By Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swede

Revelation 21:2, 5: I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And the one sitting on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new”; and said to me, “Write, because these words are true and trustworthy.”

§1 / [Author’s Preface]

§§2–8 / Roman Catholic Teachings Concerning Justification, Taken from the Council of Trent

§§9–15 / Protestant Teachings Concerning Justification, Taken from the Formula of Concord

§16 / Sketch of the Teachings of the New Church

1. §§17–18 / The churches that separated from Roman Catholicism during the Reformation disagree with each other on many points of theology, but there are four points on which they all agree: there is a trinity of persons in the Divine; original sin came from Adam; Christ’s merit is assigned to us; and we are justified by faith alone.

2. §§19–20 / In fact, in regard to the four theological points just listed, Roman Catholics before the Reformation had exactly the same teachings as Protestants did after it. That is, Catholics had the same teachings regarding the trinity of persons in the Divine, the same teachings regarding original sin, the same teachings regarding the assigning of Christ’s merit, and the same teachings regarding our being justified by believing that we are assigned Christ’s merit; the only difference was that Catholics united that faith to goodwill or good works.

3. §§21–23 / The leading reformers—Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin—retained all the dogmas regarding the trinity of persons in the Divine, original sin, the assigning of Christ’s merit to us, and our being justified by faith, in the same past and present form they had had among Roman Catholics. The reformers separated goodwill or good works from that faith, however, and declared that our good works contribute nothing to our salvation, for the purpose of clearly differentiating themselves from Roman Catholics with regard to the essentials of the church, which are faith and goodwill.

4. §§24–29 / The leaders of the Protestant Reformation do indeed describe good works as an appendage to faith and even an integral part of faith, but they say we are passive in the doing of them, whereas Roman Catholics say we are active in the doing of them. There is actually strong agreement between Protestants and Catholics on the subjects of faith, works, and our rewards.

5. §§30–38 / The entire theology in the Christian world today is based on the idea that there are three gods—an idea that has arisen from the teaching that there is a trinity of persons.

6. §§39–40 / Once we reject the idea of a trinity of persons and therefore the idea that there are three gods, and accept in its place that there is one God and that the divine trinity exists within him, we see how wrong the teachings of today’s Christian theology are.

7. §§41–42 / After we make this change, the faith we then acknowledge and accept is a faith that is truly effective for our salvation—a faith in one God, united to good works.

8. §§43–44 / This faith is faith in God the Savior Jesus Christ. In a simple form it is this: (1) There is one God, the divine trinity exists within him, and he is the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Believing in him is a faith that saves. (3) We must abstain from doing things that are evil—they belong to the Devil and come from the Devil. (4) We must do things that are good—they belong to God and come from God. (5) We must do these things as if we ourselves were doing them, but we must believe that they come from the Lord working with us and through us.

9. §§45–46 / The faith of today has removed living a religious life from the church. A religious life consists in acknowledging one God and worshiping him with a faith that is connected to goodwill.

10. §§47–50 / 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.

11. §§51–52 / Th e faith of the modern-day church results in worship that engages our mouths but not our lives. How acceptable the Lord finds the worship of our mouths, though, depends on how worshipful our lives are.

12. §§53–57 / The body of teaching espoused by the modern-day church is woven together out of numerous absurdities that have to be taken on faith. Therefore its teachings become part of our memory alone. They do not become part of our higher understanding; they rest instead on supporting evidence from below the level of the intellect.

13. §§58–59 / The tenets of the church of today are extremely difficult to learn and retain. They cannot be preached or taught without a great deal of restraint and caution to keep them from appearing in their naked state, since true reason would not recognize or accept them.

14. §§60–63 / The teachings of faith of the modern-day church attribute to God qualities that are merely human: they say, for example, that God looked at the human race with anger; that he needed to be reconciled to us; that he was in fact reconciled through his love for his Son and through the Son’s intercession; that he needed to be appeased by seeing his Son’s wretched suffering, and this brought him back into a merciful attitude; that he assigns the Son’s justice to unjust people who beg him for it on the basis of their faith alone, and turns them from enemies into friends and from children of wrath into children of grace.

