The concept of a "church" in the Writings is both complex and beautifully organic, linked with teachings on the nature of the Lord and the resulting nature of mankind.

The Writings say that the Lord, in His essence - His actual substance - is perfect, infinite love, a love that powered creation, that is the ultimate source of reality, and that sustains reality constantly. That love is expressed in form as perfect, infinite wisdom, which gave form to creation and gives form to reality.

Deep stuff! You can read more about that elsewhere, but what matters here is that all of creation, from the smallest elements to the whole of the universe, reflects that same structure. It's present in nature itself, powered by the heat (love) and light (wisdom) of the sun. It's present in the essential forms of life, with plants (which are rooted; which change little; which are unfeeling; which are powered by light) representing elements of wisdom and animals (warm, feeling, mobile, ever-changing, powered by heat) representing forms of love. It's present in the near-universal division into male (wisdom) and female (love) aspects of plants and animals alike.

That structure is also in each of us. In common language we might call these our hearts and our minds - what we want and what we think. The Writings commonly talk of them as good (love; what we want in our hearts) and truth (wisdom; what we know in our minds) or as will (heart) and understanding (mind). Not only do these elements define us, they are also key to our spiritual fates. We can use them to accept the Lord's love, come into the good of life and ultimately go to heaven. We can also use them to reject the Lord's love and trot off to hell.

And there are further layers. The Writings say that all human societies are in human form, with functions analogous to the human body. This is true from small groups like families to large companies to entire nations and ultimately to both the entire human race in this world and the entirety of heaven in the next.

Among the most important human societies are, naturally, churches. Since the concept of a "church" is based on the human form, though, churches as referred to in the Writings can take many forms. At one end of the scale, any one person who has true ideas of right and wrong and lives by them is a church himself or herself. At the other end of the scale, all those in the whole world who believe in love of the neighbor – and act from that belief – collectively make up one church.

Many other varieties lie between those two extremes, but most references to "church" in the Writings mean the community of those who have the Word, know the Lord, and follow His commandments. These people have access to the best possible truth and deepest possible understanding about the nature of the Lord and what He wants from us.

Such a church plays a vital role: The Lord works through it to get ideas about being good into people's minds and the desire to be good into the inner recesses of their hearts, reaching far beyond that church itself to touch everyone in the world. In fact, the Writings say there is in essence a marriage between the Lord and the church, with the church in the role of the bride and wife, producing true ideas and good desires the way a wife produces children.

To protect this function, the Lord has made sure that throughout history (and a good bit of prehistory) there has always been a church filling this role.

The first of these was the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam; it was inspired by love of the Lord. The second was the Ancient Church, represented by Noah; it was inspired by love of the neighbor and knowledge of the Lord. The third was the Israelitish Church, which had no interior love of good but preserved ideas of the Lord. The fourth was the primitive Christian church, which had a new, more direct understanding based on the Lord's teachings. The fifth, according to the Writings, is to be based on the deeper understanding offered through the Writings and their explanations of the Bible.

There is much more that could be said, but we'll just emphasize one other point:

We as individuals are who we are based on what we love, not what we know. We will go to heaven or to hell based on what we love, not what we know. Knowing, thinking and seeking truth are important things, but their purpose is to shape, guide and serve our loves; love is ultimately what matters. The Writings make it abundantly and repeatedly clear that it is the same with churches: They are ultimately based on love, not knowledge, on their determination to serve the neighbor, not their external forms of worship. And if churches share that common purpose of serving the neighbor then they are in essence one, with doctrinal variations being of little consequence.

