Koncept „církve“ ve spisech je složitý a krásně organický, spojený s učením o povaze Pána a výsledné přirozenosti lidstva.

Spisy říkají, že Pán je ve své podstatě - svou skutečnou podstatou - dokonalá, nekonečná láska, láska, která poháněla stvoření, která je konečným zdrojem reality a která neustále udržuje realitu. Tato láska je vyjádřena ve formě jako dokonalá, nekonečná moudrost, která dala formě stvoření a dává formě realitě.

Hluboké věci! Můžete o tom číst více jinde, ale záleží na tom, že celé stvoření, od nejmenších prvků po celý vesmír, odráží stejnou strukturu. Je přítomen v přírodě samotné, poháněn žárem (láskou) a světlem (moudrostí) slunce. Je přítomna v základních formách života, s rostlinami (které jsou zakořeněné; které se málo mění; které jsou necítitelné; které jsou poháněny světlem) představují prvky moudrosti a zvířat (teplo, pocit, mobilní, neustále se měnící, poháněné teplem) ) představující formy lásky. Je přítomen v téměř univerzálním rozdělení na mužské (moudrost) a ženské (láska) aspekty rostlin a zvířat.

Tato struktura je také v každém z nás. V běžném jazyce bychom jim mohli říkat naše srdce a naše mysli - to, co chceme a co si myslíme. Spisy o nich běžně mluví jako o dobrém (láska; to, co chceme v našich srdcích) a pravdě (moudrost; co víme v našich myslích) nebo jako vůle (srdce) a porozumění (mysl). Tyto prvky nás nejen definují, ale jsou také klíčem k našim duchovním osudům. Můžeme je použít k přijetí Pánovy lásky, vstoupit do dobra života a nakonec jít do nebe. Můžeme je také použít k odmítnutí Pánovy lásky a klusu do pekla.

A jsou tu další vrstvy. Spisy říkají, že všechny lidské společnosti jsou v lidské formě, s funkcemi analogickými lidskému tělu. To platí od malých skupin, jako jsou rodiny, velké společnosti, až po celé národy a v konečném důsledku i celá lidská rasa v tomto světě a celá nebe v příštím.

Mezi nejdůležitější lidské společnosti patří samozřejmě církve. Protože pojem „církev“ je však založen na lidské podobě, mohou mít církve, jak je uvedeno v spisech, mnoho podob. Na jednom konci stupnice je každý, kdo má skutečné představy o správném a špatném a žije podle nich, sám církví. Na druhém konci stupnice všichni ti, kdo věří v lásku k sousedovi - a jednají z této víry - společně tvoří jeden kostel.

Mezi těmito dvěma extrémy leží mnoho dalších odrůd, ale většina odkazů na „církev“ ve Spisech znamená komunitu těch, kteří mají Slovo, zná Pána a dodržují Jeho přikázání. Tito lidé mají přístup k nejlepší možné pravdě a nejhlubší možné pochopení o povaze Pána a toho, co od nás chce.

Takový kostel hraje zásadní roli: Pán skrze ni vytváří myšlenky o tom, že jsou dobré v myslích lidí a touze být dobří do vnitřních výklenků jejich srdcí, přičemž sahá daleko za samotnou církev a dotýká se každého na světě. Ve skutečnosti se ve spisech uvádí, že v podstatě existuje manželství mezi Pánem a církví, s církví v roli nevěsty a manželky, vytvářející skutečné myšlenky a dobré touhy, jak manželka vyrábí děti.

Aby tuto funkci ochránil, Pán se postaral o to, aby v celé historii (a hodně pravěku) vždy existoval kostel, který tuto roli plnil.

Prvním z nich byl nejstarší kostel, zastoupený Adamem; bylo to inspirováno láskou k Pánu. Druhým byla starověká církev, zastoupená Noemem; bylo to inspirováno láskou k bližnímu a poznání Pána. Třetí byla Izraelská církev, která neměla vnitřní lásku k dobrým, ale dochovaným myšlenkám Pána. Čtvrtá byla primitivní křesťanská církev, která měla nové, přímější porozumění založené na Pánově učení. Pátý, podle Písem, má být založen na hlubším porozumění nabízeném Písmy a jejich vysvětlením Bible.

Mohlo by se říci mnohem více, ale zdůrazníme jen jeden další bod:

My jako jednotlivci jsme, kdo jsme založeni na tom, co milujeme, ne na tom, co víme. Půjdeme do nebe nebo do pekla na základě toho, co milujeme, ne podle toho, co víme. Poznání, myšlení a hledání pravdy jsou důležité věci, ale jejich účelem je utvářet, vést a sloužit našim láskám; láska je nakonec důležitá. Spisy jasně a opakovaně jasně ukazují, že to samé platí pro církve: Konečně jsou založeny na lásce, ne na znalostech, na jejich odhodlání sloužit sousedovi, nikoli na jejich vnějších uctívání. A pokud církve sdílejí společný účel sloužit sousedovi, jsou v podstatě jedním z nich, přičemž doktrinální variace mají malý význam.

