Why Does God Let It Happen?

k
The Lord’s providence is in the smallest details of
all, from the first rudiments of our life to its end
and beyond to eternity.
—Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §5894
Why Does God Let It Happen?
k
Bruce Henderson

Swedenborg Foundation Press

west chester, pennsylvania
© 2010 by the Swedenborg Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of
this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Henderson, Bruce.
Why does God let it happen? / by Bruce Henderson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-87785-332-9 (alk. paper)
1. Providence and government of God--Christianity. 2. Swedenborg,
Emanuel, 1688-1772. 3. Theodicy. I. Title.
BT135.H37 2010
231’.5--dc22
2009049140

Cover and interior design by Karen Connor

Manufactured in the United States of America

Swedenborg Foundation
320 North Church Street
West Chester, PA 19380
www.swedenborg.com
 k
To my wife, Carol,
our children Dan, Glen, and Ellen
and their families—
the blessings of my life
kk Contents

Introduction ix

1. Why, God? 1

2. Where Is God? In His Providence 19

3. Deliver Us from Evil 31

4. Suffering: The Crossroads of Faith 43

5. When Bad Things Happen: Disease,

Disasters, Accidents, and War 57

6. Trusting in Providence 75

Notes 89

Bibliography 95
kk Introduction

Where was God?

Why did he let this happen?
These are questions as old as human tragedy.
They echoed in the terrorism of the September 11, 2001,
attack on the United States.
They haunted the devastation of the tsunami that struck
Southeast Asia just after Christmas 2004.
They forever hang over the horror of the Holocaust.
They wrench the souls of people dealing with the loss of
children, wives, brothers, parents, and friends.
These questions challenge our faith with every new catastro-
phe. Why must innocent people suffer? Why can’t evil people
be thwarted?
Why does God let it happen?
Every calamity revives age-old questions, and the issues are
the same whether millions are affected or just one family. Every
day we read or hear about some tragedy, perhaps afflicting hun-
dreds or thousands of people, perhaps touching just one child,
one family, one circle of loved ones. Each of these tragedies rip-
ples unseen through people’s lives, and all are forever changed.
If you are directly impacted, the questions are immediate
and insistent: Why me? Why us? Why, God?
Even if you are not personally impacted by another’s dev-
astation, you cannot help but wonder: Why would a loving, all-
powerful God allow such things to happen? Perhaps even: Is

ix
x introduction

there really a God after all? And if there is, is he really all that
loving and all-powerful? Is he really in control? Does he really
care about us?
I have been fortunate to have been spared the personal
tragedies that inflame these questions. But I have been close
enough to people in pain to feel their agony, and throughout
a long career in journalism I sensed almost daily the suffering
and search for answers when people were suddenly forced to
confront these wrenching issues.
Regardless of whether it is individuals, families, communi-
ties, or nations, the questions are not new, and the questioners
are not alone. These issues have troubled theologians, philoso-
phers, and the common man from the beginning of time. If we
believe that God is all-powerful, that he loves us and loves jus-
tice, how can he seem to stand by and allow murder, child abuse,
cruel diseases, horrible accidents, and untimely death? How can
he let innocent people suffer?
These are questions that regularly test our faith. Common
to monotheistic religions is a belief in providence—in God’s
guidance, his omniscience, his plan for our lives. But we are
challenged to reconcile innocent faith with harsh reality when
we see things happening that just cannot reflect the will of a
loving God.
Why didn’t God just strike Hitler dead, for instance, before
he could inflict such heinous atrocities against millions of
innocent people? How can God allow babies to be born blind,
mentally impaired, physically handicapped, or afflicted with
diseases that will limit their lives on earth? Why does he allow
people who seem so undeserving to be born into wealth and
privilege, while many good people are pawns to poverty? Why
does he permit catastrophes that an all-powerful God should be
able to prevent? Why didn’t he just reach out his hand to stop
those planes on September 11, or those tsunami waves—or the
drunken driver who killed a little girl?
 introduction xi

Many great writers and thinkers have wrestled with these

questions and come away grasping for answers.
C. S. Lewis probed these mysteries in searching books—
and found an ultimately transcendent faith. After the death of
his wife—so memorably recounted in the film Shadowlands—he
wrote A Grief Observed. Anyone suffering from such agony can
identify with his tortured observation, “No one ever told me
that grief feels so like fear.” 1 That’s because grief dares to ask
penetrating questions about God and his mercy. The fear is that
there may be no satisfying answers—or, as Lewis put it, that he
might come to believe “dreadful things” that he did not want to
associate with God.2 Fear denies hope.
One of the most eloquent and compelling attempts in recent
years to find answers to these questions is a popular book by
Rabbi Harold S. Kushner titled When Bad Things Happen to Good
People.
Rabbis, priests, and ministers are devoted to nurturing faith
in the midst of crises. But when tragedy struck Rabbi Kushner’s
own home—when his infant son was diagnosed with a disease
that would let him live only to age fourteen—the questions
became intensely personal and insistent. This wonderful book,
which has comforted millions of people, was the result. Its final
chapter, especially—“What Good, Then, Is Religion?”—is a
must-read for anyone struggling to reconcile a loving God, in
control of his universe, with all the chaos and tragedy within it.
But although C. S. Lewis, Rabbi Kushner, and others offer
wise and inspiring hope and insights, their answers still are
incomplete. After the terrorism of September 11 rocked the
world, many religious leaders confessed that they just do not
know why God allows such terrible things to happen. They call
on faith, but cannot really explain why. It is as though we aren’t
supposed to know the answers.
Such doubt leaves us confused and hopeless. There has to be
a satisfying explanation. We need more than scholarly specula-
xii introduction

tion. We need something that will validate our faith in God and
keep us from doubting or even being angry with him.
Well, there are answers. And there is hope. A thorough,
rational explanation of God’s enduring providence and his guid-
ing love in everything in life is found in the systematic theology
given by God through Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) more
than two hundred years ago.
Swedenborg was one of the foremost scientists, philoso-
phers, theologians, and intellects of the eighteenth century—or
of any time. He humbly asserted that, during the last twenty-
seven years of an amazingly productive life in science and public
service, he was given a new revelation from God. In this way,
Swedenborg was a prophet like Moses or Matthew. This new
revelation unveils the inner meanings of the Bible, describes life
after death in vivid detail, and makes clear the spiritual signifi-
cance of our lives.
Swedenborg wrote twenty-five volumes of closely reasoned
doctrine, including a detailed explanation of divine provi-
dence—what it is and how it works. His teachings show how
God really does lead all aspects of our lives without compromis-
ing our freedom; why God allows things against his will for the
sake of that freedom; and how he is guiding us and loving us at
all times, no matter what the appearance may be to the contrary.
Swedenborg never attempted to start a church or attract a
personal following. He said his mission was simply to convey
this new revelation as the word of God, which has since been
accepted by people all over the world as the basis for a “new
Christianity.”
Swedenborg’s teachings about heaven, hell, and life after
death have given comfort and hope to people dealing with the
tragedy of death. His revelation has given them a more con-
fident faith about the meaning of their lives on earth and the
reality of the life to come.
 introduction xiii

His teachings about divine providence can do the same for

all our nagging questions about why events unfold the way they
do. Swedenborg explains that there are absolute spiritual laws
that govern God’s creation. These “laws of providence” express
God’s love and guidance in our lives, and his presence never
ceases—even when it may seem that he has turned his back or
become distant. God can never go against his own laws, which
are there to protect our eternal lives, not just our lives on earth.
Many of these teachings will be related to specific examples
throughout this book, but four concepts are fundamental:

l
l God is all-powerful and in total control. He never
abandons us. But he does allow things that are contrary
to his will, for the sake of our freedom, because our
freedom is fundamental to his love.

l
l What God allows but does not will is called “per-
mission” by Swedenborg. Understanding this concept
helps to answer the question, “Why?”

l the tragedy that happens in our lives is the permis-

l If
sion, then providence is what happens afterward. It is
the way God’s love heals and it always leads to good.

l
l What we see in this natural or material world is limited
by space and time. It’s temporal. God sees every-
thing in a spiritual context—not only how our lives are
affected here and now, but the impact and repercus-
sions to eternity.

God’s providence is governed by fixed spiritual laws. It is

not arbitrary, but clear and consistent within a transcendent
spiritual context. One of these laws, according to Swedenborg,
xiv introduction

is that God will not permit anything evil that cannot be turned
eventually toward good. The potential good that can come from
a bad situation isn’t obvious in most cases, especially when we
are struck by horror, injustice, and sorrow and cannot grasp the
overlying spiritual dimension.
Sometimes there’s the intimation that a tragedy—the death
of a teenager, the loss of thousands in an earthquake—somehow
is God’s will. We aren’t expected to understand it, just to accept
it. Swedenborg gives us the comfort that when bad things hap-
pen, they are never God’s will. He wills only what is good for all
of us. And when bad things do happen—because of the freedom
he allows—he feels our pain, is present with us (whether we feel
it or not), and is always working to bring the best out of the
situation.
It is hard to feel such faith when we see only what happens
on the material plane of our lives. This makes it challenging to
reconcile tragedy and evil with a loving, in-control God. But
Swedenborg teaches that from the day we are born, there is
a spiritual dimension to our lives that we aren’t fully aware of
while on earth. This is the life that continues to eternity. God
sees everything that happens to us on that spiritual level, free
of the limits of time and space in this world, with implications
played out to eternity. Swedenborg says that if we could see
the working of providence in our lives, it would look like scat-
tered heaps of materials for building a house. Some things con-
nected, some not. Bits of pattern here, chaos there. But God
can look at you at any stage of your life and see how all the
pieces fit together, like a beautiful home, constantly changing
and improving.
Look at the way we see the world disrupted by earthquakes,
hurricanes, fires, and other disasters. But the earth always returns
to a natural order and a sense of balance. Swedenborg shows
how there is spiritual order to God’s creation as well, underlying
all of the aberrations we witness and wonder about, with those
 introduction xv

eternal spiritual ramifications that we can never perceive in this

life. That doesn’t completely answer the question of why. And
it doesn’t take away the pain. But being given a glimpse into
what God sees can help us to understand that even in the midst
of the chaos and tragedy we witness, he really does have a plan.
He loves us enough to let us be free to make our mistakes, to
suffer pain, and even to inflict pain. And his providence is always
watching over every aspect of our spiritual lives—which is where
life really matters.
Many people, of course, have claimed a special revelation
from God, often attracting more skeptics than believers. But
people who have read Swedenborg with open, inquiring minds
are convinced that he was an extraordinary man, prepared by
God for a special mission, and that his insight is unique. Helen
Keller called him “an eye among the blind, and an ear among
the deaf” and “one of the noblest champions Christianity has
ever known.” 3 Ralph Waldo Emerson called Swedenborg “a
colossal soul who lies vast abroad on his times. He is not to be
measured by whole colleges of ordinary scholars.” 4 Elizabeth
Barrett Browning said simply of Swedenborg’s revelation, “It
explains much that was incomprehensible.” 5
In the Psalms, David says of God’s perfect understanding
of man, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high
that I cannot attain it.” 6 But Swedenborg’s teachings give us
answers about God’s providence and why he allows what seems
to contradict his all-loving, all-powerful nature—questions that
have always seemed incomprehensible. Now we can attain such
knowledge. We are allowed to know the answers. These teach-
ings convey a sure sense that God’s love and leading are always
in control and ultimately triumphant. We can put our trust in
him, even and especially in the midst of tragedy. And we no
longer need to wonder: why does God let it happen?
This is a book that takes the blinders off faith. It is a book,
ultimately, about hope and trust.
 ll 1

Why, God?

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadows,
Keeping watch above His own.
—James Russell Lowell, The Present Crisis, 1844

No matter how steep the mountain—the Lord is

going to climb it with you.
—Helen Steiner Rice

They say God is everywhere, and yet we always

think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
–—Emily Dickinson
k
So, why does God let it happen? Why does he let us live with
all the doubts and questions about his love and authority that
were raised in the introduction?
Why does he allow the catastrophes we call “acts of God”?
Why does he permit war? Suffering? Evil? Yes, why do bad
things happen to good people? And why do good things happen
to bad people?
These questions have their roots in the beginning of time.
Why did God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—then
let them be seduced by a serpent and bring sin into the world?
Why did Jesus Christ, the human form of God come down to
earth, begin his ministry by allowing the devil to tempt him for
forty days in the wilderness? Why was there so much trial and
testing in the short life of this man of peace? And why did God
allow “his only begotten son” to die on the cross?
Swedenborg teaches us that God did not come to earth for
a life of peace and ease. He came to conquer the hells so that we
could have the promise of heaven.
But still we question. If God truly is in control, why can’t he
prevent all that’s wrong in the world? Why does a loving God
sometimes appear angry, punishing, and distant? Why didn’t he
just create a perfect world where we all could be happy, healthy,
and safe—a place where good and innocent people would not
suffer?

3
4 why does god let it happen?

That is what we understand God’s will to be. He wants us

to love each other and to live happy, productive lives. He can
create anything he wants, and surely he does not want inno-
cent people to suffer. But he lets it happen. Why? We see his
miracles in the Old and New Testaments and manifested in his
creation, yet we cannot help but wonder at what he apparently
chooses not to do.
This can become a real test of faith. We pray for God’s pro-
tection. We may even feel entitled to it, especially if we assume
that we are living good lives. But still God allows what can seem
to contradict his protection. Why?
Remember the biblical story where Jacob had stolen his
brother Esau’s birthright and fled in fear of reprisal? That’s
when Jacob dreamed of the ladder between heaven and earth,
with angels ascending and descending, and the voice of God
said to him: “Know that I am with you and will keep you wher-
ever you go.” 1 Jacob understood this to mean that his physical
life would be protected—and that’s the kind of protection we
also assume. But what God is really promising is protection for
our spiritual well-being, and this is where his providence truly
operates.
Those “laws” of divine providence mentioned in the intro-
duction are just that—inflexible laws, not guidelines that can be
bent and manipulated on a whim. The whole universe would be
unbalanced if God inserted himself between natural cause and
effect. But along with these immutable laws is a newly articu-
lated doctrine described by Swedenborg as “permission,” which
means that God is always providing for our spiritual growth and
fulfillment, even if we must experience tragedy and loss in order
for that growth to happen.
Swedenborg assures us that while God is allowing us to be
free—often blissfully unaware of his spiritual protection—he is
still involved in every aspect of our lives, constantly trying to
turn bad experiences into good results without compromising
 why, god? 5

our freedom. What is comforting in this revelation is that there

is no evil act or tragic accident—horrifying as they may be—that
cannot be transformed by God for higher ends. God’s will is
that all of us can get to heaven, and he does everything he can
to lead us there, while still allowing us to choose hell instead.
There is a sort of spiritual common sense to this that many
people seem to grasp intuitively without clear explanation or
perfect understanding. We may accept, for instance, that there
is something called providence and that God does have a plan
for our lives, but we accept this more as a matter of faith than
with real understanding. It was Swedenborg who finally was
able to explain and reconcile providence and “permission.” And
understanding these basic teachings is what makes faith compat-
ible with reason. It takes away the mystery of a loving God in
an “ungodly” world.
Here are the fundamentals:

l
l God created us as free individuals, and protects that
essential freedom enough to allow us to choose between
good and evil—ultimately, to choose to spend eternity
in heaven or hell. He could have created all of us as
angels on earth, but then we would not be free. And if
we were not free, we could not be happy—we could not
even be human.

l
l God rules his creation according to consistent laws that
apply equally to everyone. He would violate his own
nature if he tried to change those laws for anyone or for
any reason. He cannot and will not do that.

l
l God permits only evil that can be turned eventually
toward good. Of course, no amount of goodness could
bring back the lives lost on September 11, but consider:
a few evil people committed that atrocity; millions of
6 why does god let it happen?

people responded with faith, love, and kindness. This is

the power that always overcomes the evil.

