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© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church
What follows is a short summary, drawn directly from Swedenborg's writings themselves, of basic New Church doctrinal principles. While some of the principles listed will be relatively straightforward, it should be recalled for others that these are just brief excerpts, and that large and complex sets of teachings may lie behind the summary statements made here.
The faith of the new heaven and of the new church in its universal form is as follows: The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and those are saved who believe in Him.
The faith of the new heaven and of the new church in a particular form on a person's part are:
1. God is one, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ is that one.
2. Saving faith is to believe in Him.
3. Evils should not be done, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
4. Goods should be done, because they are of God and from God.
5. These should be done by a person as if by himself, but it should be believed that they are from the Lord in the person and through the person.
GOD THE CREATOR
There is a universal influx from God into people's souls of the truth that there is a God and that He is one. This Divine influx into people's souls inspires the idea that God is one because all that is Divine, in general and in particular, is God; and since all that is Divine forms a consistent unity, it cannot but inspire in a person the idea of one God. This idea is confirmed continually as one is raised by Divine influence into the light of heaven.
If God were not one, the universe could not have been created and preserved. The unity of God may be inferred from the creation of the universe, because the universe is a work coherent as a unit from things first to things last, and dependent upon one God as a body upon its soul. The universe was so created that God might be omnipresent, and hold each and all of its parts under His direction, and keep its parts together as one body perpetually, which is to preserve it. Moreover, because of this, Jehovah God declares that He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega.
Isaiah 44 6; Revelation 1: 8, 17; True Christian Religion 13
Since God is substance itself and form itself, the only and thus the first, whose essence is love and wisdom, and since from Him all things were made which are made, it follows that He created the universe with everything in it from Love by means of Wisdom; and consequently that the Divine Love, together with the Divine Wisdom, is in every created subject. Love, moreover, not only is the essence which forms all things, but it also unites and conjoins them, and thus keeps them in connection when formed.
The essence of Love is to love others outside of oneself, to desire to be one with them, and to render them blessed from oneself.
THE LORD THE REDEEMER
Jehovah God descended and assumed a Human that He might redeem people and save them. In the Christian churches at this day it is believed that God the Creator of the universe begot a Son from eternity, and that this Son descended and assumed a Human in order to redeem and save people. But this is an error, and of itself falls to the ground as soon as it is considered that God is one, and that it is worse than incredible in the sight of reason to say that the one God begot a Son from eternity, and that God the Father, together with the Son and Holy Spirit, each one of whom singly is God, is one God. This incredible notion is wholly dissipated, like a falling star in midair, when it is shown from the Word that Jehovah God Himself descended and became Man and also Redeemer.
God assumed the Human in accordance with His Divine order. Now since God came down, and since He is order itself, it was necessary, if He was to become Man actually, that He should be conceived, carried in the womb, born, educated, acquire knowledges gradually, and thereby be introduced into intelligence and wisdom. In respect to His Human He was, for this reason, an infant like other infants, a boy like other boys, and so on, with the sole difference that this development was accomplished in Him more quickly, more fully, and more perfectly than in others.
It is believed that the Lord as to His Human not only was but still is the son of Mary. But in this the Christian world is under a delusion. It is true that He was the son of Mary, but not true that He still is; for by the acts of redemption He put off the human from the mother and put on a Human from the Father; and this is why the Human of the Lord is Divine, and in Him God is Man and Man is God.
Redemption was a subjugation of the hells, a restoration of order in the heavens, and the establishment of a new church, because without these no one could have been saved. Moreover, they follow in order; for the hells must be subjugated before a new angelic heaven can be formed; and this must be formed before a new church can be established on earth, because people in the world are so closely connected with angels of heaven and spirits of hell.
Without redemption no one could have been saved, nor could the angels have continued in a state of integrity. It shall be told first what redemption is. To redeem means to liberate from damnation, to deliver from eternal death, to rescue from hell, and to release from the hand of the devil the captive and the bound. This the Lord did by subjugating the hells and establishing a new heaven.
