654. The above process, then, as churches today know, is to gain faith through hearing. 1 But faith is decidedly not a knowledge of faith's tenets, a knowledge of what should be believed; such knowledge is mere book learning. Faith is acknowledgment. What is more, acknowledgment is impossible to anyone who lacks the most important element of faith, which is charity — that is, love for others and mercy. Where charity exists, acknowledgment exists, which is to say, faith exists. Anyone who imagines otherwise is as far from understanding what faith is as the earth is from heaven. When charity (the goodness belonging to faith) is present, acknowledgment (the truth belonging to faith) is present.
Consequently, the purpose of our rebirth through matters of fact, reason, and understanding is to prepare the soil of our minds to receive charity. Charity — or rather the living out of charity — then forms the basis of thought and action. At that point we are reformed or reborn, and not before.
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg is probably alluding here to Romans 10:17. In Swedenborg's works, this type of locution ("as churches today know") often, though not invariably, seems to be an indirect reference to the Epistles of Paul. See, for example, Secrets of Heaven 1563:1, 4286:1 (references to such passages as 2 Corinthians 4:16; Romans 2:28-29); Secrets of Heaven 1659:2 (a reference to Hebrews 5:9-10, among others); Marriage Love 426 (a reference to Romans 7:22-23). Contrast, however, True Christianity 104 and Divine Providence 150:1, which use a similar locution but quote books other than the Epistles in support of their points. [SS, LSW, LHC]
