1. True Christianity

Containing a Comprehensive Theology of the New Heaven and the New Church

The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church

THE faith of the new heaven and the new church is stated here in both universal and specific forms to serve as the face of the work that follows, the doorway that allows entry into the temple, and the summary that in one way or another contains all the details to follow. I say "the faith of the new heaven and the new church" because heaven, where there are angels, and the church, in which there are people, act together like the inner and the outer levels in a human being. People in the church who love what is good because they believe what is true and who believe what is true because they love what is good are angels of heaven with regard to the inner levels of their minds. After death they come into heaven, and enjoy happiness there according to the relationship between their love and their faith. It is important to know that the new heaven that the Lord is establishing today has this faith as its face, doorway, and summary.

414. Our country is our neighbor more than our community is, because our country consists of many communities. Love for our country is therefore broader and higher. Loving our country is also loving the well-being of the general public.

Our country is our neighbor because it is like a parent. We were born in it. It has nourished us and continues to nourish us. It has kept us safe from harm and continues to do so.

We are to do good to our country with love according to what it needs. Some of its needs are earthly and some are spiritual. Its earthly needs center on its civic life and order. Its spiritual needs center on its spiritual life and order.

We are to love our country not merely as much as we love ourselves; we are to love it more. There is a law written on the human heart that gives rise to the statement all just people say when they are in imminent danger of dying because of an enemy or some other cause. They say that it is a noble thing to die for their country. They say that it is a glorious thing for soldiers to shed their blood for their country. They say this because that is how much one ought to love one's country.

It is important to know that if people love their country and benefit it because they wish it well, they love the Lord's kingdom after death. The Lord's kingdom is their country at that point. And those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord, since the Lord is everything to all his kingdom.

354. [d] However numerous these truths of faith are and however divergent they appear, they are united by the Lord who is the Word; the God of heaven and earth; the God of all flesh; the God of the vineyard, or the church; the God of faith; the light itself; the truth itself; and eternal life. The truths of faith are various, and appear divergent to us. For example, some are about God the Creator, some are about the Lord the Redeemer, some are about the Holy Spirit and the divine action, some are about faith and about goodwill, some are about free choice, repentance, reformation, regeneration, the assignment of spiritual credit and blame, and so on. Yet they are united in the Lord, and the Lord unites them in us, the way one vine unites many branches (John 5:1 and following). The Lord connects scattered and divided truths into one form so that they present one picture and form one action.

This can be illustrated by a comparison with the limbs, internal organs, and other organs in one body. Although they are different from each other and appear to our sight to be distinct, the human being composed of them does not feel like more than one entity. When a human being uses them all to act, he or she performs that action as if all these components constituted a single entity.

The same is true of heaven. Although it is divided into countless communities, before the Lord it nevertheless looks like one thing - in fact, like one human being, as I have shown above [65, , 268; ]. The same thing is true of a country. Although it is broken up into many jurisdictions, provinces, and cities, it is united under a monarch who exercises justice and judgment. It is the same with the truths of faith that the Lord uses to make the church a church. This is because the Lord is the Word; the God of heaven and earth; the God of all flesh; the God of the vineyard, or the church; the God of faith; the light itself; the truth itself; and eternal life.

[2] It is clear from John that the Lord is the Word and is therefore all the truth in heaven and the church: "The Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh" (John 1:1, 14).

It is clear from Matthew that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth: "Jesus said, 'All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me'" (Matthew 28:18).

It is clear from John that the Lord is the God of all flesh: "The Father has given the Son power over all flesh" (John 17:2).

It is clear from Isaiah and from John that the Lord is the God of the vineyard, or the church: "My beloved had a vineyard" (Isaiah 5:1-2); "I am the vine; you are the branches" (John 15:5).

It is clear from Paul that the Lord is the God of faith: "You have the justice that comes from faith in Christ, from the God of faith" (Philippians 3:9).

It is clear from John that the Lord is the light itself: "He was the true light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world" (John 1:9). In another passage Jesus said, "I have come into the world as a light so that all who believe in me would not remain in darkness" (John 12:46).

It is clear from John that the Lord is the truth itself: "Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. '" (John 14:6).

It is clear from John that the Lord is eternal life: "We know that the Son of God came into the world so that we would know the truth. We are in the truth in Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).

[3] To these things I should add that because people are busy in this world, they cannot acquire for themselves more than a few truths of faith. Nevertheless, if they turn to the Lord and worship him alone, they gain the ability to recognize all truths. For this reason, as soon as all true worshipers of the Lord hear some truth of faith they had not known before, they immediately see it, acknowledge it, and accept it. The reason is that the Lord is in them and they are in the Lord. Therefore the light of truth is in them and they are in the light of truth because, as I said before, the Lord is the light itself and the truth itself.

I can support this point from experience. I saw a spirit who seemed simple in his interaction with other spirits because he acknowledged the Lord alone as the God of heaven and earth, basing this faith of his on a few truths from the Word. He was taken up into heaven among the wiser angels. I was told that when he was there he was just as wise as they were. In fact, he uttered a great many truths, completely as if they were his own ideas, although he had known none of them before.

[4] Those who come into the Lord's new church will experience the same state. This is the state that is described in Jeremiah:

This will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days. I will put my law inside them. I will write it on their hearts. No longer will people teach their friends, and brothers and sisters, saying "Know the Lord. " They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

This state will also be like Isaiah's description:

A branch will come out of the trunk of Jesse. The truth will wrap his thighs. Then the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. A nursing child will play over a cobra's hole, and a weaned child will reach a hand over the den of a poisonous snake, because the earth will be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. In that day the nations will seek the root of Jesse and glory will be his rest. (Isaiah 11:1, )