Part of the Plan. "I go to prepare a place for you.… that where I am there you may be also."
The Lord’s deepest wish is to gather us close to Himself, to draw us into harmony with Himself, so that we can experience His life more fully and share in His joy. This deepest aim is why He created us! And it is fulfilled when we freely choose to dwell in heaven.
The purpose of life here is to prepare for heaven. The world we now live in is a place of dawning consciousness and character development — a place for exercising a fundamental choice. The business of life here is to choose whether or not we will be brought into harmony with the Lord.
Heaven and hell are essentially states of mind. We experience them right here. But in leaving behind the limitations of this world at death we enter much more fully “into the joy of our Lord.” Or into the bitter pleasures that living for self brings. Death is merely a transition to the spiritual world.
The New Church has an abundance of teachings about life after death, and the spiritual world. These teachings present a dynamic picture of the reality of that world and our constant, formative connection with it.