We’ve all seen examples of how providence works—

blessings coming out of tragedy that we could not have fore-
seen or anticipated. In the Bible, when Joseph was sold into
slavery by his brothers and later confronted them in Egypt,
where he had been raised into power by the Pharaoh, he said
to them: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God
meant it for good.” 2 Even in the depths of the Holocaust, where
God may have seemed most remote, Auschwitz survivor Viktor
Frankl found hope and meaning in his experience. Out of his
experiences in Nazi death camps came his heart-warming and
life-changing bestseller Man’s Search for Meaning, which has had
more than seventy printings and been translated into twenty-six
languages.
Swedenborg explains why sometimes we can see the work-
ings of divine providence in retrospect—how a “chance” meet-
ing led to a happy marriage, for example, or a tragic accident
eventually changed someone’s life for the better. Some couples
who were devastated to learn they had a Down’s syndrome child
have come to feel blessed and say, “It was the best thing that
could have happened to us.” But we never see providence as it
is affecting our lives; that would limit our freedom to make our
own choices.
What’s interesting is that most people—even those who
have suffered immensely, like Frankl—usually say they would
not change their lives if they had it to do over. It is as though
they realize that their life experiences were essential to their
personal growth, and that all along they were being led. Prob-
ably none of us would choose to endure tragedy or tough times
to experience such growth, but we often can see in retrospect
that something good has come out of something bad. We cer-
tainly saw it in the aftermath of September 11, when the love
 why, god? 7

and compassion of millions of people around the world tran-

scended the horror inflicted by a small number of terrorists. It
didn’t wipe away the pain, but it did help restore faith that good
always eventually triumphs over evil.
It is not in looking back, however, but in coping with what’s
right in front of us that we are tested. Our faith may be enough
to sustain us as long as the questions about God’s control of
the universe remain abstract. It is when the questions become
personal—as they did for Rabbi Kushner and his wife with their
son, and as they do every day for people suddenly forced to
cope with tragedy—that our faith needs help. Then the ques-
tions and doubts about God’s fairness and love, his justice and
omniscience, become insistent and troubling. Anger can over-
take faith if people suddenly feel that living a good life doesn’t
protect them from evil or misfortune.
In the tiny Pennsylvania town of Montoursville, devastated
in the summer of 1996 when the crash of TWA Flight 800
killed a group of students and chaperones traveling to France, a
Catholic priest told a grieving congregation never to say or even
hint that this was God’s will. No doubt the congregation—and a
mourning nation—agreed: surely this was not what God wanted
to happen. There must have been some bitter thoughts as well:
yes, but why couldn’t he stop it?
Of course, he could stop earthquakes and cancer and car
wrecks. He could have stopped the gunmen who ravaged Col-
umbine High School in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007. So
why didn’t he?
Think about that. Where would you draw the line? It is easy
to say stop Hitler, stop the terrorists, stop Hurricane Katrina.
But what about the things we can control? We could require
governors that keep cars from speeding, ban foods and addi-
tives that contribute to weight and health problems, prohibit
smoking and alcohol and guns and bombs. But we love our free-
dom, don’t we? We don’t want anyone taking it away, even if
8 why does god let it happen?

we might abuse it. Without the freedom to make mistakes that

may lead to suffering in our own lives and the lives of others, we
would be reduced to automatons.
The same principle works on a spiritual level. If God were
to meddle in our lives and change the course of history to pre-
serve our own narrow sense of order and justice, where would
he stop? God cannot pick and choose. His laws—and his love—
must be absolute and consistent.
As parents, we know that as much as we want to protect our
families at all times, we cannot impose such total control that
our children are stifled and are not free to develop as individu-
als. Imagine shadowing your teenager all day and saying, “No,
don’t do that,” or “Yes, that’s OK.” Yes, you may be loving
and protective, but your teenager would have no sense of free-
dom and would quickly rebel. So we do what we can to protect
their safety and give them the guidance they need to make good
choices, but we have to let them make mistakes and learn from
them. Imagine what would happen if we were prevented from
making mistakes—or even from being victimized by them. We
wouldn’t feel free or in control of our own lives, either.
We don’t stop our children from learning to drive when
they are of age. We teach and preach safety, and we worry when
they are on the road. But if an accident happens, we don’t blame
parents who have been loving and responsible. We know how
they worry, and how they grieve over tragedies involving their
children. But we know that part of loving our children is letting
them be free, within reasonable limits, comforting them when
accidents happen, and helping them learn the right lessons.
We need to remember that we are all God’s children and
that his love for each of us is more intense, consuming, and
compassionate than our love for our own children. He gives us
freedom, too—allows us to do what he would not will for us—
with all the love and guidance anyone could want. He grieves for
all of us when we make bad choices or are victims of misfortune.
 why, god? 9

He does not turn his back, as it may seem. He is always there,

with his providence, creating the potential for a good outcome.
The good may be in our spiritual lives, after passing from this
world, and it may not be readily apparent on this natural level of
life. But it is on that unseen spiritual plane where the effects of
all events reflect his will and last forever. That ultimately is what
his providence is all about—allowing us to make free choices,
even if they aren’t the best choices or the right choices in his
eyes, while always striving to lift us up to heaven and providing
the means to do so.
Throughout history, the image of God has not always been
of an all-loving figure who is looking out for our best interests.
In the Old Testament, God sometimes is portrayed as angry and
vengeful. Because of that, the notion has arisen that disasters
and diseases may be God’s way of punishing us for sin. So when
people get sick or suffer, they may think they somehow deserve
it. But in the New Testament, when a man who was born blind
was brought before Jesus, his disciples asked: “Master, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he
was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” 3
So where, then, do evil and misfortune come from, if not
from God? Swedenborg asserts that anything not of God’s will
has its origin in hell. Anything from hell, of course, is not what
God wants for us, but he allows hell and its influence in our lives
for the sake of our freedom. He wants all of us to choose his way
and heaven, but loves us enough to give us the choice.
If we are to be truly free, however, to make the choice
between heaven and hell, we need to know more about them.
Swedenborg teaches that on earth we are in constant equilib-
rium between heaven and hell, subject to influences from each.
We certainly glimpse aspects of heaven and hell in our everyday
lives, from moments of blissful love, peace, and fulfillment to
flashes of anger, hatred, and frustration. We are constantly mak-
10 why does god let it happen?

ing choices and can also be affected by other people’s choices,

even harmed by them.
Even if we don’t want to be selfish, cruel, lazy, angry, or
lustful, what would life be like if we were not free to make such
choices—and learn from them? Imagine if this was a perfect
world where nothing bad could ever happen: Wouldn’t we feel
like puppets, with no freedom to act on our own? We not only
would not feel free, we would not feel responsible or challenged
to make things better. This is what God’s love is all about: let-
ting us be free, but using his providence to help us overcome
whatever befalls us, even when we are unaware of that influence
in this life.
Swedenborg assures us that God “never curses anyone, is
never angry at anyone, never leads anyone into crisis. He does
not even punish us, let alone curse us. It is the Devil’s crew that
does such things. Nothing of the sort could ever come from the
fountain of mercy, peace, and goodness.” 4
God operates entirely from love. He created us so that he
can share his love with us. But he cannot—will not—force us to
return his love, because that would violate our freedom. This is
the ultimate in unconditional love. We are always free to accept
his love, to reject it, or to be indifferent to it. And our choices
may fluctuate until we are clearly ready to choose one way or the
other—the cumulative choice that ultimately leads each of us to
the eternal “home” we have chosen, in heaven or hell.
You might think God would compel us to love him and
to live justly and peacefully with each other. But his love is so
great that he allows us to choose, even if it grieves him when we
choose against him. This permission to do evil—for the sake of
our freedom—is what gives rise to the tragedies and injustice
that afflict our world and victimize innocents. But his love is
unceasing and always for good purposes.
Instead of wondering why God would allow bad things to
happen to good people, we should be considering why we allow
 why, god? 11

so many bad things to happen to each other. Wars and crime,

corruption and pollution, emotional and physical abuse, and dis-
eases and accidents are products of our own actions and choices.
So let’s ask ourselves: Why do people corrupt themselves and
pollute our atmosphere, causing disease to others? Why are they
cruel and violent to others, whether in global wars or personal
crime? Why do they destroy their own marriages and families,
betray friends, and inflict pain on those they love? Just as we
might wish that God had struck Hitler dead before he could
inflict his evil on the world, we might wish that God could elim-
inate all our sins and faults so that no one need suffer because of
them. But that would not be leaving anyone in freedom. That
would not really be loving us.
We can wonder, with Rabbi Kushner, why “the wrong
people” get sick or hurt, or die young. We can agonize with
him over the “deep, aching sense of unfairness” over his son’s
terminal disease. As people who are trying to do what is right in
God’s sight—living a religiously committed life—we would be
tempted to ask the same question: If God truly is loving and fair,
“How could he do this to me?” And not only how could he do
this to “good parents,” but how could he do this to an innocent,
three-year-old child?
This is where people struggle with their faith, because they
have not had complete answers. Throughout history, religious
faith has tended to promote guilt, as though somehow whatever
happens must be a person’s own fault. Swedenborg makes it
possible, finally, to understand that what does not seem fair to
our eyes can all fit beautifully and meaningfully into the spiritual
continuum of God’s sight, where he alone can see where his
providence leads.
Rabbi Kushner has articulated the questions so well for so
many people. He understands that God does not cause the bad
things that happen to us, and that God does not sit on his throne,
determining which of us will suffer misfortunes and which will
12 why does god let it happen?

be spared. But he does stand always ready to help, comfort, and

lead. “The God I believe in,” Kushner wrote, “does not send
us the problem; he gives us the strength to cope with the prob-
lem.” 5
Kushner also is right in observing—as did Frankl in the
midst of the Holocaust—that every individual, no matter how
grievous the circumstances or unfortunate a childhood, still is
free to make choices about his or her life. When we are tempted
to ask where God was in the horror of the Holocaust, Kushner
replies that he was there—loving the victims and agonizing with
them, but without controlling man’s choosing between good
and evil. That is man’s choice, man’s freedom, the one thing
a loving God will not take away. And Kushner came to see,
through his and his wife’s own struggle, that the question we
need to focus on is not where tragedy comes from, but where it
leads. It can lead from despair to hope, from hell to heaven. This
is what God’s providence ultimately is all about.
Two poignant stories that probe the mysteries of God’s
love, power and perfection—and the circumstances that seem
to contradict them—can help us grapple with the kinds of
questions that gnawed at Kushner and Frankl. One is the bib-
lical account of Job, who was the object of a contest between
God and Satan. The other is a classic short novel by Thornton
Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Both are cited by Rabbi
Kushner in his own search for answers. Both resonate with our
lives and echo our fears and doubts. And both can be under-
stood more clearly in light of the revelation given through
Swedenborg, especially in his teachings about how providence
works and how “permission” is part of God’s providence. Swe-
denborg also explains the story of Job from a spiritual perspec-
tive, describing it as an allegory about the desolation of the
spirit and its ultimate triumph.
Job was a man who was “blameless and upright, one who
feared God and turned away from evil.” 6 He had been blessed
 why, god? 13

with wealth and a large family. But his character was attacked
by Satan. He lost his family and his property. And he became
the ultimate example of bad things happening to a good person.
Job was philosophical about being tested and was unyielding
in his faith, even when Satan afflicted his body with boils. But
eventually he cursed his birth and longed for death. He came to
the question that has troubled many sincere believers who see
pain and suffering all around them: “If I sin, what do I do to you,
you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target?
Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon
my transgression and take away my iniquity?” 7
Job is the enduring symbol of someone who was not appar-
ently a sinner, who tried to live a good, decent life, who loved
God—and still was a victim of cruel misfortune. It seems as
though God was inflicting the punishment, or at least was indif-
ferent to it. So why Job? Why this good man? It doesn’t seem
fair.
But none of the horrors suffered by Job were inflicted by
God. Yes, they were permitted by God. And Job and his friends
assumed that whatever God permits, he must cause. Even Jesus’s
own disciples did the same when confronted with the blind man.
However, as we see in Swedenborg’s teachings about provi-
dence, God does not permit anything that cannot be turned
to good—even if we aren’t always aware of the transcendent
spiritual context that God sees and we do not. And sure enough,
“The Lord restored the fortunes of Job . . . and the Lord gave
Job twice as much as he had before.” 8 Not only was he blessed
materially but, as so often happens when any of us endure hard
times, he had a far deeper understanding and appreciation of
his life.
That is something we also see with Frankl, a man who suf-
fered just as unfairly and horrifically as Job did. But after his
liberation from Auschwitz, Frankl was walking in a meadow and
suddenly felt overcome, sinking to his knees. “I called to the
14 why does god let it happen?

