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).
Jeremiah 21
1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
2
Inquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; it may be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
3
Then said Jeremiah to them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:
4
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
5
And I myself will fight against you with an out-stretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
6
And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die by a great pestilence.
7
And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life; and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
8
And to this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
9
He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.
10
For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
11
And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
12
O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is made desolate out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
13
Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; who say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
14
But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things around it.
