1. THE PRECEPTS OF THE DECALOGUE ¹

After the The Last Judgment had been completed, a New Church meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation was promised.

1. Explain the whole of chapter 21. Then chapter 22:1-5.

2. Elsewhere in the Word, Jerusalem means the Church, as in the following places: ²

Isaiah 1:1, 4:4, 9:1.

2:2, 3:8, 5:3, 7:1, 10:10-12, 32, 22:10, 31:5, 33:20, 36:2, 7, 20, 37:10, 32, 40:2, 41:27, 44:26, 28, 52:1-2, 9, 62:1, 7, 64:10, 65:18, 66:10, 20.

27:13, 30:19.

2:3, 3:1.

4:3, 24:23, 28:14, 31:9, 65:19, 66:13.

5:3, 7:14, 22:21.

11:9, 51:17, 52:1-2, 62:6.

Daughter of Jerusalem: Lamentations 2:13, 15, Micah 4:8, Zephaniah 3:14, Zechariah 9:9.

Jeremiah 1:3, 15, 2:2, 3:17, 4:3, 10-11, 5:1, 6:1, 7:17, 34, 8:5, 9:11, 11:6, 13, 13:9, 14:2, 16, 17:19, 21, 26, 27, 19:7, 13, 22:19, 23:14, 15, 25:18, 26:18, 27:3, 20, 21, 31:2, 32:2, 44, 33:10, 13, 16, 34:19, 35:11, 36:9, 37:5, 12, 38:28, 39:8, 40:1, 44:2, 6, 9, 13, 17, 21, 51:50, 52:12, 13, 14.

4:16, 6:6, 34:1, 7, 19, 3:4.

27:18, 29:25, 34:8, 35:11.

24:1, 27:20, 29:1, 2, 4, 20.

4:5, 15:4, 34:6, 3:1, 3.

4:4, 8:1, 11:2, 9, 12-13, 13:13, 17:20, 25, 18:11, 19:3, 25:2, 32:32, 35:13, 17, 42:18.

4:14, 6:8, 13:27, 15:5, 52:29.

Lamentations 1:7, 8, 17, 2:10, 4:12.

Ezekiel 4:1, 7, 5:5, 8:3, 9:4, 8, 13:16, 14:22, 16:2-3, 17:12, 21:2, 20, 22, 22:19, 23:4, 33:21, 36:38.

24:2, 26:2.

4:16, 12:10.

11:15, 12:19, 15:6.

Daniel 1:1, 6:10, 9:2, 12, 16, 25.

5:2, 3, 9:7.Joel 3:1, 6, 16-17, 20.

Amos 2:5.

Obadiah 1:11, 20.

Micah 1:1, 5, 9, 12, 3:10, 12, 4:2.

Zechariah 1:12, 14, 16-17, 19, 2:2, 4, 12, 3:2, 7:7, 8:3-4, 8, 15, 12:2-3, 6, 14:4, 10-11, 17.

12:2, 9, 14:2, 12, 16.

14:8, 14, 9:10.

8:20, 12:6, 11, 14:21, 12:5, 7-8, 10, 13:1.

Malachi 3:4, 2:11.

Zephaniah 1:4, 12, 3:16.

Psalms 51:18, 79:1, 3, 122:3, 6, 125:2, 128:5, 137:6, 7, 147:12.

68:29, 135:21.

102:21, 116:19, 122:2, 137:5, 147:12.

3. Something about those matters which come before this in the Revelation - such as the dragon, the scarlet beast, and the destruction of them.

4. About the The Last Judgment. Already described, it is to be described further.

5. Why a New Church is established when the The Last Judgment has been completed.

6. Not before, to prevent holy things from being profaned.

7. It was promised at that time that the spiritual sense of the Word was to be disclosed; the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord alone is the Word.

8. About His Coming at that time.

9. Therefore heaven has been opened to me.

II. It is now the end of the Church, and at the present time there are few that have any religion.

1. That the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord is the only God Who rules heaven and earth, and therefore that God is One as to His person and essence, in Whom is the Trinity, is unknown; yet all religion is based upon knowledge of God, and upon the adoration and worship of Him.

2. That faith is nothing else but truth is unknown, nor is it known whether that which men call faith is the truth or not; take certain things from the small work ³ concerning the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.

Say what the faith of the present day is... then the degrees of justification; whether they are truths can be determined from what follows.

If this is indeed faith, there is no need of truths, nor of charity, nor even of any knowledge of them.

What charity is, is unknown.

Neither are evil and good known.

III. After death every man is still a man; he is then what his love is; and his love is that life which awaits everyone for ever.

1. Everybody is examined after death to reveal the nature of his love.

2. Every spirit is what his affection is.

3. The whole of heaven is divided into societies according to the variety in affections found there, and the whole of hell according to the variety in lusts.

