A "house" is essentially a container -- for a person, a family, several families or even a large group with shared interests (think of the term "houses of worship.") In the Bible, a "house" is also a container, but for spiritual things rather than natural things. In various uses a "house" can represent part of the mind, the whole mind, a whole person or even a church. The other nuance to the word "house" is that it is generally used in regards to our affections and desires rather than our thoughts and principles. This makes sense; we tend to engage our thoughts and rationality when we are out in the world doing our work, but when we are inside our houses we are driven most by love for our families and the desire to be good to those we love. So "house" tends to represent the things we want and care about -- which are ultimately the things that define us.

7. Turning specifically to the body of teaching that now follows, it too comes from heaven because it comes from the spiritual meaning of the Word, and the spiritual meaning of the Word is the same as the body of teaching that is found in heaven. You see, there is a church in heaven just as there is on earth. That is, the Word is there, there is a body of teaching drawn from the Word, and there are church buildings there with sermons being delivered-all because there are both ecclesiastical and civil institutions there. In brief, the only difference between things in the heavens and things on earth is that everything in heaven is in a more perfect state because all the people there are spiritual, and spiritual realities are far more perfect than earthly ones. On the fact that this is what heaven is like, see my book Heaven and Hell throughout, especially the chapters on forms of government in heaven (§§213-220) and divine worship there (§§221-227).

This shows what it means when it says that a holy city, a New Jerusalem, was seen coming down from God out of heaven.

But I need to turn now to the actual teachings for this new church, which are called "heavenly" because they have been revealed to me from heaven. That is, after all, the reason for this book.