[9] Furthermore, every person is given the opportunity after death of amending his life if possible. All are instructed and led by the Lord by means of angels. Knowing now that they live after death and that heaven and hell exist, they at first receive truths. But those who did not acknowledge God and shun evils as sins when in the world soon show a distaste for truths and draw back, and those who acknowledged truths with the lips but not with the heart are like the foolish virgins who had lamps but no oil and begged oil of others, also went off and bought some, but still were not admitted to the wedding. "Lamps" signify truths of faith and "oil" signifies the good of charity. It may be evident then that divine providence sees to it that everyone can be saved and that man is himself in fault if he is not saved.
[10] Fifth: It is also provided that a new church shall succeed in place of a former devastated church. It has been so from the most ancient days that on the devastation of a church a new one followed. The Ancient Church succeeded the Most Ancient; the Israelitish or Jewish Church followed the Ancient; after this came the Christian Church. And this, it is foretold in the Apocalypse, will be followed by a new church, signified in that book by the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. The reason why a new church is provided by the Lord to follow in place of a former devastated church may be seen in Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about Sacred Scripture (nn. 104-113).
329. (iv) Thus all are predestined to heaven, and no one to hell. In the work Heaven and Hell (London, 1758) we showed at nn. 545-550 that the Lord casts no one into hell; the spirit himself does this. So it happens with every evil and impious person after death and also while he is in the world, with the difference that while he is in the world he can be reformed and can embrace and avail himself of the means of salvation, but not after departure from the world. The means of salvation are summed up in these two: that evils are to be shunned because they are contrary to the divine laws in the Decalog and that it be acknowledged that God exists. Everyone can do both if he does not love evils. For the Lord is constantly flowing into his will with power for shunning evils and into his understanding with power to think that God there is. But no one can do the one without doing the other; the two are joined together like the two tables of the Decalog, one relating to God and the other to man. In accordance with what is in His table the Lord enlightens and empowers everyone, but man receives power and enlightenment so far as he does what he is bidden in his table. Until then the two tables appear to be laid face to face and to be sealed, but as man acts on the biddings in his table they are unsealed and opened out.
[2] Today is not the Decalog like a small, closed book or document, opened only in the hands of children and the young? Tell someone farther along in years, "Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalog" and who gives heed? He may give heed if you say, "Do not do this because it is contrary to divine laws," and yet the precepts of the Decalog are the divine laws themselves. Experiment was made with a number in the spiritual world, who at mention of the Decalog or Catechism rejected it with contempt. This is because in the second table, which is man's, the Decalog teaches that evils are to be shunned, and one who does not do so, whether from impiety or from the religious tenet that deeds effect nothing, only faith does, hears mention of the Decalog or Catechism with disdain, as though it was a child's book he heard mentioned, no longer of use to adults.
[3] These things have been said in order that it may be known that a knowledge of the means by which one can be saved is not lacking to anyone, nor power if he wants to be saved. It follows that all are predestined to heaven and no one to hell. Since, however, a belief in a predestination not to salvation but to damnation has prevailed with some, and this belief is damaging and cannot be broken up unless one's reason sees the insanity and cruelty in it, it is to be dealt with in this order:
1. Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infiniteness. 2. Predestination other than to heaven is contrary to divine wisdom and its infiniteness. 3. That only those born in the church are saved is an insane heresy. 4. That any of mankind are condemned by predestination is a cruel heresy.
330. That it may be apparent how damaging the belief is in predestination as this is commonly understood, these four arguments are to be taken up and confirmed. First: Predestination except to heaven is contrary to divine love and its infiniteness. In the treatise Divine Love and Wisdom we demonstrated that Jehovah or the Lord is divine love, is infinite, and is the esse of all life; also that the human being was created in God's image after God's likeness. As everyone is formed in the womb by the Lord into that image and after that likeness, as was also shown, the Lord is the heavenly Father of all human beings and they are His spiritual children. So Jehovah or the Lord is called in the Word, and so human beings are. Therefore He says:
Do not call your father on earth your father, for One is your Father, who is in the heavens (Mt 23:9).
This means that He alone is the Father with reference to the life in us, and the earthly father is father of the covering on life, which is the body. In heaven, therefore, no one but the Lord is called Father. And from many passages in the Word it is clear that those who do not pervert that life are said to be His sons and to be born from Him.
[2] Plainly, then, the divine love is in every man, an evil man as well as a good man, and the Lord who is divine love cannot act otherwise than a father on earth does with his children, infinitely more lovingly because divine love is infinite. Furthermore, He cannot withdraw from anyone because everyone's life is from Him. He appears to withdraw from those who are evil, but it is they who withdraw, while He still in love leads them. Thus the Lord says: