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.

Footnotes:

671. And their enemies saw them.- That this signifies cognition and acknowledgment with those who are interiorly opposed to the goods and truths of the Word and of the church, is evident from the signification of seeing, as denoting to understand, consequently to know and to acknowledge (concerning which see above 11, 37, 260, 354, 529); and from the signification of enemies, as denoting those who are opposed to the goods of love and the truths of doctrine, consequently those who are in evils and falsities, for these are meant, in the Word, in its spiritual sense by enemies (inimicos) and foes (hostes). It is therefore evident, that by their enemies saw them, is signified cognition and acknowledgment with those who are against the two witnesses, which are the goods of love and truths of doctrine.

[2] The interior truth involved is as follows: by enemies are here meant those who are interiorly, but yet not outwardly, opposed to the goods of love and the truths of doctrine, for with the lips they act as friends, but in heart as enemies. Therefore before the world they profess those things, but in their spirit, in which they are when engaged in meditating alone, they deny them. These, therefore, are the enemies who see; for when they are in corporeal-natural thought, which is the case when they are in the company of others, they see, that is, know and acknowledge goods and truths; but when they are in spiritual-natural thought, which is the case when they are alone, and think concerning the things of faith, then they do not acknowledge them. This is why it is said, that those two witnesses ascended into heaven in a cloud; for the cloud signifies the external of the Word, of the church, and of worship, which, and from which, they see. That the cloud there signifies this external, may be seen in the article just above.

[3] In numerous passages of the Word, mention is made of foes and enemies, and by them are meant evils and falsities, by foes (hostes), evils, and by enemies (inimici), falsities, for the Word in its bosom is spiritual; therefore in that sense foes and enemies mean only spiritual foes and enemies. That this is the case is evident from the following passages.

In David:

"Jehovah, how are my foes increased, many are they that rise up against me, that say of my soul, no safety (salus) for him in God" (Psalm 3:1, 2).

In the same:

"Make wonderful thy mercy, O Saviour of them that trust, from them that rise up against me; keep me by thy right hand, from the wicked who are against my soul, who compass me about" (Psalm 17:7-9).

In the same:

"Deliver me not up to the desire of my foes, for witnesses of a lie have risen up against me, who breathe out violence; unless I had trusted to see good in the land of life" (Psalm 27:12, 13).

In the same:

"Deliver me from my foes, O my God, from them that rise up against me, lift me up; deliver me from the workers of iniquity, behold they lay snares for my soul" (Psalm 59:1-3).

In Isaiah:

"The wicked acteth perversely in the land of uprightness, but Jehovah, thine hand is lifted up, fire shall devour thine enemies" (26:10, 11).

Besides in many other places in the prophetic Word, where foes and enemies are mentioned, and also in the historic Word, where foes, wars, and battles are treated of. For as war signifies spiritual war, which is that between truths and falsities, and as the weapons of war, such as spears, bows, arrows, and swords, signify those things that pertain to spiritual war, so also do foes and enemies. That wars, in the Word, and also weapons of war, as bows, arrows, and swords, signify such things, has been frequently shown in the preceding pages.