Lord from my narrow prison,” he wrote, “and he answered me

in the freedom of space. In that hour, my new life started.” 9
What Frankl found was that when all life’s familiar goals are
snatched away, “the last of human freedoms [is] to choose one’s
attitude”—and he chose faith, optimism, and hope.10 Most of us
would be more inclined to doubt, denial, and despair. Frankl’s
attitude, the one thing he still was free to control, is what
allowed him to rise above Auschwitz and not be completely vic-
timized by the experience.
But what about when God seems almost to choose the vic-
tims of accidents, tragedies, and disease—or, at least, does not
choose to spare them?
The Bridge of San Luis Rey was Thornton Wilder’s attempt
to make sense of the seeming randomness of victims. Is it all
just bad luck? Is it really God’s will? Is he somehow powerless
in such situations? Are we all predestined to our fate? Is there
a divine plan to each and every life, or is it all just random acts
and consequences?
Wilder builds his story around five ordinary people who fall
to their deaths in 1714 when a rope bridge—“the finest bridge
in Peru”—breaks and sends them plunging into a gorge. So why
these five, and not those who crossed just before or those who
were to follow?
Brother Juniper, who witnesses the accident, is left to try
to reconcile this tragedy with the nature of God. Wilder writes
that as those who had just crossed the bridge, or were about to,
marveled at their fortune, “It was another thought that visited
Brother Juniper: ‘Why did this happen to those five?’ If there
were any plan in the universe at all, if there were any pattern in
a human life, surely it could be discovered mysteriously latent in
those lives so suddenly cut off. Either we live by accident and die
by accident, or we live by a plan and die by a plan.” 11
So Brother Juniper set about trying to discover some hid-
den explanation that would make sense of it all. He investigated
 why, god? 15

their lives and even came up with a rating of each victim’s good-
ness, piety, and usefulness. He speculated that since each had
just resolved some problem and was ready to enter a new phase
of life, maybe there is “a right time” to die. And he concluded,
with a mix of frustration and wisdom: “Soon we shall die and all
memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves
shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have
been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that
made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a
land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love,
the only survival, the only meaning.” 12
Rabbi Kushner found Wilder’s speculation interesting but
“ultimately unsatisfying.” If we substitute hundreds of victims of
an airplane crash, he wrote, “it strains the imagination to claim
that every single one of them had just passed a point of resolu-
tion in his life.” 13 In fact, we often learn that they were in the
midst of important work, had plans for the future, or left young
families. Kushner finds a better explanation in a book Wilder
wrote forty years later, The Eighth Day, which is about a good
and decent man whose life is ruined by bad luck. In this book,
Wilder offers the image of a tapestry that shows an inspiring
work of art on one side but a tangle of threads and knots on the
other.
“Wilder offers this as an explanation,” Kushner writes, “of
why good people have to suffer in this life. God has a pattern
into which all of our lives fit. His pattern requires that some lives
be twisted, knotted, or cut short, while others extend to impres-
sive lengths, not because one thread is more deserving than
another, but simply because the pattern requires it. Looked at
from underneath, from our vantage point in life, God’s pattern
of reward and punishment seems arbitrary and without design,
like the underside of a tapestry. But looked at from outside this
life, from God’s vantage point, every twist and knot is seen to
have its place in a great design that adds up to a work of art.” 14
16 why does god let it happen?

We do not live in a heaven on earth, but in a proving ground

where our souls are tested, where we have choices, and where
we may even be victimized unfairly, but where our spiritual lives
and freedom are always protected.
The horror of experiences like Frankl’s may help us to
reflect that hardship and challenges often are what form our
character, like the priceless pearl molded through years of irrita-
tion in the oyster.
In the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches that we
should not only love our neighbor but love our enemies, we
read: “For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” 15 God
loves everyone and abandons no one, no matter what our per-
sonal circumstances or whether we believe in him.
We may rail at the apparent injustice of a beloved, aging par-
ent suffering in the throes of death or Alzheimer’s, or a bright
young person seemingly taken indiscriminately on the very
brink of life—as though we might choose much more wisely.
But after all the rantings of Job and his friends, God
answered them “out of the whirlwind” and said: “Who is this
that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? . . . Where
were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if
you have understanding.” 16
“If you have understanding.” It is easy to succumb to the
illusion of wisdom, to the arrogance that we know better. A col-
lege professor once posed this scenario to a class: “A certain man
has syphilis. His wife has tuberculosis. Of their four children,
one has died and the other three suffer from an incurable ill-
ness that is considered terminal. The mother is pregnant. What
should she do?” Most of the students didn’t hesitate to say she
should have an abortion. “Well,” said the professor, “you just
killed Beethoven.” 17
Yes, we who set the world aflame with wars, abandon whole
nations of people to disease and starvation, let our culture slide
 why, god? 17

toward depravity and increasingly cannot keep marriages and

families together, we dare to think we could better plan and run
the world.
Against our arrogance and despair, our bewilderment and
our search for answers, Swedenborg offers explanation, clarity,
and hope.
Everything that we see as fate, coincidence, serendipity,
good fortune, or bad luck falls under God’s providence. If we
could see what God sees, we would understand that everything
that happens to us—good and bad—is an example of how he is
always with us, and of the loving order that permeates every-
thing of his creation.
This is the ultimate prescription for peace. As Swedenborg
wrote, “Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that
he governs all things and provides all things, and that he leads
toward an end that is good.” 18
Many of us have an almost instinctive feel for God’s guid-
ance and providence in our lives. It is why a father whose daugh-
ter and son-in-law died while on a dream trip to Paris in the
tragic crash of that TWA Flight 800 in 1996 was able to say with
simple faith and heartfelt confidence: “We wake up to a sunrise,
but they wake up to a sunrise many times more glorious. We
know where they are and we will see them again.” 19
Some people never get beyond the pain and doubt of “Why,
God?” But many people come to share the abiding faith of this
grieving father. For all of us, finally, there are answers—answers
that make sense and bring peace.
 ll 2

Where Is God? In His Providence

God does not play dice.

—Albert Einstein

We failed, but in the good providence of God

apparent failure often proves a blessing.
—Robert E. Lee

Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise

Physician prescribes because we need them; and
he proportions the frequency and weight of them
to what the case requires. Let us trust his skill and
thank him for his prescription.
—Isaac Newton
k
The tsunami that swept away whole villages and took the lives
of more than 160,000 adults and children in Southeast Asia on a
sunny, peaceful day after Christmas in 2004 is yet another tragic
setting for the agonizing cry: Where was God? Why did he let
this happen? Why?
In the chaos of shattered lives, devastated families, and
abject need, these are troubling questions defying easy answers.
The tsunami of 2004 was an eerie echo of an equally cata-
clysmic earthquake and tsunami 250 years ago in Portugal.
That disaster was closely followed by another apparent test of
God’s love and power—the first truly global war, which forever
changed the world. And in the chain of consequences result-
ing from such tragic events, we begin to see the healing, guid-
ing hand of his providence—the beginning of an answer to the
question: why?
The year was 1755, a watershed time in human history,
where hard questions and the glimmer of answers began to come
into focus.
Repercussions from the relatively obscure Seven Years’
War—also known as the French and Indian War—spread from
America to Europe, Africa, and Asia, and the world was forever
changed. The Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1763 laid
the foundation for the British Empire, provided the springboard
for the Industrial Revolution, and sowed the seeds for the Amer-
ican Revolution.
21
22 why does god let it happen?

The conquest of Canada and the removal of the French

threat made the American colonies much less dependent on
Britain for protection. And when the British tried to tax the col-
onies to help pay the massive costs of the war, that sparked the
flame for the American Revolution. Despite the eventual loss
of the American colonies, conquests in Africa and the Indian
subcontinent in the Seven Years’ War, plus a vast increase in
the British merchant fleet, helped establish a British Empire
upon which “the sun never set.” Control of Africa and India
also released a flow of gold into Britain. Restless innovators in
Britain and the New World were ready to unleash new ideas and
inventions to ease labor and increase productivity, and this new
wealth unleashed the Industrial Revolution.
It was just a few months after the Seven Years’ War began
and set these profound changes in motion that a devastating
earthquake struck Lisbon on November 1, 1755. Experts esti-
mate that it would have registered 8.5 to 9 on the Richter scale,
making it one of the most powerful earthquakes of all time.
More than sixty thousand people perished—first from the earth-
quake itself, then from a massive tsunami about an hour later
that also sent deadly tidal waves along the coasts of Iberia and
North Africa. The tremors were so strong, they set church bells
ringing in distant parts of Europe.
Those tolling bells were ominously significant because the
quake struck Lisbon at 9:30 a.m. on All Saints’ Day, one of the
most important religious celebrations in the Christian world, at
a time when the churches were filled. Many worshippers died
in their pews. It’s no wonder people began speculating on the
disaster as an act of God’s vengeance or judgment.
There could not have been a more auspicious part of the
world for this disaster. Lisbon was known as the Queen of Cit-
ies—capital of Portugal, center of a colonial empire, and a glo-
ried stronghold of the Catholic Church, perhaps even more
so at that time than Rome. Protestant preachers were quick to
 where is god? in his providence 23

advance the notion that this catastrophe was a judgment on the

Catholic Church.
The shock waves were significant, felt throughout com-
merce, government, and the Christian world, so questions about
God’s vengeance—or his absence—were inevitable.
The impact on religion and philosophy, and on personal
faith, was transforming. Traditional Christianity prior to the
earthquake was described as sublime, with people generally
“content in God,” unquestioning in their beliefs, and submis-
sive to authority. The enormity of this tragedy quickly became a
catalyst by challenging the popular notion that all things happen
for a reason in this “best of all possible worlds.”
French philosopher and writer François-Marie Arounet
(1694–1778), better known under his pen name, Voltaire, led
the new wave of cynicism and scorn, first with his Poème sur le
désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Disaster at Lisbon), then with his
withering satirical novel Candide. Voltaire savagely mocked the
silly optimists who found comfort in God and his protection.
This was his own bitter, dismissive response to the question,
where was God?
To Voltaire it was obvious that God was not there—certainly
not a God who was loving and all-powerful. Such a God surely
would not have allowed such devastation and suffering. Such
doubt and cynicism are inevitable without understanding how
providence and permission work.
But whether or not people made the connection, good things
were happening as a result of the Lisbon tragedy. Strict ortho­
doxy began giving way to open minds and freedom of speech.
New ideas were no longer scorned or suppressed but welcomed.
There was an evangelical revival in England and missionary
efforts to translate the Bible and spread it throughout the Brit-
ish Empire, which later would touch all corners of the world.
How much did all of this relate to an apparently random
earthquake and a relatively minor war? Was it all just coinci-
24 why does god let it happen?

dence—the natural progression of cause and effect—or was

there perhaps a divine “plan” at work to bring good results out
of a devastating event? People can choose to see the possibilities
either way. But an informed faith about the workings of divine
providence, the understanding that God does permit what he
does not will for the sake of our freedom, begins to answer the
nagging questions of why things happen the way they do.
Consider other examples, from the Bible and from history,
that may raise doubts about God’s control in some cases, but
tend to confirm the operation of his providence in others.
From the beginning of the Bible (Adam and Eve being
seduced by the serpent in the Garden of Eden) to the end (the
crucifixion of God’s “only begotten Son”), people have won-
dered why God would allow such assaults on his power. Others
have come to see these tests as the ultimate examples of permis-
sion and providence, which forever provide for our freedom and
salvation.
History also is replete with tantalizing examples. England’s
King Henry VIII in the early 1500s, for example, was a self-
absorbed madman, executing wives in pursuit of a male heir
and breaking with the Catholic Church to assert his power and
indulge his desires. But what he set in motion, the establish-
ment of the Protestant movement, inadvertently established the
foundation for religious freedom all over Europe, which carried
over to America.
In 1588, King Phillip II of Spain sent his army aboard the
Spanish Armada to invade and conquer Britain. An unusual
storm—which came to be known as the “Protestant wind”—
helped to destroy the Spanish fleet and spare Britain. The
British, in thanks for what they saw as divine intervention, com-
missioned a commemorative medal inscribed: “He blew with
His winds, and they were scattered.” Swedenborg, of course,
would not agree that it was “divine intervention” and that God
“blew his winds.” The “natural disaster” for the Spanish was
 where is god? in his providence 25

not God’s will, but his providence led to what history—and cer-
tainly the British—generally see as a good end.
Just as recently as the terrorist attacks of 2001, we saw bla-
tant evil met by an outpouring of kindness and good will, so
much so that September 11 anniversaries have become a day
for good deeds all over the United States. Such examples tend
to confirm a basic tenet of divine providence: that God will not
permit anything that cannot be turned toward good and that he
is always doing all he can to lead us to heaven.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), one of the greatest minds to
probe the mysteries of the universe, said simply, “God does not
play dice.” He was convinced there were immutable laws and
a form of order at play, not chaos and coincidence. Explaining
why he was not an atheist, he wrote: “We are in the position of a
little child entering a huge library filled with books in many dif-
ferent languages. The child knows someone must have written
those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the
languages in which they were written. The child dimly suspects
a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t
know what it is.” 1
Einstein assumed that eventually we would discover those
laws. What he didn’t know is that they had been “discovered”—
actually, revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg—and so made avail-
able to all of us to explain that “acts of God” are not tragedies,
but rather the unseen manifestations of how he always leads us
from bad events to good outcomes.
But if God “does not play dice”—does not gamble with our
lives or intervene to manipulate events—and really is in ultimate
control, how exactly does he operate? How does his providence
work?
The first thing to understand is that in all of creation, in
everything that affects your life and the lives of others, God
operates according to absolute laws. They are like the laws of
nature. Imagine the chaos if gravity worked in some situations
26 why does god let it happen?

but not in others; if results varied when chemicals were com-

bined, depending on who was doing the mixing. These laws do
not restrict our freedom but provide for it. It is the same with
providence.
It may seem contradictory that an all-powerful God is con-
strained by laws. It may seem cruel and unloving that exceptions
aren’t made to prevent bad things from happening to good,
innocent, faithful people. What we call the laws of nature are
precise, orderly, and predictable. We know when the sun will
rise and set, the rhythm of the tides, the sequence of the seasons.
We see how nature always returns to balance after a forest fire.
What we so glibly call “acts of God,” such as earthquakes, hur-
ricanes, and floods, are really acts of nature. The acts of God are
in the healing. And so it is in our own lives.
God is consistent in the way he operates because he has to
be. Acting against the laws of his providence would be to defy
his divine essence—who he is. He just would not be God if he
was constantly compromising and adjusting his laws.
So what are these laws?

l
l The first law is that God allows evil to exist for the sake
of our freedom. We must be in a state of equilibrium—
between good and evil, heaven and hell—to be free to
choose the quality of our lives. Without that freedom,
we would not feel life to be our own.

l
l The second law is that we must be free to act from
our own will, as long as we are making rational choices.
Swedenborg says that people cannot be reformed if
they are in states of fear, disease, insanity, or ignorance,
when they aren’t able to make informed, rational deci-
sions. But as long as we are of sound mind and body,
we must be free to choose—even if what we choose is
not what God would want for us.
 where is god? in his providence 27

l
l The third law is that we should not be compelled
to believe in God, in his providence, or in anything,
because compulsion takes away freedom. Puppets and
robots don’t have freedom. Wars have been fought to
suppress freedom or to win it, including the freedom to
believe as we choose and live accordingly. No one wants
to be coerced. God wants for us to make good choices,
but he will not—cannot—force us to do so. God’s will
is that each and every one of us gets to heaven by mak-
ing good choices, by actually choosing heaven in the
way we lead our lives. But he will leave people free to
reject him, to embrace evil and to choose hell.

l
l The fourth law is that for us to be truly free, we must
be able to see and recognize evil in order to reject it.
This is the challenge of freedom. Our culture is a smor-
gasbord of good and bad choices. We know what it’s
like to be tempted, but we also know what the healthy
choices are. And we know what it is to live with the
consequences of good and bad choices.

l
l The fifth law is that the operation of divine provi-
dence should never be evident to us, but that we should
always know that it is working in our lives. Imagine if
you could know how God was leading you. You would
feel your freedom was threatened and probably would
want to rebel, especially if God was trying to lead you
out of a destructive habit while you were still enjoying
it and not ready to give it up. We may get glimpses of
providence at work when we look back over a chain of
events, but not while it’s happening.2

We often wish we could know the future, for good and bad
reasons. But knowing what will happen would take away our
28 why does god let it happen?

freedom, especially if the outcome was something we didn’t

want at the time. Knowing the future would destroy our free-
dom to choose, and it would deprive us of something essential
to our growth: hope.
Swedenborg teaches that longing to know the future really
has its origins in evil, however innocent it may seem. Those
who trust in the Lord’s guidance in their lives have no desire to
know what’s going to happen beforehand. As Jesus said to his
disciples: “Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what
you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations
of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father
knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and
these things will be given to you as well.” 3
Swedenborg says a man lost in a forest is likely to give him-
self the credit if he finds his way out. Or maybe he’ll say he was
just lucky. But all the time, providence was standing in a tower,
seeing everything and secretly leading him to safety.
This is what providence does. It is God’s continuous process
with each one of us to lead us to salvation and to heaven, step
by step, through every phase of our lives—but always leaving us
free to choose against what God wills for us. The same laws of
providence and permission are operating whatever our choices
and experiences may be. The outcome depends on whether we
are cooperating with God or rejecting him. But his love never
stops flowing, like the sun shining and rain falling equally on
the roses and the weeds. We all get the same measure; it’s up to
us how we use it.
The basic concept of providence—of a divine plan some-
how operating in our lives and everything happening for a rea-
son—makes sense to many people, even if they don’t understand
exactly how it works. One reason why it can be difficult to com-
prehend is because we are limited by space and time. God isn’t.
He sees our lives in the spiritual context of eternity. As we’ve
 where is god? in his providence 29

noted, we may glimpse some reason for why things happen, but
cannot begin to see it all play out the way God does.
The ultimate question is not where tragedy comes from—
certainly not from God—but where it leads. God is always lead-
ing us toward good outcomes, toward heaven, if we will just
follow him.
But it takes more than blindly following God and trusting
in his guidance to get us to that “good end.” God does not want
us living passively with our arms at our sides, just letting life
happen, believing he will save us without our effort. He wants
us to be making good, active choices and living as best we can
to cooperate with his plan.
If we are really to be led by providence, we are commanded
to be good stewards of the talents and abilities that have been
given to us by being useful and being accountable. Jesus uses
the parable of the talents 4 to illustrate that the servants who put
their “talents” (a sum of money) to use were rewarded, while the
servant who was fearful and buried his talents was rebuked for
wasting his opportunity and responsibility.
By living good and useful lives, obeying and living God’s
commandments, we place ourselves in the stream of his provi-
dence. When we cooperate with God in our actions—by being
kind and helpful to others, for instance, instead of criticizing
and gossiping—we allow his plan of leading us to good to work
in our lives.
The more we understand the “doctrine of permissions”—
why God allows what he does not will for the sake of our free-
dom and salvation—the stronger our trust in his providence will
be. His love and his mercy are infinite. Our knowledge is always
imperfect. How little we know, really, of the challenges we must
face, or how much tragedy and testing we must endure, to pro-
vide just the right mix of providence and permission that God
knows is necessary for our salvation. Through any pain and suf-
30 why does god let it happen?

fering that afflicts our lives, how comforting it is to know that

God is always looking toward our ultimate happiness in heaven
where he “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no
more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the
first things have passed away.” 5
 ll 3

Deliver Us from Evil

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not

necessary; men alone are quite capable of every
wickedness.
—Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes

Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares

our bed and eats at our own table.
—W. H. Auden

Freud’s great courage led him to look honestly at

evil in men’s nature. He persisted in his research
to the bottom of the jar, and there he found hope.
He discerned that love is stronger than hate and
that for all its care of malignancy the nature of men
can be transformed through the nature and disper-
sion of love. In this way, the destructiveness can be
transcended.
—Dr. Karl Menninger
k
“Deliver us from evil.” The words echo from the prayer Jesus
Christ taught in his Sermon on the Mount, words still invoked
every day by Christians the world over.
These words acknowledge that evil exists in the world, that
we are all susceptible to it, and that only God can truly deliver
us—save us—from its power.
But why does God allow evil in the world? And how are we
to reconcile a God we like to think of as loving and all-powerful
with what is contrary to his love, his truth, and all that he wants
for us?
Evil is a strong word. We tend to reserve it for tyrants, abus-
ers, murderers—the worst criminals and heartless souls whose
actions are clearly despicable. We all do bad things from time to
time. We can be selfish and unkind, but we don’t like to think
of ourselves as “evil.”
However, “evil” is used throughout the Bible to describe any
of our wayward leanings that turn us away from God.
We might forgive the children of Israel for “making mis-
takes” during their forty years of trial and suffering in the wil-
derness. But the Bible says: “[They] had done evil in the sight
of the Lord.” 1
We may see people as a mix of good and bad intentions.
The Bible says: “The inclination of the human heart is evil from
youth.” 2

33
34 why does god let it happen?

The Bible doesn’t tell us not to make bad choices. It says:

“Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to
do evil, learn to do good.” 3
Obviously, there are many degrees of what may be lumped
under “evil,” from white lies to the most heinous crimes. Swe-
denborg says the all-encompassing definition of evil in the bibli-
cal context is simply the act of turning away from God, or doing
anything that opposes the happiness he wants for us. It is easy to
see the horror of Hitler, for example, as abject evil. He deliber-
ately and defiantly turned his back on anything and everything
of God. Other ways of turning our backs can be much more
subtle: a bad mood, a lapse of judgment, or flashes of anger,
spite, and frustration. In its broadest terms, evil doesn’t apply
just to the worst people among us, but at some times to all of us.
We all see glimpses of hell in our lives when we turn our backs
on God, if just for a few moments of selfishness or hatefulness.
And we all know feelings of heaven when we turn toward God,
even if unconsciously, by being kind, helping others, or just tak-
ing the time to appreciate the glories of nature. That’s what
our freedom—ultimately, the freedom to choose heaven or hell
throughout our lives—is all about.
Swedenborg teaches us that we are all born to go to heaven,
and we have a lot of good traits learned from our parents, plus
all the power of God and heaven, to help us get there. But ever
since the serpent seduced Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
to eat of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil—the “original sin”—all of us also have what Swedenborg
calls “hereditary evils.” These are not actual evils or sins within
us, but inclinations or tendencies to turn away from God. We
may feel those tugs throughout our lives. But we don’t really
“own” a sin unless we consciously make it our own by choosing
it and delighting in it.
The battle of good versus evil has been an enduring theme
throughout history, in art, literature, and culture, from David
 deliver us from evil 35

and Goliath to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. One of the

classic portrayals of this struggle was Fyodor Dostoevsky’s
novel Crime and Punishment. It is the story of Raskolnikov, who
proudly conceives a “perfect crime”—the murder of a spiteful
pawnbroker. It’s for the common good, he tells himself. The
world would be better off without this miserable person. It was
easy to give himself permission to transcend the law, just as we
may glibly rationalize our own indulgences. But he finds himself
tormented by guilt and conscience.
The story becomes a morality tale as Raskolnikov is torn
between his evil nature and what he knows to be right. He
comes to discover the workings of providence, although he does
not know it as such, when he sees something good coming from
his evil, but not by his own power. And he learns the lesson we
all need to understand. When we feel supremely self-confident,
trusting solely in ourselves and the world, we fight alone, we
have no hope, and we are doomed to frustration and unhappi-
ness. But when we trust in God and allow him to lead, we are
never alone. Only then can we achieve success and find happi-
ness.
To that end, Swedenborg says, it is also important to know
that evil does not originate with us. We may all have a dark side
at times, experiencing troubling thoughts and doing things we
know are wrong or come to regret. But however much it may
seem that we are alone with our sometimes good/sometimes bad
nature, evil actually comes from outside of us, not inside. All evil
originates in hell and influences us from there.
The world may seem to be overflowing with evil. Look at
our wayward culture: pervasive pornography on the Internet,
rampant crime and abuse, cruel persecution of whole groups
of people, and the horror of terrorism. But the world is not
innately evil. Neither is any one of us evil unless we choose of
our own free will to act on evil inclinations. Evil is always a per-
version by human beings of what God created as a good thing.
36 why does god let it happen?

Love of self and love of the world are not inherently evil. Look-
ing out for ourselves and our families is the responsible thing to
do, as long as we don’t put ourselves above God and everyone
else, or love the physical things of this world more than the
spiritual qualities of heaven.
Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) said, “God
makes all things good; man meddles with them and they become
evil.” 4 Swedenborg would add: Yes, it is man, not God, who
chooses evil; but man can just as easily choose good. In fact, we
are either turning toward God or away from him throughout
every moment of our lives. What makes the difference is that
through the pattern of our lives, we ultimately choose one way
over the other—either heaven or hell. But there is a lot of turn-
ing back and forth in the process.
That’s why no one should feel guilty or set apart just because
they do bad things at times, or entertain bad thoughts. We may
feel guilty about such lapses only if we no longer see them as
bad, have no desire to shun them, and have no pangs of con-
science. God always forgives if we are sincere in fighting against
whatever evils may tempt us.
The ultimate promise in the way God governs is that no
matter what evil is inflicted on the world, he is always work-
ing to bend it toward good. Unfortunately, innocent people do
suffer and grieve because of what we do to each other, but in
the timelessness of his spiritual kingdom, where we all will live
forever, is that eternal promise of God wiping away our tears,
with no more sorrow, crying, or pain.5
In times of tragedy, that assurance of “no more pain” may
not be easy to accept. But think how much worse it would be
if God was not there constantly working to offset sorrow with
hope.
It comes down to this: Either there is a loving God who
permits what he does not will for the sake of our freedom, but
keeps leading us toward heaven, or God isn’t all that loving and
 deliver us from evil 37

powerful after all—and maybe doesn’t even exist. Swedenborg

assures us over and over that God’s love and mercy are always
there through all the trials of life, and are ultimately triumphant.
Swedenborg also explains clearly that just as the good flow-
ing in from God and heaven needs to be a part of our lives, we
need to know and experience evil also. Wouldn’t it be nice if we
didn’t have to worry about bad people or bad things happening
to us? But for the sake of our freedom and ultimate salvation,
we need to be in equilibrium in this life. Only by knowing both
good and evil are we able to choose to reject evil and then be
cleansed of it through a life of regeneration, which in Sweden-
borgian terms means repenting from bad things we’ve done and
following God rather than our own inclinations. When we do
that, heaven will protect us forever from anything evil.
We’ve all seen cartoons of a man with the devil on one
shoulder and an angel on the other, competing for his atten-
tion and trying to get him to go one way or the other. That’s
not so far-fetched. Swedenborg says we are constantly in the
company of good and evil spirits from the spiritual world. We
aren’t aware of them, and they don’t know that they are with us
specifically. They aren’t watching our lives and spying on what
we are doing. But just as people on this earth have what we call
a “presence”—something about their character that influences
our good or bad instincts—the spheres of good and evil spirits
are said to be with us, almost like that cartoon angel and devil.
God keeps us from being overwhelmed by one or the other so
that we are always free to choose. We are choosing all the time
whose company we want to keep, whether we want the angels or
the devils in our lives. Think about that: we aren’t conscious of
this influence from heaven and hell, but it is a part of us—every
day, every moment—as we pick our way along our journey.
One reason why God allows us to experience the conse-
quences of bad choices is to provide an incentive to change our
lives for the better, to grow spiritually through regeneration.
38 why does god let it happen?

Another reason is so that we can experience what life looks like

when we don’t follow God and his commandments. Hopefully,
this helps us to choose a better path.
Whatever path we are on, God never stops working for us
and with us. But we have to work with him also. Remember
what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Very truly, I tell you, no one
can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 6
And when Nicodemus asked how an old man could be born
again, Jesus said he must be “born of water and Spirit.” 7 Accord-
ing to Swedenborg, this describes a process of reformation and
regeneration—consciously choosing against evil and for good
through self-examination, reflection, and repentance or atone-
ment. That practice of self-improvement can last a lifetime and
even continue after death.
Freedom is fundamental to this process. But there are two
kinds of freedom, one hellish and one heavenly. Heavenly free-
dom is exercising freedom responsibly by thinking and doing
what’s right in the eyes of God and what is best for everyone. If
we are thinking bad thoughts and acting on them—just doing
what we want and not caring about others, even if they might
be hurt or threatened—that is freedom, too, but it’s a hellish
kind of freedom.
What’s the difference? They both feel free, but they are
opposites, and only one can be true freedom. Think about driv-
ing safely and obeying the rules versus ignoring stop signs or
driving on the wrong side of the road. We have the freedom to
choose either of those behaviors, but the impulses come from
very different places, with different results. Jesus said that know-
ing God’s truth and living it “will make you free.” 8 Conversely,
to be led and controlled by evil—such as drugs, alcohol, or other
compulsive behaviors—is actually a form of slavery. We talk
about how we become slaves to bad habits or addictions. We
may even say, “The devil made me do it,” as though we weren’t
really free, when we are really choosing to let the devil be in us.
 deliver us from evil 39

But what about the kind of evil we neither seek nor choose,
such as accidents, disease, and misfortune? Because we are not
aware of any fault that brought such evil into our lives, we are
easily disposed to cry out in protest: what did I do to deserve
this? Instead, let us reflect on what God would want to be
accomplished, so that the evil may be there for the reason it
was permitted—that good might result. God’s will is not to be
seen in what happens to us, but in the opportunities that open
themselves to us. We may have to know and experience some
form of evil to overcome it, but that is part of the process of our
spiritual growth.
Indeed, one of the uses of evil in our lives, in whatever mea-
sure, is that it provides a perspective to reflect on our lives and
to choose to change. It is like the annual exercise of making
New Year’s resolutions, the observation of Lent, or the Jewish
day of atonement on Yom Kippur. If we make a sincere effort
to repent, we can rid ourselves of evil and become truly free.
Plato recognized in The Republic that we have to know
evil—not necessarily from doing it but through observation
and awareness—in order to reject evil and be free from it: “The
judge should not be young. He should have learned to know
evil, not from his own soul, but from late and long observation
of the nature of evil in others: knowledge should be his guide,
not personal experience.” 9
Part of what we observe, of course, which may chafe at our
sense of justice and providence, is people all around us so who
do not seem to be leading good, pious lives—indeed, perhaps
the opposite—but who become wealthy, famous, and even idol-
ized. And we do not see them openly punished by God.
But just as God’s mercy falls on the just and unjust, we do
not have to be devout to be successful in life. Material success
can be a blessing or a curse, depending on whether it’s a way to
serve others or a platform for self-indulgence. Either way, the
“success” of good or bad people can produce benefits for oth-
40 why does god let it happen?

ers. Whether people deemed successful in this life wind up in

heaven or hell depends on their own motives and choices.
Consider the words of the psalmist: “I was envious of the
arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked . . . until I went into
the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.” 10
We are certainly not alone in our struggles and temptations.
Everyone is on the same journey. Indeed, the ancient journey
of the children of Israel, fleeing from slavery in Egypt and wan-
dering through the trials of the wilderness until being delivered
into the Promised Land, still resonates in our own lives. That is
because so much of living lies in the challenges we all must face,
and in how we respond to them and grow from them.
It would be nice to think we all could find a blissful hap-
piness without any hardships or challenges. For some people,
it may be a dream of winning the lottery so they don’t have to
work anymore and can just “be happy.” It doesn’t work that
way, and there have been plenty of examples of people winning
fortunes who became quite miserable. We form our character
through the way we respond to the situations and obstacles that
test us in life.
The children of Israel suffered all sorts of setbacks and
temptations on their journey and often wanted to quit. Temp-
tation—wrestling with our base, self-centered instincts and
inclinations—is an essential part of our journey. This is the way
we regenerate or are “born again,” putting off our old life and
letting a heavenly life take its place.
Our spiritual paths are unique to each of us. But the more we
realize that we are all on similar journeys and help each other,
and the more we let God lead us, the easier and more rewarding
the journey can become.
We just need to be assured that challenges arise in life not
to discourage us but to help us grow. Consider Mother Teresa:
a saint of a person, whatever your faith, who put service to the
most destitute of people above her own comfort. But even hers
 deliver us from evil 41

was not a life of bliss or even unswerving faith. We know that

she often felt alone, enduring apparent silence and darkness
from God. In the midst of her devotion she was tormented at
times by doubt. But she kept on serving the desolate souls of
Calcutta because she saw that work as the will of God. That
gave her life meaning and kept bringing her closer to God.
We’re not likely to face the squalor and deprivation that she
chose to serve, but it can be easy at times to feel, as she did, that
God isn’t listening to our prayers or paying attention to our
needs. As we fight the struggles between good and evil, between
light and darkness in our lives, doubt about God’s presence and
mercy is part of the process of temptation and growth. If even
Mother Teresa was able to harness her suffering and doubt and
keep persevering to spread her little light and goodness in the
world, can’t we find a way in our own lives to do what God
wants us to do, and not what our selfish inclinations tempt us
to do?
“Deliver us from evil.” God can do that for us. He is always
working to deliver us from the wilderness of our lives into the
promised land of heaven, where there is eternal deliverance
from evil.
That’s what God’s coming on earth is all about: the “good
tidings of great joy” with his Christmas birth, the temptations
he endured, his eventual crucifixion, and the ultimate triumph
of his resurrection at Easter. Swedenborg tells us that the Lord
came on earth as Jesus Christ to put down the hells, which were
threatening to overcome the world. There is still evil in the
world, but it is in balance now. We still are free to choose it, but
we truly can be “delivered from evil” with the hope and promise
of eternal salvation.
“I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace.
In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have con-
quered the world!” 11
 ll 4

Suffering: The Crossroads of Faith

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.

—William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Joy is not the absence of suffering. Joy is the pres-

ence of God.
—Anonymous

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity

to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to
love and to be greater than our suffering.
—Ben Okri
k
Mothers, philosophers, nurses, and theologians all have
looked into the eyes of innocent, suffering children with the
same anguished question: how could a good and loving God
allow this to happen?
It’s a question that has haunted theology from Job to the
Holocaust, from personal family tragedies to sweeping catas-
trophes.
It is a theme coursing through the history of art and litera-
ture, poetry and drama.
Serious thinkers like Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis have
probed the mysteries of suffering and come up wanting. Only
Emanuel Swedenborg offers real, spiritual answers. They are
effective because they came to him during years of revelation
from God, not from human logic and speculation.
Let’s look at this fundamental issue of “undeserved suffer-
ing” through the eyes of others, then consider the more satisfy-
ing answers that Swedenborg provides.
Rabbi Kushner begins his best-selling book by boldly assert-
ing that “why bad things happen to good people” is “the only
question that really matters.” 1
Why? Because that question is at the very heart of faith.
Those who believe in God may be willing to accept some mys-
teries, but they want their faith to make sense. Belief in a loving,
all-powerful God is hard to reconcile with all the apparently

45
46 why does god let it happen?

unfair suffering in the world. Those two things taken together

just don’t make sense—at least, not on the surface.
Rabbi Kushner says that virtually every meaningful conver-
sation he’s had with people about religion revolves around this
issue. There just seems to be something fundamentally unjust
about “the wrong people” getting sick, being hurt, or dying
young.
As a rabbi, witnessing the daily toll of tragedy, he had to ask
himself if he could continue to teach “that the world is good,
and that a kind and loving God is responsible for what happens
in it.” 2
One way many people have dealt with the paradox is to
assume that we get what we deserve—as though suffering is
some kind of divine punishment meted out for our sins. But
what has an innocent baby done to “deserve” being born with
a disease or deformity? Where is the justice in a promising stu-
dent being killed in a car crash or a young mother dying of
cancer?
As a parent of a child born with a horrible, incurable disease,
a child who died in his early teens, Rabbi Kushner rejects the
notion that somehow God chose him and his wife as “special”
enough to handle such a challenge. And he rejects the idea that
bad things happen to good people because it gives them what
they deserve as punishment for past sins. That kind of thinking
creates guilt where none belongs. It ascribes a quality to God
that just does not fit, and can cause people to doubt God or even
hate him.
The good rabbi finds comfort in the psalmist: “I lift up my
eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help
comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” 3
Yes, it is help—love and healing—that comes from God,
not the affliction. The universal hope, of course, is for another
world beyond this life, where at last there is justice for all and
everyone is healed and reunited. But the rabbi laments, “Nei-
 suffering: the crossroads of faith 47

ther I nor any living person can know anything about the reality
of that hope.” 4
In fact, Emanuel Swedenborg was permitted to report exten-
sively on the reality of the spiritual world, on heaven and hell,
and how the hope of a healing afterlife can be fulfilled for all.
(See Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell, and this author’s Window to
Eternity, for vivid descriptions of the reality of life after death.)
Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor, famously used hope
and courage to transcend one of the most egregious examples
of mass suffering in the history of the world. As a practicing
psychiatrist, Frankl developed from his experience a treatment
called logotherapy, a power-of-positive-thinking approach to
crises and suffering. That theory—described in his well-known
book Man’s Search for Meaning—has given millions of people
the tools for dealing more effectively with pain, grief, and suf-
fering, if not all the answers.
Frankl said, “What man actually needs is not a tensionless
state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy
of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any
cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled
by him.” 5
That search for meaning is what led to his book, which is
a wonderful manifestation of something good coming out of
incredible evil.
In the depths of the despair of his Holocaust experience,
Frankl came to realize that when everything else has been
stripped away, people still have one last freedom that can never
be taken from them: choosing their attitude. Obviously, the
range of personal suffering we see in the world is extensive—
and intensely personal—but being a victim of the abject hope-
lessness of the Holocaust may be the greatest extreme one can
experience. In Auschwitz, Frankl found that the kind of prisoner
one became was clearly the result of an inner decision. Those
who considered themselves victims, without hope, quickly suc-
48 why does god let it happen?

cumbed. Those who had a reason for living, who still found
meaning in their lives, were the survivors.
Frankl cites a study at the Yale School of Medicine in which
researchers were impressed by the number of prisoners of war
in Vietnam “who explicitly claimed that although their captivity
was extraordinarily stressful—filled with torture, disease, mal-
nutrition, and solitary confinement—they nevertheless ben-
efited from the experience, seeing it as a growth experience.” 6
Many experiences that we would not choose for ourselves
actually provide just such opportunities for growth, for some-
thing good coming out of something bad. And like those prison-
ers in Vietnam, most of us seem to accept that whatever trials
come into our lives are somehow essential in forming who we are.
We all know of people who rise above their suffering with a
kind of nobility that makes them heroes, even if they don’t see
themselves that way. Some examples in public life:

l
l Helen Keller, the courageous woman born deaf,
mute, and blind who overcame her disability with an
uplifting spirit—and became a devoted reader of Swe-
denborg. “The world is full of suffering,” she said. “It
is also full of overcoming it.” 7

l
l Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Man” of the Babe Ruth-era
New York Yankees, who contracted the terrible dis­-
ease that now bears his name: ALS, amyotrophic lat-
eral sclerosis. In one of the indelible moments in sports
history, he bid farewell to his fans, his body ravaged by
the disease, but his voice echoing through the Yankee
Stadium loudspeakers: “Today, I consider myself the
luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

l
l Morrie Schwartz, immortalized by his devoted stu-
dent Mitch Albom in the classic book Tuesdays with
 suffering: the crossroads of faith 49

Morrie. When Albom learned that his beloved old pro-

fessor was dying of ALS, he began to visit him every
Tuesday. The book became Morrie’s final lesson and
his lasting gift to the world: teaching us all how to live
through the dignity of his own dying.

l
l Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French writer and editor
who was paralyzed at age forty-three by a stroke that
resulted in a condition called the “locked-in syn-
drome.” He could not speak, eat, breathe on his own,
or move a muscle except for his left eyelid. By blinking
in code—more than two hundred thousand times—he
dictated a popular book that has since become a movie,
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Although his body was
immobile, his spirit and imagination were free as a but-
terfly. That gave meaning to his life.

l
l Erik Weihenmayer, who lost his sight at age thirteen.
He thought his life was over, but was inspired by Terry
Fox, a brave man running across Canada on a pros-
thetic leg to raise money and awareness for cancer
research. In Terry, Eric saw both intense agony and
enormous triumph, and dedicated himself to rising
above his own adversity—to incredible heights. He
has climbed the seven tallest mountains in the world,
worked with young blind people all over the world to
give them a whole new way of seeing, and written two
books that have helped transform lives: Touch the Top of
the World: A Blind Man’s Journey to Climb Farther Than
the Eye Can See and The Adversity Advantage: Turning
Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness.

All of these people had something in common—severe

disabilities that most of us could not conceive of handling as
50 why does god let it happen?

well as they. No doubt they went through periods of doubt and

despair about their “bad luck.” But each made a decision that
echoes every day among the bravest of sufferers.
They did not give in to self-pity. They did not wallow
in questions of “Why me?” They did not let the cancers of
cynicism, criticism, and complaining eat away at their spirit.
They still found meaning in their lives—and added meaning
to ours.
Ask a doctor about patients suffering from debilitating dis-
ease or injury, and he or she will likely put them into one of
two categories: those who see themselves as victims and those
who see themselves as survivors. The survivors make the best
recovery. In Auschwitz, as Frankl observed, they were the ones
who did survive.
C. S. Lewis, the English scholar and writer who gave us the
classic Narnia series and some of the most profound books ever
written on faith, also probed the mysteries of pain and suffer-
ing. Lewis called himself a “lapsed atheist,” a man whose own
common-sense questioning led him to become one of the great
modern champions of Christianity.
The first of the books on his journey into faith was The Prob-
lem of Pain, written in 1940. It is a detached, philosophical look
at the most fundamental of religious dilemmas. Twenty years
later, his beloved wife, Joy Gresham, died of cancer just four
years into their marriage. His book based on that experience, A
Grief Observed, was intensely personal and from the heart.
The Problem of Pain contends that pain demands a better
answer than what is on the surface. Lewis, still on his journey
from atheism to confident faith, wrote: “If God were good,
He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were
almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the crea-
tures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or
power, or both.” Resolving the contradiction seemed “unan-
swerable.” 8
 suffering: the crossroads of faith 51

Lewis struggled to understand how anyone who made others

suffer could have been created by God. He came to understand
that it’s all about God allowing for human freedom. Because we
are free to make bad decisions as well as good ones, suffering is
unfortunate but inevitable.
Our free will is God’s best gift to us. However, we have the
choice of either using that freedom nobly in serving others or
abusing it and causing pain.
Sigmund Freud, another scholar with enormous influence,
started from a similar place but came to very different conclu-
sions. He, too, was greatly bothered by the theological and psy-
chological implications of pain and suffering, and he wondered
where God fit in.
Lewis progressed from atheism to faith, but the brilliant
Freud was blind to spiritual answers. He was purely the scientist,
trusting only what he could see—and what he saw didn’t make
sense. He did not believe true knowledge could come from rev-
elation, although Swedenborg tells us it is the only way God
can teach us about spiritual truth. Freud suffered throughout
his life, emotionally and physically, and never accepted God
because he couldn’t resolve the question of suffering on a purely
scientific basis.
Helen Keller, in her blindness, still was able to see what
Swedenborg proclaims: God is always with us to help, even—
and especially—in times of pain and suffering.
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet,” she
wrote. “Only through experience of trial and suffering can the
soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and suc-
cess achieved.” 9
Swedenborg also teaches that God does not want us to suffer
just so that we can grow, as Lewis speculated. He permits us to
suffer so that we can grow—with his help.
We may not be inclined to think much about God when
things are going well. It is when times turn bad that suffering
52 why does god let it happen?

people rage, pray, and question God. We all know the wartime
cliché about “no atheists in foxholes.” But God is always in the
foxholes and in the living rooms, in good times and bad, offer-
ing his love.
Perhaps the suffering of the innocent and helpless is hardest
to reconcile. Nothing is more painful than to see a child victim-
ized by a horrible disease or subject to criminal abuse. Jesus said
to his disciples: “Let the little children come to me, and do not
stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven
belongs.” 10 So why can it seem as though he isn’t protecting all
children from evil?
Again, it comes back to permission. Allowing everyone to
be free means that people are also free to inflict pain and even
death on others. But that does not mean God has stopped car-
ing, or that he isn’t in control. Innocent victims will know his
love and his mercy to eternity.
When a biblical prophet complained bitterly about his mis-
fortunes, we read that although God may have seemed to cause
grief, “he will have compassion according to the abundance of
his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve any-
one.” 11
Suffering courses through history. There is even a sense that
a person can’t be a true artist without experiencing “noble suf-
fering.” In his classic drama Agamemnon, written in Greece in
458 BCE, Aeschylus claimed that “by suffering comes wisdom.”
There are all kinds of suffering. Some of us seem to get
more than our share, and others to get off lightly. But all of
us have some trials and low points in life, and we may begin to
appreciate how they help us to grow spiritually. We are meant
to overcome the temptations we face and to repent of any pain
we have caused others; if we are sincere in the process, our lives
and our faith are strengthened. We may have to go through
our own variations of Jesus’s trials on Good Friday to get to the
triumph of resurrection on Easter.
 suffering: the crossroads of faith 53

This is like the story of the merchant in Matthew 13 who

sold all that he had to buy “the pearl of great price,” which is
likened to the kingdom of heaven. We know that a pearl is a
precious jewel resulting from a grain of sand. The coarse sand
irritates the oyster and the substance it secretes to overcome
the pain becomes the pearl. So out of pain comes love, heal-
ing, and something precious and heavenly that was not there
before.
Suffering always brings us to a crossroads of faith. The com-
fort in the teachings revealed through Swedenborg is that pain
and suffering never come from God and are not willed by him.
What he gives us are the tools to see how his providence works
and to understand that it will always lead eventually to good.
Swedenborg does not address pain and suffering the way
a psychologist would, in order to help us cope emotionally.
Rather, he sees in our suffering various manifestations of evil
as root causes—and as part of the process of overcoming evil in
ourselves as we advance toward heaven.
Swedenborg does offer the soothing teaching that pain and
suffering in the body are real but temporary conditions. “When
we suffer physically, our soul does not suffer, it merely feels
distress. After victory, God relieves that distress and washes it
away like tears from our eyes.” 12
The “victory,” of course, is the salvation that comes to us
through a process of regeneration—suffering through tempta-
tions and then turning away from evil influences in our lives.
And while we may have to endure some pain and suffering in
our lives, Swedenborg assures us that in God’s eyes everyone is
born for heaven;13 that he provides the means for everyone to be
saved; 14 and that his “constant effort” is to conjoin us to himself
and give us the happiness of heavenly life.15
There may also be some protection in pain and suffering,
because Swedenborg also assures us that we cannot be reformed
in states of disease, fear, misfortune, and altered mental states—
54 why does god let it happen?

because we are not in freedom—but we are not judged in those

states, either.16
So while we certainly may not wish for pain or suffering—
for ourselves or anyone else—going through such trials may
actually serve a good end by helping us to evaluate our lives and
make better choices. God isn’t in the pain and suffering, but he
is always there to lead us to a higher state.
The bottom line in Swedenborg’s teachings is that if evil
had not come into the world through humanity’s own choices—
and our continuing bad choices—there would be no suffering.
The injustice arises when innocent people suffer because of the
choices or actions of others. But as we have seen, all pain and
suffering—no matter how grievous—is permitted by God only
so that his providence can lead eventually to good. In the midst
of suffering we still can make choices: to rebel against the “injus-
tice” of God or to reaffirm our faith in him and his guidance;
to look for revenge or toward an attitude of charity and grace;
to wallow in self-pity or look for ways to improve our lives and
thinking. That is the freedom God wants us to feel and exercise.
As long as we only look at suffering—as Lewis and Freud
did—we’ll never really understand it. The mystery of human
suffering is finally resolved in the teachings of Swedenborg so
that we can see God’s divine purpose; not in the suffering itself,
but in the good end for which it is permitted.
So the question should not be: “Why me, God?” or “Why
this innocent child?” but “What good end might be made pos-
sible through this suffering, and how can we cooperate with
God in working toward that end?” That is where his purpose
and his love are manifest.
Every day, every moment, people are suffering and asking
the question: “Why, God?” And every day, every moment, God
is reaching out to reverse that pain with his love. Whenever we
reach the crossroads of pain and misfortune, we will know the
 suffering: the crossroads of faith 55

way to follow him—through the “pearly gates” or “the pearl of

great price” into his heavenly kingdom.
God will always be there. “They will hunger no more, and
thirst no more . . . for the Lamb at the center of the throne will
be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water
of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 17
 ll 5

When Bad Things Happen

Disease, Disasters, Accidents, and War

For the son of man did not come to destroy men’s

lives, but to save them.
—Luke 9:56

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern

world that we must love our enemies—or else? The
chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars
producing more wars—must be broken, or else we
shall be plunged into the abyss of annihilation.
—Martin Luther King Jr.

And almost everyone when age,

Disease, or sorrows strike him,
Inclines to think there is a God,
Or something very like Him.
—Arthur Hugh Clough
k
A baby is born with special needs that will impact his and his
parents’ whole lives. Every other baby born that day in the same
hospital is normal.
A young mother succumbs to cancer and her friends and
family are left with devastation. Why her? She doesn’t deserve
this.
Thousands of cars pass each other on a highway every day
without incident—and in one instant, two cars collide and lives
are forever changed.
Two young men in war are side by side in a bunker. One is
killed by a grenade, the other is spared.
Is this all random? Just good and bad luck?
Are some people actually targeted by fate? Punished by
God? Or just unlucky?
We have all heard about a man who just misses a flight that
goes on to crash, and he is left to ponder: “Why was I spared?”
And what strange destiny put all those innocent victims on
the planes that turned into bombs on September 11, or those in
the twin towers of the World Trade Center on that fateful day?
It’s so much bigger than Brother Juniper’s search for answers
among the five victims of the collapse of the Bridge of San Luis
Rey. So where is God and his providence with all the innocent
victims and suffering in diseases, accidents, natural disasters, and
war?

59
60 why does god let it happen?

Illness and Disease

When God created the world in the familiar Genesis story, the
Garden of Eden was a beautiful, innocent place—heaven on
earth. What defiled it was the free choice of Adam and Eve to
eat of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. That choice is what
made them human, and the same freedom is what makes us
human. God will never take that essential freedom away from
us, because we would not be human without it.
For the sake of our freedom, we are suspended between the
good sphere or influences of heaven and the opposite sphere
or influences of hell. We are free at every moment to choose
between them. Just as heaven is all around us—in the innocence
of a baby, the beauty of nature, the joy of helping someone—
so is the bad side of the world. It permeates our culture, from
Internet pornography to road rage, from hatred to cruelty,
from child abuse to murder, and even in things as simple as bad
moods and hurtful comments. Bad things happen to good peo-
ple because there are people in the world who do bad things at
times. All of the consequences flowing from bad choices spread
pain and misery throughout the world, and innocent people all
too often are victims.
Swedenborg teaches that disease exists only because evil
exists. It is not hard to imagine that heaven is in God’s perfect
order, where there is no evil and therefore no disease. It is the
one place we can finally and absolutely be free of hell.
If we assume that somehow our own actions or choices bring
on disease, how do we explain epidemics that afflict whole popu-
lations at the same time? What about children born with disease
or stricken by it? They cannot have done or chosen anything
evil that would cause their illness. And “visiting the iniquity of
the parents” 1 on the child is impossible to reconcile with almost
any concept of God.
Swedenborg assures us that illness or misfortune are not
 when bad things happen 61

divine punishment but are side effects of people deliberately

turning away from God. No one, no matter how good or inno-
cent, is immune. Who gets a brain tumor may be just as random
as who gets on a plane that crashes. None of this is God’s will.
But all of us can be helped by the good things in the world that
are God’s will, through the operation of his providence.
Disease still is subject to natural laws. A virus can affect
an innocent person just because he or she got exposed to it,
like being hit by a truck. What is ultimately comforting is that
everything subject to natural laws—including disease—is also
subject to the higher spiritual laws of divine providence.
In the parable of the blind man, when the disciples asked
who had sinned to cause his blindness, Jesus said that neither
the man nor his parents had sinned but that the man had been
born blind “so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” 2
The Pharisees could not accept this miracle and challenged the
man, who told them the simple, profound truth: “One thing I
do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 3
Few of us “see” so clearly the real impact of whatever hap-
pens to us, but we may get a glimpse of God’s power working
in us through coping with and overcoming ordeals such as ill-
ness. Because the good outcome of God’s providence may not
be realized until after death, that concept may be hard to accept
on this natural plane. This is especially true when the disease is
deadly and we see no triumph beyond the grace and dignity of
the human spirit. But God working with us and in us, to heal
us, is like the oyster developing a pearl out of our pain. As the
psalmist put it: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that
I might learn from your statutes.” 4
We need medical science to do all it can to eliminate the dis-
eases that plague us. Cancer, for instance, is a good illustration
of how the natural order of cells can be fatally corrupted, and
we are desperate to find a cure to this “disorder.” But we must
work just as diligently to eliminate all the spiritual disorders in
62 why does god let it happen?

the world—lust, vengeance, cruelty, oppression—that incubate

disease and misfortune.
No matter how successful we are at putting our spiritual
lives in order, however, we all face the same end: death, and the
passage into a new spiritual world.
If we could choose, no doubt we would want to pass away
quietly and happily in our sleep, but few people seem to get out
of this world easily. We see sad old people, shells of their former
selves, lingering on in nursing homes with mind and body in
decline. Sometimes there is prolonged suffering. Often there is
frustration with ill health and not feeling useful.
So what do any of us do to “deserve” our fate? Sweden-
borg assures us that no matter what bad things may happen to
us—even if we die prematurely or linger on in a diminished
state—we are like that blind man who neither sinned nor is
being punished for his parents’ sin.
He writes: “The life of every person is foreseen by the Lord,
as to how long he will live” and that from earliest infancy God’s
providence is watching over us “with a regard to a life to eter-
nity.” 5 He describes some of the factors that affect the length
of our lives:

l
l How vital our use (or service to others) is in this world
and how important it is to continue.

l
l The stage of our regeneration, which is the process of
repenting from sin and learning to live by God’s will
rather than our own. This may work both ways: we die
when we have gone as far as we can with regeneration
in this life, or we die to save us for heaven before we
might be irretrievably corrupted.

l
l The need for our use and service to others in the
spiritual world and heaven. Swedenborg describes life
 when bad things happen 63

in heaven as similar to our life on earth in many ways,

with angels living in houses, holding jobs, and social­-
izing with others. The difference is that in heaven, each
person’s work is what they love to do most of all, and
if their service is needed in heaven, they may be called
there “early.”

As finite beings, we cannot know or judge these factors for

ourselves or others, and it may never be clear at the time why
any person dies or another lives. This is especially challeng-
ing when someone dies “before their time,” because of illness,
an accident, or war. What Swedenborg helps us to see is that
humanity’s evil is at the root of these misfortunes, but God’s
love is always leading to a better end. The more we can come
to trust in God and his providence, the easier it can be to accept
“untimely” death.
Almost everyone perceives that little children who die go
to heaven. Many people are instinctively comforted that these
children have been taken to “a better place.” When someone
ravaged by disease is dying, we like to think that with death
he or she at least will finally be free from pain and suffering
and will find peace. We also like to believe that the aged and
infirm, who often have all kinds of physical and mental issues,
will be made whole again and live normal, happy lives. That is
because we have a perception—if not yet a confident faith—that
God’s kingdom is beyond all the trials of this world. Which is
why Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Strive first for the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you.” 6

Accidents and Disasters

Swedenborg says very little directly about natural disasters: why
a hurricane, an earthquake, or a tsunami can devastate a huge
area and victimize thousands of people, for example, or why a
64 why does god let it happen?

bridge in San Luis Rey suddenly collapses, taking the lives of

five people anonymous to the world.
What he does say is that there is a very close relationship
between the spiritual and natural worlds, and that everything
that happens in this world is directly linked to what is happen-
ing in the spiritual world, where all of God’s creation actually
begins. Consequently, something as seemingly random as a
hurricane is a manifestation of turmoil between the forces of
good and evil in the spiritual world. Swedenborg says wars in
this world similarly reflect actual battles between good and bad
spirits. The combatants in our earthly wars still are free to think
and act on their own, of course, but what animates the lust for
war and the zeal for peace is influenced on the spiritual plane.
Only heaven, in its perfect divine order, is completely free of
the reach of evil. Swedenborg confirms the common assumption
that heaven really is free of all the sorrows and pain that plague
this world. The turmoil we see in this world springs from what
Swedenborg calls the world of spirits—that intermediate realm
between heaven and hell where everyone arrives after death and
where the good and evil are eventually separated into heaven
or hell.
This, at least—and at last—is much more satisfying than
calling such disasters “acts of God.” And it answers the popular
assumption that somehow anything bad that happens to us is
linked to “original sin,” as though we are still being punished
for the actions of Adam and Eve. Swedenborg writes extensively
about hereditary inclinations to evil, explaining that they do not
affect our spiritual state unless and until we consciously embrace
them. And once a person freely chooses to make evil his own, he
is actually choosing hell for himself.
In the Bible we read, “Are not five sparrows sold for two
pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But
even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid;
you are of more value than many sparrows.” 7
 when bad things happen 65

Swedenborg teaches consistently that God’s providence is

not only in the dramatic events that affect countless lives, but
in every particular of every single person’s life. As we saw in
the story of the cataclysmic Lisbon earthquake and tsunami 250
years ago, that far-reaching devastation also seemed to lead to
an incredible series of positive consequences throughout the
world. And we all know personal stories where something good
and unforeseen came out of a tragic circumstance.
Examples are all around us. They are the kind of illustration,
in retrospect, of how good things really can come out of mis-
fortune. Of course, some people may choose to see such hap-
penings as pure coincidence, unrelated to any divine plan. But
others see the hand of God—not interfering or manipulating,
but with his love always triumphant.
We may try to explain away accidents and natural disasters
as “acts of God,” but they are never his will. In fact, often such
events are caused by our own fallibilities. We create the cars
and planes that sometimes crash, the ladders people fall from,
the steps we slip on. Accidents often are the result of our own—
or someone else’s—bad choices and actions, such as speeding
and driving recklessly. Some people build beautiful homes on
beaches or hillsides, only to see them destroyed by hurricanes or
mudslides that should have been anticipated. We even contrib-
ute to environmental disasters, such as dumping the toxic waste
that may cause cancer in innocent victims. God is never in the
accident—he neither causes nor stops it. He is in the aftermath,
with his love always leading to healing and a happier outcome.
As for natural disasters, God created the “laws of nature.” As
with the laws of divine providence discussed earlier, he will not
interfere with the laws of nature to suit our own idea of what
is right. Indeed, the shifting of tectonic plates that results in an
earthquake may be just such an example of the laws of nature
at work—because God created the world to work that way, he
will not change the natural course of events. And even in nature
66 why does god let it happen?

God restores balance and order, as we see most vividly with

forest fires.
One of the most comforting teachings about accidents and
disasters in Swedenborg’s book Heaven and Hell is that people
who die tragically later awaken in the other world to a sphere
of love and peace, with no memory of fear, suffering, violence,
pain, or terror. And those same people will be there when the
time comes to welcome with joy those now mourning them in
this world.
It is hard to see any benefit in the face of tragedy, but
such experiences often do inspire us to reflect on our lives and
reevaluate our priorities, which is one way of bending our lives
toward good. It is also impossible to see all of the factors inter-
twined in any one event and to appreciate how intricately God’s
providence is working in each of our lives. Unraveling all of
the repercussions of a tragedy—from a car crash to an earth-
quake affecting millions—is infinitely more complex than what
Thornton Wilder tried to do with the five victims of The Bridge
of San Luis Rey. But in every thread of our lives there is God’s
awareness, love, and providence.
So rather than feeling sorry for ourselves in the face of mis-
fortune, or railing against God as uncaring or unloving, we need
to reflect on what we can do to help with what God wills, bring-
ing something good out of misfortune.
Consider, for instance:

l
l Seeing and recognizing all that is harmful and evil in
the world helps us to appreciate what is good—and to
make good choices freely in our lives.

l
l Seeing others suffer helps us to be more sensitive and
merciful, which spurs the progression from misfortune
to good result.
 when bad things happen 67

l
l Tragedies can open ways for us to be useful to others.
Witness the outpouring of service and kindness in the
wake of September 11.

l
l Manifestations of selfishness, greed, and cruelty help
us to recognize and work on our own failings, which is
necessary for regeneration.

l
l Many times when people lose their homes in fires, hur-
ricanes, or earthquakes, they reflect that these are only
natural things of this world which can be replaced. Life
and spiritual values suddenly have more meaning.

l
l Everyone wants to make a difference—to make the
world a better place. We get plenty of motivation every
day as we see the challenges.

l
l Finally, no matter how great or small the tragedy,
whether it is a global or intensely personal experience,
God is always there.

