ety 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 divi