A congregation is a group of people with common loves, interests, and purposes. It often refers to a church group. In the Word it is almost always used to speak of the whole group of the Children of Israel, as the tabernacle of the congregation, or the people of the congregation. Sometimes the original Hebrew is translated as assembly, too. This is a case where readers and translators need to be aware of the context and potential nuances of meaning. Swedenborg writes that,'The congregation of the people' stands for people who are ruled by truths constituting intelligence, since 'congregation' is used with reference to truths... as also is 'people'... 'the assembly of the old' stands for people who are ruled by good. The usage of the term congregation also implies an ordering, or arrangement of truths.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 6338, 7843, 7891; The Apocalypse Explained 724 [17])

23. IV. ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER BEEN BORN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF CREATION AND HAVE DIED ARE IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL.

This is the consequence, first of the statements and demonstrations of the last chapter, showing that heaven and hell are from the human race. Secondly, from the fact that after his life in the world everyone lives for ever. Thirdly, it follows that all people who have ever been born from the creation of the world and have died are either in heaven or in hell. Fourthly, since all who will be born hereafter will also come into the spiritual world, it follows that this is in size and nature beyond comparison with the natural world in which people on earth live. In order to make the perception of all these statements more exact and their truth more obvious, I should like to explain and describe them one by one.