15. §§64–69 / The faith of the modern-day church has given birth to horrifying offspring in the past, and is producing more such offspring now: for example, the notion that there is instantaneous salvation as a result of the direct intervention of mercy; that there is predestination; that God cares only for our faith and pays no attention to our actions; that there is no bond that unites goodwill and faith; that as we undergo conversion we are like a log of wood; and many more teachings of the kind. Another problem has been the adoption of [false] principles of reason that are based on the teaching that we are justified by our faith alone and the teaching concerning the person of Christ, and the use of these principles to judge the uses and benefits of the sacraments (baptism and the Holy Supper). From the earliest centuries of Christianity until now, heresies have been leaping forth from a single source: the body of teaching based on the idea that there are three gods.

16. §§70–73 / The references in Matthew 24:3 to “the close of the age” and “the Coming of the Lord” that follows it mean the final state or the end of the church of today.

17. §§74–76 / The reference in Matthew 24:21 to “a great affliction such as has never existed since the world began and will never exist again” means an attack by falsities and the resulting end—the devastation—of all truth in the Christian denominations of today.

18. §§77–81 / The statement in Matthew 24 “After the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Matthew 24:29) means that at the last time of the Christian church, when its end is imminent, it will have no love, no faith, and no knowledge of what is good or what is true.

19. §§82–86 / The goats mentioned in Daniel and Matthew mean people who are devoted to the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us.

20. §§87–90 / Adamant devotees of the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us are depicted in the Book of Revelation as the dragon, its two beasts, and the locusts. This belief (when strongly held) is depicted there as the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two witnesses were killed, and as the pit of the abyss from which the locusts came forth.

21. §§91–94 / Unless the Lord establishes a new church, no one can be saved. This is the meaning of the statement in Matthew 24:22 “Unless those days were cut short no flesh would be saved.”

22. §§95–98 / “The one who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’; and said to me, ‘Write, because these words are true and faithful’” (Revelation 21:5). This statement in the Book of Revelation means our examining and rejecting the tenets of faith of the modern-day church and God’s revealing and our accepting the tenets of faith of the new church.

23. §§99–101 / The New Jerusalem, which is the topic of Revelation 21 and 22, and is there called the bride and wife of the Lamb, is the new church that is going to be established by the Lord.

24. §§102–104 / There is no way in which we can simultaneously hold the views of the new church and the views of the former church on faith; if we did hold both these views at once, they would collide and cause so much conflict that everything related to the church would be destroyed in us.

25. §§105–108 / Roman Catholics today are not at all aware that their church once embraced concepts of the assigning of Christ’s merit to us and of our justification by faith in that. These concepts lie completely buried beneath their external rituals of worship, which are many. Therefore if Catholics give up some of their external rituals, turn directly to God the Savior Jesus Christ, and take both elements in the Holy Eucharist, they are better equipped than Protestants to become part of the New Jerusalem, that is, the Lord’s new church.

§§109–115 / [The Assignment of Christ’s Merit]

§§116–117 / Concluding Appendix

§§118–120 / Three Memorable Occurrences Taken from Revelation Unveiled

69. As for the notion that when we are undergoing conversion we are like a log of wood, this is a teaching that the church of today acknowledges—in a great many words—as its own legitimate offspring. For example, it says that human beings are completely powerless in spiritual matters; see §15a, b, c. It says that in the process of being converted we are like a block of wood, a stone, or a statue; we cannot adapt or accommodate ourselves to grace; and we are like something that has no senses; see §15c, d. It says that we have only the power to move our bodies and attend public worship, where we can hear the Word and the gospel; see §15e. But it does say that the reborn, using power from the Holy Spirit, cooperate to some extent with him through the new capabilities and gifts they have received; see §15k. And many more teachings of this kind.

We are told that this is how we are in regard to our conversion and in regard to our repenting of the evil things we have done; but this is yet another offspring, hatched from the same egg and the same womb—namely, justification by faith alone. The purpose in their saying this is to remove altogether the works that we do and prevent our works from coming into any contact whatsoever with our faith.

[2] Yet this attitude goes against the common sense we all have about repentance and about the process of our conversion; so they add the following statement to the others: “There is a great difference between baptized and unbaptized people. According to Paul’s teaching, ‘All those who have been baptized have put on Christ,’ and are therefore truly reborn. They now have a ‘freed choice.’ For this reason they not only hear the Word of God but are also able to assent to it and embrace it with faith”; see §15m and the Formula of Concord, page 675.

I call on the wise to consider whether this last statement aligns at all with the others. Is it not a contradiction to say that all Christians go through their process of conversion like a log of wood or a stone, so much so that they cannot accommodate themselves to grace, and yet all Christians have been baptized and baptism entails being able not only to hear the Word of God but also to assent to it and embrace it with faith?

