John 18:36-37 My Kingdom is not of this world

³⁶ Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. ³⁷ Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. -John 18:36-37 Bible, King James Version

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling (1844-1911)

CHAPTER 71.

³The news spread through the city and along the shore that Ju­dah’s king had come, and multi­tudes drew near to press his hand.

⁴And Jesus said, I cannot show the king, unless you see with eyes of soul, because the kingdom of the king is in the soul.

⁵And every soul a kingdom is. There is a king for every man.

⁶This king is love, and when this love becomes the greatest power in life, it is the Christ; so Christ is king.

⁷And every one may have this Christ dwell in his soul, as Christ dwells in my soul.

⁸The body is the temple of the king, and men may call a holy man a king.

⁹He who will cleanse his mortal form and make it pure, so pure that love and righteousness may dwell unsullied side by side within its walls, is king.

¹⁰The kings of earth are clothed in royal robes, and sit in state that men may stand in awe of them.

¹¹A king of heaven may wear a fisher’s garb; may sit in mart of trade; may till the soil, or be a gleaner in the field; may be a slave in mortal chains;

¹²May be adjudged a criminal by men; may languish in a prison cell; may die upon a cross.

¹³Men seldom see what others truly are. The human senses sense what seems to be, and that which seems to be and that which is, may be diverse in every way.

¹⁴The carnal man beholds the outer man, which is the temple of the king, and worships at his shrine.

¹⁵The man of God is pure in heart; he sees the king; he sees with eyes of soul;

¹⁶And when he rises to the plane of Christine consciousness, he knows that he himself is king, is love, is Christ, and so is son of God.

¹⁷You men of Galilee, prepare to meet your king.

The Great Cosmic Angel on whose crown blazes the word "Union's" teaches us that; "The outer world's incessant Demand upon your time, attention, upon your energy, and upon your feeling world, is the thing that has hypnotized mankind into the belief, that the outer is more important than the inner!" ('The Voice of the I AM' 1948 December p40) 

Here Jesus appears to be talking about  "the kingdom of God within" (Luke 17:20-21) which we come into after death as apposed to this physical world.

 

Heaven and Hell, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John C. Ager [1900] at sacred-texts.com

  

453.

MAN AFTER DEATH IS IN A COMPLETE HUMAN FORM It has already been shown in several previous chapters that the form of the spirit of man is the human form, that is, that the spirit is a man even in form, especially where it is shown that every angel has a complete human form (n. 73-77) that in respect to his interiors every man is a spirit (n. 432-444); and that the angels in heaven are from the human race (n. 311-317). [2] This can be seen still more clearly from the fact that it is by virtue of his spirit, and not by virtue of his body that man is a man, and that the bodily form is added to the spirit in accordance with the spirit's form, and not the reverse, for it is in accordance with its own form that the spirit is clothed with a body. Consequently the spirit of man acts into every part of the body, even the minutest, insomuch that if any part is not actuated by the spirit, or the spirit is not active in it, it does not live... [3] A spirit that has been loosed from the body... is not visible in the human form to man, because the body's organ of sight, or its eye, so far as it sees in the world, is a material organ, and what is material can see only what is material, while what is spiritual sees what is spiritual...

454.

The form of the spirit is the human form because man is created in respect to his spirit in the form of heaven... (n. 200-212)...; and in the chapter that the form of heaven as a whole and in part reflects a single man (n. 59-77); and this by virtue of the Divine Human of the Lord, which is the source of heaven and its form (n. 78-86). 

455.

That which has now been said can be understood by the rational man, for he can see it from the connection of causes and from truths in their order; but it is not understood by a man who is not rational, and for several reasons, the chief of which is that he has no desire to understand it because it is opposed to the falsities that he has made his truths; and he that is unwilling to understand for this reason has closed to his rational faculty the way to heaven, although that way can still be opened whenever the will's resistance ceases (see above, n. 424)... [3] Because the state of men is such that they are able to understand truths if they wish to, I have been permitted to confirm spiritual truths, which are truths of heaven and the church, even by reasonings, and this in order that the falsities by which the rational mind in many has been closed up may be dispersed by reasonings, and thus the eye may perhaps in some degree be opened; for to confirm spiritual goods by reasonings is permitted to all that are in truths. Who could ever understand the Word from the sense of its letter, unless he saw from an enlightened reason the truths it contains? Is not this the source of so many heresies from the same Word?  

456.

