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:

65. The uses of all things that have been created ascend by degrees from the lowest created forms to mankind, and through mankind to God the Creator from whom they originate. The lowest created forms are, as we said above, each and every constituent of the mineral kingdom, which are substances of various kinds, composed of stony, saline, oily, mineral and metallic materials, and covered with soil resulting from plant and animal matter disintegrating into a fine dust. In these lie the end in all uses that originate from life, and also their beginning. The end in all uses is the endeavor to effect them, and their beginning is the force acting as a result of that endeavor. These are the end in and the beginning of the uses of the mineral kingdom.

[2] Intermediate created forms are each and every constituent of the plant kingdom. These are grasses and herbs of every kind, shrubs and bushes of every kind, and trees of every kind. Their uses exist to serve each and every constituent of the animal kingdom, both the lower ones and the higher. They nourish these, gratify them, and enliven them. They nourish their bodies with their substances, gratify their senses with their taste, smell and beauty, and enliven their affections. An endeavor to serve in these ways is present in them also from life.

[3] The highest created forms are each and every constituent of the animal kingdom. The lowest forms in it are called worms and insects, the intermediate ones birds and beasts, and the highest ones human beings. For every kingdom has in it its lowest, intermediate, and highest constituents, the lowest existing to serve the intermediate, and the intermediate existing to serve the highest.

Thus do the uses of all things that have been created ascend in turn from the lowest created forms to mankind, which is the highest in order.