ng about them
may be seen in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_
(nn. 91-97 and 104-113).

254. _The merely natural man confirms himself against divine providence
when he observes the religious conditions in various nations and notes
that some people are totally ignorant of God, some worship the sun and
moon, and some worship idols and graven images._ Those who argue from
these facts against divine providence are ignorant of the arcana of
heaven; these arcana are innumerable and man is acquainted with hardly
any of them. Among them is this: man is not taught from heaven directly
but mediately (this may be seen treated above, nn. 154-174). Because he
is taught mediately, and the Gospel could not through the medium of
missionaries reach all who dwell in the world, but religion could be
spread in various ways to inhabitants of the remote corners of the earth,
this has been effected by divine providence. For a knowledge of religion
does not come to a man from himself, but through another who has either
learned it from the Word or by tradition from others who have learned it,
for instance that God is, heaven and hell exist, there is a life after
death, and God must be worshiped for man to be blessed.

[2] See in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture_ (nn.
101-103) that religion spread throughout the world from the Ancient Word
and afterwards from the Israelitish Word, and (nn. 114-118) that unless
there had been a Word no one could have known about God, heaven and hell,
life after death, and still less about the Lord. Once a religion is
established in a nation the Lord leads that nation according to the
precepts and tenets of its own religion, and He has provided that there
should be precepts in every religion like those in the Decalog, that God
should be worshiped, His name not be profaned, a holy day be observed,
that parents be honored, murder, adultery and theft not be committed, and
false witness not be spoken. A nation that regards these precepts as
divine and lives according to them in religion's name is saved, as was
just said (n. 253). Most nations remote from Christendom regard these
laws not as civil but as divine, and hold them sacred. See in _Doctrine
of the New Jerusalem [about Life] from the Precepts of the Decalog,_ from
beginning to end, that a man is saved by a life according to these
precepts.

[3] Also among the arcana of heaven is this: in the Lord's sight the
angeli