1. THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM REGARDING FAITH

Faith is an Internal Acknowledgment of Truth

Faith today is taken to mean no more than the thought that a thing is so because it is something the church teaches, and because it is not evident to the intellect. For we are told, "Believe and do not doubt." If we reply, "I do not understand," we are told that that is why it should be believed.

Faith today is therefore a faith in the unknown and may be termed a blind faith. Moreover, because it is one person’s assertion received by another, it is an inherited faith. We will see in what follows that that is not a spiritual faith.

“Faith” technically means “belief,” but it has taken on a thick layer of emotional import in the modern world, at least in terms of religion. Many people could happily entertain intellectual questions about what we believe to be true, but if those questions touch on our “faith” then they suddenly become an “attack.” We also use “faith” to describe the connection we can feel with God during emotionally charged worship services. This idea also filters through to secular uses: when we express “faith” that our favorite football team can win a game, that’s more of an emotional statement than an intellectual one.

One reason for that emotional content may be that Christian churches adopted the word “faith” to mean “accepting something as true even though it can’t be seen or understood.” For instance, the idea that God is one, divided into three persons without being divided. This defies reason, but Christians have long been called on to accept it as a “mystery of faith.” The idea that God the Father is completely loving, but that He requires the blood sacrifice and pleading of Jesus to let anyone into heaven is equally confounding, but is also an article of faith. Since it’s basically impossible to see the truth in these ideas from our minds, we have to simply believe them in our hearts, which makes them into emotional issues.

Swedenborg, however, uses “faith” in a more traditional sense, defining it as “an internal acknowledgement of truth.” That has some connection to the Christian concept of faith - it is truth seen and acknowledged, not necessarily truth that has been reasoned out and proven logically. But it’s not truth that defies logic; instead it is truth that is plain on its face.

Swedenborg is also clear that faith must include charity, or the desire and actual act of doing good to others, and that both act together to be complete. For us too, it is helpful to link faith with faithfulness, to God and to what we do. Swedenborg is consistently opposed to faith-alone: faith that lacks charity and good works.

For reference, and further reading, here are some key sections from Swedenborg's capstone theological work: True Christian Religion 337, 339, 344, 348, 355, 373, 393.

(Referenties: Teachings about Faith 27, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith 1, 4, 11, 13, 18, 24, 25)

355. V. Faith without charity is no faith, and charity without faith is no charity, and both are lifeless unless the Lord gives them life.

It is perfectly plain from the Epistles written by the Apostles that it never so much as entered the mind of any of them, that the present-day church would have separated faith from charity, alleging that faith alone without the deeds prescribed by the law justifies a person and saves him; and that as a result charity cannot be linked with faith, since faith comes from God, and charity, in so far as it is realised in deeds, comes from man. But this separation and division was introduced into the Christian church at the time when they split the one God into three persons, attributing to each equal divinity. It will be explained in the next section that there is no faith without charity, nor any charity without faith, and both are lifeless unless the Lord gives them life, Here to smooth the path I shall prove that:

(i) A person can acquire faith for himself;

(ii) also charity;

(iii) and a life of faith and charity.

(iv) But still faith, charity or life in either of them is not in the least created by man, but only by the Lord.