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.

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].

658. No Spiritual Credit or Blame Is Assigned to Us on the Basis of What We Think; It Is Assigned Only on the Basis of What We Will

Every educated person knows that there are two faculties or parts to the mind: the will and the intellect. Few are aware, however, of how to tell them apart, how to describe the properties of each, and how the two work together. People who do not know these things cannot develop anything beyond an extremely obscure idea of their own mind. Therefore, the point made in the heading - that no spiritual credit or blame is assigned to us on the basis of what we think; it is assigned only on the basis of what we will - cannot possibly be comprehended unless the attributes of thinking as opposed to willing are covered first. In a brief summary, the attributes of the two are as follows.

(1) Love itself and things related to love reside in our will. Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom reside in our intellect. Our will brings the influence of its love to bear on the contents of our intellect and induces them to show it favor and consent. As a result, our nature as a human being depends on the nature of our love and our understanding.

[2] (2) From this it follows that everything good and everything evil is a matter of the will. Whatever comes from love we call good, even if it is actually evil; the delight that constitutes the life of our love has this effect. Through this delight the will influences the intellect and secures its consent.

[3] (3) Our will is therefore both the underlying reality and the essence of our life; the intellect is both the capacity to become manifest and the actual manifestation of our life. Essence is nothing unless it takes shape in some form; likewise the will is nothing unless it takes shape in the intellect. Therefore the will gives itself a form in the intellect and brings itself to light.

[4] (4) The love that is in our will is our purpose. It uses the intellect to find and collect the means of bringing itself forth into results. Because our purpose is also our plan - something love intends to carry out - our plan, too, belongs to our will. Through the process of forming an intention, our love enters our intellect and urges it to think of and reflect on means, and to come to decisions that lead in time to results.

[5] (5) Our entire sense of self resides in our will. The first time we are born, the self is evil. The second time we are born, the self becomes good. The first time, we are born of our parents; the second time, we are born of the Lord.

[6] From these few points it is clear that the will has one set of attributes and the intellect has another. They are created to be joined together, just as an underlying reality and its capacity to become manifest are joined together. Therefore we are who we are primarily because of our will, and only secondarily because of our intellect. This is why we are assigned spiritual credit or blame on the basis of what we will (and therefore whether our actions have been good or evil), not on the basis of what we think. Evil or goodness, as mentioned above, reside primarily in our will and only secondarily in our intellect.