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.

115. 1. Redemption was actually a matter of gaining control of the hells, restructuring the heavens, and by so doing preparing for a new spiritual church. I can say with absolute certainty that these three actions are redemption, because the Lord is bringing about redemption again today. This new redemption began in the year 1757 along with a Last Judgment that happened at that time. The redemption has continued from then until now. The reason is that today is the Second Coming of the Lord. A new church is being instituted that could not have been instituted unless first the hells were brought under control and the heavens were restructured.

Because I have been allowed to see it all I could describe how the hells were brought under control and how the new heaven was built and put into the divine design, but that would be the subject of a whole work. In a little work published in London in 1758 I did lay out how the Last Judgment was carried out.

Gaining control over the hells, restructuring the heavens, and establishing a new church was redemption because without those actions no human being could have been saved. In fact, they follow in a sequence. The hells had to be controlled first before a new angelic heaven could be formed, and that heaven had to be formed before the new church on earth could be instituted, because people in the world are so closely connected to angels from heaven and spirits from hell that at the level of the inner mind they are one. This point will be taken up in the last chapter of this book, which specifically covers the close of the age, the Coming of the Lord, and the New Church [753-791].

780. For the purpose of being constantly present with me, the Lord has disclosed the spiritual meaning of his Word to me; in that meaning, divine truth stands forth in its own light, and the Lord is forever present in that light. His presence in the Word comes exclusively through its spiritual meaning. Through the light of the spiritual meaning, the Lord passes into the shadows in which the literal meaning stands, much the way the sun's light during the daytime passes through an intervening cloud. (I have shown above [776] that the Word's literal meaning is like a cloud and its spiritual meaning is its glory; and the Lord himself is the sun from which that light comes; therefore the Lord is the Word.)

The glory with which the Lord is going to come (Matthew 24:30) means the divine truth in its own light; the Word's spiritual meaning exists in this light. This is clearly shown in the following passages.

The voice of one crying in the desert, "Prepare a way for Jehovah. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it. " (Isaiah 40:3, 5)

Shine, because your light has come and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1 to the end)

I will give you as a covenant to the people, as a light for the nations. I will not give my glory to another. (Isaiah 42:6, 8; 48:11)

Your light will break forth like the dawn. The glory of Jehovah will gather you in. (Isaiah 58:8)

The whole earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah. (Numbers 14:21; Isaiah 6:1-3; 66:18)

In the beginning was the Word. In it there was life, and that life was the light for humankind. He was the true light. And the Word became flesh, and we saw his glory, glory like that of the only begotten child of the Father. (John 1:1, 4, 9, 14)

The heavens will tell the glory of God. (Psalms 19:1)

The glory of God will enlighten the holy Jerusalem. Its lamp is the Lamb. The nations that are being saved will walk in his light. (Revelation 21:23-24)

Not to mention many other passages.

Glory means divine truth in all its fullness, because every magnificent thing that exists in heaven comes from the light that emanates from the Lord, and in its essence that light, which emanates from the Lord as the sun of the spiritual world, is divine truth.