329. 4. This means that everyone is predestined to heaven and no one to hell. I have explained in Heaven and Hell 545-550 (published in London in 1758) that the Lord does not throw anyone into hell, but that spirits throw themselves in. That is how it is with everyone who is evil and cynical after death. It is much the same with people who are evil and irreligious in this world, except that in this world they can be reformed; they can embrace and absorb the means of salvation, which they cannot do after they leave this world.

The means of salvation boil down to these two, that we are to abstain from evils because they are against the divine laws in the Ten Commandments, and that we are to acknowledge that God exists. We can all do this, provided we do not love what is evil. The Lord is constantly flowing into our volition with the power to abstain from evils and into our discernment with the power to think that God is real. However, no one can do one of these things without doing the other as well. They are united the way the two tablets of the Ten Commandments are united, the one being for the Lord and the other for us. From his tablet, the Lord is enlightening and empowering everyone, but we accept that power and enlightenment only as we do what is on our tablet. Until we do that, it is as though the two tablets were lying face to face and closed with a seal; but as we do what is on our tablet, they are unsealed and opened.

[2] What are the Ten Commandments nowadays but a closed booklet or leaflet opened only by the hands of children and youths? Try telling people of mature years that they should not do something because it is against the Ten Commandments--who actually cares? Of course, if you say that they should not do something because it is against divine laws they may listen. But the Ten Commandments are divine laws. I have checked this out with any number of people in the spiritual world, people who sneered when I talked about the Ten Commandments or the catechism. This is because the second tablet of the Ten Commandments, our tablet, tells us that we are to abstain from evils; and if people do not abstain from them, whether because they are irreligious or because their religion says that works do nothing for our salvation, only faith, they feel smug on hearing talk of the Ten Commandments or the catechism. It is like hearing about some children's book that is no longer of any use to them.

[3] I mention this to show that none of us is unfamiliar with the means by which we can be saved, or the power, if we want to be saved. It follows from this that everyone is predestined to heaven, and no one to hell.

However, since for some people a belief in predestination to nonsalvation, which is damnation, has taken over, and this belief is vicious, and since it cannot be dispelled unless reason sees its insanity and cruelty, I need to deal with the matter in the following sequence. (a) Any predestination but predestination to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infinity. (b) Any predestination but predestination to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and its infinity. (c) It is an insane heresy to believe that only those born in the church are saved. (d) It is a cruel heresy to believe that any member of the human race is damned by predestination.

9433. 'From the middle of the cloud' means from the obscurity which existed before. This is clear from the meaning of 'the cloud' as the lowest level of the Word, which is obscure, comparatively so, dealt with above in 9430. 'The cloud' has this meaning because Divine Truth emanating from the Lord cannot possibly appear with the actual brightness it possesses. If it did a person would be destroyed; for his understanding would be completely blinded by the light of truth, and his will would be completely wiped out by the fire of good, so that everything composing his life would be annihilated. This explains why Divine Truth is adjusted to everyone's understanding and is covered as though by a cloud, even among angels, 6849. Among spirits that covering manifests itself as a cloud, the thick or thin texture of which is determined by the way each one receives that Truth.

[2] This is meant by the following in Isaiah,

Jehovah creates over every habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a hut for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and hiding-place from deluge and rain. Isaiah 4:5-6.

'Habitation of Mount Zion' means heaven and the Church. 'Her assemblies' means forms of good and truths. 'A cloud by day', 'smoke by night', and 'a covering' mean the veiling of God's truth, thus the adjustment of it to the ability to understand it, 'the glory' over which the covering will lie meaning Divine Truth which comes from the Lord, see above in 9429. 'A hut' means the lowest level of God's truth which conceals more internal levels, the words 'will be for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge from deluge and rain' meaning in order that a person may be safe from harm.

[3] Another description of the veiling of Divine Truth occurs in David,

O Jehovah my God, You are very great! You have put on glory and honour - He who covers Himself with light, as if with a garment, who lays the beams for His upper chambers on the waters, who makes the clouds His chariot, who sets the earth on its bases in order that it may never be moved. ¹ You have covered it with the deep as if with a garment. You have set a boundary in order that they may not pass over. Psalms 104:1-6, 9.

'Glory and honour' which Jehovah, that is, the Lord, has put on is Divine Truth, 9429. 'Light' with which He covers Himself, as if with a garment, is Divine Truth as it exists in heaven and in the Church; for in the Word Divine Truth is meant by 'light', see the places quoted above in 9429. 'Upper chambers' for which He lays beams on the waters are heavenly communities; and 'the waters' are truths, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568, 9323. 'The clouds' which He makes His chariot are the truths from which doctrinal teachings are formed, 'chariot' meaning doctrinal teachings, see 5321, 8215. 'The earth' which, it says, is set on its bases in order that it may never be moved is the Church; for 'the earth' in the Word means the Church, see the places quoted in 9325. 'The bases' on which it is set are truths on lowest levels, such as exist in the Word, in its literal sense; therefore it says 'in order that it may never be moved'. 'The deep' with which it is covered as if with a garment is factual knowledge of truth for the natural man, 6431, 8278; and from this it is evident what 'the boundary' set in order that they may not pass over is, namely the lowest level of God's truth in which interior things end and on which as their support and foundation they stand and rest, as has been stated.

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