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。

10629. 'And pardon our iniquity and our sin' means being so in order that things on an interior level in them, which teem with falsities and evils, may be shifted away. This is clear from the meaning of 'pardoning iniquity and sin', when this refers to the outward form that worship, the Church, and the Word took among the people, as being so in order that things on an interior level in them may be shifted away, because those things teem with falsities and evils. This meaning of these words follows from the train of thought in the internal sense, in which the Church to be established among those people is the subject. A Church cannot be established among any people unless their interiors are open, through which contact with heaven is effected; and those interiors are not open except in the case of those who are guided by truths of faith grounded in goodness of life, derived from the Lord. But the interiors of these people could not be opened up because they thought of the worship of Jehovah as nothing more than a means to obtain pre-eminence over others and to become richer than others, so that they had in mind nothing except themselves and the world. And these interests are what close the interiors in the direction of heaven and open them in the direction of hell. The fact that the interiors of that nation were like this, and that they were closed when they engaged in worship, see 10575. These then are the things that are meant here.