souls should look poor because their inside is humble and poor unlike the souls of worldly rich men.
The fact that there are rich men means that there are poor men. The rich make the poor envy the rich. The poor who see and envy the rich would naturally try to be rich. It does not matter whether the rich use their money only for godly purposes or for their own interest. The rich can satisfy their desire to be rich, but the poor cannot enjoy such status and pride. The poor should envy the rich even if the rich use all the money they have to save the poor and fulfill the divine will. Such poor men might try to be rich by any means, for example, by selling their souls to Satan.
In reality, it must be almost impossible for the rich to use their wealth only for godly purposes. If you are rich, you should surely live rich, eat rich, and wear rich clothes. So, it is very misleading for Swedenborg to say that there are souls of rich men in Heaven who spent their money for achieving divine will.
The souls of rich men Swedenborg saw in Heaven must not be souls of rich men in this world. They must have been poor in this world. But, when they were admitted into Heaven, they earned much money (if there should be money in Heaven) to spend it according to the divine will, so that they must have looked rich in Heaven to the eyes of Swedenborg.
Christ Jesus told the poor in this world that they should be satisfied in Heaven, which means that they should be rich in Heaven. So, the souls of the rich Swedenborg saw in Heaven must not be the souls of those who were rich while living in this world.
Swedenborg was a rich man while living in this world. Therefore, he wanted to see that even rich men in this world could be allowed into Heaven. But it indicates that Swedenborg did not understand the divine well.
If there had be such rich men in this world as would spend their wealth to achieve divine purposes, the poor in this world should not have suffered so much that the God had to send His Son Christ Jesus to the human world to save the poor. In other words, Christ Jesus did not come to this world to allow the rich to enter into Heaven but to save and help the poor to go to Heaven.
No matter how rich and high in the social status, you can be accepted in Heaven as long as you perform the divine will. Swedenborg wanted to spread this notion by writing various books and reports on the spirit world and the afterlife. Yet, the divine will is for people to understand that everybody should be poor so that nobody sells his soul to Satan.
Swedenborg should understand why Christ Jesus purposely declared:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24)
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Mark 9, King James Version
27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
30 And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.
31 For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
32 But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.