1. VJERA NOVOG NEBA I NOVE CRKVE

Ova vjera je na početku predstavljena u njezinoj generalnoj i njezinoj pojedinačnoj form Ona je predstavljena na taj način da bi poslužila kao predgovor cijelom djelu koje slijedi, tako reći poput kapije kojom se ulazi u hram, i kao kratak izvod u kojem su naredne pojedinosti uredno sažete. Rečeno je za nju da je ‘Vjera Novog Neba i Nove Crkve’ pošto nebo, gdje su anđeli, i Crkva, u kojoj su ljudi, djeluju kao jedno poput unutarnjeg i vanjskog u slučaju čovjeka. Otud proizlazi da je pripadnik Crkve, koji je u dobru ljubavi od istina vjere, i u istinama vjere iz dobra ljubavi, s obzirom na unutrašnjosti njegova uma anđeo nebeski. Na taj način on nakon smrti ulazi u nebo, i tamo uživa sreću u onoj mjeri u kojoj su ovi principi u njemu sjedinjeni. Prema tome, treba znati da je ova vjera u njezinoj sažetoj formi pokazatelj i kapija novog neba koje je sada ¹ formirano od strane Gospoda.

Footnotes:

523. "Because You have taken Your great power and entered Your kingdom." This symbolizes the New Heaven and New Church, where people will acknowledge the Lord alone as God, as He is and as He was.

Because You have taken Your great power symbolizes the Divine omnipotence that the Lord possesses, and which He has possessed from eternity. Because You have entered Your kingdom means, symbolically, that heaven and the church are now His possession, as they were before. His kingdom means here the New Heaven and New Church, as described in Revelation 21 and 22.

The book of Revelation from beginning to end has as its sole subject the state of the previous heaven and church and their termination, and after that the New Heaven and New Church and their establishment, in which the people will acknowledge one God having the Trinity in Him, and that the Lord is that God. This is what the book of Revelation tells us from beginning to end; for it tells us that the Son of man, who is the Lord in respect to His Divine humanity, is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, who is, was and is to come, the Almighty (no. 522). And finally it tells us that the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, will be the Lamb's church, that is, a church belonging to the Lord's Divine humanity, thus at the same time to His Divinity from which all else springs, as is clearly apparent from the following verses:

Let us be glad and rejoice..., for the time for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. (Revelation 19:7)

One of the seven angels... came... and said to me..., "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he... showed me the... city, the holy Jerusalem... (Revelation 21:9-10)

I, Jesus... am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" (Revelation 22:16-17)

To (the Son of man) was given dominion and glory and a kingdom... His dominion is an everlasting dominion..., and His kingdom the one which shall not perish. (Daniel 7:14)