490. It is plain from the first chapter of Genesis that everything created by God was good. It says there that 'God saw that it was good' (verses 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), and at the end 'God saw everything that He made, and behold, it was very good' (verse 31). It is also plain from man's primeval state in paradise. Evil, however, arose from man, as is plain from Adam's second ¹ state, that is, after the fall, by his being expelled from paradise. It is clear from these facts that if free will in spiritual matters had not been given to man, God Himself, and not man, would have been the cause of evil; in this case God would have created both good and evil, and it is wicked even to think that God created evil too. The reason why God did not create evil, since He bestowed on man free will in spiritual matters, and never puts any evil into his mind, is that He is good itself, and in good God is omnipresent, continually urging and demanding to be received. Even if He is not received, still He does not go away. For if He did, man would instantly die, or rather dissolve into non-existence, since man gets his life, and the continued existence of all he consists of, from God.

[2] Evil was not created by God but introduced by man, because man turns the good which continually flows in from God into evil, by turning away from God and turning towards himself. When this happens, the pleasure given by good remains, but it now becomes the pleasure given by evil; for without an apparently similar pleasure being left man would cease to live, since it is pleasure which makes up the vital principle of his love. These two pleasures are still diametrically opposed, though a person is unaware of this so long as he lives in the world. After death, however, he will know this and indeed feel it plainly, for then the pleasure given by the love of good is turned into heavenly blessedness, but the pleasure given by the love of evil into the torments of hell. These arguments prove that everyone is predestined to heaven, and no one to hell; but it is the person who commits himself to hell by misusing his free will in spiritual matters. As a result he embraces the ideas wafted from hell, since, as was said above, everyone is held mid-way between heaven and hell, so that he can be in equilibrium between good and evil, and consequently have free will in spiritual matters.

Bilješke:

154. On the subject of Divine worship they said that they acknowledged God in human form, that is, our Lord. For any who acknowledge the God of the universe in human form are acceptable to the Lord and are guided by Him. The rest cannot be guided, since their thought is shapeless. They added that the inhabitants of their world are taught about things in heaven by some kind of direct contact with angels and spirits. It is easier for them than for others to be brought into contact by the Lord, because they banish bodily things from their thoughts and affections.

I asked what happens to wicked people among them. They said no one was allowed in their world to behave badly, but if anyone had wicked thoughts and did wicked deeds, he is rebuked by a certain spirit, who threatens him with death if he persists in wrongdoing. If he still persists, he loses consciousness and dies. In this way the people of that world are saved from being infected by the wicked.

One of the spirits of this kind was sent to me, to talk with me as he does with the wicked. In addition he caused me a certain amount of pain in the abdominal region, saying that this was what he did to those who have wicked thoughts and do wicked deeds, threatening them with death if they persisted. They said that those who profane sacred things are severely punished. Before the spirit appears to punish them, they have a vision of a lion's jaws gaping wide open, livid in colour, looking as if it intended to swallow their head and tear it from the body. This gives them a dreadful fright. They call the spirit who punishes them a devil.