AC 1542 - Barriers to the Celestial

AC 1542

There are two things with a person
which prevent his becoming celestial,
one of which belongs to his intellectual,
and the other to his will part:
that which belongs to the intellectual part
consists of the empty memory-knowledges
he learns in childhood and youth;
and that which belongs to the will part
consists of pleasures
from the evil desires which he favors.
These are the hindrances
that prevent his being able to attain to celestial things.
These are first to be dispersed;
and when they have been dispersed,
he can then for the first time
be admitted into the light of celestial things,
and at last into celestial light.

As the Lord was born as are other people,
and was to be informed as others are,
it was necessary for Him to learn memory-knowledges,
which was represented and meant
by Abram's sojourn in Egypt;
and that the empty memory-knowledges
at last left Him,
was represented by
Pharaoh's commanding his men respecting him,
and by their sending him away, and his wife,
and all that he had.
But that the pleasures
which pertain to the things of the will,
and which constitute the sensuous person,
but the outermost of it, also left Him,
is represented in this chapter by Lot,
in that he separated himself from Abram;
for Lot represents such a person.