The passion of the cross was the last temptation which the Lord, as the greatest prophet, endured, and was the means whereby His Human was glorified, that is, whereby it was united with the Divine of the Father, but it was not redemption. There are two things for which the Lord came into the world, and by means of which He saved people and angels, namely, redemption and the glorification of His Human. These two are distinct from each other; and yet in reference to salvation they make one. But glorification is the uniting of the Lord's Human with the Divine of His Father. This was effected gradually, and was completed through the passion of the cross. From all this it can now be seen that it was not in respect to His Divine but in respect to His Human that the Lord suffered; and that thereby an inmost and thus a complete union was effected.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
All those of the clerical order who have cherished any right idea of the Lord our Savior, when they enter the spiritual world (which generally takes place on the third day after death), receive instruction at first about the Divine Trinity, and particularly about the Holy Spirit, that it is not a God by itself, but that the Divine operation proceeding from the one and omnipresent God is what is meant in the Word by the Holy Spirit. They are thus particularly instructed about this, because very many enthusiasts after death fall into the insane fantasy that they themselves are the Holy Spirit; also because many belonging to the church who had believed while in the world that the Holy Spirit spoke through them, terrify others with the words of the Lord in Matthew 12:31, 32, claiming that to speak against what the Holy Spirit has inspired into them is the unpardonable sin. Those who after instruction relinquish the belief that the Holy Spirit is a God by itself are then taught that the unity of God is not divided into three persons, each one of whom is singly God and Lord, according to the Athanasian creed, but that the Divine Trinity is in the Lord the Savior, like the soul, the body, and the proceeding energy in every person. After this they are prepared for receiving the faith of the new heaven; and when they are so prepared, a way is opened for them to a society in heaven where a like faith prevails, and an abode is given them among brethren, with whom they are to live in blessedness to eternity. As God the Creator and the Lord the Redeemer have already been treated of, it is now necessary to treat also of the Holy Spirit; and this subject, like the others, shall be considered under appropriate heads, as follows:
1. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth and also the Divine energy and operation proceeding from the one God in whom is the Divine Trinity, that is, from the Lord God the Savior.
2. The Divine energy and operation, which are meant by the Holy Spirit, are in general, reformation and regeneration; and in accordance with these, renovation, vivification, sanctification, and justification; and in accordance with these latter, purification from evils and forgiveness of sins, and finally salvation.
3. The Divine energy and operation which are meant by the sending of the Holy Spirit, are with the clergy especially, enlightenment and Instruction.
4. The Lord makes these energies operative in those who believe in him
5. The Lord operates of Himself from the Father, and not the reverse.
6. A person's spirit is his mind and whatever proceeds from it.
THE DIVINE TRINITY
Having treated of God the Creator, then of the Lord the Redeemer, and lastly of the Holy Spirit, and having thus treated of the triune God, it is necessary to deal also with the Divine Trinity, known and yet unknown in the Christian world. For only thus can a just idea of God be obtained, and a just idea of God is in the church like the sanctuary and the altar in a temple, and like the crown on the head, and the scepter in the hand of a king sitting on his throne. The whole body of theology depends on a just idea of God, as a chain depends on its first link. If you will believe it, everyone is allotted his place in the heavens according to his idea of God. But that it may be seen with both eyes what the Divine Trinity is, the setting forth of it shall be divided into articles, as follows:
1. There is a Divine Trinity, which is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. These three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are three essentials of the one God, which make one in the same manner as soul, body, and operation make one in a person.
3. Before the world was created there was not this trinity. But after the world was created, when God became incarnate, it was provided for and came into existence, and then in the Lord God the Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ.
4. A trinity of Divine persons from eternity, or before the world was created, is in the mental view a Trinity of Gods, and this view cannot be abolished by the oral confession of one God.
5. A trinity of persons was unknown in the Apostolic Church, but was brought forth by the Nicene Council, was thence introduced into the Roman Catholic Church, and from there into the churches that separated from it.
6. From the Nicene and at the same time Athanasian trinity there arose a faith which has perverted the whole Christian Church.
THE SACRED SCRIPTURE
Anyone who does not know that there is a certain spiritual sense contained in the Word, like a soul in its body, must necessarily judge of it from the sense of its letter, when yet this sense is like an envelope enclosing precious things, which are its spiritual sense. Therefore, when this internal sense is unknown, the Divine holiness of the Word can be estimated only as when a precious stone is estimated from the matrix enclosing it, which often appears like an ordinary stone. The same is true of the Word in respect to the sense of its letter. That people, therefore, may not continue to doubt whether the Word is Divine and most holy, the Lord has revealed to me its internal sense, which in its essence is spiritual, and which is within the external sense, which is natural, as the soul is in the body. That sense is the spirit that gives life to the letter; consequently that sense can bear witness to the Divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the natural person if he is willing to be convinced.
