9033. The last two verses have dealt with the weakening of spiritual truth, that is, truth contained in the teachings and belief of the Church. But the two verses which follow next deal with the weakening of factual truth, which belongs to the literal sense of the Word, by spiritual truth, which is contained in the teachings and belief of the Church. This, it is true, appears to be a similar matter to that in the previous paragraph; but it is not similar. Therefore let an example again be used to clarify it. One spiritual truth or genuine truth contained in the teachings and belief of the Church is that the Lord punishes no one, since He is Mercy itself, and therefore whatever He does, He does because He is merciful and in no way at all because He is angry and vengeful. And yet the Lord says in Matthew,

Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. Matthew 10:28.

Here it says that God should be feared because He is able to destroy body and soul in Gehenna, when in fact He destroys no one; but it is still a truth. Therefore it must not be dispensed with, that is, denied, because if it is denied, faith in the Word perishes. And if that perishes a person cannot have any spiritual life within himself, for spiritual life comes to a person from the Word through faith.

[2] The truth of the matter is this: It is a law of Divine order that good holds within itself its own reward, which is heaven. So too evil holds within itself its own punishment, which is hell. The first law begins in the Lord, since the Lord intends good to all; but not so the second, since the Lord intends ill to none. It nevertheless comes about, not because of the Lord but because of the person immersed in evil, thus because of evil itself. Yet such ill is attributed to the Lord in the literal sense of the Word, because He appears to be the cause of it. Therefore since it is an apparent truth it must not be denied, that is, must not be disposed of; for faith in the Word, simple people's faith, would thereby be disposed of, see 2447, 6071, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7632, 7643, 7679, 7710, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8483, 8631, 8632, 9010.

8632. I talked to spirits belonging to that planet about the Lord, saying that He does ill to no one, still less punishes anyone. Being some of the more simple, those spirits were at first unwilling to accept this, believing that the Lord was the author of punishments. But I told them that their angels present with a person on their planet do not chastise or even speak harshly, and that they do no more than allow spirits that administer punishment, who are also present, to chastise. And since those angels do not chastise, much less does the Lord, who is Goodness itself and the Ruler of the angels, do so. Having heard what I told them those spirits acknowledged and declared affirmatively with a clear voice that the Lord punishes no one, does ill to no one, and does not even speak harshly to anyone. Regarding the angels and regarding the spirits who administer punishment among the inhabitants of Jupiter, see 7802-7805, 7810.