330 HEAVEN and HELL §543
gained control by their experience and skill; and they are able to keep
the rest in servile obedience by punishments and the fears that these give
birth to. These dominant spirits do not dare go beyond fi xed limits.
We do need to realize that the only way of controlling the violent
rages of people in the hells is through fear of punishment. There are no
other means.544 People in the world still believe that there is a devil who rules the
hells and that he was created as an angel of light but was cast into hell
with his gang after he led a rebellion. The reason for this belief is that the
Word talks about the Devil and Satan, and about Lucifer as well; and in
these cases the Word is understood literally. However, in these passages
the Devil and Satan mean hell. The Devil means the hell toward the rear
where the worst people live, the people called evil demons; and Satan
means the hell that is toward the front where the less malevolent people
live, the people called evil spirits. Lucifer means the people who are from
Babel or Babylon, the ones who extend their control all the way into
heaven.
We can also see that there is no devil to whom the hells are subject
from the fact that all the people who are in the hells, like all the people in
the heavens, are from the human race (see §§ 311 – 317 ), that there are mil-
lions there from the beginning of creation to the present day, and that
everyone there is the kind of devil he or she became by opposition to the
Deity while in the world (see above, §§ 311 – 312 ).
The Lord Does Not Cast Anyone into Hell:
Spirits Cast Themselves In
545
SOME people cherish the notion that God turns his face away from
people, spurns them, and casts them into hell, and is angry against
them because of their evil. Some people even go so far as to think that
God punishes people and does them harm. They support this notion
from the literal meaning of the Word where things like this are said, not