154. The reason the Lord created the universe and everything in it by means of the spiritual world's sun is that this sun is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom, and as explained above (52-82), everything comes from divine love and wisdom.

There are three components of everything that has been created, no matter how large or how small it is: a purpose, a means, and a result. There is nothing created that lacks these three components. In the largest instance, the universe, these three components arise in the following pattern: the purpose of everything is in that sun that is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom; the means of everything is in the spiritual world; and the result of everything is in the physical world. I will describe below [167-172] how these three components occur in both first and last forms.

Since there is nothing created that lacks these three components, it follows that the universe and everything in it has been created by the Lord by means of the sun where the purpose of everything resides.

545. THE LORD CASTS NO ONE INTO HELL; BUT THIS IS DONE BY THE SPIRIT HIMSELF

An opinion has prevailed with some that God turns away His face from man, rejects man from Himself, and casts him into hell, and is angry with him on account of his evil; and with some the opinion goes further, that God punishes man and does evil to him. They confirm themselves in this opinion from the sense of the letter of the Word, where similar things are said, not knowing that the spiritual sense of the Word, which explains the sense of the letter, is wholly different; and consequently that the genuine doctrine of the Church, which is from the spiritual sense of the Word, teaches otherwise, namely, that God never turns away His face from man, and never rejects man from Himself; that He casts no one into hell and is angry with no one. ¹ Everyone, moreover, whose mind is enlightened, perceives this to be true when he reads the Word, from a perception solely from it, because God is Good Itself, Love Itself, and Mercy Itself; and he has a perception that Good Itself cannot do evil to anyone, and Love Itself and Mercy Itself cannot reject man from itself; because this is contrary to the very essence of mercy and love, thus contrary to the Divine Itself. Therefore those who think from an enlightened mind clearly perceive, when they read the Word, that God never turns Himself away from man; and as He never turns Himself away from him He deals with him from goodness, love, and mercy, that is, wills good to him, loves him, and is merciful to him. And from this they see that the sense of the letter of the Word, in which such things are said, has stored up within itself a spiritual sense, and that these expressions, that are used in the sense of the letter in accommodation to man's apprehension and according to his first and general ideas, are to be explained in accordance with the spiritual sense.

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9010. 'And God caused it to happen at his hand' means appearing as something happening by chance. This is clear from ancient people's idea of chance, which was that whatever happened was brought about by God; and this was why they expressed the idea of chance by saying that 'God caused it to happen at someone's hand'. Those who belonged to the ancient Churches knew that the Lord's providence was present in every single thing, and that contingencies, that is, things which appeared to happen by chance, were providential. Simple people therefore who could see no difference between things that happened because He permitted them and those that happened because He was well pleased by them attributed to the Lord both good and evil, good because they knew that He was the author of everything good, but evil on account of the appearance. For when a person performs evil deeds, and by performing them turns away from the Lord, the appearance is that the Lord turns away; at this time the Lord appears to him to be behind, not in front of him. These then are the reasons why if anyone struck another by chance, that is, his will had not contemplated the deed beforehand, the words 'God caused it to happen at his hand' were used to express it.

The Lord's providence is in every single thing, see 1919 (end), 4329, 5122 (end), 5155, 5195, 5894 (end), 6058, 6481-6487, 6489, 6491, 7004, 7007, 8478, 8717.

Contingencies or chance occurrences are providential, 5508, 6493, 6494.

Evil is attributed to the Lord, when in fact it originates in man, 2447, 5798, 6071, 6832, 6991, 6997, 7533, 7877, 7926, 8197, 8227, 8228, 8282, 8284, 8483, 8632.