190. [192.] I found that when I confidently believed concepts of truth from the Lord, evil spirits were incapable of refuting them, or even of reasoning about them - such concepts as that the Lord rules the universe; that the Lord alone is life; that a person's inherent nature is nothing but evil; and other like things. Evil spirits hearing these, even though they did not believe them, still were unable to contradict them, for truth confounds them, because it does not allow their intellectual faculty to think against it. It was apparent from this that those who possess a simple faith in the truth withstand the assaults of the evil; and I also saw some possessed of truths who passed through a number of hells, and all there drew back and could not approach, much less do them any harm. On the other hand, one who believes such matters of faith as are peddled in the church today does not have this power. The evil care not at all about these, because they do not contain any truth from the Lord.
