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.
Genesis 35
1
God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."
2
Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.
3
Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went."
4
They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5
They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn't pursue the sons of Jacob.
6
So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
7
He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8
Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.
9
God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.
10
God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel." He named him Israel.
11
God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.
12
The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land."
13
God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.
14
Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.
15
Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him "Bethel."
16
They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.
17
When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for now you will have another son."
18
It happened, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
19
Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).
20
Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.
21
Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
22
It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
23
The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24
The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
25
The sons of Bilhah (Rachel's handmaid): Dan and Naphtali.
26
The sons of Zilpah (Leah's handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
27
Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.
28
The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.
29
Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.
