65. Among all nations throughout the world with whom there is religion, there are precepts similar to those in the Decalogue; and all who live according to them from religion are saved while all those who do not live according to them from religion are damned. Those who live according to them from religion, being instructed after death by angels, receive truths and acknowledge the Lord. The reason is, that they shun evils as sins, and hence are in good; and good loves truth, and from the desire of love receives it. This is meant by the Lord's words to the Jews:
The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Matt. xxi 43
and also by these words:
When the Lord of the vineyard cometh ... He will . . . destroy the wicked ones, and will let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen who shall return Him the fruits in their time. Matt. xxi 40, 41
and by these:
I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west ... and from the north and the south ... and shall recline in the kingdom of God; but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. Matt. viii 11, 12; Luke xiii 29.
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