4. The nature of man's affection and that of his thought are alike.

IV. The devil dwells with man in the evil, and the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord in the good, things of his life.

V. Shunning evils is doing good, and this is religion itself.

1. Some things about combats and temptations.

2. Shunning evils involves nothing less than putting the devil to flight; in as much as a man does this, he is conjoined to the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord and heaven is opened, and that for so long as he is not in hell.

VI. The man who is shunning evils because they are sins has faith; and the limits he reaches in shunning evils determines the amount of faith he has.

Some truths have to do with faith, others with life; in so far as the truths that have to do with life become part of one's life, truths that have to do with faith become part of one's faith, no more and no less.

Enumerate the truths that have to do with faith, which are otherwise matters of knowledge and are not faith.

About the Anglican Exhortation ⁴ before the Holy Supper, and also that of the Swedes: then from 'Impediments or Stumbling blocks of the Impenitent'. ⁵

Therefore there are two tables, and they are called a Covenant; in so far as one is done by man the second is laid open.

VII. The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue sum up all things of religion.

1. Further matters about the holiness of the Decalogue.

RECAPITULATION

A recapitulation on the seven articles; nobody can deny that they are religion itself.

Footnotes:

258. 5. Strict materialists justify their rejection of divine providence when they see that there are some professing Christians who place salvation in particular words that they think about and say, and attach no value to the good things that they do. I have explained in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Faith that this is what people are like who make nothing but faith the basis of salvation, not a caring life, and especially who separate faith from charity. I also noted there [Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Faith 44-68] that these people are meant in the Word by the Philistines, the dragon, and goats.

[2] The reason a teaching like this is permitted under divine providence is to prevent the profanation of the divine nature of the Lord and the holy nature of the Word. The Lord's divine nature is not profaned when salvation is thought to consist of saying, "May God the Father have mercy for the sake of his Son who suffered the cross and made satisfaction for us," because this is addressing not the divine nature of the Lord but his human nature, without believing that it is divine. There is no profanation of the Word, either, because no attention is paid to the passages that speak of love, caring, doing, and works. They say that all of these are included in their statement of faith. People who advocate this belief say to themselves, "Since the law does not condemn me, neither does evil; and since any good that I myself do is not good, that does not save me." So they are like people who do not know anything true from the Word, which means that they cannot profane it.

However, the only people who really advocate this belief are the ones who are caught up in pride in their own intellect because of their self-love. At heart, they are not even Christians, though they want to appear to be.

I need now to explain that the Lord's divine providence is constantly at work to save people for whom faith separated from charity has become a theological principle.

[3] Under the Lord's divine providence, even though this kind of faith has become a theological tenet, everyone knows that this kind of faith does not bring salvation. Salvation requires a caring life in which faith participates. All the churches where this theology is accepted teach that there is no salvation unless we examine ourselves, see our sins, admit them, repent, and refrain from the sins and begin a new life. This is the urgent preface read to all who come to the Holy Supper, together with the statement that unless they do so, they mingle the sacred and the profane and consign themselves to eternal damnation. In England they even say that unless they do so the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas and destroy them, soul and body alike. We can see from this that everyone in churches where faith alone is accepted is still taught that we should abstain from evils as sins.

[4] Not only that, everyone who is born Christian knows that we are to abstain from evils as sins, because the Ten Commandments are placed in the hand of every boy and every girl and taught them by their parents and teachers. Further, all the citizens of the realm, especially commoners, are questioned by priests as to their knowledge of Christian theology solely on the basis of their recitation of the Ten Commandments from memory and warned that they should do what the Commandments say. At such times, the religious authority never tells them that they are not under the yoke of this law or that they cannot obey it because they cannot do anything good on their own.

The Athanasian Creed is accepted throughout Christendom, and people believe what it says at the end, that the Lord is going to come to judge the living and the dead and that then those who have done what is good will enter into eternal life and those who have done what is evil will enter into eternal fire.

[5] In Sweden, where a theology of faith alone is accepted, it is clearly taught that there is no such thing as faith separated from charity or from good actions. We find this in an "Added Reminder" inserted in all Psalters under the title "Obotfertigas foerhinder," or "Obstacles or Obstructions to the Impenitent." It says there, "People who are rich in good actions thereby show that they are rich in faith, because when faith is a saving faith, it works through charity. There is no faith that justifies us by itself, apart from good actions, just as there is no good tree without good fruit, no sun without light and warmth, no water without moisture."

[6] I include these few things to show that even though a theology of faith alone may be accepted, the good effects of our caring are taught everywhere--that is, good actions. This happens under the Lord's divine providence so that the common people will not be led astray by this faith.

I have heard Luther (having talked with him several times in the spiritual world) totally disclaiming faith alone. He has said that when he decreed faith alone, an angel of the Lord warned him not to. However, he thought to himself that if he did not reject works, there could be no separation from Catholic theology, so in spite of the warning he insisted on it.