The angels are not pure before God. This is something the Prophets
and also Job make clear. This is also clear from the fact that there is no
such thing as an angel who was not previously a human being. These
points support what was said at the beginning of this work under the
headings “the faith of the new heaven and the new church in a universal
form” and “in a specific form”:
The Lord came into the world to separate hell from the human race.
He accomplished this by repeatedly doing battle with hell and con-
quering it. In this way he gained control over it and forced it to obey
him. (§ 2 )
Also these words there:
Jehovah God came down and took on a human manifestation for the
purpose of forcing everything in heaven and everything in the church
back into the divine design. For at that time the power of the Devil,
that is, hell, was stronger than the power of heaven, and on earth the
power of evil was stronger than the power of goodness; therefore a
total damnation stood at the door and threatened. By means of his
human manifestation Jehovah God lifted this pending damnation and
redeemed both people and angels. From all this it is clear that if the
Lord had not come, no one could have been saved. The situation
today is similar. If the Lord does not come into the world again, no
one can be saved. (§ 3 )122 The Lord rescued the spiritual world from universal damnation, and
through the spiritual world he is going to rescue the church from univer-
sal damnation.
This rescue can be illustrated by comparing it with a king whose chil-
dren have been captured by an enemy, locked in prisons, and bound with
chains; by a series of victories over that enemy the king frees the children
and brings them back to his court.
The divine rescue would also be comparable to a shepherd, like
Samson or David, snatching sheep from the jaws of a lion or a bear. Or
it would be comparable to a shepherd who drives away lions and bears
that have rushed out of a forest into the pastures, chases those wild ani-
mals to the farthest borders, finally pushes them back into wetlands or
deserts, and then returns to the sheep, pastures them in safety, and
quenches their thirst with clear spring water.