250、对涉及永生的主题的这种无知，是由爱自己世界的邪恶引发的，这一点从教会里的人的情形明显看出来。他们虽凭启示意识到有一位神，有一个天堂和一个地狱，还有永生，并且永生必须通过爱与信之良善获得，但仍陷入对这些事实的否认中，无论受过教育的还是未受过教育的。由此再次明显可知，要是没有启示，这种无知将何等之大。
250、观察教会里的人，很显然的见到由爱自己和爱世界所生的邪恶，导致人们对永恒生命是如此无知。虽然教会之人通过启示得知有一位上帝，天堂，地狱和永生都是事实，并且永生是经由爱与信激发的良善达成，他们却不管是有知识还是无文化的，都拒绝接受，不能自拔。这进一步表明，如果没有启示，人类将是何等无知。
250. If we consider people in the church, we can see very clearly that the evils of love for ourselves and for the world bring about this kind of ignorance about eternal life. Even though people in the church are informed from revelation that God exists, that heaven and hell are real, that there is an eternal life, and that this eternal life is gained by doing good things that are inspired by love and faith, still they fall into denial; and the educated are as prone to this denial as the uneducated.
This shows how great the ignorance would be if there were no revelation.
250. You can see clearly from the Christians that the harmful things that come from selfishness and materialism bring about this kind of ignorance about anything that has to do with eternal life. Christians know from revelation that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, that there is eternal life, and that we can gain this eternal life through the good things that come from love and faith. Still, both educated and uneducated Christians lapse into a denial of these things. So once again, you can see how ignorant we would be if there were no revelation at all.
250. Such ignorance about subjects relating to everlasting life is induced by the evils of self-love and love of the world, as is obvious by considering people within the church. Although they know by revelation of the existence of God, of heaven and hell, of everlasting life, and that that life is to be won by the good of love and faith, they still stumble into a denial of these facts; and this whether they are well educated or not. This again makes it plain how great people's ignorance would be in the absence of revelation.
250. That the evils of the love of self and the world induce such ignorance concerning the things which belong to eternal life, is plainly evident from the case of those within the Church; for, although they are aware from revelation that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is eternal life, and that that life has to be acquired through the good of love and faith, they still lapse into a denial of these things, the educated as well as the uneducated. From this it is again evident how great the ignorance would be, were there no revelation.
250. That the evils of the love of self and of the world induce such ignorance concerning those things which are of eternal life, appears manifestly from those within the church; who, although they know from revelation that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is eternal life, and that eternal life is to be acquired by the good of love and faith, still lapse into denial concerning those things, both the learned and the unlearned. Hence it is further evident how great ignorance there would be, if there were no revelation.
250. Quod mala amoris sui et mundi inducant talem ignorantiam de illis quae sunt vitae aeternae, patet manifeste ab illis intra ecclesiam; qui tametsi sciunt ex revelatione quod Deus sit, quod caelum et infernum sint, quod vita aeterna sit, et quod illa vita comparanda sit per bonum amoris et fidei, usque labuntur in negationem de illis, tam eruditi quam non eruditi. Inde iterum patet quanta ignorantia foret si nulla esset revelatio.