1. EXPOSICIÓN BREVE DE LA DOCTRINA DE LA NUEVA IGLESIA QUE SE ENTIENDE POR LA NUEVA JERUSALÉN EN EL APOCALIPSIS

Durante los últimos años he dado a publicidad varias obras y tratados respecto a la Nueva Jerusalén, por la cual se entiende la Nueva Iglesia que debe ser establecida por el Señor; y habiendo sido revelado el Apocalipsis, he decidido dar a conocer la doctrina de aquella Iglesia en toda su plenitud. Pero como es una obra que demorará algunos años en terminarse, he creído conveniente esbozar algunos rasgos de ella, a fin de proporcionar una idea general de dicha Iglesia y su Doctrina; porque cuando los principios generales proceden, todas y cada una de las cosas aparecerán después en la plenitud de su luz, porque esta obra entra en lo general como las cosas homogéneas en sus receptáculos. Esta breve exposición, sin embargo, no está diseñada para el examen crítico, sino que se ofrece al mundo como vía de anuncio de la Doctrina, siendo sus contenidos demostrados en la propia obra. Pero las doctrinas sostenidas actualmente respecto a la justificación, serán prefijadas de modo que el siguiente contraste entre las doctrinas de la Iglesia actual y las de la Nueva Iglesia, puedan ser claramente entendidos. Primeramente serán presentadas las doctrinas de hoy al respecto de la justificación.

308. There is also a union of heaven through the Word with people who are outside the church, where the Word is not found; for the Lord's church is everywhere and exists with everyone who acknowledges something divine and lives considerately. People like this are taught by angels after their decease and accept divine truths. ¹ There will be more on this below in its proper chapter, where we discuss non-Christians.

In the Lord's sight, the universal church on earth is like a single individual just as heaven is (as noted above in 59-72). However, the church where the Word is and the Lord is known through it is like the heart and lungs of that person. It is common knowledge that the viscera and members of the whole body get their life from the heart and lungs by various routes. So too the human race that is outside the church where the Word is gets its life in the same way and constitutes the members of that person. Heaven's union through the Word with people who are at a distance can be compared to light that spreads in all directions from a center. The divine light is in the Word, and the Lord is present there with his heaven. People who are far off also receive light from that presence. It would be different if there were no Word, which can be more fully understood by reference to what has been presented above about the form of heaven that determines its gatherings and communications.

Still, this arcanum is understandable to people who are in spiritual light but not to people who are only in natural light. People who are in spiritual light, that is, see quite clearly countless things that people who are in natural light alone either do not see at all or see only as a single vague entity.

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