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.

772. The Purpose of This Coming of the Lord - His Second Coming - Is to Separate the Evil from the Good, to Save Those Both Past and Present Who Believe in Him, and to Form Them into a New Angelic Heaven and a New Church on Earth; If He Did Not Do This, "No Flesh Would Be Saved" (Matthew 24:22)

The purpose of the Lord's Second Coming is not to destroy the visible heaven and the inhabitable earth, as the sections under the previous heading have shown [768-771]. The Lord's own words make it clear that the purpose of the new church is not to destroy anything but to build something; therefore it is not to condemn anyone but to save those people ever since his First Coming who have believed in him, and those in the future who are going to believe in him.

God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world but to save the world through him. Those who believe in him are not judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:17-18)

If any hear my words but do not believe, I do not judge them. I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. Those who despise me and do not accept my words already have something that judges them. The Word that I have spoken - that will judge them. (John 12:47-48)

The Last Judgment occurred in the spiritual world in 1757. The small work titled Last Judgment (published in London in 1758) and Supplement to the Last Judgment (published in Amsterdam in 1763) made this information public. I testify that it is the truth. I saw it with my own eyes in a state of full wakefulness.

230. You might think that we could gain a body of genuinely true teaching by exploring the Word's spiritual meaning through the study of correspondences. In fact, a body of teaching is not gained through that meaning; it is only enlightened and corroborated by that meaning, for, as I said before in 208, people who know a few correspondences are capable of falsifying the Word by connecting and applying correspondences to support some preconceived idea already lodged in their mind.

For another thing, no one is given the spiritual meaning except by the Lord alone. The Lord safeguards that meaning as he safeguards the angelic heaven, for heaven dwells in it.