known the spiritual danger the human
race faced.
The human race, originally created
as celestial, pastoral people, had
descended, through a series of cycles,
to the point where, in spite of the fact
that it had achieved the heights of
thought and government established
by the Greeks and Romans, it had in
fact sunk to the very depths of spiritual
deprivation.
Men in those days could achieve
great economic and political power,
but they had turned entirely away from
spiritual things. They had become so
full of the natural world that they were no longer able to recognize spiritual
truths when they arrived in the spiritual world after death. This meant that evil
spirits easily were able to deceive them, and lead otherwise decent folks into a
form of slavery in false heavens. This was only possible because those people
entering the spiritual world from earth were so ignorant of spiritual things.
It was getting so bad that unless the Lord had done something to inspire
the world with some spiritual ideas and ideals the human race simply would
have expired under the weight of its own love of the world because it would no
longer have had any way of receiving spiritual life.
The third point is that as the Lord recognized this spiritual situation as
it developed, He knew that He would eventually have to take on the natural
degree which men loved so much, present Himself to them before their natural
eyes, and speak into their natural ears and so inspire them to think about and
act from spiritual truths once again.
At the same time, by taking on the natural degree itself by taking on a
physical body, the Lord deliberately put Himself in a position to receive the
assaults of hell, and “it is a universal of faith that He came into the world
to remove hell from man; that He removed it by combats against it and by
victories over it; and that He thus subjugated it, and reduced it to order and
under obedience to Himself.” (Ibid.)
He removed hell from mankind by breaking its power over men. He broke
its power by giving mankind another path to choose, by teaching them the way
to heaven. He also broke its power by receiving one by one the temptation of
each society of hell and resisting it, turning it away, and throwing it back into
its proper place in hell.
As a result of these battles, the so-called false heavens were destroyed
He removed hell from
mankind by breaking
its power over men.
He broke its power
by giving mankind
another path to choose,
by teaching them
the way to heaven.
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