422. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. (9:2) This symbolizes falsities accompanying the lusts of the natural self springing from those people's evil loves.

The bottomless pit symbolizes the hell described just above in no. 421. The smoke from it symbolizes falsities arising from lusts, and because the smoke is said to be like that of a great furnace, it means falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves, inasmuch as fire symbolizes love (no. 468), and the fire of hell, evil love (no. 494). A great furnace has the same symbolism, since it smokes owing to fire.

Spirits of hell are not caught up in any material fire, but in a spiritual fire, which is the fire of their love. Consequently they do not feel any other fire. On this subject, see the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 134 566-575.

When any love is aroused in the spiritual world, it appears at a distance like fire - in the hells like a brightly burning fire, and outside the hells like the smoke of a conflagration or the smoke of a furnace.

Falsities accompanying lusts springing from evil loves are described also elsewhere in the Word by smoke from a fire or from a furnace or oven, as in the following places:

(Abraham) looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah..., and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. (Genesis 19:28)

...the sun went down and it was dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the pieces. (Genesis 15:17)

...they sin more and more... Therefore they shall be... like smoke from a flue. (Hosea 13:2-3)

...the wicked shall perish... In smoke they shall be consumed. (Psalms 37:20)

I will show wonders in heaven and on the earth: ...fire and pillars of smoke. (Joel 2:30)

(They) will cast (the evil) into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41-42, 49-50)

And elsewhere.

62. "And I have the keys of hell and death." This symbolically means that He alone is able to save.

Keys symbolize the power to open and close - here the power to open hell so that a person can be brought out, and to close it to keep him from going back in once he has been brought out. For people are born into evils of every kind, thus in a state of hell, for evils constitute hell. They are brought out of it by the Lord, who has the power to open it.

To have the keys of hell and death does not mean the power to cast into hell, but the power to save, and this because it immediately follows the declaration, "Behold, I am alive forevermore," which symbolically means that the Lord alone is eternal life (no. 60). Moreover, the Lord never casts anyone into hell, but it is the person himself who casts himself.

Keys symbolize the power to open also in Revelation 3:7; 9:1; 20:1; in Isaiah 22:21-22; in Matthew 16:19; and in Luke 11:52.

The Lord's power extends not only over heaven but also over hell, for hell is kept in its order and connection by forces directed against and opposed to heaven. Consequently He who rules the one must necessarily rule the other. Otherwise no one could be saved. To be saved is to be brought out of hell.