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This week we're taking a look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. One of the things we want to address is the idea that God destroyed these cities. We believe that God is love, and that He didn't actually rain fire and brimstone down, but it sure appeared that way to Abram. Instead of seeing this as a story of God's wrath, we see it as showing us that God will go to great lengths to protect the good, and that despite warning to leave a doomed place, evil people choose to stay and thus ultimately doom themselves.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 2322, 2380, 2438, Genesis 19:1-29)

2322. That 'Sodom' means the evil, especially those inside the Church, is clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as evil that stems from self-love, dealt with in 2220, 2246. It means therefore people who are governed by such evil. People who understand the Word purely from the sense of the letter may imagine that 'Sodom' is used to mean a certain kind of foul behaviour that is totally unnatural, but in the internal sense 'Sodom' means evil that springs from self-love. Out of this evil all evils of every kind well up. And the evils that well up from it are in the Word called 'adulteries' and are described as such. This will be clear from those places in the Word which will be quoted at the end of this chapter.