382. X. The wicked have no faith.

All those who deny the creation of the world by God, and so deny God, are wicked, for they are godless nature-worshippers. The reason they are all wicked is that all good, which is not only naturally but also spiritually good, is from God. Those, therefore, who deny God are unwilling and for that reason unable to accept anything good from any source except their own self. A person's self is the longing of his flesh, and whatever arises from this is spiritually evil, however good it seems naturally. These people are wicked in theory; and the wicked in practice are those who pay no heed to God's commands, which are summed up in the Ten Commandments, and live outside the law. The reason why they too at heart deny God, although many of them confess God with their lips, is that God and His commands make one. This is why the Ten Commandments are addressed as the presence of Jehovah (Numbers 10:35-36; Psalms 132:7-8). But to make it plainer that the wicked have no faith, a conclusion will be drawn from two propositions:

(i) The wicked have no faith because evil belongs to hell and faith to heaven.

(ii) All those in the Christian world have no faith who reject the Lord and the Word, although they live moral lives, and talk, teach and write rationally, even about faith.

But these propositions must be examined one by one.