(Референци: Zjevená Apokalypsa 533; Nebeská tajemství 407, 768, 1799 [3-4], 2048, 2853 [2-3], 2910, 2982, 3310, 3773, 3963 [2], 4292, 4672, 4723, 5826 [2-3], 6637, 6648, 8152, 9256 [4-5], 9276 [2]; Manželská láska 116; Nebe a Peklo 57; Slovo 8; Nauka Nového Jeruzaléma o Písmu svatém 99, 104)

116. THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH AND CORRESPONDENCE TO IT

This chapter also takes up the marriage of the Lord and the church and correspondence to it, because without a knowledge and understanding of the subject, scarcely anyone can see that conjugial love in its origin is sacred, spiritual and heavenly, and that it comes from the Lord. Some in the church indeed say that marriage has a relationship to the marriage of the Lord with the church, but they do not know what the nature of that relationship is.

In order to make this relationship perceptible to some sight of the understanding, therefore, we must discuss in detail that sacred marriage which exists with and in those people who form the Lord's church. They, too, and not others, possess truly conjugial love.

To explain this secret, however, we must divide our treatment into sections under the following headings:

1. In the Word, the Lord is called a Bridegroom and Husband, and the church a bride and wife; and the conjunction of the Lord with the church and the reciprocal conjunction of the church with the Lord is called a marriage.

2. The Lord is also called Father, and the church, mother.

3. The offspring from the Lord as Husband and Father and from the church as wife and mother are all spiritual offspring, and this is what is meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other terms which have to do with descending generations.

4. The spiritual offspring that are born from the marriage of the Lord with the church are truths, from which come understanding, perception and all thought; and also qualities of goodness, from which come love, charity and all affection.

5. From the marriage of good and truth that emanates and flows in from the Lord, a person acquires truth, to which the Lord joins good, and in this way the church is formed in the person by the Lord.

6. A husband does not represent the Lord and his wife the church, because both husbands and wives together form the church.

7. Therefore neither in the marriages of angels in heaven nor in the marriages of people on earth does the husband correspond to the Lord and the wife to the church.

8. Rather, the correspondence rests with conjugial love, insemination, procreation, love for little children, and other things of a similar sort that occur in marriage and result from it.

9. The Word is the means of conjunction, because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord.

10. The church comes from the Lord and it exists in people who go to Him and live according to His commandments.

11. Conjugial love depends on the state of the church in a person, because it depends on the state of his wisdom.

12. So, then, because the church comes from the Lord, conjugial love comes from Him as well.

Now follows the development of these points.

9276. 'And whatever is left by them let the wild animal of the field eat' means being joined through them to those immersed in the delights that go with external truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'whatever is left by them', that is to say, by 'the needy of the people', as that which is left and so remains after them, but at this point that which is received through them since the subject is the Church's being joined to those who possess few truths, and also here being joined to those immersed in the delights that go with external truth (the Church is joined to the latter through the former, as will be seen below); from the meaning of 'eating' as communicating and being joined together, dealt with immediately above in 9275; and from the meaning of 'the wild animal of the field' as those immersed in the delights that go with external truth. For in the Word affections for truth and good are meant by 'beasts', affections for internal truth and good being meant by 'beasts belonging to the flock', and affections for external truth and good being meant by 'beasts belonging to the herd'. But 'wild animals' are the kinds of affections that are drawn towards most external truth; for these affections compared with internal ones are 'wild animals', since they are the affections that belong to the level of the senses, and are called lowly pleasures and delights. They are delights that go with truth and not so much with good, the reason for this being that the senses, which are in direct contact with the world through the body, derive scarcely anything from spiritual good; for bodily and worldly kinds of love reside especially on the sensory level.

Affections for truth and good are meant in the Word by 'beasts', see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 1823, 2180, 2781, 3218, 3519, 5198, 9090.

Affections for internal truth and good are meant by 'beasts belonging to the flock', and affections for external truth and good by 'beasts belonging to the herd', 5913, 8937, 9135.

The senses are in contact with the world, being the most external powers of the mind, 4009, 5077, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6313, 6315, 6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7693, 9212, 9216.

From all that is shown in these places one can see what the sensory level of a person's mind compared with more internal levels is like, namely like a wild animal.

[2] The present verse deals in the internal sense with those who are governed by the good of charity, then with those who possess few truths and still have a desire to receive instruction, and after that with those who are immersed in the delights that go with external truth. These three groups of people constitute the Church. Those governed by the good of charity constitute the internal part of the Church, whereas those who possess few truths and still wish to receive instruction, thus who derive from good an affection for truth, constitute the external part of the Church. But those immersed in the delights that go with external truth are the most external; they so to speak form the perimeter and enclose the Church.

