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:

9789. 'For their generations among the children of Israel' means eternity for the spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'generations' as eternity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the children of Israel' as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 9340, thus also the spiritual kingdom. For the Lord's spiritual kingdom in heaven is the spiritual heaven; on earth it is the spiritual Church. The reason why 'generations' means eternity is that in the internal sense generations of faith and charity are meant, 613, 2020, 2584, 6239, 9042, 9079, and so things of heaven and the Church, which things are eternal. Also the children of Israel, to whom the word 'generations' applies, mean the Church, 9340. The fact that eternity is meant by 'generations' is evident from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,

My righteousness will exist to eternity, and My salvation from generation to generation. ¹ Awake as in the days of old, the generations of eternity. ² Isaiah 51:8-9.

In the same prophet,

I will make you an eternal magnificence, ³ a joy of generation after generation. Isaiah 60:15.

In the same prophet,

Its smoke will go up to eternity. From generation to generation it will be laid waste; no one will pass through it for ever and ever. ⁴ Isaiah 34:10.

In David,

The counsel of Jehovah will stand to eternity, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. ⁵ Psalms 33:11.

In the same author,

I will praise Your name to eternity and forever. ⁶ Generation to generation will praise Your works. Psalms 145:2-4.

In the same author,

They will fear You with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation. ⁷ Psalms 72:5.

In Moses,

This is My name to eternity, and this is My memorial from one generation to another. ⁸ Exodus 3:15.

There are very many other places besides these. When it says that things will exist 'to eternity' and from 'generation to generation', 'eternity' has regard to the Divine Celestial or Good, and 'generation' to the Divine Spiritual or Truth. For in the Word, especially the prophetic part, two expressions that have reference to one and the same thing are very frequently used, as in the places quoted above in which eternity and generation to generation occur. They are used because of the heavenly marriage that is present in every single part of the Word. The heavenly marriage is a marriage of good and truth, or the Lord and heaven joined together, see the places referred to in 9263.

Footnotes: