487. I thought that such a crazy notion could never be decided upon by a Christian, much less expressed in speech and given public utterance, though in fact it was done by so many representatives of the clergy at the Synod of Dort in Holland, where it was cleverly written up and published. So to set aside my doubts some of those who had taken part in the decisions of that Synod were sent for to come to me.
When I saw them standing nearby I said: 'How can anyone who relies upon sound reason come to the conclusion that we are predestined? Surely only cruel ideas about God can flow from this, and criminal ideas about religion? Surely anyone whose support for predestination has engraved it on his heart can only think about everything belonging to the church, and likewise about the Word, as being worthless? Can he think of a God who has predestined so many thousands of people for hell as anything but a tyrant?'
[2] When I said this, they gave me a satanic look and said: 'We were among the chosen representatives at the Synod of Dort. Then, and still more since, we have convinced ourselves of much about God, the Word and religion, which we have not dared to make public. But when we talked and taught about religion, we wove and knitted a web of threads of various colours, and scattered over it feathers borrowed from peacocks' wings.' But since they wanted to do the same on this occasion, angels using the power given them by the Lord shut the externals of their minds and opened the interiors for them, forcing them to speak as these dictated. Then they said: 'Our faith which we formed by a series of arguments one depending on the next was and is still as follows.
[3] (1) There is no such thing as the Word of Jehovah God, but some airy utterance from the mouth of the prophets. We thought so because the Word predestines all for heaven and holds man to blame only if he does not walk in the ways which lead there.
(2) Religion exists because it is needed; but it is like a gust of wind which carries a fragrant smell to charm the masses. Religion therefore must be taught by ministers, small and great, as being drawn from the Word, because this is accepted. We had this idea because where there is predestination, there religion is nothing.
(3) The laws of civil justice constitute a religion; but predestination is not dependent upon living by them, but on nothing but God's good pleasure, just as in the case of a monarch with absolute power, it depends solely on the look on his face.
(4) Everything the church teaches, except the existence of God, is to be dismissed as empty verbiage and rejected as rubbish.
(5) The spiritual matters so much talked about are no more than ethereal vapours beneath the sun, and if they penetrate deeply into anyone, they make him become giddy and stupefied, turning him into a detestable monster in the sight of God.'
(6) When they were asked whether they believed the faith from which they deduced predestination was spiritual, they said that faith depended upon predestination, but when it was given they were like blocks of Wood; as a result they were indeed brought to life, but not spiritually.
[4] After delivering these dreadful statements they wanted to go away, but I said to them: 'Stay a little while and I will read to you from Isaiah.' What I read was this:
Do not rejoice, all of Philistia, that the rod that smites you is broken, for a basilisk has come forth from the root of the snake, whose fruit is a flying serpent, Isaiah 14:29.
I explained this by means of the spiritual sense. Philistia means the church separated from charity. The basilisk which came forth from the root of the snake means its teaching about three Gods, and about its belief in imputation being granted to each person individually. Its fruit which is a flying serpent means there is no imputation of good and evil, but instant mercy, whether a person has lived a good or a wicked life.
[5] On hearing this they said: 'This may be; but find us something from that book you call the holy Word about predestination.' I opened the book and came across in the same prophet this passage which fitted:
They laid asp's eggs and wove spider's webs. Anyone who eats one of their eggs dies; and when anyone crushes one, a viper is hatched, Isaiah 59:5.
On hearing this they could not bear to listen to the explanation, but some of them who had been sent for (there were five of them) cast themselves into a cave, around which appeared a dark fiery glow, a sign that they were without either faith or charity.
This makes it plain that the decree of the Synod about predestination is not only a crazy heresy, but also a cruel heresy. It must therefore be eradicated from the brain, so that not so much as one jot of it is left.
