inside every hypocritical thing we do, like a snake inside a plant or a grub
inside a flower.
[ 3 ] If people know not only that we have an inner and an outer self
but also what they are and that the two can work together either actually
or seemingly, and also that our inner self lives on after death but our
outer self is buried, they have access to an abundance of secrets about
heaven and the world. People who unite these two in themselves for a
good purpose become happy forever, but people who divide them, or
worse yet if they unite them for an evil purpose, are unhappy forever.341 If people who lived good lives and believed the right things were not
saved, and God could freely save or condemn on a whim anyone he
wanted to, people who perished could justly accuse God of lacking mercy
and compassion or even of being vicious. Indeed they could deny that
God is God. Furthermore they could argue that God said pointless things
in his Word and gave principles that were worthless and ridiculous. For
another thing, if people who lived good lives and believed the right things
were not saved, they could accuse God of violating the covenant that he
made on Mount Sinai and wrote with his own finger on the two tablets.
From the Lord’s words in John 14 : 21 – 24 it is clear that God cannot
avoid saving people who live by his principles and have faith in him.
Everyone who has religion and sound reason can provide arguments to
support this by considering that God, who is constantly with us and
gives us life and the faculties of understanding and loving, cannot help
loving us and being united to us in love if we live good lives and believe
the right things. God has built this into every human being and every
creature. Can a father and mother reject their babies? Can a bird reject its
chicks? Can an animal reject its young? Not even tigers, panthers, or
snakes are able to do this. Doing otherwise would be going against the
design in which God exists and through which he acts, and going against
the design he built into us at creation.
Now, as it is impossible on the one hand for God to condemn anyone
who has lived a good life and has believed the right things, it is impossible
on the other hand for God to save anyone who has lived an evil life and
has therefore believed the wrong things. This too would go against the
divine design and therefore against God’s omnipotence, which cannot fol-
low any other path than the path of justice. The laws of justice are truths
that cannot be changed, for the Lord says, “It is easier for heaven and earth
to pass away than for the tip of one letter of the law to fall” (Luke 16 : 17 ).
Everyone who knows anything about the essence of God and human
free choice is able to perceive this. For example, Adam had the freedom