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:

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.

9128. 'If the sun has risen on him' means if he sees it clearly - the theft that is being committed - from a more internal level. This is clear from the meaning of 'the sun rising' as its being seen in light, thus its being seen clearly, at this point that good or truth is being taken away, meant by 'the theft', 9125. The reason why 'if the sun has risen' has this meaning is that 'the thief caught digging through', spoken of in the previous verse, means good or truth being taken away secretly, thus without its being seen, 9125. The reason for saying seen from a more internal level is that such an action is seen by the internal man.

[2] Since it is an important matter, something must be stated about what seeing from a more internal level implies. A person sees within himself whether what he thinks and intends, and consequently what he speaks and does, is good or bad, and therefore whether it is true or false. This is not at all possible unless the person sees from a more internal level. Seeing from a more internal level takes place when things are seen by the internal man within the external. This is like the sight of the eye; the eye cannot see things within itself, only those outside it. This then is how a person sees the good and the bad he has within himself. Nevertheless one person's sight of this is better than another's, and some have no sight of it whatever. The ones with sight of it are those who have received from the Lord the life of faith and charity; for this life is internal life or the life of the internal man. Because truth resides with these people by virtue of their faith, and good by virtue of their charity, they can see the evils and falsities present in themselves; for evil can be seen from good, and falsity can be seen from truth, but not the other way round. The reason for this is that good and truth are in heaven and the light of heaven, whereas evil and falsity are in hell and the darkness of hell. From this it is evident that those immersed in evil and as a result in falsity cannot see good or truth; they cannot even see the evil and falsity present within themselves. Nor consequently can they see from a more internal level.

[3] But it should be recognized that seeing from a more internal level is seeing from the Lord; for the situation with sight is the same as it is with everything that comes into being. Nothing brings itself into being; rather it springs from what is prior to or higher than itself, and so finally from the First and Highest. The First and Highest is the Lord. Anyone who understands this can also understand that all of the life present in a person comes from the Lord; and, since charity and faith constitute that most real life a person can have, that all of the charity and all of the faith come from the Lord. A person endowed with greater power of thought and perception than others can also understand from all this that the Lord sees every single thing, even the smallest things present in a person. Evil and falsity however do not spring into being from what is higher than themselves but from what is lower; consequently they do not spring from the Lord but from the world, since the Lord is above whereas the world is below. Therefore the internal man with those immersed in evil and as a result in falsity is closed above and open below. This is why they see all things in an upside down manner - the world as everything and heaven as nothing. They are also for this reason seen by angels to be upside down, feet upwards and head downwards. This is what all in hell look like.