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.

55. Surely anyone with any wisdom can see that ideas like these only become part of our memory; they do not become part of our higher understanding, even though they can be supported by reasoning based on appearances and mistaken impressions from below the intellect.

There are two kinds of light that shine in the human intellect: one from heaven, and the other from the world. The light from heaven, which is spiritual in nature, flows into human minds at a level above the memory. Light from the world, which is earthly in nature, flows in at a level below the memory. As I have shown in the memorable occurrence that appears in §233 of my recently published work Marriage Love, in light from the world we can support whatever concepts we like. False concepts are as easy to support as true ones; and after we have given them support, we see false ideas as completely true.