That the spirit of man, when it has been loosed from the body, is still a man and in a like form, has been proved to me by the daily experience of many years; for I have seen such and have listened to them a thousand times, and have talked with them about this fact, that men in the world do not believe them to be men, and that those that do believe this are regarded by the learned as simple. Spirits are grieved at heart that such ignorance still continues in the world, and above all within the church. [2] But this belief they said had emanated chiefly from the learned, who had thought about the soul... and... merely a fleeting breath of pure ether that must needs be dissipated when the body dies. But as the church believes from the Word in the immortality of the soul they are compelled to ascribe to it something vital, such as pertains to thought, but they deny to it any thing of sense, such as man possesses, until it has again been joined to the body. On this opinion the doctrine in regard to the resurrection is based, with the belief that the soul and body will be joined again at the time of the final judgment. For this reason when any one thinks about the soul in accordance with this doctrine and these conjectures, he has no conception that it is a spirit, and in a human form. And still further, scarcely any one at this day knows what the spiritual is, and still less that spiritual beings, as all spirits and angels are, have any human form. [3] Consequently, nearly all that go from this world are greatly surprised to find that they are alive, and are as much men as before, that they see, hear, and speak, and that their body enjoys the sense of touch as before, with no difference whatever (see above, n. 74). And when they cease to be astonished at themselves they are astonished that the church should know nothing about this state of men after death, thus nothing about heaven or hell, when in fact all that have ever lived in the world are in the other life and live as men. And as they wondered also why this had not been disclosed to man by visions, being an essential of the faith of the church, they were told from heaven that although this might have been done, since nothing is easier when it is the Lord's good pleasure, yet those that have confirmed themselves in the opposite falsities would not believe even if they themselves should behold it; also that there is danger in confirming any thing by visions when men are in falsities, for they would then first believe and afterwards deny, and thus would profane the truth itself, since to believe and afterwards deny is to profane; and those who profane truths are cast down into the lowest and most grievous of all the hells. [4] ...That those that are in falsities would not believe [even if visions were given] is meant by these words: Abraham said to the rich man in hell, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. But he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one came to them from the dead they would be converted. But Abraham said to him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe though one should rise from the dead (Luke 16:29-31).

In the Spiritual World the Lord decides who will rule in the inner city of Jerusalem as apposed to who is ruling in Jerusalem in this outer physical world:

 Last Judgment Continued, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John Whitehead [1892] at sacred-texts.com

 

79.

XI. THE JEWS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. Before the Last Judgment the Jews appeared in a valley in the spiritual world, at the left side of the Christian center; but after it, they were transferred into the north, and forbidden to hold interaction with Christians, except with those who wandered outside the cities. In that quarter, there are two great cities into which the Jews are led after death, and which before the judgment, were called Jerusalems, but after it by another name, because after the judgment by "Jerusalem" is meant the church in which the Lord alone is adored. In these cities, converted Jews are appointed over them, who admonish them not to speak scoffingly of Christ; and punish those who still do so. The streets of their cities are filled with mire up to the ankles, and their houses are full of uncleanness, from which they smell, so that they cannot be approached.

80.

An angel sometimes appears to them in a middle altitude above them, with a rod in his hand, and gives them to believe that he is Moses, and exhorts them to desist from the madness of expecting the Messiah even there, because Christ, who governs them and all other men, is the Messiah: he says, that he knows it to be so, and also, that when he was in the world, he knew something concerning Him. On hearing this, they retire; the chief part of them forgetting, and only a few retaining it. They who do retain it are sent to synagogues, which are composed of the converted, and are there instructed; and if they receive instruction, they have new garments given them in place of their old tattered ones, and are presented with the Word neatly written, and with a dwelling in a not unsightly city. But they who do not receive, are cast down into the hells, beneath their great tract; many also are cast into forests and into deserts, where they commit robberies among themselves.

81.

In that world, as in the former, they traffic in various things, especially in precious stones, which, by unknown ways, they procure for themselves from heaven, where there are precious stones in abundance. The reason of their trading in precious stones is, that they read the Word in its original language, and regard the sense of its letter as holy, and precious stones correspond to the sense of the letter of the Word... They sell their precious stones to the Gentiles who encircle them in the northern quarter...

82.

The Jews are more ignorant than others as to their being in the spiritual world, believing that they are still in the natural world. The reason is, that they are wholly external men, and do not think at all of their religion from the interior. On this account also they speak of the Messiah just as they did before, as that He will come with David, and will go before them glittering with diadems, and introduce them into the land of Canaan; and that in the way, by lifting His rod, He will dry up the rivers which they will pass over; and that Christians, whom among themselves they call Gentiles, will then lay hold of the skirts of their garments, and humbly entreat to be allowed to accompany them, and that they will receive the rich according to their wealth, and that even the rich are to serve them. For they are unwilling to know, that "the land of Canaan" in the Word, means the church, and "Jerusalem," the church as to doctrine; and hence that "Jews" mean all those who will be of the Lord's church. That such is the meaning of "Jews" in the Word, may be seen in The Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 51). When they are asked, whether they believe that they also are to enter the land of Canaan, they reply, that they will then descend into it. When it is said, that this land cannot possibly hold them all, they reply that it will then be enlarged. When it is said that they do not know where Bethlehem is nor who is of the stock of David, they say, that it is known to the Messiah who is to come. When asked, how the Messiah the Son of Jehovah, can dwell with those who are so evil, they reply that they are not evil. When it is said that still Moses describes them in his song (Deut. 32) as the worst of nations, they answer, that Moses at that time was angry, because he was to die. But when they are told, that Moses wrote it by the command of Jehovah, they are silent, and go away to consult about the matter. When it is said, that they took their origin from a Canaanite, and from the whoredom of Judah with his daughter-in-law (Gen. 38), they are enraged, and say, that it suffices them to be descended from Abraham. When they are told that interiorly in the Word there is a spiritual sense, which treats of Christ alone, they reply, that it is not so...