1. 前言:新天國與新教會的信仰

首先, 將本書中所講述的真實的基督徒信仰, 也就是新天國和新教會的信仰, 分別以總體和具體的形式概要地說明。作為接下來全書的引言, 或作為進入聖殿的大門, 又或作為詳細內容的概要。此信仰被稱為新天國和新教會的信仰, 因為天人(angel)組成的天國和世人組成的教會, 如同一個人的靈魂與肉體, 內外一致,行動如一。因此, 若教會之人活在良善與真理之中, 對於思想內在而言, 他就是天國的一名天人。在肉身死後, 他便進入天國, 照著良善與真理在他裡面聯合的狀態在那裡安享極樂。當知道, 在主現在正建立的新天國中, 這樣的信仰是新天國的引言,入門和概要。

10526. 'Go! go up from here, you and the people whom you have caused to come up out of the land of Egypt, to the land' means that this nation will represent the Church, but the Church will not reside among them, because they cannot be raised from external things. This is clear from the meaning of 'going up to the land' as in order to establish the Church (for 'the land' in the Word means the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325, and 'going up to it' means establishing it, since it was for that purpose that they were being led or going up towards it), though not establishing the Church, only representing it, is meant here because the interest of that nation lay in external things and not in what was internal, and the Church resides with a person in what is internal with him (the fact that not establishing the Church, only representing the things that constitute the Church is meant here explains why it says, 'Go! go up from here', and also, 'you and the people whom you have caused to come up out of the land of Egypt', thus whom Moses, not Jehovah, caused to come up; and in a subsequent verse, 'I will not go up in your midst, since you are a stiff-necked people', meaning that what is Divine is not among them, and where what is Divine is not received inwardly, no Church exists either, only an outward representation of the Church); and from the meaning of 'causing to come up out of the land of Egypt' as being raised from external things to what is internal, but here not being so raised since it says that Moses caused them to come up and not that Jehovah did so. For this meaning of 'causing to come up out of the land of Egypt', see 10421.

No Church resided among the Israelite nation, only that which was representative of the Church, see 4281, 4288, 4311, 4500, 4899, 4912, 6304, 6704, 9320, and wherever it is spoken of in the previous chapter.