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.

103. Brief Analysis

The reason why there is no way to simultaneously hold the views of the new church and the views of the former church (that is, the modern-day church) regarding faith is that the two positions do not overlap by a third or even a tenth.

In Revelation 12 the faith of the former church is portrayed as a dragon (see §§87– 90 above) and the faith of the new church is portrayed as a woman clothed with the sun, who had a crown of twelve stars on her head. The dragon persecuted her and spewed water like a flood at her in an effort to carry her away by it. These two views cannot coexist in the same city, much less in the same household or the same mind. If they were to come together, the only possible outcome would be that the woman would be constantly exposed to rage and insanity from the dragon, and would constantly fear that the dragon would devour her son. After all, we read in Revelation 12 that the dragon stood before the woman, when she was about to give birth, in order to devour her child. After the woman gave birth, she fled into the wilderness (Revelation 12:1, 4, 6, 14– 17).

The faith held by the former church is a faith of the night; human reason has no experience of it at all. This is why we are told that we are to hold our intellect under obedience to faith. In fact, we do not even know whether it is within us or outside of us. The human will and human reason have nothing to do with it.

For that matter, goodwill, good works, repentance, the law of the Ten Commandments, and a number of other things that actually exist in the human mind have nothing to do with it (see §§79, 80, 96, 97, 98). The faith of the new church, however, forms a partnership and a marriage covenant with all the things just mentioned. As a result, this faith lives in the warmth of heaven; and because it does, it also lives in heaven’s light. It is a faith of the light.

A faith of the night and a faith of the light cannot live together any more than an owl and a dove can live together in one nest. The owl would lay its eggs there, and the dove would lay its eggs. After incubation, both sets of chicks would hatch, and then the owl would tear apart the dove’s chicks and feed them to its chicks. (Owls are voracious.)

The faith of the former church cannot live with the faith of the new church because the two are completely incompatible. The faith of the former church is descended from the idea that there are three gods (see §§30– 38 above); the faith of the new church, though, is descended from the idea that there is one God. And because the two are completely incompatible as a result, it is inevitable that if they lived together in us they would collide and cause so much conflict that everything related to the church would be destroyed in us. We would fall into such a state of spiritual madness or else spiritual unconsciousness that we would hardly know what the church was or whether such a thing even existed.

Consequently, people who are deeply committed to the faith of the old church are incapable of embracing the faith of the new church without endangering their own spiritual lives, unless they have first rejected the teachings of the former faith one by one and have uprooted that former faith along with all its live offspring and unhatched eggs (meaning tenets). What these tenets are like has been shown earlier in this work, especially in §§64– 69.

44. Brief Analysis

The proposition just stated is the faith of the new church in a simple form. This faith can be seen in fuller detail in the appendix to this volume [§§116– 117], and in complete detail in the first part of the work itself. That first part will present teachings concerning the Lord God the Savior and the trinity that exists within him; about love for God and love for our neighbor; and about faith and its partnership with these two loves. This faith will also be covered point by point in the rest of the work. Here, however, it is important to present at least a few items of support to illustrate this preliminary statement of the faith.

The following are a few arguments and passages to support the first point in the proposition — that there is one God, that the divine trinity exists within him, and that he is the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a fixed and constant truth that there is one God, that his essence is indivisible, and that there is a trinity. Given that there is one God and that his essence is indivisible, it follows that God is one person. And since he is one person, it follows that the trinity exists within that one person.

It is clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is God; he was conceived by God the Father (Luke 1:34, 35), and therefore God is the soul and the life within him. As he himself has said, the Father and he are one (John 10:30); he is in the Father and the Father is in him (John 14:10, 11); anyone who sees and knows him sees and knows the Father (John 14:7, 9); no one sees or knows the Father except the one who is close to the Father’s heart (John 1:18); all things that the Father has are his (John 3:35; 16:15); and he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). (So we come to the Father by him because the Father is in him and is him.)

Paul says that all the fullness of divinity dwells physically in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9). Isaiah says, “A Child has been born to us; a Son has been given to us. His name will be called God, Father of Eternity” (Isaiah 9:6). Furthermore, he has power over all flesh (John 17:2) and has all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). From these quotations it is clear that he is the God of heaven and earth.

The second point in the proposition — that believing in him is a faith that saves — is supported by the following passages.

Jesus said, “Anyone who believes in me will live and will never die.” (John 11:25, 26)

This is the will of the Father, that all those who believe in the Son will have eternal life. (John 6:40)

God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish but would have eternal life. (John 3:15, 16)

Those who believe in the Son have eternal life. Those who do not believe in the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God abides on them. (John 3:36)

As for the remaining three points in the proposition — that we must abstain from doing things that are evil because they belong to the Devil and come from the Devil; we must do things that are good because they belong to God and come from God; but we must believe that this abstaining and doing come from the Lord working with us and through us — there is no need to illustrate or demonstrate these points. The entirety of Sacred Scripture from beginning to end supports them. Briefly put, the Word teaches nothing else but that we should abstain from things that are evil, do things that are good, and believe in the Lord God.

There is no such thing as a religious practice that lacks these three elements. Religious practice has to do with life; life is abstaining from things that are evil and doing things that are good; and none of us can abstain from evil or do good without the help of the Lord. Therefore if you remove these three from the church, you are removing both Sacred Scripture and religious practice from the church, and once these are removed, the church is no longer a church.

For the faith of the new church in a universal form and a specific form, see §§116, 117 below.

All these points will be demonstrated in the work itself.