2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2
True Christian Religion #490
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:
1. Reading secundo for secundum.
Job 28
1
"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
2
Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
3
Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
4
He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
5
As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
6
Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
7
That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon's eye seen it.
8
The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
9
He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
10
He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
11
He binds the streams that they don't trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.
12
"But where shall wisdom be found? where is the place of understanding?
13
Man doesn't know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.
14
The deep says, 'It isn't in me.' The sea says, 'It isn't with me.'
15
It can't be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
16
It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17
Gold and glass can't equal it, neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine Gold.
18
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20
Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
21
Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
22
Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.'
23
"God understands its way, and he knows its place.
24
For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
25
He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
26
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27
then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.
28
To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.'"
