“There are various opinions as to reception into heaven. Some suppose that the poor are received, and not the rich; some that the rich and the poor are received alike; some that the rich cannot be received unless they give up their wealth and become as the poor; each opinion being confirmed from the Word. But those who make a distinction between the rich and the poor as to heaven, do not understand the Word. The Word in its interiors is spiritual, but in the letter natural; they therefore who take the Word only according to the literal sense, and not according to any spiritual sense, err in many things, especially in regard to the rich and the poor; as 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 heaven (Luke vi. 20, 21). But those who know anything of the spiritual sense of the Word, think
otherwise; they know that heaven is for all who live the life of faith and love, whether they be rich or poor. But who are meant by the rich in the Word, and who by the poor, will be told in what follows. From much converse and life with angels, it has been given me to know certainly that the rich come as easily into heaven as the poor, and that man is not excluded from heaven because he lives in abundance, nor received into heaven because he is in poverty. There are there both the rich and the poor, and many of the rich in greater glory and happiness than the poor.”
— The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition (Hyperlinked Works of Emanuel Swedenborg Book 1) by Emanuel Swedenborg
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