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.

47. 10 The faith taught by the modern-day church is incapable of being united to acts of goodwill; it is incapable of producing any fruit in the form of good works.

56. To this I will add the following secret from heaven. Depending on how much support and reinforcement we have given the absurd teachings mentioned above, they all stay together in our minds as if they were woven into a single bundle or glued to form one big lump. They all at the same time become part of any individual pronouncement of a teaching of the church. For example, when “faith” is mentioned, or “goodwill,” or “repentance,” and even more so if “the assigning of Christ’s merit” is mentioned, or “the process of being made just,” all the other teachings are present as well. The person making the statement does not see that heap or conglomeration of ideas, but the angels who are with the person do see it. They call it malua, that is, confusion and darkness.