The spiritual sense is not apparent in the sense of the letter; it is interiorly within it as the soul is in the body, as the thought of the understanding is in the eyes, or the love's affection in the face. It is that sense chiefly that makes the Word spiritual, not only for people but for angels also; and therefore by means of that sense the Word has communication with the heavens. As the Word is inwardly spiritual, it was written purely by correspondences; and because it was written by correspondences, in its outmost sense it was written in a style like that of the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse, which, although commonplace in appearance, still conceals within it Divine wisdom and all angelic wisdom.
Doctrine should be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word and confirmed by it. This is because in it the Lord is present and teaches and enlightens; for the Lord never operates except in fullness, and in the sense of the letter the Word is in its fullness, as has been shown above. This is why doctrine should be drawn from the sense of the letter. Moreover, the doctrine of genuine truth may be fully drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, since the Word in that sense is like a person clothed, with his face bare and his hands bare; and all things pertaining to a person's faith and life and thus his salvation are there naked, while the rest are clothed; but in many places where they are clothed, they show through, as objects are seen by a woman through a thin silk veil in front of her face. Furthermore, as the truths of the Word are multiplied, as it were, by love for them, and by this love are arranged in order, they more and more clearly shine forth and are seen.
Genuine truth, of which doctrine must consist, can be seen in the sense of the letter of the Word only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and exists in those who love truths because they are truths, and who make truths uses of life. To no others is enlightenment in the Word possible. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, because the Word is from Him, and consequently He is in it. Enlightenment is given to those who love truths because they are truths, and who make them uses of life, because such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them; for the Lord is Truth itself (as shown in the chapter that treats of the Lord); and people love the Lord when they live in accordance with His Divine truths, that is, when from those truths they perform uses.
From all this one may conclude what kind of wisdom lies concealed in the Word which is in the world; for in it all angelic wisdom, which is ineffable, is concealed; and the person who from the Lord through the Word becomes an angel enters into that wisdom after death.
By means of the Word those also have light who are outside the church and do not possess the Word. No conjunction with heaven is possible unless somewhere on the earth there is a church that has the Word and by means of the Word the Lord is known; for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without Him there is no salvation. Conjunction with the Lord and affiliation with the angels is effected by means of the Word. It is sufficient that there be a church where the Word is; and although it consists of comparatively few, the Lord nevertheless is present by means of it throughout the whole world, since by means of it there is a conjunction of heaven with the human race.
THE DECALOGUE
There is not a nation in the whole world which does not know that it is wicked to murder, to commit adultery, to steal, and to bear false witness, and that kingdoms, republics, and every form of organized society, unless these evils were guarded against by laws, would be at an end. Anyone therefore may wonder that laws so universally known in the world should have been promulgated from Mount Sinai by Jehovah Himself in so miraculous a way. But listen: they were promulgated in so miraculous a way to make known that these laws are not only civil and moral laws, but also Divine laws; and that acting contrary to them is not only doing evil to the neighbor, that is, to a fellow citizen and society, but is also sinning against God. Wherefore these laws, by their promulgation by Jehovah from Mount Sinai, were made also laws of religion. Evidently whatever Jehovah commands, He commands in order that it may be a matter of religion, and thus something to be done for the sake of salvation.
FAITH
Saving faith is faith in God the Savior, because He is God and Man, and He is in the Father and the Father in Him; thus they are one; therefore those who go to Him, at the same time go to the Father also, thus to the one and only God, and there is no saving faith in any other.
People ought to believe, that is, have faith, in God the Savior Jesus Christ because that is a faith in a visible God within whom is the invisible; and faith in a visible God, who is Man and at the same time God, enters into a person. True Christian Religion 339:1
The esse of the faith of the New Church is:
1. Confidence in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.
2. A trust that he who lives well and believes aright is saved by Him.
There are three things by which faith is formed in a person: first, going to the Lord; second, learning truths from the Word; and third, living according to them. Faith without truths is like a vine bearing wild grapes; but faith from truths is like a vine bearing clusters full of noble wine. Faith in the Lord destitute of truths may be compared to a new star appearing in the expanse of heaven which in time grows dim; but faith in the Lord together with truths may be compared to a fixed star, which remains constant. Truth is the essence of faith; therefore, as the truth is, such is the faith; without truths it is a wandering faith, but with them it is fixed.
