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.

23. The Council of Trent has the following to say in regard to the faith that makes us just: The perpetual consent of the Catholic Church has been that 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; see §5 a above. The same document also says that faith comes from hearing the Word of God; see §§4 d, [8].

As you can fully see from statements given above in §§4, 5, 7, and 8, that Roman Catholic council united faith and goodwill or faith and good works. The Protestant churches, named for the founders mentioned above, separated faith and goodwill or good works, however, and declared that the ingredient that actually saves us is faith and not goodwill or good works; they separated the two so as to differentiate themselves from Roman Catholics with regard to goodwill and faith, since these two are the essential characteristics of the church. I have heard this assertion a number of times from the founders of the Protestant churches themselves.

I have also heard from them that they reinforced this separation [of faith and goodwill] with arguments such as the following: On our own, none of us can do the type of good things that contribute to our salvation; we cannot fulfill the law either. They also separated faith and goodwill to prevent our own sense of merit (which arises from doing good works) from becoming part of our faith.

From the statements presented from the Formula of Concord in §12 above it is clear that the points just made were the origins and purposes behind the Protestant denial that good actions and goodwill play any role in our acquisition of faith and therefore of salvation. The following are among the statements presented there: Faith actually does not make us just if it has been formed through acts of goodwill, although Catholics say it does; see §12 b. For many reasons we must reject the proposition that good works are necessary for our salvation. One reason is that Papists adopted these views in support of a bad cause; see §12 h. People ought to reject the decree of the Council of Trent [and whatever else is used to support the opinion] that our good works preserve and maintain our salvation and faith; see §12 m. Not to mention many other such statements in the Formula of Concord.

In the following sections [§§24– 27] you will see that Protestants do in fact unite faith and goodwill and attribute to them a shared power to save; the only difference between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic views concerns how our good works come into existence.

5. Concerning faith, goodwill, good works, and rewards:

(a) When the apostle says that we are justified by faith and we are justified freely [Romans 3:24, 28], these words are to be understood in the sense that the perpetual consent of the Catholic Church has held and expressed: namely, that we are said to be justified by faith because 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. We are said to be justified freely because none of the things that precede justification — whether faith or works — merit the grace itself of justification. If it is by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace would not be grace (Session 6, chapter 8).

(b) Although no one can be just except those with whom the rewards for the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ are shared, this does in fact happen in the process of justification, when by the merit of that same most holy suffering, the goodwill of God is poured forth by the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who are justified, and becomes inherent in them. As a result, as we are justified and our sins are forgiven, we receive all these [gifts] infused at once through Jesus Christ, onto whom we are grafted through faith, hope, and goodwill. Unless goodwill is added to it, faith does not unite us perfectly with Christ, and does not make us a living member of his body (Session 6, chapter 7, §3).

(c) Christ is not only a redeemer in whom we are to trust but also a legislator whom we are to obey (Session 6, chapter 16, canon 21).

(d) Faith without works is dead and profitless, because in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith that works through goodwill. Faith without hope and goodwill cannot bestow everlasting life. As a result, we immediately hear these words of Christ: “If you will enter into life, keep the commandments.” Therefore, when receiving true and Christian justice, we are told, immediately upon being born again, to preserve it pure and spotless, as the first robe given us through Jesus Christ in lieu of the robe that Adam, by his disobedience, lost for himself and for us, so that we may bear it before the judgment-seat of our Lord Jesus Christ and have life everlasting (Session 6, chapter 7, §4).

(e) As the head into the members and the vine into the branches, Jesus Christ himself continually infuses his virtue into those who have been justified. This virtue always precedes and accompanies and follows our good works; without it they could not in any way be pleasing or meritorious before God. Therefore we must believe that for the justified nothing further is lacking that would in any way diminish their being considered, by the works they have done in God, as deserving of eternal life in due time (Session 6, chapter 16).

(f) Our own justice is therefore not established as our own, as from ourselves; for the justice that is called ours actually belongs to God, because it is infused into us by God through the merit of Christ. Nevertheless God forbid that Christians should either trust or glory in themselves and not in the Lord, whose bounty toward all is so great that he wants things that are his own gifts to be their rewards (Session 6, chapter 16).

(g) We can do nothing of ourselves, as of ourselves; but with the cooperation of him who strengthens us, we can do all things. Therefore we have nothing in which to glory; all our glory is in Christ in whom we live, by whom we merit, and by whom we make satisfaction, bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance, which have their efficacy from him, are offered to the Father by him, and are accepted by the Father through him (Session 14, chapter 8).

(h) If any say that we can be justified before God by our own works (whether done through the power of our own human nature or through following the teaching of the law) without the grace of God through Jesus Christ, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 1).

(i) If any say that without previous inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and without his help, we can believe, hope, or love [that is, have faith, hope, or goodwill] as we ought, so that the grace of justification may be bestowed upon us, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 3).

(j) If any say that we can be made just without the justice of Christ through which he gained merit for us, let them be anathema (Session 6, canon 10).

There are many other statements there that could be quoted as well, especially concerning the union of faith and goodwill or good works, and the damnation that comes of separating these two.