1. Survey of Teachings of the New Church Meant by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation

[Author’s Preface]

AFTER publishing, within the span of a few years, several larger and smaller works on the New Jerusalem (which means the new church that the Lord is going to establish), and after unveiling the Book of Revelation, I resolved to publish and bring to light the teachings of the [new] church in their fullness, and thus to present a body of teaching that was whole. But because this work was going to take several years, I developed a plan to publish an outline of it, to give people an initial, general picture of this church and its teachings. When a general overview precedes, all the details that follow, of however wide a range, stand forth in a clear light, because they each have their own place within the overall structure alongside things of the same type.

This briefing does not include detailed argumentation; it is shared as advance notice, because the points it contains will be fully demonstrated in the work itself.

First, however, I must present the teachings concerning justification as they exist today, in order to highlight the differences between the tenets of today’s church and those of the new church.

84. In Matthew we read the following:

Then the Son of Humankind will say to the goats on the left, “Depart from me, because I was hungry and you did not give me anything to eat. I was thirsty and you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in. I was naked and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” These will go away into everlasting punishment. (Matthew 25:41– 46)

It is very clear that the goats and the sheep mentioned here have the same meaning as the goat and the ram in Daniel. What evidence is there that “the goats” mean people who are devoted to the modern-day belief that faith is what justifies us? This point is made clear by the fact that the sheep are mentioned in connection with a list of actions that reflect goodwill, and they are said to have done these actions; then the goats are mentioned in connection with the same list of actions, but they are said not to have done them, and this is why they are condemned.

People who embrace the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us neglect to do good works, because they deny that good works have anything to do with our salvation or the church. When goodwill is laid aside, the good works that come from it slip our minds; we never even think of them or make any effort to remember them from the law of the Ten Commandments.

It is a general principle of religious practice that if we are not willing and doing good actions, then we are willing and doing evil actions. The opposite is also true: if we are not willing and doing evil actions, then we are willing and doing good actions. “The goats” are the people who take the first approach just mentioned. “The sheep” are the people who take the second approach.

If “the goats” in that passage had meant everyone who is evil, the list would have covered the evil things they had done; instead it lists the acts of goodwill that they did not do.

8. Faith comes to us through hearing, when we believe that the teachings divinely revealed to us are true and when we trust in God’s promises. Faith is the beginning of human salvation, and the foundation and root of all justification. Without faith, it is impossible to please God and to come into the company of his children. Our justification takes place through faith, hope, and goodwill. Unless hope and goodwill are added to faith, it is dead rather than living and does not unite us to Christ.

We need to cooperate in this process. We have the power to move either closer to or farther away from [Christ]; if we did not, nothing could be granted to us, because we would be like a lifeless body.

Our openness to being justified renews us; this renewal takes place as Christ’s merit is applied to us, as the result of our own cooperation. Therefore we get credit for the works that we do; yet because they are done as a result of grace and through the Holy Spirit, and because Christ alone has earned merit, the rewards God gives us are his own gifts within us. Therefore none of us can attribute anything of merit to ourselves.