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.

(Mga Sanggunian: 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)

6637. 'These are the names of the children of Israel' means the essential nature of the Church. This is clear from the meaning of' the name as the essential nature, dealt with in 144, 145, 1754, 1896, 2009, 2628, 2724, 3006, 3421; from the representation of 'the sons of Israel' as spiritual truths, dealt with in 5414, 5879, 5951; and from the representation of 'Israel' as the good of truth, which is spiritual good, dealt with in 3654, 4598, 5803, 5806, 5812, 5817, 5819, 5826, 5833. Since Israel' represents the good of truth or spiritual good and 'his sons' represent spiritual truths in the natural, 'the sons of Israel' also represent the Church, for what makes it the Church is spiritual good and the truths that spring from that good. A person without spiritual good, that is, the good of charity, and without spiritual truths, that is, the truths of faith, does not belong to the Church in spite of having been born within the Church. The whole of the Lord's heavenly kingdom possesses the good of love and faith, and unless the Church possesses good like that it cannot be the Church since it is not joined to heaven; for the Church is the Lord's kingdom on earth.

[2] The term 'Church' is not used because it is the place where the Word is and teachings drawn from it, or because it is where the Lord is known and the sacraments are celebrated. Rather it is the Church because it lives in accordance with the Word or with teachings drawn from the Word, and seeks to make those teachings its rule of life. People who do not live like this do not belong to the Church but are outside it; and those who lead wicked lives, thus lives contrary to that teaching, are further away outside the Church than gentiles who know nothing whatever about the Word, the Lord, or the sacraments. For since those people are acquainted with the forms of good that the Church fosters and with the truths it teaches they annihilate the Church within themselves, something gentiles cannot do because they are unacquainted with those things. It should also be realized that everyone who leads a good life, in charity and faith, is a Church, and is a kingdom of the Lord. He is for that reason also called a temple, and a house of God too. Those who are Churches individually, no matter how remote from one another they may be, constitute one Church collectively. This then is the Church meant by the expression 'the children of Israel' here and in what follows.

4868. 'And said, Allow me now to come [in] to you' means a lustful desire to be connected with it. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming (or going in) to someone' as being joined to, dealt with in 4820. The meaning here - a lustful desire like that involved in connection with a prostitute, by whom falsity is meant in the internal sense - is self-evident. For the Jewish nation, meant here by 'Judah', 4815, 4842, 4864, looked on the internal truth of the representative Church, and still looks on it at the present day, as nothing else than falsity, see above in 4865. Dealt with here is the fact that it nevertheless linked itself to that truth, not however as a wife but as a prostitute; that is, it did not link itself to it as truth but as falsity. The expression 'a lustful desire' is used to describe a link with falsity that is like a connection with a prostitute.

[2] All who believe solely the external sense of the Word, that is, its literal sense, and completely cast aside the whole internal - that is, spiritual - sense link themselves to internal truth as to a prostitute. This is above all the case among those who employ the external or literal sense of the Word to lend support to the desires that belong to their self-love and love of the world, that is, the desires for rule and gain. Those who behave like this cannot do other than look on internal truth in that kind of way; and if they attach themselves to it they do so with a lustful desire, like that for connection with a prostitute. Members of the Jewish nation in particular do this, and so also do those meant in the Word by Babel. But those people are different who do, it is true, have a simple belief in the literal sense of the Word, yet lead lives in keeping with what is contained in the internal sense. That is to say, they are people with whom love and charity exist, and also faith derived from these (for these three are the subject in the internal sense of the Word); also they are people who base their teachings on these. For the internal sense and the external sense come together in the two commandments, to love the Lord above all things and one's neighbour as oneself.

[3] Let some examples show that the Jewish nation regards internal truth as a prostitute, and that if it associates itself with that truth it does so from a lustful desire akin to that for a connection with that kind of woman. If, for example, they are told that the Word is holy, indeed most holy, and also that every part of a letter there is holy, they acknowledge and associate themselves with what is said; yet they do so from that kind of lustful desire. For they believe that holiness lies within the actual letter of the Word and not that holiness is something which enters by means of the Word when people with an affection for what is good and true read it.

[4] If they are told that many of those mentioned in the Word are to be revered as holy ones - such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, or David - they acknowledge and associate themselves with this. But they do so from a like lustful desire, for they believe that these historical figures were chosen in preference to others and are on that account holy ones, who ought therefore to be worshipped as gods. Any holiness attached to these figures however is due solely to the fact that they represented the Lord. No one by being a holy representative undergoes a change of personality; indeed one can go further and say that without exception everyone's life after death is the same as before it.

[5] If they are told that the ark among them, the temple, the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense, the bread on the table, the lampstand with its lamps, the continual fire, the sacrifices, the incense, the oil, and also Aaron's vestments, especially the breastplate with the urim and thummim on it, were holy, they acknowledge this and associate themselves with it, but from the same kind of lustful desire. For they believe that all these objects were inherently holy, thus that wood, stone, gold, silver, bread, and fire were so; they believe that they had holiness in them because Jehovah was within them. That is to say, they believe that the holiness of Jehovah which was attached to these objects resided in actual fact within them. This is their internal truth, which however is falsity when compared with genuine truth; for holiness exists solely within good and truth which, being from the Lord, reside within love to Him and love towards the neighbour, and from these within faith. It accordingly exists only within the living, that is, within those who accept these gifts from the Lord.

[6] If they are told that the Christian Church is one with the Church that was established among them but that the Christian was internal whereas theirs was external, so that when the external features of the Church established among them are peeled away and it is laid bare, the Christian Church is seen, they do not acknowledge this truth as anything else than a harlot, that is, as something false. Nevertheless many of them who are converted from Judaism to Christianity associate themselves with this truth; but they do so from a lustful desire. Many times in the Word these kinds of things are called acts of whoredom. As regards those however who are meant in the Word by 'Babylon', they likewise look in a similar way on the internal truths of the Church; yet because they have a knowledge of internal things, and in addition acknowledge these during childhood but in adult life refuse to do so, they are described in the Word by means of foul acts of adultery and unmentionable sexual unions; for they are forms of profanation.