[3] Heaven is joined to the human race, that is, the Lord coming by way of heaven is joined to it, through those who are governed by the good of charity, thus through the good of charity since the Lord is present within that good. For essentially that good is the Lord, because it emanates from Him. Through that good the Lord joins Himself to those who have an affection for truth; for the affection for truth is derived from good, and good emanates from the Lord, as has been stated. Through these people in turn the Lord is present with those immersed in the delights that go with external truth; for their delights spring for the most part from self-love and love of the world and derive little at all from spiritual good. Such is the manner in which heaven makes contact with people, that is, such is the manner in which the Lord coming by way of heaven makes contact with them; such therefore is the manner in which He is joined to them.

[4] That such is the manner in which the Lord makes contact with and is joined to the human race is clear from the consideration that the manner in which influx takes place with every member of the Church is such. The expression 'member of the Church' is used to mean one who is governed by the good of charity and consequently by the truths of faith received from the Lord; for charity from which faith springs is the Church itself present with a person, since charity and faith come from the Lord. The Lord flows into that good, which is the internal level of a person, then through that good into the affection for truth, which is his external level, and on through that affection into the delights that go with external truth, which are present on the most external levels.

[5] What applies to the individual member of the Church also applies to the Church as a whole, that is, to all collectively who constitute the Lord's Church. The reason why this should be so is that in the Lord's eyes the entire Church is like a human being; for the Lord's heaven, with which the Church acts as one, is in His eyes seen as one total human being, as becomes clear from what has been shown regarding heaven as the Grand Man at the ends of a number of the chapters explaining Genesis. This being so with the Church, the same is so with the individual member of the Church; for the individual member of the Church is a miniature heaven, Church, and Lord's kingdom.

[6] The Church also resembles an actual human being in this respect, that a person has two fountains of life, namely The Heart and The Lungs. It is well known that when human life begins the first part to develop is the heart and that the second is the lungs, and that from these two as fountains of life every other part of the body receives life. The heart of the Grand Man, that is, of heaven and the Church, is composed of those who are governed by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and so, considered without reference to persons, consists in love of the Lord and love of the neighbour. But the lungs in the Grand Man, or heaven and the Church, are composed of those who are governed by charity towards the neighbour, which comes from the Lord, and from this by faith, and so, considered without reference to persons, consists in charity and faith coming from the Lord. The remaining organs and members in the Grand Man however are composed of those who are governed by external forms of good and external truths, and so, considered without reference to persons, consist in external forms of good and external truths, by means of which internal truths and forms of good can be brought in. Just as the heart, then, flows first into the lungs, and subsequently from itself through these into the organs and members of the body, so too the Lord flows through the good of love into internal truths, and through these into external truths and forms of good.

[7] From all this it may be seen that the existence of the Church on earth is absolutely vital, and that without the Church the human race would perish; for it would be like a person at the time of death, when the lungs and heart stop working. For this reason the Lord sees to it that there always exists on earth a Church in which the Lord has made Himself known through Divine Truth received from Him, such Divine Truth on our planet being the Word. Scarcely anyone at the present day believes that this is so, because no one believes that human life comes wholly from the Lord by way of heaven. For it is supposed that life exists innately in a person and can continue to do so without connection with heaven, that is, with the Lord through heaven. But that supposition is utterly false.

[8] All this now shows how to understand the idea of being joined through the good of charity to those who possess few truths and still have a desire to receive instruction, and being joined through them to those immersed in the delights that go with external truth, meant by the law about letting the land rest and letting it lie fallow in the seventh year, when the needy of their people would eat, and whatever was left by these the wild animal of the field would eat. But see what has been shown already regarding matters that are mentioned above:

In the Lord's eyes heaven is seen as one total human being and for this reason heaven is called the Grand Man, 1276, 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3751, 4218-4228.

[9] The same applies to the Lord's Church, for the Lord's kingdom on earth is the Church, which acts as one with the Lord's kingdom in heaven, 4060, 7396, 9216.

The individual member of the Church has heaven and the Church within him, 1900, 1902, 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4292, 4523, 4524, 4625, 6013, 6057.

Those who are governed by love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour constitute the province of the heart in the Grand Man, and those who are governed by charity and from this by faith coming from the Lord constitute the province of the lungs, 3635, 3883-3896.

Human life flows in wholly from the Lord by way of heaven, 2536, 2706, 2886-2889, 2893, 3001, 3318, 3484, 3742, 3743, 4151, 5846, 5850, 5986, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7004, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7147, 7270, 7343, 8321, 8685, 8701, 8717, 8728, 9110, 9111, 9216.

Heaven exists in connection with mankind, 9216.

Without the Church on earth the human race would perish, 468, 637, 2853, 4545.