50
Jūs, kurie ištrūkote nuo kardo, eikite, nestovėkite vietoje, ir, toli būdami, atsiminkite Viešpatį ir Jeruzalę”.
Jeremijas 51:50
True Christianity # 45
45. From this description of divine love's essence, you can also see what the essence of diabolical love is like; it becomes visible by contrast.
Diabolical love is a love for oneself. This is called love, but seen in its own right it is really hatred. It does not love anyone outside itself. It does not want to form a partnership with others in order to bless them; it wants to bless only itself. From deep inside, it constantly strives to dominate all others and to own the good things they have.
Eventually it wants to be adored as God. This is why those who are in hell do not acknowledge God. Instead they acknowledge as gods those who have power over others. From hell's point of view, then, there are lower and higher gods, or lesser and greater gods, according to the reach of each one's power. Because all who are in hell carry love for themselves in their heart, they burn with hatred against their "god. "
The "gods" in turn burn with hatred against all who are under their thumb; they think of them as vile slaves. They manage to speak softly to them as long as their followers keep showing adoration. They openly rage against all others. Inwardly or at heart, they rage against their followers as well.
Love for oneself is the same love you see among thieves, who kiss each other when they are on a job together, but later each burn with a desire to kill the others and take their share.
In hell, love for oneself is the dominant force. It causes the people there and their selfish lusts to appear at a distance as various species of wild animal. Some people there look like foxes and leopards, some like wolves and tigers, some like crocodiles and venomous snakes. Their love for themselves also causes the deserts they live in to consist of mere piles of stones and bare gravel, with swamps here and there that contain croaking frogs. Over their huts fly miserable screeching birds. These animals and birds are the same as the owls, the wild beasts of the desert, and the jackals mentioned in the prophetical books of the Word in reference to the love of dominating that comes from love for oneself (Isaiah 13:21; Jeremiah 50:39; Psalms 74:14).
Psalms 74
1
God, why have you rejected us forever? why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2
Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
3
Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4
Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
5
They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
6
Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
7
They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
8
They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
9
We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
10
How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
11
Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
12
Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13
You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14
You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
15
You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
16
The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
17
You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
18
Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19
Don't deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don't forget the life of your poor forever.
20
Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
21
Don't let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22
Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
23
Don't forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A Psalm by Asaph. A song.