Therefore the comparing of a Christian to a log of wood or a stone must be eradicated from the churches in the Christian world. It must disappear, just as every strange phenomenon we see while we are asleep disappears when we wake up. It is highly offensive to human reason.

[3] In order to clarify what the new church teaches about our process of conversion, I would like to copy some words from an account of a memorable occurrence in Revelation Unveiled.

Surely we all see that every human being has the freedom to think about God and the freedom not to think about God. We all, then, have just as much freedom in spiritual matters as we do in civic and moral matters. The Lord grants all of us this freedom continually. We ourselves, then, are responsible and accountable for what we think.

It is this ability to choose what we think that makes humans human. It is the lack of this ability that makes animals animals. Therefore we possess the power to reform and regenerate ourselves seemingly on our own, provided we acknowledge at heart that this power comes from the Lord.

All who practice repentance are reformed and regenerated. We do this reforming and regenerating seemingly on our own. Even the ability to do things “seemingly on our own” comes from the Lord, because it is the Lord who gives us the will and the power and never takes them away from anyone.

It is absolutely true that we cannot contribute anything to our own regeneration. Nevertheless we were not created statues. We were created human beings so that we would be able to do this regenerating seemingly on our own but actually with the Lord’s help. This responding through love and faith and forging a partnership with him is the one and only thing the Lord wants us to do for him.

Briefly put: Take action on your own, and yet trust that the Lord is helping you. This is what it means to take action seemingly on your own.

The ability to act on our own is not an attribute we were created with. Being able to act on one’s own is an attribute that belongs to the Lord alone. He constantly grants it to us.

If we do what is good and believe what is true seemingly on our own, we become an angel of heaven. If we do what is evil and believe what is false (which are also things we do seemingly on our own), we become a spirit of hell. (The fact that this, too, is something we do seemingly on our own is attested to by our prayers asking to be protected from the Devil, so that he does not lead us astray and bring his evil into us.)

When we believe we are acting on our own, we are always at fault, whether what we do is good or evil. When we believe that we are acting seemingly on our own, we are not at fault. Whatever we believe we are doing on our own becomes a part of us. If it is something good, we view it as our property and claim it as our own, when in fact it belongs to God and comes from him. If it is something evil, we again view it as our property and claim it as our own, when in fact it belongs to the Devil and comes from him. [Revelation Unveiled 224:9–10]

For the purposes of this brief survey I will forego explaining a number of other things, including the point in the proposition above about adopting [false] principles of reason that are based on the teaching that we are justified by our faith alone and the teaching concerning the person of Christ, and using those principles to judge the uses and benefits of the sacraments (baptism and the Holy Supper); and the point that from the earliest centuries of Christianity until now, heresies have been leaping forth from a single source: the body of teaching based on the idea that there are three gods. These points will be presented and demonstrated in the work itself.

224. To this I will add the following account:

I saw a gathering of spirits, all upon their knees, praying to God to send them angels they could speak with face to face and to whom they could disclose the thoughts of their heart.

Then when they arose, three angels appeared in white linen standing before them, and the angels said, "The Lord Jesus Christ has heard your prayers, and has therefore sent us to you. Disclose to us the thoughts of your heart."

[2] The spirits then replied, "Priests have told us that in theological matters it is not the intellect but faith that accomplishes anything, and that in such matters an intellectual faith is of no help to anyone, because it takes its origin from man.

"We are English, and we have heard many things from our sacred ministry which we believed. However, when we spoke with some other people who call themselves Reformed, and with some who call themselves Roman Catholics, and moreover with some Nonconformists, they all seemed to us learned, and yet in many matters not one of them agreed with another. But nevertheless they all said, 'Believe us.' And some said, 'We are God's ministers and we know.'

"Still we knew that the Divine truths that are called truths of faith and are the church's truths are no one's heritage by birth alone, or by heredity, but that they descend out of heaven from God. And because these show the way to heaven, and enter into one's life together with the good of charity and so lead to eternal life, we became anxious and prayed on our knees to God."

[3] At that the angels replied, "Read the Word and believe in the Lord, and you will see the truths that must be those of your faith and life. All in the Christian world draw their doctrinal teachings from the Word as from a single font."

[4] But two of the gathering of spirits said, "We have read it, but have not understood."

The angels replied, "You have not turned to the Lord, and you have also confirmed yourselves in falsities."

