Some Christians believe that when we put our faith in Jesus, all our sins are taken away, and we are completely pure and clean in God’s eyes. Others believe that once we have repented from our sins, they are forgiven by God, and are no longer part of us. They support this idea with passages such as Psalm 51:7:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
But people who have bathed until they are squeaky clean get dirty again, and new white snow gets dirtier and dirtier as the days wear on.
These same Christians may get very discouraged when, after the excitement of converting and being baptized has passed, they return to their daily life and find themselves falling right back into some of the same evil desires and sinful actions they thought had been completely washed away by the waters of baptism.
The reality is that we faulty humans cannot be instantly transformed from devils of desire into angels of light. When we turn our life over to God, that is only the beginning of a long process of being reborn as a new and better person. That’s why Paul wrote:
Work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)
And the reality is that our faults, traditionally known as “sins,” are never completely gone from our character. Instead, they are gradually pushed more and more to the side of our psyche. If we persist in battling against them using the spiritual power God gives us, and keep on living a good and loving life, our faults move out to the edges of our peripheral vision where they are no longer an active part of our life.
Understanding how this works can help us to avoid discouragement when we turn out not to be as squeaky clean as we thought we were! And it can give us strength and resolve to face our daily battles, and gradually beat our spiritual enemies back.
Because it is an ongoing battle.
The Amalekites: a persistent enemy of Israel
In the Bible story, after the Israelites’ triumphant exodus from Egypt through the miraculous power of God, things immediately started to go wrong. Suddenly the Israelites found themselves out in the desert, where there was no food or water. Once again, God miraculously provided for their needs (see Exodus 15:22–17:7).
It’s a wonderful picture of how, once we make our big conversion, or turn over that big new leaf, things don’t turn out as rosy as we thought they would. Pretty soon we’re spiritually hungry, thirsty, and cranky!
And it gets worse.
What’s the very next thing that happens in the Bible story? A tribe called Amalek comes out and attacks Israel. You can read the story in Exodus 17:8–16. Ultimately, Israel is victorious. But the first blood has been drawn. And among the many enemies Israel faced throughout the rest of the Old Testament narrative, the Amalekites were some of the most persistent. Again and again they attacked Israel, sometimes losing, but other times winning against the Israelites.
The Amalekites were to be completely destroyed
In fact, they were such a devious and implacable enemy that God said to Saul, the first king of Israel:
I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (1 Samuel 15:2–3)
If we read this command literally—as many Christians do—it is nothing more nor less than genocidal. Passages such as these have caused many people to abandon Christianity altogether. On that issue, please see:
What about Violent Religions? Is God Really Bloodthirsty and Vengeful?
But what if we read it metaphorically? If we understand Israel’s ongoing battle against the Amalekites as symbolizing the way we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” it suddenly throws a whole new light on this terribly violent passage.
In this way of looking at the wars described in the Bible, they are not about tribes and nations fighting one another, but about the ongoing epic of the battle of good against evil both in our individual lives and in human society.
In this light, 1 Samuel 15:2–3 is not saying that we should commit genocide against some “evil” race or nation. Instead, it is saying that we should completely wipe out the evil of self-centeredness and greed from our life. That is our true spiritual enemy.
How did the battle go?
Saul did attack the Amalekites, and won a great victory. However, he was not as thorough about it as God had commanded:
He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. (1 Samuel 15:8–9)
The result of his half-hearted and self-serving obedience to God’s commandment was that God rejected Saul as king of Israel. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 15.
And as it turns out, it was an exaggeration to say that Saul “totally destroyed” all the Amalekite king’s people. Even after this battle, the Amalekites keep showing up as enemies of Israel. David, Saul’s eventual successor as king of Israel, had to fight the Amalekites over and over again. See, for example, 1 Samuel 27:8–9; 30:1–20; 2 Samuel 1:1–16. Centuries after David’s time, during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, there were still pockets of surviving Amalekites, as seen in 1 Chronicles 4:42–43.
We never completely defeat our spiritual enemies
If we read the story of Israel’s ongoing battles against the Amalekites metaphorically rather than literally, it paints a clear picture: Even when we think we have overcome some bad habit or character flaw within ourselves, it is never completely gone. It can come back again and again to taunt us and drag us down. We may have to fight against it for years, or even decades, before its hold on us becomes so weak that it is no longer a serious threat.
Even then, we should not get complacent. Like an alcoholic who is sober for thirty years, and then falls off the wagon and becomes a raging alcoholic again, we must always be vigilant against our old personal evils. The moment we start patting ourselves on the back and congratulating ourselves for how great and wonderful and perfect we are, that’s exactly when that old egotism, and all the destructive attitudes and habits that went with it, will come roaring back.
Here is how Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) sums it all up:
One currently popular misconception is that our evils are taken from us and discarded when they are forgiven. I have been taught in heaven that no evil that we are born with or that we ourselves adopt by our behavior is taken completely away from us. Instead, evils are pushed to the side so that they are no longer visible. Like so many other people in this world, I used to believe that when our evils are forgiven they are thrown away just as dirt is rinsed and washed away from our faces by water.
That is not what it is like with our evils or sins, though. They are all still there, and when they are forgiven after we have repented, they are moved from the center to the sides.