Moreover, faith from truths shines in heaven like a star.
Faith without charity is not faith, and charity without faith is not charity, and neither has any life except from the Lord. A person can acquire faith for himself, and also charity and indeed the life of both. But nothing of faith, or of charity, or of the life of both, is from the person, but from the Lord alone.
Charity and faith are together in good works. The whole person as to his mind (animus), that is, his essential nature, is in every work which proceeds from him.
1. Charity is willing well, and good works are doing well from willing well.
2. Charity and faith are only mental and perishable things unless they are determined to works and coexist in them when possible.
3. Good works are produced not by charity alone, still less by faith alone, but by charity and faith together.
It is an unchanging truth that for anyone to have spiritual life, and therefore salvation, faith and charity must not be separated.
THREE UNIVERSAL LOVES
Love of Heaven, Love of the World, and Love of Self
The love of heaven means both love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor; and as each of these looks to use as its end, the love of heaven may be called the love of uses. The love of the world is not merely a love of wealth and possessions, but is also a love of all that the world affords, and of all that delights the bodily senses, as beauty delights the eye, harmony the ear, fragrance the nostrils, delicacies the tongue, softness the skin; also becoming dress, convenient houses, and society, thus all the enjoyments arising from these and many other objects. The love of self is not merely the love of honor, glory, fame, and eminence, but also the love of meriting and seeking office, and so of ruling over others. Charity has something in common with each of these three loves, because viewed in itself charity is the love of uses; for charity wishes to do good to the neighbor, and good and use are the same, and from these loves everyone looks to uses as his end, the love of heaven looking to spiritual uses, the love of the world to natural uses, which may be called civil, and the love of self to corporeal uses, which may also be called domestic uses, that have regard to oneself and one's own. These three loves are in everyone from creation, and therefore from birth, and they perfect him when kept in their proper order, but destroy him when not so regulated.
True Christian Religion 394, True Christian Religion 395
Humankind collectively, constituting not only small and great societies but also one's country, which is composed of such societies, is the neighbor that ought to be loved. Those who do not know what the term neighbor means in its true sense suppose that it means nothing else than the individual person, and that loving the neighbor means conferring benefits upon him. But the neighbor and love to him have a wider meaning and a higher meaning as individuals are multiplied. Who cannot understand that loving many people in a body is loving the neighbor more than loving one individual of a body? Thus, a community smaller or greater is the neighbor because it is a collective person; and from this it follows that he who loves a community loves those of whom the community consists; therefore he who wills and acts rightly toward a community consults the good of each individual. A community is like an individual, and those who enter into it form as it were one body, and are distinct from each other like the members of one body. When the Lord and the angels from Him look down upon the earth, they see an entire community just like an individual, with a form according to the qualities of those in it. It has been granted me to see a certain community in heaven precisely as an individual person, in stature like that of a person in the world.
Love to the neighbor also ascends in a person more and more interiorly, and as it ascends he loves a community more than an individual, and his country more than a community. Since, then, charity consists in right willing and right doing therefrom, it follows that it ought to be exercised toward a community in much the same way as toward the individual, but in one way toward a community of good people and in another way toward a community of evil people.
One's country is more a neighbor than a single community because it consists of many communities, and consequently love toward the country is a broader and higher love. Moreover, loving one's country is loving the public welfare. A person's country is the neighbor because it is like a parent; for he is born in it, and it has nourished him and continues to nourish him, and has protected and continues to protect him from injury. People ought to do good to their country from a love for it, according to its needs, some of which are natural and some spiritual. Natural needs relate to civil life and order, and spiritual needs to spiritual life and order. That everyone is bound to love his country, not as he loves himself but with a greater love, is a law inscribed on the human heart; hence the universal maxim, to which every upright person subscribes, that if ruin threatens one's country from an enemy or any other source, it is noble to die for it, and glorious for a soldier to shed his blood in its defense. This maxim has been so expressed to emphasize how greatly one's country should be loved. Those who love their country and render it good service from goodwill, after death love the Lord's kingdom, for this is now their country; and those who love His kingdom love the Lord, because the Lord is the all in all of His kingdom.
