Doctrine
Durch Joe David
Doctrine may be defined as organized truth that informs the way we act and think about the world.
In common usage, "doctrine" is not something that has to be grand or solemn. We all have doctrines about many little things like lawn care, car maintenance, or fixing chili; this kind of doctrine is just the way we do something because we think it is the right way. Often the reasoning behind these doctrines is that it is the way our parents did it, that we read it somewhere, or that it just seems right.
Everyone has a doctrine about how they live their lives in general as well, such as a charitable doctrine of looking out for others, or a selfish doctrine of "me first." Whether or not we have given it much thought, we live in accordance with our doctrine - our way of thinking.
Swedenborg used "doctrine" quite specifically to mean the organized arrangement of spiritual teachings about various aspects of reality. All religions have sacred beliefs, some of them written, like the Bible or the Quran, and some of them oral. From these beliefs they establish doctrine. In many cases organizations of the same religion will emphasize or reject different sets of truths and develop different forms of doctrine. Moreover, different religions will disagree about the validity of the original beliefs. But most would agree that the Truth, with a capital T, comes from some version of God.
The Writings for the New Church tell us that, in the Bible, cities represent doctrine. This was because cities were organized habitations, home ground to many people, places where there was much interchange of ideas and goods between people. They were places that could accommodate differing neighborhoods, and that could be fortified. On a spiritual plane all these things can be said about doctrine. It’s interesting to notice just how often cities are mentioned in the Word, either to be conquered, lived in, or built. Mention of a city comes as early as Genesis 4:17, just after the expulsion from the garden of Eden, where we are told that Cain built a city in the land of Nod and named it after his son, Enoch. Then in Genesis 11, men are not only building the well-known tower of Babel, but also a city of which the tower was a part. There are hundreds of other cities mentioned, and they signify different structures of doctrine.
Finally, in the next to last chapter of the Word (Revelation 20) we are told of the descent from God of the City New Jerusalem, coming down to earth. We in the New Church believe that this City represents a new doctrine, given by the Lord, written down and published by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 1700s, that resolves the false ideas that came into Christianity with the ideas of three persons in God, and with the later belief in salvation by faith alone.
New Christian doctrine holds that there is one God - one Divine Person who is the Lord God Jesus Christ, and that salvation requires a joining of faith and charity (a belief in true ideas, and a love for God and the neighbor).
(Verweise: Apocalypse Revealed 320, 902; Arcana Coelestia 399, 402, 3364 [2]; Teachings about the Sacred Scripture 54; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord 63; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 7; True Christian Religion 508 [5])
Genesis 26
1
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2
Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.
3
Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4
I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,
5
because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
7
The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, "the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."
8
It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
9
Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"
10
Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"
11
Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
12
Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
13
The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
14
He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
15
Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
16
Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."
17
Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
18
Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19
Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20
The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21
They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.
22
He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."
23
He went up from there to Beersheba.
24
Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."
25
He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.
26
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.
27
Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"
28
They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,
29
that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."
30
He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31
They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32
It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."
33
He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34
When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
