265. 3. Doubt about divine providence may be raised by observing the ignorance of the fact that the essence of the Christian religion is to abstain from evils as sins. I have explained in Teachings about Life for the New Jerusalem, from beginning to end, that this is the essence of the Christian religion; and since a faith divorced from charity does nothing but prevent it from being accepted, that topic was dealt with as well. We can say that people have not known that abstaining from evils as sins is the essence of the Christian religion, because hardly anyone does know, and yet everyone does know, really (see 258 above). The reason hardly anyone knows, still, is that faith separated [from charity] has blotted it out. This theology claims that faith alone is what saves us, not any good work or goodness effected by our caring. It claims that we are no longer under the yoke of the law but are in freedom. People who keep hearing this stop thinking about any evil life they may be leading or any good life. We are all inclined by nature to embrace this belief; and once we have done so, we no longer think about the state of our lives. This is the reason for our ignorance.
[2] I have been shown this ignorance in the spiritual world. I have asked more than a thousand newcomers from our world whether they knew that abstaining from evils as sins was the essence of religion, and they have told me that they did not, that this was something new that they were hearing for the first time. They had heard, though, that they could do nothing good on their own and that they were not under the yoke of the law. When I have asked whether they knew that they should examine themselves, see their sins, repent, and then begin a new life, and that otherwise their sins were not forgiven, and that if their sins were not forgiven they would not be saved, noting that they had been told this loud and clear every time they came to the Holy Supper, they have answered that they had not noticed this. All they had really heard was that they were being granted forgiveness of sins through the sacrament of the Supper and that their faith would take care of everything else without their knowing about it.
[3] I have said repeatedly, "Why have you taught your children the Ten Commandments, if it is not so that they would know which evils are the sins that they should abstain from? Is it just that they should know this and believe it, and not do anything about it? So why are you telling me that this is something new?" The only answer they have had is that they knew but did not know. They never thought about the sixth commandment when they were committing adultery or about the seventh when they were engaged in surreptitious theft or fraud, and so on, let alone about the fact that such actions are against divine law and therefore against God.
[4] When I have recited any number of statements from the teachings of the church, along with their scriptural basis, statements that abstaining and turning from evils as sins is the essence of the Christian religion and that our faith depends on the extent to which we have abstained and turned from them, they have been silent. The truth of the matter was proved to them, however, when they saw that they were all being examined in terms of their lives and judged by what they had done, no one being judged by a faith separated from life, because in all cases their faith depended on their life.
[5] It is under a law of divine providence that Christendom is so largely ignorant of this. We are all left to act in freedom and rationally (see above, 71-99, 100-128). The law also applies that no one is taught directly from heaven but indirectly through the Word and through teaching and preaching from it (see 154-174). This ignorance is also under all the laws of permission, which are also laws of divine providence. There is more on these in 258 above.
