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.

455. What evil people are like in their inner self and what good people are like in theirs can be seen from the following brief description of hell and heaven: Evil people's inner selves are connected with devils in hell. Good people's inner selves are connected with angels in heaven.

Because of the loves it has, hell enjoys the pleasures of all kinds of evil; that is, the pleasure in hatred, in revenge, in killing; the pleasure in looting and stealing; the pleasure in verbal abuse and blasphemy; the pleasure in denying God and desecrating the Word. These pleasures lie hidden in cravings on which we do not reflect. Evil people burn with these pleasures like torches on fire. The pleasures just listed are what the Word means by hellfire.

The pleasures in heaven, on the other hand, are the pleasure in loving our neighbor and the pleasure in loving God.

[2] Since hell's pleasures are opposite to heavens, there is a huge gap between them. The pleasures of heaven flow down into this gap from above and the pleasures of hell flow up into it from below. While we are alive in the world we are in the middle of this gap so that we can stay in balance and in a state of freedom to turn ourselves toward heaven or toward hell. This gap is what is meant by the great gulf fixed between the people in heaven and those in hell (Luke 16:26).

[3] These points show us the nature of the bond of love between evil people. In their outer selves, evil people simulate morality in order to expand their social network and explore where a potential exists for enjoying the pleasures that they love and that set their inner selves on fire. The only thing holding them back and limiting their actions is fear of the law and fear for their reputation and their life. Their friendship then is like a spider in a sugar bowl, a viper in a loaf of bread, a baby crocodile in a honey-cake, or a worm in spices.

[4] This is the nature of the friendship that evil people extend to anyone. The friendship between blatantly evil people, such as thieves, robbers, and pirates, is like family, as long as their minds have come together to target something to steal. During that time they kiss each other like kin and enjoy each others company with dining, singing, dancing, and plotting someone else's ruin.

But in fact, deep inside themselves they all regard their companions as their enemies. Clever thieves see this enmity in their companions and are afraid of it. Clearly, then, there is no friendship between them; there is instead a deep hatred.

455b. There are people who have not openly associated with evildoers or practiced a life of thievery, and who have instead lived a moral and civic life to gain various benefits; yet they have not bridled the cravings that dwell in their inner self. Such people are capable of believing that their own friendships are not like those I have been describing.

Nevertheless, I know for a certainty that evil people have this type of friendship, because of the many examples I have observed in the spiritual world. It can be found to one degree or another in all people who reject faith and who scorn the church's holy practices as having no value for themselves, however much value they believe those practices may have for the general public. In some of these cases the enjoyment of hellish love lay hidden like fire smoldering in a dry log still covered by bark. In some cases it lay hidden like coals burning under the ashes. In some cases it lay hidden like wax torches that would readily burst into flame in the presence of fire. In other cases it was hidden in other ways.

This is the nature of all people who have rejected matters of religion from their heart. Their inner selves are in hell. As long as they are still alive in this world - unaware of their situation because of the morality they imitate on the outside - they do not recognize as their neighbor anyone but themselves and their own children. They look on others with either contempt (in which case they are like cats ready to ambush birds on the nest) or hatred (in which case they are like wolves who see dogs and devour them).

The point of including this was to make it possible to recognize the nature of goodwill through its opposite.

527. Nevertheless, there are some people who are incapable of examining themselves: for example, children and young men and women before they reach the age at which they can reflect upon themselves; simple people who lack the ability to reflect; all who have no fear of God; some who have a mental or physical illness; and also people who, entrenched in the teaching that justification comes solely through the faith that assigns us Christ's merit, have convinced themselves that if they practiced self-examination and repentance something of their own selves might intrude that would ruin their faith and divert or redirect their salvation from its sole focus.

For the types of people just listed, an oral confession is of benefit, although, as discussed earlier in this chapter [516-519], it is not the same as practicing repentance.

[2] People who know what sin is and especially those who know a lot about it from the Word and who teach about it, but who do not examine themselves and therefore see no sin within themselves, can be compared to people who scrape and save money, only to put it away in boxes and containers and make no other use of it than looking at it and counting it. They are like people who collect pieces of gold and silver jewelry and keep them in a safe in a storage room for no other purpose than to own them. They are like the businessman who hid his talent in the ground and the one who wrapped his mina in a handkerchief (Matthew 25:25; Luke 19:20). They are like the hardened pathways and rocks onto which the seed fell (Matthew 13:4-5). They are like fig trees with abundant foliage that bear no fruit (Mark 11:13). They are like hearts of stone that have not turned to flesh ([Ezekiel 36:26]; Zechariah 7:12). They are "like partridges that nest but do not bear young. They amass riches, but without judgment. In the middle of their days they leave their riches behind and at the end of their [lives] they become fools" (Jeremiah 17:11). They are also like the five young women who had lamps but no oil (Matthew 25:1-12).

[3] People who take in many teachings from the Word about goodwill and repentance and who know all about the commandments and yet do not live by those things could be compared to gluttons who stuff food in chunks into their mouths and swallow it without chewing, so that it sits undigested in their stomach and then clogs up their chyle and causes chronic diseases, from which they eventually die a wretched death.

No matter how much light they may have, people like this can be called winters, frozen lands, arctic climates, and indeed snow and ice, because they have no spiritual warmth.