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.

642. In the decrees of the councils and the articles of the confessions that Protestants swear to observe, we read that through an infusion of Christ's merit God justifies the godless. In fact, though, not even the goodness of an angel can be communicated to a godless person, much less joined to that person, without either being rejected and bouncing back like a rubber ball thrown against a solid wall, or being swallowed up like a diamond thrown into a swamp. In fact, forcing something truly good on such a person would be like tying a pearl to the snout of a pig.

Surely everyone realizes that you cannot inject mercy into ruthlessness, or innocence into revenge, or love into hatred, or harmony into discord. Doing so would be like mixing heaven and hell.

People who have not been reborn are, in spirit, like panthers and eagle-owls; they can be compared to brambles and stinging nettles. People who have been reborn are like sheep and doves, and they can be compared to olive trees and grapevines. Please consider, if you will, how panther-people could possibly be converted into sheep-people, or eagle-owls into doves, or brambles into olive trees, or stinging nettles into grapevines, through any assignment or attribution or application of divine justice. Would that process not sooner condemn them than justify them? In reality, in order for that conversion to take place the predatory nature of the panther and the eagle-owl and the damaging nature of the brambles and the stinging nettles must first be removed and something truly human and harmless implanted in their place. The Lord in fact teaches in John 15:1-7 how this transformation occurs.

313. The Sixth Commandment

You Are Not to Commit Adultery

In its earthly meaning, this commandment covers not only committing adultery but also wanting to do and doing things that are obscene, and also having wanton thoughts and expressing them. As the Lord's words make clear, craving to commit adultery is committing adultery:

You have heard that it was said by the ancients, "You are not to commit adultery. " But I say to you that if a man looks at someone else's wife in such a way that he craves her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)

The reason is that craving becomes a virtual deed when it is in the will. An attraction enters only our intellect, but an intention enters our will; and an intention based on a craving is a deed.

On these topics, see many things in the work Marriage Love and Promiscuous Love, published in Amsterdam, 1768. There are treatments there on the opposite of marriage love, 423-443; on promiscuity, 444[b]-460; on different kinds and degrees of adultery, 478-499; on obsession with defloration, 501-505; on the craving for variety, 506-510; on the craving for rape, 511, 512; on obsession with seducing the innocent, 513, 514; and on accountability for the love of infidelity and the love of marriage, 523-531. All the above are covered by this commandment in its earthly meaning.