338. THAT THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE OF SOME IS COMPOSED OF MERE SCANDALS It is foretold in the Word that scandals* would come, and indeed against faith or the truths of faith which all have regard to God Messiah; for the natural mind can never believe that He became a Man, spoke as a Man, and many similar things. Therefore although man makes a profession of faith, nevertheless, when he consults his natural mind, he falls into doubt, and so into a tacit denial. This follows in the single things which concern faith, on which account his intellectual life consists of mere scandals. Thus God Messiah alone knows whether the life of those who altogether deny God Messiah, so that they even blaspheme, since they have been so instructed from childhood, is worse than that of those who have supposed that they knew the doctrine of faith, and have professed it. 1747, Dec. 14. * The word scandal (Latin, scandalum) is from the Greek meaning a stumbling-block or offence. See Matt. xviii 7, Luke xvii 1.