8961. The struggle in temptations is over dominion, involving the evil a person has from hell and the good he has from the Lord. The evil which desires to have dominion exists in the natural or external man, whereas the good exists in the spiritual or internal man. Consequently the struggle in temptations is also over the dominion of one over the other. If the evil is victorious, then the natural man has dominion over the spiritual; if the good is victorious, then the spiritual man has dominion over the natural.