545. The Lord Does Not Cast Anyone into Hell: Spirits Cast Themselves In

Some people cherish the notion that God turns his face away from people, spurns them, and casts them into hell, and is angry against them because of their evil. Some people even go so far as to think that God punishes people and does them harm. They support this notion from the literal meaning of the Word where things like this are said, not realizing that the spiritual meaning of the Word, which makes sense of the letter, is wholly different. So the real doctrine of the church, which is from the spiritual meaning of the Word, teaches something else. It teaches that the Lord never turns his face away from anyone or spurns anyone, never casts anyone into hell or is angry. ¹

Anyone whose mind is enlightened perceives this while reading the Word simply from the fact that the Lord is goodness itself, love itself, and mercy itself. Good itself cannot do harm to anyone. Love itself and mercy itself cannot spurn anyone, because this is contrary to mercy and love and is therefore contrary to the divine nature itself. So people who are thinking with an enlightened mind when they read the Word perceive clearly that God never turns away from us, and that because he does not turn away from us, he behaves toward us out of goodness and love and mercy. That is, he wills well toward us, loves us, and has compassion on us.

Enlightened minds also see from this that the literal meaning of the Word where things like this are said has a spiritual meaning concealed within it, a meaning needed to explain expressions that in the letter are adapted to human comprehension, things said in accord with our primary and general conceptions.

Footnotes:

8632. I talked to spirits belonging to that planet about the Lord, saying that He does ill to no one, still less punishes anyone. Being some of the more simple, those spirits were at first unwilling to accept this, believing that the Lord was the author of punishments. But I told them that their angels present with a person on their planet do not chastise or even speak harshly, and that they do no more than allow spirits that administer punishment, who are also present, to chastise. And since those angels do not chastise, much less does the Lord, who is Goodness itself and the Ruler of the angels, do so. Having heard what I told them those spirits acknowledged and declared affirmatively with a clear voice that the Lord punishes no one, does ill to no one, and does not even speak harshly to anyone. Regarding the angels and regarding the spirits who administer punishment among the inhabitants of Jupiter, see 7802-7805, 7810.