383. (a) Evil people have no faith, because evil relates to hell and faith relates to heaven. Evil relates to hell because everything evil comes from hell. Faith relates to heaven because everything true that is related to faith comes from heaven. As long as we are alive in the world, we are kept walking midway between heaven and hell in the spiritual equilibrium engendered by our own free choice. Hell is under our feet and heaven is over our head. Whatever comes up from hell is evil and false. Whatever comes down from heaven is good and true. Because we are between these two opposites and in spiritual equilibrium, we are freely able to choose, adopt, and incorporate into ourselves either the one or the other. If we choose evil and falsity, we unite ourselves to hell. If we choose goodness and truth, we unite ourselves to heaven.

The statements just made show not only that evil relates to hell and faith relates to heaven but also that evil and faith cannot be together in one object or one human being. If evil and faith were together, they would tear us apart as if we had been bound with two ropes, one of which was pulling us up and the other down. We would be like someone suspended in the air. We would be flying like a blackbird, now up, now down; when we were flying up, we would be worshiping God; when we were flying down, we would be worshiping the Devil. Anyone can see that this would be profane. No one can serve two lords without hating one and loving the other, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 6:24.

Various comparisons can illustrate the fact that there is no faith where evil exists. For example, evil is like fire. Hellfire is nothing but a love for evil. Evil consumes faith as if it were straw, and reduces it and everything related to it to ash.

Evil dwells in pitch darkness. Faith dwells in light. Evil uses falsities to extinguish faith, just as pitch darkness extinguishes light. Evil is as black as ink. Faith is as white as snow and as clear as water. Evil blackens faith the way ink blackens snow or water.

Here are other comparisons: evil cannot be united to truth that is related to faith any more than a rotten smell can be an ingredient in a sweet perfume, or urine can be an ingredient in a flavorful wine. Evil and faith cannot coexist any more than a reeking corpse and a living person can share the same bed. Evil and faith cannot live with each other any more than a wolf can live in a sheepfold, a hawk in a dovecote, or a fox in a henhouse.

688. The Baptism of John Prepared the Way So That Jehovah God Could Descend into the World and Bring about Redemption

In Malachi we read, "Behold, I am sending my messenger, who will prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom you seek and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will suddenly come to his temple. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can remain standing when he appears?" (Malachi 3:1-2). The same book goes on to say, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of Jehovah comes, so that I will not come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6). When Zechariah the father is prophesying about his son John, he says, "You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest. You will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways" (Luke 1:76). The Lord himself says about John, "This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you'" (Luke 7:27).

These passages make it clear that John was the prophet who was sent to prepare the way for Jehovah God, who was to come down into the world and bring about redemption. They also make it clear that how John prepared the way was through baptizing and also announcing the Coming of the Lord; and that if this preparation had not occurred, all people there would have been struck with a curse and would have perished.