Getting Rid of Evil

An introduction

Swedenborg's Writings make clear that evil is quite real, as is the hell that results from people becoming committed to it.  The Writings say, in fact, that the long history the human race has of choosing evil has the result that everyone is born with tendencies to do evil.  However, where the Writings depart from much traditional teaching is that they say that those evil-oriented tendencies don't hurt you spiritually unless you go along with them.  In other words, in keeping with the Writings' fundamental focus on free will, your choice, your decision is what determines if you make a given evil characteristic your own.  Even if you do make some evils your own, however, that won't by itself result in your choosing to go to hell (since going to hell, or to heaven, is again a matter of your free will).  What orients you to hell is a consistent overall pattern of choosing evil in your life, in what the Bible called the spiritual "book of life" and what the Writings summarize as the "ruling love."

God plays fair, as usual, however, and provides a variety of tools for getting evil out of your life, so that your ruling love will end up being oriented toward heaven and you will choose to go there after death.  These range from providing the teaching that it's not your fault if evil ideas come into your head  (it's those inherited tendencies that cause that) to teachings about relating to God via prayer - conversation with God - and worship (He doesn't need either of those, but they are a big help to you in fighting evil).

Further Reading

• Self Esteem

• The Ruling Love

• Escaping from Evil Feelings

• Holy Fear

• The Purpose of Worship

• Conversation with God

• Evil, An Outside Influence