1. True Christianity

Containing a Comprehensive Theology of the New Heaven and the New Church

The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church

THE faith of the new heaven and the new church is stated here in both universal and specific forms to serve as the face of the work that follows, the doorway that allows entry into the temple, and the summary that in one way or another contains all the details to follow. I say "the faith of the new heaven and the new church" because heaven, where there are angels, and the church, in which there are people, act together like the inner and the outer levels in a human being. People in the church who love what is good because they believe what is true and who believe what is true because they love what is good are angels of heaven with regard to the inner levels of their minds. After death they come into heaven, and enjoy happiness there according to the relationship between their love and their faith. It is important to know that the new heaven that the Lord is establishing today has this faith as its face, doorway, and summary.

146. 3. In respect to the clergy, the divine actions and powerful effects meant by "the sending of the Holy Spirit" are the acts of enlightening and teaching. The actions of the Lord listed in the preceding point - reforming, regenerating, renewing, bringing to life, sanctifying, justifying, purifying, forgiving sins, and finally saving - flow from the Lord into both clergy and lay people. These actions are accepted by those who are in the Lord and in whom the Lord is (John 6:56; 14:20; 15:4-5).

In the case of the clergy, however, there are other actions of the Lord as well: enlightening and teaching. The reason is that for ministers, being enlightened and taught is a part of their jobs that comes with their inauguration into the ministry.

Also, when ministers preach with passion they believe they are inspired, just like the Lord's disciples on whom the Lord breathed and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22; see also what Mark 13:11 says). Some ministers even maintain that they have felt an inflow.

Ministers have to be very careful, though, not to convince themselves that the passion that comes over many of them when they preach is God at work in their hearts. The same level of passion and an even more ardent one is found in fanatics who believe they are divinely inspired, in people who have the falsest teachings, and even in people who see no value in the Word and worship nature as their god, who toss faith and goodwill into packs on their backs. When they preach and teach they hang these packs in front of their faces like some ruminatory stomach, squeezing and regurgitating out of them things they know will feed their listeners.

Passion in preaching is just an intensity in the earthly self. If passion has a love for truth inside it, then it is like the sacred fire that flowed into the apostles, about which it says in Acts:

There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one rested on each one of them. As a result they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. (Acts of the Apostles 2:3-4)

If, on the other hand, there is a love for falsity inside that passion or intensity, then it is like fire smoldering inside a piece of wood that bursts into flame and burns the house down.

You who deny that the Word is holy and the Lord divine, please take your pack off your back and open it (as you freely do when you are at home). You will see.

When they enter the church, and even more when they climb the stairs into the pulpit, I know that the people meant by Lucifer in Isaiah - the people of Babylon, especially those who named themselves the Society of Jesus - are overcome with passion. For many of them that passion comes from a hellish love. They raise their voices more vehemently and draw sighs from their chests more deeply than those whose passion comes from a heavenly love.

There are also two other spiritual actions of the Lord in members of the clergy; see 155 below.

101. 7. Through this process God became human and a human became God in one person. From all the previous sections in this chapter it follows that Jehovah God became human and a human became God in one person. It especially follows from two of those sections: "Jehovah, the Creator of the universe, came down and took on a human manifestation in order to redeem people and save them" (82-84); and "Through acts of redemption the Lord united himself to the Father and the Father united himself to him mutually and reciprocally" (97-100). From the reciprocal nature of that union it is obvious that God became human and a human became God in one person. The same thing also follows from the fact that their union was like the one between a soul and a body. This fits with the modern-day church's belief based on the Athanasian Creed (see 98 above). It also fits with the Lutheran belief expressed in the section called the Formula of Concord in the volumes containing the Lutheran orthodoxy. There it is strongly established from both Sacred Scripture and the church fathers, as well as through argumentation, that Christ's human nature was raised to divine majesty, omnipotence, and omnipresence; and that in Christ, God is human and a human is God; see pages 607 and 765. That section also offers convincing proof that the Word refers to Jehovah God's human manifestation as "Jehovah," "Jehovah God," "Jehovah Sabaoth," and "the God of Israel. "

Paul says, "All the fullness of divinity dwells physically in Jesus Christ" (Colossians 2:9). John says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20). We showed above (92-93 ) that the phrase "the Son of God" properly refers to his human manifestation. For another thing, Jehovah God calls both himself and his human aspect "Lord. " We read, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand" (Psalms 110:1). In Isaiah we read, "A Child is born to us, a Son is given to us, whose name is God, Father of Eternity" (Isaiah 9:6).

In David the word "Son" also refers to the Lord in his human manifestation: "I will announce a decision. Jehovah said, 'You are my Son. Today I fathered you. ' Kiss the Son or he will be angry and you will perish on the way" (Psalms 2:7, 12). This does not mean an eternally begotten Son; it means the Son born in the world. It is a prophecy of the Lord to come. That is why it is called a decision that Jehovah is announcing to David. In the same Psalm it says before that, "I have anointed my King over Zion" (Psalms 2:6); and afterward it says, "I will give him the nations as an inheritance" (Psalms 2:8). Therefore "today" in this passage means "in time," not "from eternity. " To Jehovah the future is present.