“Now there was a great wind, so strong it was splitting

mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but
the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake
a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound
of sheer silence.” 8

War
You would think we would learn.
Throughout 3,500 years of recorded history, only 268 have
been without war somewhere in the world. There is a sad futility
to the concept that wars are decided by who kills the most of the
other side, but we still don’t seem to be able to stop.
68 why does god let it happen?

There is always a cause worth dying for—and killing for.

There have been “good wars” and “bad wars,” necessary wars
and inevitable wars, wars that changed history, wars of folly, and
wars that are forgotten footnotes.
But why? What passions roil men to rally behind leaders
and kill for a cause—for freedom, for power, for retribution,
for greed—even to the extreme of brother against brother in
civil wars?
Always there are voices saying, “Stop! There has to be a
better way.” And sometimes we can cool the emotions, restrain
warmongers with diplomacy, or mount a strong enough defense
to discourage others from attacking us. But among the baser
instincts of men is a knee-jerk barbarism: settling disputes with
anything from slurs and fists to guns and bombs.
Every war may be seen as a failure to reconcile differences,
a hatred that first corrupts individual hearts and minds and then
whole nations and armies. Some people leap to the cause. Some
are dragged into it. Others have no choice; they are attacked.
World War I was so horrific and global that it was called
“the war to end all wars.” But the festering delusions and ani-
mosities of that war quickly sowed the seeds that erupted into
World War II.
Now we look back at the horrors of that war and wonder.
The Germans and Japanese then were the embodiment of evil in
our eyes. Now they are among the free world’s strongest allies
and two of the most productive and stable nations of the world.
Sons and grandsons of men who tried to kill each other now do
business together. It is hard to imagine that we were such bitter
enemies, that our people could be turned so hatefully against
each other by the misguided nationalism exploited into a frenzy
by Hirohito and Hitler.
That really was “the war to end all wars” because it was ended
with two atomic bombs. In his epic novel War and Remembrance,
Herman Wouk wrote: “If the hope is not the coming of the
 when bad things happen 69

Prince of Peace, it has to be that in their hearts most people,

even the most fanatical and boneheaded Marxists, even the cra-
ziest nationalists and revolutionaries, love their children and
don’t want to see them burn up. There is no politician imbe-
cile enough, surely, to want a nuclear Leyte Gulf [a cataclysmic
naval battle in World War II]. The future now seems to depend
on that grim assumption. Either war is finished or we are.” 9
Well, war is not finished. The threat of nuclear Armaged-
don still hangs over the world. The instincts for battle have not
changed, just the means.
Politics and situations change. America fought a bitter war
for independence against England, and now these two countries
are the strongest of allies. Sometimes people even forget why
they were fighting, what made it all so important. And there
is this sad perspective from an officer on the staff of General
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson after Antietam—the
bloodiest, costliest battle of the Civil War—who wrote: “The
night after the battle was a fearful one. The dead and dying lay
thick over the field as harvest sheaves. . . . Silent were the dead
. . . and midnight hid all distinction between the blue and the
gray.” 10
Isn’t that telling? In the dark, no one could tell the differ-
ence between these men who saw nothing in the daylight but
enemies who must be destroyed. But tragic as it was, the Civil
War is what really put “united” in the United States of America.
Now we all are a family again.
It was after the equally devastating Battle of Gettysburg that
President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently summed up both the
nobility and futility of war, and the mournful hope that attends
all wars, in his Gettysburg Address: “. . . that these men shall not
have died in vain.”
The victims will not have died in vain only when we can
address the spiritual as well as the earthly causes of war. For
Swedenborg makes it clear that war, just like everything else
70 why does god let it happen?

in this world, has its roots in the spiritual world. The spiritual
conflicts we all face—in temptations, in the daily battle of wills
and temperaments—are just writ large in wars between nations.
We have seen throughout history that war brings out the
best and the worst of the human spirit. We see incredible brav-
ery, courage, commitment, love of country, and the ultimate in
sacrifice for one’s fellow human beings. We also see depraved
brutality, cruelty, hatred, and wantonness. All of these attributes
are manifestations of the spiritual combat at the root of all war:
the eternal struggle of good versus evil, love of the world versus
love of God, heaven against hell.
This is why Jesus, when he was sending out his disciples and
warning them of the persecutions they would face in his name,
said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I
have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” 11
One reason why we are here on earth is to wield the sword
of God’s truth in our lives against the alluring power of the
hells—to fight our own private wars.
Swedenborg teaches that wars of nations and peoples against
each other are really larger manifestations of the same kind of
underlying spiritual combat in the world of spirits.
He acknowledges that just because wars are permitted “in
which so many people are killed and their wealth plundered,” it
is easy to doubt or deny any sense of divine providence operat-
ing in the world. But exactly because wars are “diametrically
opposed to Christian caring,” he says, they are not a part of
God’s providence but his permission. “If it were not for this
permission, [God] could not lead us out of our evil, so we could
not be reformed and saved. That is, unless evils were allowed to
surface, we would not see them and therefore would not admit
to them; so we could not be induced to resist them. That is why
evils cannot be suppressed by some exercise of divine provi-
dence. If they were, they would stay closed in,” like cancer, and
“would spread and devour everything that is alive and human.” 12
 when bad things happen 71

When evil is not seen, acknowledged, and condemned, it

festers. Think of Hitler’s power to blind so many people to the
evil he loosed upon the world and what a horrible war it took to
bring his fanaticism under control.
Swedenborg says we all have something of that potential
in us—not on such a grotesque scale, of course—but until we
are saved we are like a “little hell,” caught up in selfish tenden-
cies and worldly pleasures. The process of salvation, he teaches,
comes through the trials of temptation, which lead us to choose
the way of repentance. We see these spiritual battles most nobly
in the unimaginable temptations suffered by Jesus during his life
on earth and just before his crucifixion. Early in his ministry,
just after being baptized by John the Baptist, he was tempted
by the devil:
“Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;
and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down
and worship me.’” 13
Swedenborg describes temptations, which we all experience
in regeneration, as attacks from hell on the good things we love.
Just as God is constantly lifting us toward heaven, the hells are
fighting just as hard to drag us down. They do this by targeting
what we love and care about most, creating doubt and anxiety
in our own minds.
As Jesus was about to be crucified, he was attacked by the
hells in all their fury. When he was condemned, the crowds
“spat in his face and struck him,” and taunted him, “Proph-
esy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?” 14 He was
mocked with a crown of thorns as the “King of the Jews”; 15 and
“You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,
save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the
cross.” 16
This was the kind of “war” between heaven and hell we can
scarcely imagine. But it was the essential culmination of what
72 why does god let it happen?

he came on earth to do—to conquer the hells, restore them to

order, and give us the everlasting freedom to choose for our-
selves between heaven and hell. This is why God “cannot rescue
any of us from our hell unless we see that we are in it and want
to be rescued. This cannot happen unless there are instances of
permission that are caused by laws of divine providence.” 17
This is why, he continues, “there are lesser and greater
wars.” But whether greater or lesser, all are rooted in spiritual
conflict that we aren’t aware of; we just see the conflict in this
world. This was as true for the wars described in the Bible, he
says, as wars in his time—and presumably in ours.18
Good people and good nations do not want war. But it is a
sad reality that evil people will do all in their power to control
and subjugate others, and failing to take up arms against them
can result in even greater loss of life and freedom. One reason
why God permits war is so that its underlying evil can be seen
and opposed, and we can work to turn evil toward good, just
as God’s providence does. As we see and fight against the evil
in tyrants, we are summoned to look at ourselves and “remove
the mote in our own eye.” Just as appeasement of warmongers
invites war, appeasing or justifying our own failings invites
internal spiritual conflict. This is why we need to take up swords
before we can have peace.
But whether the “war” is inside of us or played out on global
battlefields, God and his providence are always there, guiding
us to the way out.
Abraham Lincoln recognized this in the depth of his agony
over the Civil War. In her masterful biography Team of Rivals,
Doris Kearns Goodwin quotes Lincoln as saying: “If I had my
way, this war would never have been commenced; if I had been
allowed my way, this war would have ended before this, but we
still find it continues; and we must believe that He permits it for
some wise purpose of His own, mysterious and unknown to us;
and though with our limited understanding we may not be able
 when bad things happen 73

to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe that He who made

the world still governs it.” 19
“Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus in his Sermon on
the Mount.20 They are the ones who bring peace among nations,
and they are the ones who bring peace within themselves by
rooting out what stands against God and by choosing heaven.
That is why the ultimate prayer against the long, sad his-
tory of war is that we eventually reach the point that “they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.” 21
Wars on large, horrific scales may be prevented, and may
have to be if Herman Wouk is right that “either war is fin-
ished or we are.” But the “wars” within each of us, the spiritual
fight against temptation, will continue because that is the divine
purpose of life on earth—balancing between the influences of
heaven and hell, and freedom to choose between them.
 ll 6

Trusting in Providence

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—in

peace because they trust in you.
—Isaiah 26:3

The antidote to frustration is a calm faith, not in

your own cleverness, or in hard toil, but in God’s
guidance.
—Norman Vincent Peale

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his
end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead
him aright.
—Blaise Pascal
k
Even beginning to grasp what divine providence is and how
it works isn’t going to end all questions and remove all doubt.
Believing firmly in God, in his enduring love and guid-
ance, still may not be enough when tragedy suddenly becomes
intensely personal. There will always be bad things happening
to good people that rock our faith and leave us questioning, or
even raging against, God.
But there is one thing we should be sure of: nothing bad that
happens in this world is ever God’s will. There is just no way he
wants the people he loves to suffer. Remember, he never does
things to us and is always working with us. But reconciling his
love with what he permits for the sake of our freedom still is a
test of personal faith.
Almost everyone has had an experience that may never com-
pletely lose its pain. Every day things happen that can evoke
tears and questions. But think about the very worst of all trag-
edies ever to occur on this earth. For Christians, the darkest day
of human history was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Wasn’t
that the ultimate example of God permitting what surely was
not his will—the sacrifice of “his only begotten son”—for the
sake of our freedom and happiness?
And isn’t that still the ultimate example of providence, the
way God is always there, in the aftermath, turning the eventual
outcome toward good? Swedenborg clearly states that everyone

77
78 why does god let it happen?

born in the world has the opportunity to be saved and to choose

an eternity in heaven only because of Christ’s crucifixion and
resurrection, his temptations, and his triumph over the hells that
would enslave us.
This faith is the beginning of trust, trust in God’s transcen-
dent love and trust in the leading of his providence.
When we understand who God is and how he operates
through divine providence in every particular of our lives, how
can we not trust in him and be at peace?
As nineteenth-century English evangelist and philanthropist
George Müller put it: “Where faith begins, anxiety ends; where
anxiety begins, faith ends.” 1
Such faith—or trust in God—is not easily come by. It is too
easy to trust first in ourselves, so confident that we could control
the world more carefully than all the apparently random havoc
we see. It is the height of arrogance to think that we could do a
better job of managing the intricacies of everything that impacts
our lives, plus all of the myriad unintended consequences. Con-
sider: If God could control the world so that nothing bad could
ever happen, would you really want to live without the freedom
to make mistakes and learn from them? How else could you
grow spiritually?
While we are asking ourselves why a loving God would per-
mit evil and disorder in the world, we should also ask why he
allows us to have evil in our own hearts. Because he loves us,
he allows us to be free, even to violate that love with our bad
choices. Consider that of all God’s creatures, only humans can
violate his order, and we are the sole cause of disorders in the
world. Taking a good tool and trying to use it the wrong way
won’t work. Neither do our lives work properly when we choose
to operate outside of God’s order.
God does not manipulate the world to suit our whims.
Rather, he works through his providence to change us for the
better from the inside out.
 trusting in providence 79

As the novelist Henry Miller observed: “The world has not

to be put in order: the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put
ourselves in unison with this order.” 2
We are not supposed to be impassive philosophers ponder-
ing where God fits into our lives without doing anything about
it. Just as Pearl Harbor and September 11 plunged the United
States into global wars, we need to realize that we are caught up
in a great war between heaven and hell. In war, unfortunately,
there is collateral damage that victimizes innocent people. That
type of ripple effect from evil is the fundamental reason, Swe-
denborg teaches, why bad things happen to good people.
Because of this ongoing war between good and evil, we are
challenged to take up that sword of truth and become soldiers
in the battle, not to be passive victims. This is what gives our
lives purpose and meaning, and it is what should ultimately give
us trust and hope.
We all face trials in life—pain, disappointment, maybe
tragedy. Most of it we come to accept as part of learning and
growing, part of life. The struggle is like the refiner’s fire that
removes impurities from metals in making precious jewelry.
It is when the trials become crushing, like the death of a
child or the devastation of losing everything to a natural disas-
ter, that it gets a lot harder to accept them as learning experi-
ences. God does not choose to inflict such pain just to teach us
lessons. But that is when a lot of hurting people understandably
doubt God, and rail against him—or turn to him.
Swedenborg helps us to see such tragedies as manifestations
of that spiritual battlefield, more like the fallout of an atomic
bomb, with its indiscriminate victims, than one targeted bul-
let. Swedenborg assures us that as we join the fight against the
hells that attack us, we also help many more people than just
ourselves.
Does it seem unfair that we should all be caught up in this
war, and its fallout, as part of choosing our own way? Consider
80 why does god let it happen?

