with one Lord or the other, provided he likes me? People enjoy good and
evil equally.”
[ 4 ] A third person at the side of the second said, “What difference does
it make to my situation if I believe that heaven and hell exist? Who has
come from there and told us? If everyone lives after death, why hasn’t one
person out of that great multitude come back to tell us about it?”
The fourth person, next to the third, said, “I’ll tell you why no one
has come back to tell us about it. The reason is that when we breathe our
souls out, we are in fact dead. Then we become a ghost and we are dissi-
pated, or we are like the breath in someone’s mouth, which is only blow-
ing air. How can something like that come back and talk to anyone?”
A fifth person went next and said, “Friends, wait for the day of the
Last Judgment. Then all will return to their bodies, and you will see
them and talk with them. Each one will tell his or her fate to the next.”
[ 5 ] The sixth, standing on the other side, started laughing and said,
“How could a spirit, which is blown air, come back into a body that has
been consumed by worms and into a skeleton that has been burnt in the
sun and has crumbled to dust? How can an Egyptian who was turned
into a mummy and who has since been mixed by an apothecary into
extracts, powders, ointments, and pills come back and tell anyone any-
thing? Wait for that last day, if you have the faith; but you are going to
wait for ever and ever for nothing.”
After that the seventh one said, “If I believed in heaven and hell and
life after death, I would also believe that birds and animals are going to
live on as well, since some of them are just as moral and rational as we
are. People say animals don’t live on, so I say people don’t either. It is a
fair piece of reasoning—the one point follows from the other. What are
we except animals?”
The eighth one, standing behind the seventh one’s back, came for-
ward and said, “Believe in heaven if you want, but I don’t believe in hell.
God is omnipotent. He can save everyone.”
[ 6 ] The ninth shook the eighth one’s hand and said, “God is not only
omnipotent but also gracious. He couldn’t throw anyone into eternal
fire. If any were already in the fire, he would set them free and take them
away from there.”
The tenth rushed from the line into the middle and said, “I don’t
believe in hell either. God sent us his Son, and the Son bore the sins of
the whole world and purged them. What is the Devil capable of doing
against that? Since he can’t do anything, what then is hell?”
§160 the holy spirit & divine action 227