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.

214. 4. In the Literal Meaning of the Word, Divine Truth Exists in Its Completeness, Holiness, and Power

In the literal meaning, the Word exists in its completeness, holiness, and power because, as I said above in 210, 212, the two prior or deeper meanings called the spiritual and the heavenly meanings are together in the earthly or literal meaning. I will say some more about how they come together.

Both in heaven and on earth there is a sequential arrangement and there is a simultaneous arrangement. In a sequential arrangement, one thing comes after another from the highest level down to the lowest. In a simultaneous arrangement, however, one thing is beside another from inmost to outermost. A sequential arrangement is like a column with levels that form steps from top to bottom. A simultaneous arrangement is like a collapsed object with larger and larger cylinders from the center to the outermost surface.

Now I will say how a sequential arrangement turns eventually into a simultaneous arrangement. It happens in the following way: the highest parts of a sequential arrangement become the innermost parts of a simultaneous arrangement, and the lowest parts of a sequential arrangement become the outermost parts of a simultaneous arrangement. It is like the column of steps collapsing to become a coherent flat surface. This is how something simultaneous is formed out of a succession.

This is how it is for everything in the physical world and everything in the spiritual world. Everywhere there is a primary component, a middle component, and an outermost component. The primary component extends and goes out through its middle component toward its outermost component. It is essential to understand, however, that there are different degrees of purity that affect how each arrangement comes about.

[2] Now for the Word. A heavenly influence, a spiritual influence, and an earthly influence emanate from the Lord in a sequential arrangement. On the outermost level, however, they are in a simultaneous arrangement, meaning that the Word's heavenly and spiritual meanings are together inside its earthly meaning. Once you comprehend this, you can see how the Word's earthly meaning is the foundation, container, and structural support for its spiritual and heavenly meanings. You can also see how divine goodness and divine truth have completeness, holiness, and power in the Word's literal meaning.

As all this makes clear, the Word in its literal meaning is truly the Word. Within it there is spirit and life. As the Lord says, "The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). The Lord spoke his words with an earthly meaning.

The heavenly and spiritual meanings are not the Word without the earthly meaning. They are like spirit and life without a body. As I said before (213), they are also like a palace without a foundation.

607. People Who Have Been Regenerated Are in Fellowship with the Angels of Heaven; People Who Have Not Been Regenerated Are in Fellowship with the Spirits of Hell

Every human being is in fellowship, that is, in close association, with either angels of heaven or spirits of hell, because we are born to become spiritual, and we cannot become spiritual unless we are associated with others who are spiritual. In the work Heaven and Hell I have shown that our minds are in both worlds, the physical and the spiritual.

Nevertheless both the people and the angels or spirits are unaware of this connection, because as long as we remain alive in this world, we are in an earthly state, whereas the angels and spirits are in a spiritual state. Because of the differences between what is earthly and what is spiritual, neither one of us appears to the other. The nature of the differences is described in the memorable occurrence recorded in Marriage Love 326-329. That passage makes it clear that it is not our thoughts but rather our feelings that form a connection between us. Yet hardly any of us reflect on our feelings, because they are not in the light of our intellect and thought; they are instead in the warmth of our will and of the emotions that relate to what we love. Nevertheless, the connection that is established by feelings of love held in common between people on the one hand and angels and spirits on the other is so tight that if it were broken and the angels and spirits were separated from us, we would immediately lose consciousness. If that relationship were not reestablished and angels and spirits were not reconnected to us, we would die.

[2] When I say that we become "spiritual" as a result of being regenerated, I do not mean that we [who are still in the physical world] become as fully spiritual as angels; I mean that we become both spiritual and earthly, meaning that within our earthly self there is a spiritual self, which is present in much the same way thought is present in speech or the will is present in action - if one stops, the other stops. Similarly, our spirit is present in the individual things our body does. The spirit is what drives the earthly component to do what it does. Viewed on its own, the earthly part of us is something passive; it is a dead force. The spiritual part of us is something active; it is a living force. Something passive, a dead force, cannot take action on its own. It must be driven by something active, a living force.

[3] Since we live constantly in fellowship with inhabitants of the spiritual world, as soon as we leave the physical world we are immediately placed among the spirits like ourselves whom we had been with while in the world. This is why all of us after we die seem to ourselves to be still alive in the world - we come into contact with people who have the same feelings as we do in our will. We claim these spirits as "our people," just as friends and neighbors in this world claim each other as "their people. " This is what the Word means when it says that those who die are gathered to their people.

These points establish the fact that people who have been regenerated are in fellowship with the angels of heaven, whereas people who have not been regenerated are in fellowship with the spirits of hell.