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.

184. You can clearly tell that a trinity of gods dwells in the minds of Christians - although out of shame they would never say so - by the way many of them ingeniously demonstrate that three are one and one is three. They use various phenomena in plane geometry, solid geometry, arithmetic, and physics, as well as folding pieces of clothing and pieces of paper. Like a bunch of clowns, they horse around with the divine Trinity.

Their clowning is like people's eyesight when they have a fever: they see one object, be it a person, a table, or a candle, as three objects, or three objects as one. It is like the trick people play by softening wax in their fingers and pressing it into different shapes. First they make a three-sided shape to show the trinity; then they make a ball to show the unity, and they say, "Isn't the substance one and the same?"

Truly, though, the divine Trinity is like the pearl of great price [Matthew 13:46]. Dividing the Trinity into persons is like cutting a pearl into three parts: it completely destroys the pearl.

337. 1. The Faith That Saves Us Is Faith in the Lord God Our Savior Jesus Christ

The faith that saves is faith in God our Savior, because he is divine and human. He is in the Father and the Father is in him; therefore they are one. If we turn to him, we are turning to the Father as well - to the one only God. Faith in any other god does not save us.

We are to believe or have faith in the Son of God, the Redeemer and Savior, conceived by Jehovah and born from the Virgin Mary, who is named Jesus Christ. This is clear from commands that he, and later his apostles, frequently repeated.

The following passages make it clear that he himself commanded us to have faith in him:

Jesus said, "This is the will of the Father who sent me, that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life, and I will revive them on the last day. " (John 6:40)

Those who believe in the Son have eternal life. Those who do not believe in the Son will not see life; instead God's anger will remain upon them. (John 3:36)

So that all who believe in the Son would not perish but would have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but would have eternal life. (John 3:15-16)

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will never die. " (John 11:25-26)

Truly, truly I say to you, those who believe in me have eternal life. I am the bread of life. (John 6:47-48)

I am the bread of life. Those who come to me will never hunger and those who believe in me will never thirst. (John 6:35)

Jesus cried out, saying, "If any are thirsty, they must come to me and drink. If any believe in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow out of their bellies. " (John 7:37-38)

They said to Jesus, "What shall we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered, "This is God's work, to believe in the One whom the Father sent. " (John 6:28-29)

As long as you have the light, believe in the light so that you may be children of the light. (John 12:36)

Those who believe in the Son of God 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 3:18)

These things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and through believing may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

Unless you have believed that I am [he], you will die in your sins. (John 8:24)

Jesus said, "When the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, has come, it will convict the world of sin, of justice, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me. " (John 16:8-9)