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].

384. (b) All people in Christianity who are dismissive of the Lord and the Word have no faith, no matter how morally they behave or how rationally they speak, teach, or write, even if their subject is faith. This follows as a conclusion from everything that has just been said: that the one only true faith is faith in the Lord, from the Lord; that any faith that is not faith in him and from him is earthly faith, not spiritual faith; and that faith that is merely earthly lacks the essence of faith inside it.

Faith comes from the Word. It has no other source, because the Word is from the Lord and therefore the Lord himself is in the Word. This is why the Lord says that he is the Word (John 1:1-2). As a result, people who are dismissive of the Word are also dismissive of the Lord, for the two are connected as one thing. It also follows that those who are dismissive of either the Lord or the Word are dismissive of the church, since the church comes from the Lord through the Word.

Furthermore, those who are dismissive of the church are outside heaven, because the church is what brings people into heaven. People who are outside heaven are among the damned, and the damned have no faith.

People who are dismissive of the Lord and the Word have no faith no matter how morally they behave or how rationally they speak, teach, or write, even if their subject is faith, because they do not live a spiritual moral life and they do not have a spiritual rational mind. All they have is an earthly moral life and an earthly rational mind, and morality and rationality that are earthly are intrinsically dead. Because such people are dead, they have no faith.

People who are merely earthly and are dead in relation to faith are indeed able to speak and teach about faith, goodwill, and God, but they cannot speak and teach from faith, goodwill, and God.

The only people who have faith are those who believe in the Lord. Others have no faith, as is clear from the following passages: "Those who believe in the Son 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). "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). "Jesus said, 'When the Spirit of Truth has come, it will convict the world of sin because they do not believe in me'" (John 16:8-9). And to the Jews the Lord said, "Unless you have believed that I am [he], you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). This is why David says, "I will announce a decision. Jehovah said, 'You are my Son. Today I fathered you. ' Kiss the Son or he will be angry and you will perish on the way. Blessed are all those who trust in him" (Psalms 2:7, 12).

In the Gospels the Lord predicted that at the close of the age (meaning the last period of the church) there would be no faith because there would be no belief in the Lord as the Son of God, as the God of heaven and earth, and as someone who is one with the Father: "The abomination of desolation will come, and an affliction such as has never existed before and never will again. The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven" (Matthew 24:15, 21, 29). And in the Book of Revelation: "Satan will be released from his prison. He will go out to lead astray the nations that are in the four corners of the earth, whose number is like the sand of the sea" (Revelation 20:7-8). Because the Lord foresaw this, he also said, "But when the Son of Humankind comes, is he going to find faith on the earth?' (Luke 18:8).