(Референце: Apocalypse Revealed 533; Arcana Coelestia 407, 768, 1799 [3-4], 2048, 2853 [2-3], 2910, 2982, 3310, 3773, 3963 [2], 4292, 4672, 4723, 5826 [2-3], 6637, 6648, 8152, 9256 [4-5], 9276 [2]; Conjugial Love 116; Heaven and Hell 57; The Word 8; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 99, 104)

57. We can say the same of the church as we have of heaven, since the church is the Lord's heaven on earth. It also has many components, and yet each is called a church and is a church to the extent that the qualities of love and faith rule within it. In it, the Lord forms a single whole out of the varied elements, and therefore makes a single church out of many churches. ¹

Much the same can be said of the individual member of the church as has been said about the church in general, namely that the church is within and not outside, and that anyone is a church in whom the Lord is present in the qualities of love and faith. ²

Much the same can be said of the individual who has the church within as has been said about the angel who has heaven within, that such an individual is a church in least form as the angel is a heaven in least form. Even more, we can say that the individual who has the church within is a heaven just as much as an angel is, for we have been created to enter heaven and become angels. So anyone who has the quality of goodness from the Lord is an angel-person. ³

It is worth noting what we have in common with angels and what we possess that they lack. We have in common with angels the fact that our deeper levels are formed in the image of heaven and that we also become images of heaven to the extent that we participate in the qualities of love and faith. What we have that angels lack is that our more outward levels are formed in the image of this world; and that to the extent that we are engaged in what is good, the world within us is subordinated to heaven and serves it; ⁴ and that then the Lord is present with us on both levels as he is in his heaven. He is actually present on both levels in his divine order, for God is order. ⁵

Фусноте:

1983. Evil spirits have a strong and burning desire to molest and attack man when he is asleep, but at that time man is especially protected by the Lord, for love does not sleep. Spirits who molest are punished piteously. I have heard their punishments more often than I can repeat. These involve being torn apart, as described in 829, 957, 959, which is carried out below the heel of the left foot, lasting sometimes for hours on end. Sirens, who inwardly are witches, are those who especially lie in wait in the night, and then try to worm their way into a person's inward thoughts and affections. But as often as they try to do so they are foiled by angels from the Lord and at length are deterred by means of very drastic punishments. 'These sirens have also spoken to others in the night, when they have impersonated me so perfectly and imitated my speaking so accurately that no one could tell the difference, and in so doing have poured in filthy thoughts and suggested ideas that were false.

[2] I was once sleeping very soundly, in an altogether sweet repose. When I awoke certain good spirits began to accuse me of having molested them, so violently, they said, that they thought they had been in hell; they put the blame on me. I answered them that I knew nothing whatever about the matter, but that I had been fast asleep and therefore could not possibly have been the one to molest them. At this they were dumbfounded and at length realized that those sirens had been up to their tricks. Something similar was also demonstrated to me after that so that I might know what that band of sirens is like.

[3] These sirens are mainly females, who during their lifetime have studied how to attract male companions to themselves by interior devices - by worming their way in through external allurements, by captivating the baser mental instincts in all sorts of ways, by penetrating into each one's affections and delights, but with an evil motive, namely that of manipulating. Their nature is such in the next life therefore that they seem to be able of themselves to do anything. They take in from others and think up for themselves different devices which they absorb with ease like sponges soaking up water, filthy or clean alike. They accordingly soak up and practice what is profane as well as what is holy with the intent, as stated, of manipulating. I have been allowed to perceive how foul they are inwardly, polluted by adultery and hatred. I have also been given to perceive how overpowering their sphere is. These sirens force their own interior thought and feelings into a state of persuasion, so that these may go hand in glove with their exterior thought and feelings towards the things they intend. In this way sirens compel and lead spirits to think as they themselves do.

[4] No reasonings are in evidence among them, and yet they employ a whole mass of reasonings that are breathed into people's evil affections by applying themselves to those persons' natural instincts. In this way they gain entry into the baser parts of the minds of others whom they lead on and by persuasion either overwhelm or captivate. There is nothing they study more than how to destroy conscience, and when they have destroyed it gain possession of people interiorly and even obsess them, though the individual is not conscious of it. Nowadays external obsession is not allowed as it once was in former times, but internal possession by spirits such as these does take place. People who are devoid of conscience are obsessed in this way. The interior aspects of their thought are insane in a very similar way, but those aspects are concealed by and covered with an outward propriety and presence of honesty displayed for the sake of personal position, wealth, and reputation. This they can even recognize for themselves if they pay any attention to what they think.