new church life: september / october 2013
It’s sad when people
choose to deny God
and to be ruled by
selfish love. But a god
who would create a
system where that
choice was not a
possibility, would not
be a god who prized
mutuality and the
reciprocal nature of
genuine love.
into the world to save the human race; that He
has all power in heaven and in earth; that the all
of faith and the all of charity, thus all truth and
good, is from Him; that there is a heaven, and a
hell; and that man is to live to eternity, in heaven if
he has done well, in hell if he has done evil. (New
Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 177 =Arcana
Coelestia 8635-8637 emphasis added)
Again:
They who are in good… are first formed by the
Lord by means of primary truths, that is, by means
of general truths, in which and from which are the
rest. Primary truths are, that there is one God, that
the Lord was born a man that He might save the
human race, that there is a heaven and that there
is a hell, that those come into heaven who have lived
well and those into hell who have lived ill; also that
love to God and love toward the neighbor are the
commandments on which the rest hang, and that
this love is impossible except through faith. These
and the like are primary truths…. (Ibid. 8773
emphasis added; cf. Ibid. 5135.3)
The second passage does not explicitly
say that a person who has “lived ill” will remain in hell forever. But, viewing it
along with the many and strong statements we have featured in this series, I
think it is implied.
But short of saying that “universal salvation” denies first principles, the
problems with it are still enormous, as we have seen. To take this position one
needs to override the plain meaning of so many significant teachings of the
threefold Word! One certainly must reject the entire concept of the human
mind that the Writings teach – how it exists in both worlds, how it develops
organically, the role of the natural world and “ultimates” in establishing our
individual life – and other “framework truths” besides! More importantly it
destroys a rational idea of human freedom and reciprocation, and the place of
these in the Lord’s plan!
To me the idea of universal salvation presents a frightening idea of God.
That god says: “I give you my life (consisting of heavenly, spiritual and natural
loves); you may experience it as your own; you may prioritize the loves that I
give as you choose, temporarily; but ultimately you may not have your choice;
you must accept the ordering that I choose for you.” This god, to my mind, is
saying: “In the end, you will see things my way,” “I have eternity to wait, but
you’ll come around. I’ll teach you what you really want, what will really make
you happy.”
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