65. All nations in the wide world who have religion possess precepts like those in the Decalogue, and all who from religion live them are saved, and all who do not live them from religion are damned. When those who live them from religion are instructed after death by the angels, they receive truths, and acknowledge the Lord; the reason of which is that they shun evils as sins, and are consequently in good, and good loves truth, and from the desire of this love, receives it (as has been shown above, n. 32-41). This is meant by the words of the Lord 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. 21:43).
And also by these:
When therefore the Lord of the vineyard shall come, He will destroy those evil men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their season (Matt. 21:40-41).
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 sit down in the kingdom of God, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:11-12; Luke 13:29).