n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 4
Now, it’s true that we can’t understand all the details of that. Even the
highest angels can’t. Arcana Coelestia 1676 makes this point, and then goes on
to say what we are able to comprehend:
Therefore it is enough for men to know, and, because it is so, to believe, that it is
an eternal truth that unless the Lord had come into the world and subjugated and
conquered the hells by means of temptations admitted into Himself, the human race
would have perished; and that otherwise those who have been on this earth even
from the time of the Most Ancient Church could not possibly have been saved.
The important thing to note here is that we are not told to stop thinking
about it because we cannot understand all the details; instead, we are told to
believe and acknowledge as much as we are able to grasp.
And even t