The church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a still higher degree, and the Lord's kingdom in the highest place. Since a person is born for eternal life, and is introduced into it by the church, the church is to be loved as the neighbor in a higher degree because it teaches the means which lead to eternal life and introduces people into it, leading to it by the truths of doctrine and introducing into it by goods of life.
All of the Lord's commandments have relation to love toward the neighbor, and in a word they teach not to do evil to the neighbor but to do good to him. That those who do this love God and God loves them is in accordance with the words of the Lord.
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
A human being is not life but a form for the reception of life from God. It is generally believed that life is in a person as his own, thus that he is not only a receptacle of life but is also life. This general belief is from its so appearing, since a person lives, that is, feels, thinks, speaks and acts, wholly as if from himself.
From the foregoing it can be perceived and concluded that the following things are not creatable, namely:
1. The infinite is not.
2. Love and wisdom are not.
3. Consequently life is not.
4. Light and heat are not.
5. Even activity itself viewed in itself is not.
But organs receptive of these are creatable and have been created.
As long as a person lives in this world he is kept midway between heaven and hell, and there maintained in spiritual equilibrium, which constitutes free will. In order to know what freedom of choice is and the nature of it, it is necessary to know its origin. Especially from a recognition of its origin it can be known not only that there is such a thing as freedom of choice, but also what it is. Its origin is in the spiritual world, where a person's mind is kept by the Lord. A person's mind is his spirit, which lives after death; and his spirit is constantly in company with its like in the spiritual world, and at the same time, by means of the material body with which it is enveloped, it is with people in the natural world.
My friend, shun evil and do good and believe in the Lord from all your heart and in all your soul, and the Lord will love you, and will give you a love of doing and faith to believe. Then from love you will do good, and from faith, which is trust, you will believe; and if you persevere in so doing, a reciprocal conjunction will be effected which will be perpetual, and this is salvation itself and eternal life.
From this it follows that without freedom of choice in spiritual things there would be nothing in a person whereby the Lord could conjoin Himself to him, and yet, without reciprocal conjunction no reformation or regeneration, and thus no salvation, is possible.
REPENTANCE
No one can be regenerated until the more grievous evils, which render him detestable in the sight of God, are put away, and this is done by means of repentance. What is an unregenerate person but an impenitent one?
Repentance is the first thing of the church in a person. The communion called the church consists of all people in whom the church is, and the church enters into someone when he is becoming regenerate, and everyone becomes regenerate by abstaining from the evils of sin, and shunning them as he would an infernal horde with torches in hand, endeavoring to overtake him and throw him upon a burning pile. There are many means by which a person, as he progresses in his early years, is prepared for the church and introduced into it; but the means whereby the church is established in a person are acts of repentance. Acts of repentance are all such things as cause the person not to will and consequently not to commit evils, which are sins against God.
A person is not born into actual evils, but only into an inclination to evils, but with a greater or less proclivity toward particular evils) consequently after death a person is not judged from any inherited evil, but from the actual evils which he himself has committed. The aforesaid inclination and proclivity to the evils that are transmitted by parents to children and their posterity are broken only by the new birth from the Lord, which is called regeneration.
Without selfexamination repentance is not possible. Of what use is selfexamination except that a person may recognize his sins? And why should he recognize his sins except that he may acknowledge that they are in him? And of what use are these three things except that the person may confess his sins before the Lord, pray for help, and then begin a new life, which is the end sought? This is actual repentance.
True repentance is examining not only the actions of one's life but also the intentions of one's will, for the reason that the acts are done by the understanding and will; for a person speaks from his thought, and acts from his will; therefore speech is the thought speaking, and action is the will acting.
There are two duties incumbent on a person, to be done after selfexamination, namely, supplication and confession. The supplication should be that the Lord may be merciful, that He may give power to resist the evils that have been repented of, and that He will provide inclination and affection for doing good, since apart from the Lord one can do nothing (John 15: 5). The confession will be that he sees, recognizes, and acknowledges his evils, and finds himself to be a miserable sinner. There is no need for anyone to enumerate his sins before the Lord, nor to supplicate forgiveness of them. He need not enumerate them because he has searched them out and seen them in himself, and consequently they are present to the Lord because they are present to himself. Moreover, the Lord led him to search them out, disclosed them, and inspired grief for them, and together with this an effort to refrain from them and begin a new life.
DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The Divine Providence is the government of the Divine love and Divine wisdom of the Lord.
The end of the Divine Providence is a heaven from the human race, and in all that it does it looks to what is infinite and eternal.
Divine Providence 27, Divine Providence 46
The Divine Providence is the primary of all things which proceed from the Lord; and since what proceeds from the Lord is Himself, the Lord is His own providence, and also the law of His own providence, present and ministering to the end of His creation.
The operation of the Lord by His providence to save a person commences with his birth and continues to the end of life, and afterward to eternity.
It is of the Divine Providence of the Lord that everyone can be saved; and they are saved who acknowledge God and live well.
No one is born for hell, but all for heaven; and the person himself is at fault if he is not saved.
Divine Providence 322, Divine Providence 327
To suppose that anyone could be predestined to damnation would be to suppose that the Lord can act against the laws of His own providence, which would be to act against His own Divine wisdom and His own Divine love, and thus against Himself.
The Lord, from His Divine love by His Divine wisdom, provides the means by which people can be saved; and these means are present with every person born into the world.
Everything that happens which is called accidental, and is ascribed to chance or fortune, is of providence. But the Divine Providence operates invisibly and incomprehensibly, in order that people may be in freedom to ascribe an event either to Providence or to chance.
The Divine Providence of the Lord is over the veriest singulars of a person's life.
It is granted to humankind to see the Divine Providence in the back and not in the face; also in a spiritual, but not in a natural state; or from heaven, and not from the world.
The following laws are laws of the Divine Providence:
A person should be led in freedom according to reason.
A person as of himself should remove evils as sins in his external person, and the Lord then removes them in the internal person, and at the same time in the external.
A person should not be compelled to believe and love the things of religion, but he should lead and compel himself.
A person should be led and taught by the Lord from heaven through the Word, in all appearance as of himself.
A person should not sensibly perceive the operation of Providence, but still he should know and acknowledge it.
One's own prudence is nothing, and only appears as something, and ought so to appear, but the Divine Providence from things most singular is universal.
A person is not led interiorly into the truths of faith and the goods of charity except so far as he can be kept in them to the end of life.
Evils are permitted for the sake of the end, which is salvation.
The Divine Providence is not only with the good, but also with the evil, but it is not with the evil in their evils.
The Lord cannot act against the laws of His Providence, for this would be to act against Himself.
SALVATION
There is a general opinion that those born outside of the church, who are called the nations, or heathen, cannot be saved, because since they do not have the Word they know nothing about the Lord, and apart from the Lord there is no salvation. But that these also are saved this alone makes certain, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, that is, it extends to every individual. Also, these people, equally with those within the church, who are few in comparison, are born human beings, and their ignorance of the Lord is not their fault. Anyone who thinks from any enlightened reason can see that no one is born for hell, for the Lord is love itself and His love is to will the salvation of all. Therefore He has provided a religion for everyone, and by it acknowledgment of the Divine and interior life. For to live in accordance with one's religion is to live interiorly, since one then looks to the Divine. So far as a person looks to the Divine he does not look to the world but separates himself from the world, that is, from the life of the world, which is exterior life.
The church is the Lord's kingdom on earth. It is not called the church from this, that the Word and doctrines from the Word are in it, nor from this, that the Lord is known in it and the sacraments are there administered; but it is the church from this, that people live according to the Word, or according to doctrine from the Word, so that this doctrine is the rule of life. Everyone who lives in the good of charity and faith is a church and kingdom of the Lord.
Life makes the church; but not doctrine, except insofar as it becomes of the life. For this reason it is plain that the church of the Lord is not here, nor there, but it is everywhere, both within those kingdoms where the church is, and out of them, where people live according to the precepts of charity. Hence it is that the church of the Lord is scattered through the whole world, and yet it is a one; for when life makes the church, and not doctrine separate from life, then the church is one; but when doctrine makes the church then there are many churches.
The natural person can indeed know and also perceive what good and truth are, but only natural and civic good and truth. He cannot know or perceive spiritual good and truth. Knowledge of these has to come from revelation, and so from the Word. Those who do not possess the Word cannot know who is the God of the universe. The truth that He is the Lord is hidden from them, yet the inmost part of affection or charity, and therefore the inmost part of good, must have Him in view. As regards the gentiles, as long as they are in this world they do not indeed know that good. Yet when they lead charitable lives one with another, they thereby acquire an ability to learn such things in the next life, and also they do receive them and adopt them without difficulty.