the life of Jesus. Why couldn’t he, of all people born on earth,
just live a life of peace and contentment? Why, as soon as he was
baptized by John the Baptist, did he have to endure forty days
and forty nights of terrible temptation in the wilderness? Why
did he have to suffer the ignominy and anguish of being put to
death on a cross, before an angry mob, at just thirty-three years
of age?
The answer, of course, is that he came into the world to fight
for us. He had a clear mission: to overcome the hells for the sake
of our freedom, for everyone then alive and for everyone ever
to be born in this world. He offered not just freedom from, but
freedom for—the opportunity to elevate our lives. Indeed, he
came down among us so that each of us could have the hope of
becoming a better person and ultimately an angel in his heaven.
While he did this for all humanity, he did it very personally
for each one of us. And so we have a similar mission in life: to
fight against temptations, to endure pain if it takes pain, and to
regenerate, that is, to become “born again” by freeing ourselves
from evil desires or inclinations in our lives.
This why the story of the children of Israel—freed from
slavery in Egypt only to wander for forty years in the wilderness
before being delivered in the Promised Land—is a metaphor
for the wandering, searching, trials, and sometimes desolation
in our own lives. This journey calls on us to free ourselves from
slavery to our desires and determine to live more spiritually.
And this battle, with the inspiration of Jesus’s life, has to be our
purpose in life if our victory, like God’s victory over the hells
and an eternity of peace in heaven, is to be achieved.
We may feel at any point that we are doing fine on our own
with our lives, but the more we trust in God, the more endur-
ing our victories will be. Getting to such a level of trust is not
easy. Some people tend to see God as remote and even venge-
ful. They may see his providence as a capricious thing—that he
can be angry, that he punishes people, that he can be swayed by
 trusting in providence 81

prayer. Swedenborg teaches just the opposite: that he is a God

of pure love, always present with us, and always there to lift and
save us, if we will but follow.
In Swedenborg’s writings, divine providence is a profound
and complex doctrine, but simple and basic in its concepts.
For centuries, theologians have been studying, pondering, and
debating the way God leads us. But even a child can grasp the
premise that he loves each of us and has a plan for our lives.
Within the teachings given through Swedenborg, we find
complete trust in God and the way he leads. We see him in all
his mercy, feel and understand his love, and begin to compre-
hend the spiritual plane, where life has its real meaning.
While God is doing all he can continually to lead and raise
us up to heaven, he leaves us free to choose differently. And it
should be obvious that if we deliberately put ourselves outside
of heaven by the choices we make, and “make our bed in hell,”
we should not expect to enjoy heaven’s blessings.
Choosing to trust in God’s leading by living according to his
commandments and loving one another is to immerse yourself,
in Swedenborg’s words, in the “stream of providence.” Trusting
in him is like a current running through your life and leading
to a good end, no matter what whirlpools and rapids and eddies
come up along the way. That trust also means realizing that
when we turn our backs on God, it is as though we are swim-
ming upstream, with all the frustration that entails.
What holds us back from taking the plunge into trusting in
this stream of providence? A lot of hesitancy lies in doubt—just
not knowing or understanding enough to trust completely in
providence. It is easy to doubt when, for instance, we see evil
people exalted or prospering. But providence lies in looking to
spiritual ends, not worldly life.
We may see others deny God and any idea of providence
outright, which is also a free choice protected by God. It is easy
to be fatalistic about life, to believe that there is little or noth-
82 why does god let it happen?

ing we can do to change our circumstances, and this may lead

to indifference about God. But the biggest obstacle to trust is
simply worry.
Fear and worry are the opposites of trust, and they lead away
from God. That is why Jesus taught the lesson in his Sermon on
the Mount, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
what you will drink, or . . . what you will wear.” 3
“Not worrying about your life” refers not just to people who
are concerned about the future, but to those who trust only in
themselves instead of God. People who focus just on the things
of the world often are not content with their lot.
People who trust in God’s leading, on the other hand, still
plan for the future, but they aren’t burdened with anxiety. They
are content with their lot and unruffled by whatever life brings
them. They are in harmony with the psalmist: “Let your stead-
fast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” 4
Whether or not we feel that confident trust, Swedenborg
assures us that those who place themselves in the “stream of
providence” are carried along continually to true happiness, no
matter what the appearance may be to the contrary at any one
time. As Swedenborg puts it: “There is a kind of field that con-
stantly emanates from the Lord, which pulls all toward heaven.
It fills the entire spiritual world and the entire physical world.
It is like a strong current in the ocean that secretly carries ships
along.” 5
Many books have been written and theories expounded on
the “secret of happiness.” There is no secret in Swedenborg’s
writings. The explanation is simple: Real happiness comes only
in states of peace, which result from complete trust in God.
Those who trust only in their own instincts and close them-
selves off from the power of God’s love limit the happiness that
God yearns to give them.
But there is hope for everyone. God does not favor only the
people who are trying to live a good life according to his com-
 trusting in providence 83

mandments. His love is constant and unconditional, raining “on

the righteous and unrighteous.” 6
The difference in the way God’s love is projected and
received is not with him but within each of us. We choose
whether to go with the flow of the stream of providence or to
seek our own way. God said: “Listen! I am standing at the door,
knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come
in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” 7 He does not
knock randomly or selectively. He knocks for any and all who
will answer.
Trust in providence is not meant to be passive. It demands
of us that we acknowledge what God wants for us and from us,
and accept where he is leading us.
Trusting in God actually frees us from the influence of the
hells, which are always looking for ways to exploit our anxieties
and vulnerabilities, our doubts and frustrations, and any morbid
feelings that life is meaningless.
Prayer is the way many of us ask God for help in our lives,
but there are all kinds of prayer. He does not respond to prayers
that would take away freedom: “Lord, get me out of this mess”
or “Please stop this war.” He responds to prayers which dem-
onstrate that we are ready to work with him and to trust in him.
This is when we are ready to incorporate his love and truth in
all we do to try to make this a better world, to build peace from
the inside out. This is the prayer: “Your kingdom come. Your
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” 8
One of the best examples of trust in the Bible is the story
of Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers.
They were surprisingly reunited when the brothers came seek-
ing relief from famine. The brothers were understandably afraid
of what Joseph, in his elevated position as advisor to the Pha-
raoh, would do to get back at them. But Joseph was forgiving,
because he understood how God leads through his providence,
saying to his brothers: “Even though you intended to do harm
84 why does god let it happen?

to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numer-

ous people, as he is doing today.” 9
God wants us not only to be trusting, but to be optimistic.
Helen Keller, a devoted reader of Swedenborg, said: “No
pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an
uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” 10
Consider the prophet Elisha, surrounded by a hostile army
of Syrians, whose servant said to him: “Alas, master! What shall
we do?” And Elisha answered, “Do not be afraid, for there
are more with us than there are with them.” And when Elisha
prayed that his servant could see what he meant, “The Lord
opened the eyes of the servant; and he saw; the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” 11
God is giving us a picture here of our own lives, when we
see all of the obstacles arrayed against us and all that we have
to fight against. He does not want us to feel overwhelmed, but
rather optimistic that by trusting in him we, too, come to see
“that there are more with us than there are with them.”
Another mental picture given by Swedenborg is that your
life is like a tree that cannot grow of its own will but springs
from the seed created by God and bears fruit only with his nur-
turing.12 Similarly, you were created by God to grow into an
angel by choosing—in this life and the next—to live as an angel.
That means loving God, living his commandments, serving the
neighbor. This cannot be done completely by yourself. God is
helping and guiding all along the way, providing more power
than all that may seem to be against you. You can chop down a
tree, or let it wither and die without water, and you can choose
to turn away from God’s leading in your life. But he will never
stop trying to lift you up to be an angel.
Viktor Frankl knew about both the power of optimism and
the doom of pessimism. In the prison camps of the Holocaust,
he found that those who saw no meaning in their lives—who
felt they had nothing to live for—just gave up and died. We see
 trusting in providence 85

the echoes in today’s culture with those who see no future for
themselves, who feel life is meaningless, and try to escape into
drugs or alcohol. People can have enough to live by, but not
enough to live for. They may have means, but not meaning,
which can lead to depression, aggression, addiction, dropping
out, and giving up.
Frankl said that those prisoners of war in Vietnam who suf-
fered so terribly, but still felt the experience was an important
part of their lives, lived the reality of finding something good—a
more meaningful perspective of life—coming out of something
bad. He calls this “the defiant power of the human spirit.”
Shakespeare knew something of this feeling—the way adver-
sity in our lives can lead to good:
Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt.
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stone, and good in everything.13

The feeling of meaninglessness also can come from not feel-

ing useful, and elderly people are especially susceptible to this.
Someone who has grown feeble and dependent in old age begins
to feel useless and may begin to doubt that God still cares. But
a lot of people’s usefulness lies in their ability to exert a good
influence on other people, and the dignity, character, and wis-
dom of the elderly continue to make them valuable members
of society.
Still, the search for meaning in our lives may be elusive,
whatever our age or circumstances. It seems to make sense that
everything that happens to us, good and bad, should have mean-
ing and purpose, if only we could discover God’s plan.
We incline to the tenets of our faith, but often do not find
satisfactory answers. Indeed, we may be tempted to ask why
86 why does god let it happen?

there are so many religions in the world, each with its own con-
fident claims, instead of God simply providing one true religion
for all. But this may be the ultimate example of God leaving
us in freedom. Most religions have common beliefs: something
like the Ten Commandments, and requirements to love both
the divine and one’s neighbors. Swedenborg clearly teaches that
anyone and everyone can be saved and taken into heaven if he or
she acknowledges God and lives a good and useful life of faith
and conscience.
That does not mean living an ascetic life, removed from
the world, but living a life fully engaged in the world, being
informed, aware, involved, and useful. We see people born into
privilege who waste their lives and end up miserable, and we see
people born into trying circumstances who rise to achieve suc-
cess and happiness. Everyone, no matter what the circumstances
of his or her birth, can choose to be useful.
This is one of the comforts of what has been revealed to Swe-
denborg—that everyone is born for heaven, and that God loves
each one of us and never stops trying to elevate us to heaven.
We may see a world filled with ugliness and people doing bad
things to good people, but Swedenborg wants us to know that
heaven is being filled every day with good people.
Trusting in God’s care is not easy, especially in trying times.
But as we ask God for peace, trust will grow. And the more we
are able to trust in him, the more peace we will feel in our lives.
There will be questions and doubts, no matter how strong
and confident our faith. But understanding what divine provi-
dence is—how it works for our eternal salvation, and how God’s
love and guidance always triumph if we let them—should nur-
ture a calm sense that even if we don’t understand why bad
things happen, we can still try to trust in God.
Swedenborg writes: “Peace holds within itself trust in the
Lord, the trust that he governs all things and provides all things,
that he leads toward an end that is good. When we believe these
 trusting in providence 87

things about him we are at peace, since we fear nothing and no

anxiety about things to come disturbs us. How far we attain this
state depends on how far we come to love the Lord.” 14
And then we have this ultimate promise from God:
Come unto me, all you that are weary and
carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.15

k
kk Notes

Introduction
1. C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York: The Seabury
Press, 1961), 7.
2. Ibid.
3. Helen Keller, My Religion (New York: Swedenborg
Foundation, 1953), 17, 25.
4. R.W. Emerson, Representative Men (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1930), 102–103.
5. Frederick G. Kenyon, ed., The Letters of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning (New York: Macmillan, 1898), 34.
6. Ps. 139:6.

Chapter 1
1. Gen. 28:15.
2. Gen. 50:20.
3. John 9:2–3.
4. Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven, vol. 1, trans.
Lisa Hyatt Cooper (West Chester, PA: Swedenborg
Foundation, 2008), §245.
5. Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good
People (New York: Avon Books, 1983), 127.
6. Job 1:1.
7. Job 7:20–21.
8. Job 42:10.

89
90 notes to chapter 1

9. Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York:

Simon & Schuster, 1984), 96.
10. Ibid., 9.
11. Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (New
York: Time, 1963), 5.
12. Ibid., 139.
13. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 17.
14. Ibid., 18.
15. Matt. 5:45.
16. Job 38:2, 4.
17. Eternity Magazine, February 1978.
18. Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven, §8455; trans.
Lisa Hyatt Cooper.
19. Gwen Florio and Terence Samuel, “En Route to Work,
Vacation a Sudden Tragedy,” Philadelphia Inquirer,
October 20, 1996, sec. A.

Chapter 2
1. Michio Kaku, Einstein’s Cosmos (New York: W. W.
Norton & Co., 2005).
2. Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence, trans. George
F. Dole (West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation,
2003), §70–187.
3. Luke 12:29–31.
4. Luke 19:13–28 and Matt. 25:14–31.
5. Rev. 21:4.

Chapter 3
1. Num. 32:13.
2. Gen. 8:21.
3. Isa. 1:16.
4. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, ou De l’Education, Book 1
(1762).
5. Rev. 21:4.
 notes to chapter 5 91

6. John 3:3.
7. John 3:5.
8. John 8:32.
9. Plato, The Republic (New York: Tudor Publishing Co.,
1936), 120.
10. Ps. 73:3, 17.
11. John 16:33.

Chapter 4
1. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 6.
2. Ibid., 7.
3. Ps. 121:1–2.
4. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 29.
5. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 110.
6. Ibid., 147.
7. Helen Keller, Helen Keller’s Journal, 1936–1937 (New
York, Doubleday, 1943), 17.
8. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1996), 23.
9. Keller, Helen Keller’s Journal, 1936–1937, 34.
10. Matt. 19:14.
11. Lam. 3:32–33.
12. Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity, vol. 1, trans.
Jonathan S. Rose (West Chester, PA: Swedenborg
Foundation, 2006), §126.
13. Swedenborg, Divine Providence, §324:7.
14. Ibid., 325.
15. Ibid., 123:3.
16. Ibid., 142.
17. Rev. 7:16–17.

Chapter 5
1. Exod. 34:7.
2. John 9:3.
92 notes to chapter 5

3. John 9:25.
4. Ps. 119:71.
5. Emanuel Swedenborg, The Spiritual Diary (London:
Swedenborg Society, 1962), §5002.
6. Matt. 6:33.
7. Luke 12:6–7. See also Matt. 10:29–31.
8. I Kings 19:11–12.
9. Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance (Boston: Little,
Brown & Co., 1978), 1055.
10. John O. Casler, Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade
(Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press,
2005), 17.
11. Matt. 10:34.
12. Swedenborg, Divine Providence, §251.
13. Matt. 4:8–9.
14. Matt. 26:67–68.
15. Matt. 27:29.
16. Matt. 27:40.
17. Swedenborg, Divine Providence, §251:2.
18. Ibid.
19. Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals (New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2005), 562.
20. Matt. 5:9.
21. Micah 4:3.

Chapter 6
1. Arthur T. Pierson, George Müller of Bristol (New York:
Fleming H. Revel Co., 1899), 437.
2. Henry Miller, The Henry Miller Reader (New York:
New Directions Publishing, 1969), 363.
3. Matt. 6:25.
4. Ps. 33:22.
5. Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christianity, §652:3; trans.
Jonathan S. Rose.
 notes to chapter 6 93

6. Matt. 5:45.
7. Rev. 3:20.
8. Matt. 6:10.
9. Gen. 50:20.
10. Keller, Helen Keller’s Journal, 1936–1937.
11. 2 Kings 6:15–17.
12. Swedenborg, Divine Providence, §160.
13. William Shakespeare, As You Like It (Act II, Scene 1,
Line 12).
14. Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven, §8455; trans. Lisa Hyatt
Cooper.
15. Matt. 11:28–30.
kk Bibliography

Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. New York:

Simon & Schuster, 1984.
Keller, Helen. Helen Keller’s Journal, 1936–1937. New York:
Doubleday, 1943.
———. My Religion. New York: Swedenborg Foundation,
1953.
Kushner, Harold S. When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
New York: Avon Books, 1983.
Lewis, C. S. A Grief Observed. New York: The Seabury
Press, 1961.
———. The Problem of Pain. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1996.
Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Providence. Translated by
George F. Dole. West Chester, PA: Swedenborg
Foundation, 2003.
———. Secrets of Heaven. Translated by Lisa Hyatt Cooper.
West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, 2008.
———. The Spiritual Diary. London: Swedenborg Society,
1962.
———. True Christianity. Translated by Jonathan S. Rose.
West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, 2006.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York:
Time, 1963.

95