Whatever is in the middle is right in front of our eyes and seems to be out in broad daylight. What is off to the sides seems to be in the shade, or at times, even in the dark of night. Since our evils are not taken completely away, but are only displaced or put off to the side, and since we can be transported from the center to the boundaries, it can happen that we once again get involved in evils we thought we had left behind. (Divine Providence #279.2)
Yes, eventually we are promised rest from our spiritual labors. See Revelation 14:13. But that comes only after we have passed on to the next life. Meanwhile, we have work to do, and battles to fight.
For further reading:
- What about Violent Religions? Is God Really Bloodthirsty and Vengeful?
- What is the Wrath of God? Why was the Old Testament God so Angry, yet Jesus was so Peaceful?
- How God Speaks in the Bible to Us Boneheads
- War, Military Service, Violence, and Self-Defense: What’s a Christian to Do?
- What does Jesus Mean when He Says we Must be Born Again?
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Lee Woofenden is an ordained minister, writer, editor, translator, and teacher. He enjoys taking spiritual insights from the Bible and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and putting them into plain English as guides for everyday life.
Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 
Very interesting. Swedenborg says that our character is sealed when we die. So will we enjoy the same lifestyles, habits, music we listen, and so forth? Or in heaven is it all entirely different? Sometimes I get the impression Swedenborg’s heaven has a culture of its own, which is nothing like we’re used to in Earth. I would appreciate if you answer my question. Thank you Lee.
Hi Josué,
According to Swedenborg, after people die, things are so much the same as they were here on earth that many people don’t even believe they have died. The traditional Christian heaven is nothing like what we’re used to on earth. But Swedenborg’s heaven is almost indistinguishable, except once people actually arrive in heaven, there’s no more of the really bad stuff that we have to deal with here on earth. Other than that, people are exactly the same people they were here on earth. In fact they are even more authentically themselves than they were on earth. So they still continue to enjoy the same lifestyles, habits, music, and so on. Though they will probably have to jettison some of their bad habits . . .
One reason present-day readers have sometimes come away from Swedenborg thinking that the culture of his heaven is very different from what we’re used to is that most of the culture he described in heaven was pretty much the same as 18th century European culture, which doesn’t exist anymore. The banquets, parties, games, and just about everything else Swedenborg describes in heaven are just like how people did things in the European culture that he lived in. It’s only because the culture has changed a lot since then that it seems different.
Swedenborg did also describe very different cultures from ancient times, but not as often as he described the cultures of heaven that came from the Europe of his times. That’s where he himself came from, so naturally that’s the culture in heaven that he was closest to and therefore most drawn to, so it’s what he saw the most of.
People who die today won’t go to a reconstruction of 18th century European culture of the type that Swedenborg describes. They’ll go to a culture just like the one they came from, because that culture reflects the people who are living on earth right now, and moving on to the spiritual world, where they will continue to live the same way they did before, except without all the bad stuff.
Wow! That sounds awesome. In fact, I do believe our character is settled somewhere in Earthly time and you even see old people complaining how things in “their time” were so much better. I, at 41 almost 42 years old, think that I’m also among these people…. Lol. It will be awesome if I get to heaven and every new year is the same year. Just my time, my place, and I’ll live like Peter Pan, never getting old or being out of touch with “current society”. It actually makes death look exciting, and I know that this may even be a sin because God says life is sacred, well, it may be, but the prospect of a new eternal life looks amazing anyway. Have a blessed week, Lee.
Hi Josué,
Yes, as each generation gives way to the next, the older generations get passed by, and often can no longer live their best life. In heaven, that’s all a thing of the past. People who come from a similar culture and era will gather together to live the life they love every day.
Here’s another article you might find interesting and on-point:
The Afterlife: It’s Not as Different as you Think!
And yes, in heaven, you never get old!
Amazing article, Lee. Though I think the separation between heaven and hell will bring many changes. I’d say the afterlife is similar, but it’s different. Heaven’s pop culture for instance will be nothing like Earth’s. Just my two cents.
Hi Josué,
Thanks. I guess we’ll find out for sure when we get there!
So if I read the article right, while faults can’t be deleted permanently, they can be cast aside so it can be like they’re completely gone?
Hi K,
I wouldn’t say “cast aside.” That would imply that they are separated from us. Rather, as in the above article, they are pushed out to the sides of our psyche.
It can be like they’re completely gone. We don’t have to face them or think about them every day. But if we get too full of ourselves—as does sometimes happen even for many angels—they can come back into our awareness precisely because they’re not actually gone. It only feels that way when, by the grace of God, we stay focused on our best self and our best life.
So it would still be possibly (even if very unlikely) that someone from this world who passed away as an adult could be with someone who passed on as an infant? Or with a being from another world that is in far less evil than that one third planet?
Also do angels in higher heavens face their dormant evils less than lower ones?
Hi K,
Yes, it’s possible, but as you suggest, very unlikely. People who die in infancy are in a completely different mental state than people who grow up to adulthood in this world. But there are potential edge cases one could dream up in which an adult is able to maintain a sense of childlike innocence right into adulthood, or to develop that childlike innocence later in life. So I wouldn’t want to say it’s not possible. I just think it is highly unlikely.
And yes, angels of the highest heaven would rarely, if ever, face their dormant evils because they have progressed to the final stage of regeneration, represented by the seventh day of rest. It would mostly be angels of the lower two heavens, who did not complete the full seven-day process that would still have to periodically battle their inner evils. The difference is that unlike here on earth, there is no possibility that they would lose those battles, and turn toward evil.