Arcana Coelestia 3768, Arcana Coelestia 6637
As regards the Lord's spiritual church, be it known that it exists throughout the universal world; for it is not confined to those who have the Word and thence know the Lord and some truths of faith, but it exists also with those who have not the Word and therefore are altogether ignorant of the Lord and consequently know no truths of faith. This church exists among the gentiles who are remote from the church; for there are many among them who from rational light know that there is one God; that He has created all things and preserves all things) and also that from Him is all good, consequently all truth) and that likeness to Him makes a person blessed. They also live according to their religion, in love to God and in love toward the neighbor; and from the affection of good they do works of charity, and from the affection of truth they worship the Supreme Being. The gentiles who are of this character are they who belong to the Lord's spiritual church; and although while in this world they do not know the Lord, yet within themselves they have the worship and tacit acknowledgment of Him when they are in good, for in all good the Lord is present; and therefore in the other life they easily acknowledge Him.
In a word, to do according to the precepts of the Lord is truly to worship him, nay, it is truly love and faith. For nothing is more pleasing to one who loves anyone, and who believes anyone, than to will and do what the other wills and thinks. So the Lord teaches in John: "He who has My commandments and does them, it is he who loves Me; but he who does not love Me does not keep My words."
John 14: 21, 24; Arcana Coelestia 10143
He who believes that he loves the Lord, and does not live according to His commandments, is very much mistaken, for to live according to His commandments is to love Him. These commandments are truths which are from the Lord. Therefore the Lord is in them, and when they are loved, that is, when people live according to them from love, the Lord is loved. But to love the Lord without a life according to His commandments is not to love Him, for then there is not anything with the person into which the Lord may flow and raise him to Himself.
ETERNAL LIFE
Everyone is created to live to eternity, for he is so created that he may be conjoined with God, and conjunction with God is eternal life.
Heavenly Doctrine 223; Divine Providence 324
Hence it is of the Divine Providence of the Lord that a human being by death should put off things natural and temporal, and put on things spiritual and eternal.
The Divine Providence, in all its progression with a person, has regard to his eternal state, or the state of his eternal life in heaven, and leads to it.
The angels taken together are called heaven; still it is the Divine of the Lord, which flows in and is received by the angels, which makes heaven; and the Divine of the Lord in heaven is love to Him and charity toward the neighbor.
Heaven and Hell 7, Heaven and Hell 13
Heaven and hell are from the human race, and there are no angels created from the beginning. Every angel in heaven and every devil in hell was born a person in the natural world, and passed from there into the spiritual world.
How great the happiness of heaven is may appear from this, that it is a delight to all in heaven to communicate their delights and blessings to others; and because all in the heavens are such, it is manifest how immense is the delight and happiness of heaven; for in the heavens there is a communication of all with each and of each with all.
The extension of heaven is so immense that it cannot be filled to eternity; and they are relatively few of whom heaven at present is formed. The perfection of heaven increases according to plurality, and thus will increase in perfection to eternity.
From Heaven and Hell 418,Heaven and Hell 419; Earths in the Universe 168
There is actually a sphere elevating all to heaven, which proceeds continually from the Lord and fills all the spiritual world and all the natural world; and it is like a strong current in the ocean which secrecy draws a ship. All those who believe in the Lord and live according to His commandments enter the sphere of that current and are elevated) but those who do not believe are not willing to enter, but remove themselves to the sides, and are carried away by a stream which leads to
CONJUGIAL LOVE - THE LOVE BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE
Following His Second Advent the Lord will revive conjugial love, such as it was among ancient peoples. For conjugial love comes only from the Lord, and it is found in people who are made spiritual by Him through His Word.
The origin of love truly conjugial is the Lord's love for the Church. On this account the Lord is called in the Word Bridegroom and Husband, and the Church is called Bride and Wife.
Regarded from its origin and correspondence, this love is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure and clean, more so than any other love which exists from the Lord in angels of heaven or people of the church.
Regarded in its essence, conjugial love is the fundamental love of all loves in heaven and the church, because it originates from the marriage between good and truth, and from this marriage spring all the loves which form heaven and the church in a person.
The love of marriage is a fire enkindled from a love of good and truth and from the delight in doing good, thus from love to the Lord and from love toward the neighbor. This fire, which from its origin is celestial, is full of innumerable delights as many, in fact, as are the delights and blessednesses of heaven. Moreover, they are multiplied with continued increase to eternity.
Everyone, man or woman, enjoys understanding and will; but with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates; and the character is determined by that which predominates. Yet in marriages in the heavens there is no predominance; for the will of the wife is also the husband's will, and the understanding of the husband is also the wife's understanding, since each loves to will and to think as the other, and this mutually and reciprocally.
Conjugial love is the precious jewel of human life because the character of a person's life is such as the character of that love in him, that love forming the inmost element of his life. For it is the life of wisdom dwelling together with its love, and of love dwelling together with its wisdom, and thus it is the life of delights of both. In a word, a person is a living soul as a result of that love. That is why we call the conjugial union of one man with one wife the precious jewel of human life.
THE COMING OF THE LORD AND THE NEW CHURCH
The coming of the Lord is not His coming to destroy the visible heaven and the habitable earth, and to create a new heaven and a new earth, as many, not understanding the spiritual sense of the Word, have hitherto supposed.
This coming of the Lord, which is the second, takes place in order that the evil may be separated from the good; and that those may be saved who have believed and who now believe in Him; and that from them may be formed a new angelic heaven and a new church on earth; and without this coming no flesh could be saved.
Matthew 24: 22; True Christian Religion 772
The Lord's coming is for forming a new heaven of those who have believed in Him, and for establishing a new church of those who shall hereafter believe in Him, for these are the two objects of His coming.
This second coming of the Lord is not in person but in the Word, which is from Him and is Himself. The Lord has opened up to me the spiritual sense of the Word and has granted me to be with angels and spirits in their world as one of them. It has therefore been disclosed to me that "the clouds of heaven" means the Word in the natural sense, "glory" means the Word in the spiritual sense, and "power" means the Lord's influence by means of the Word.
This second coming of the Lord is effected by means of a man, to whom He has manifested Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His Spirit, to teach the doctrines of the New Church through the Word from Him. Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, as shown just above, and nevertheless has foretold that He was to come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man, who is able not only to receive these doctrines in his understanding but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward opened the eyes of my spirit and thus introduced me into the spiritual world and granted me to see the heavens and the hells, and to talk with angels and spirits, and this now continuously for several years, I affirm in truth; as also that from the first day of that call I have not received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I was reading the Word.
The establishment of the New Church is meant in the Apocalypse by the new heaven and the new earth, and the New Jerusalem descending from it.
Revelation 21:1, 2; True Christian Religion 781
This New Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on earth. There have been, in general, from the beginning, four churches on this earth: one before the flood, the second after it, the third the Israelitish Church, and the fourth that which is called the Christian Church; and as all churches depend on a knowledge and acknowledgment of one God, with whom the member of the church can be conjoined, and as none of these four churches has possessed that truth, it follows that a church must follow these four which will know and acknowledge one God. The sole end of God's Divine love when He created the world was to conjoin humankind to Himself and Himself to humankind that He might thus dwell with them.
This New Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth because it is to worship one visible God in whom is the invisible like the soul in the body. Thus, and not otherwise, is a conjunction of God with a person possible because a person is natural and therefore thinks naturally, and conjunction must exist in his thought, and thus in his love's affection, and this is the case when he thinks of God as a Man. Conjunction with an invisible God is like a conjunction of the eye's vision with the expanse of the universe, the limits of which are invisible; it is also like vision in midocean, which reaches out into the air and upon the sea and is lost. Conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like beholding a person in the air or on the sea spreading forth his hands and inviting to his arms. For all conjunction of God with humankind must be also a reciprocal conjunction of humankind with God; and no such reciprocation is possible except with a visible God.
Memorandum: After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them forth into the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ever and ever, according to the prediction of Daniel, chapter 7: 13,14; and in Revelation 11:15; and also that "Blessed are those who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." (Revelation 19: 9) This took place on the 1 9th day of June, in the year 1770. This is meant by these words of the Lord: "He shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from one end of the heavens to the other." (Matthew 24: 31)
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