The angels also said further, "What is faith without light? And what is thinking without understanding? It isn't human. Ravens too and magpies can learn to speak without understanding. We can assure you that everyone whose soul longs for it can see the truths of the Word in a state of light. There is no animal that does not know the right food for its life when it sees it, and the human being is a rational and spiritual animal. If he hungers for it and seeks it from the Lord, the human being sees for his life not food for his body but food for his soul, which is the truth of faith. Moreover, whatever he does not receive with his intellect, also does not stick in his memory as a concept, but only as words. Consequently when we have looked down from heaven into the world, we have not seen anything, but have only heard sounds, mostly lacking in any harmony.

[5] "But we will list some truths that the learned of the clergy have banished from the intellect, not knowing that there are two paths to the intellect, one from the world and the other from heaven, and not knowing that the Lord raises the intellect from the world when He enlightens it. However, if the intellect is closed by religion, the path to it from heaven is closed, and a person then sees no more in the Word than a blind man sees. We have seen many of this sort fall into pits, from which they have not risen.

"Let examples serve to illustrate. You can understand what charity and faith are, can you not? That charity is to comport oneself well with the neighbor, and that faith is to think rightly about God and the essential constituents of the church? And therefore that anyone who behaves well and thinks rightly, that is, who lives rightly and believes rightly, is saved?"

In response to this the spirits said that they understood.

[6] The angels went on, "You understand, do you not, that to be saved a person must repent of his sins, and that unless a person repents, he remains caught up in the sins into which he was born? Moreover, that to repent means not to will evils because they are sins against God, and once or twice a year to examine oneself, see one's evils, confess them before the Lord, implore His aid, desist from them, and embark upon a new life? And that to the extent a person does this and believes in the Lord, his sins are forgiven?"

Then some of the gathering of spirits said, "This we understand, and so also what the forgiveness of sins is."

[7] At that the spirits then asked the angels to tell them something more, and specifically this time about God, the immortality of the soul, regeneration, and baptism.

To this the angels replied, "We shall say nothing but what you can understand. Otherwise what we say will fall like rain on sand, and however much they may be watered from heaven, any seeds there will still dry up and die."

Regarding God then they said, "People who enter heaven are all allotted a place there and accordingly come into eternal joy in accord with their idea of God, because this idea reigns universally throughout all aspects of worship.

"An idea of God as invisible is not focused on anyone, and so has no focus in anyone. Consequently it passes away and dies.

"An idea of God as a spirit, when one believes a spirit to be like the ether or a puff of wind, is an idea empty of content.

"But an idea of God as a man is a proper idea. For God is Divine love and wisdom, with every property of these, and their containing vessel is man, not ether or a puff of wind.

"The idea of God found in heaven is an idea of the Lord. He is God of heaven and earth, as He Himself taught. Let your idea of God be like ours, and we will be comrades."

When the angels said this, their faces shone.

[8] Regarding the immortality of the soul the angels said, "A person lives to eternity because through love and faith he can be conjoined with God. This is possible for everyone. You can understand that the immortality of the soul results from this possibility if you think about it a little more deeply."

[9] Regarding regeneration they said, "Who does not see that everyone has the freedom to think about God or not to think about Him, provided he has been taught that God exists. Thus everyone has just as much freedom in spiritual matters as he does in civil and moral matters. The Lord gives this freedom to all people continually. Consequently it is his fault if he does not think about God. A person is human because of this ability [to think about God], while an animal is an animal because it lacks the ability. Therefore a person can reform and regenerate himself as though of himself, provided he acknowledges at heart that the ability comes from the Lord. Everyone who repents and believes in the Lord is reformed and regenerated. A person must do both as though of himself, but the "as though of himself" comes from the Lord.

"It is true that a person can contribute nothing to this end - nothing at all - but still you were not created sculpted forms, but were created human beings, in order that you might accomplish this from the Lord as though of yourselves. This reciprocation of love and faith is the one thing that the Lord above all wishes a person to do for Him.

"In a word, do it of yourselves, but believe that you do it from the Lord, thus doing it as though of yourselves."

[10] The spirits, however, then asked the angels whether doing things as though of oneself was not something with which a person was endowed from creation.

One of the angels replied, "It is not something with which a person is endowed, because to do something of oneself is God's alone, but He grants the ability to a person continually, that is to say, He attaches it to a person continually; and then to the extent that a person does good and believes truth as though of himself, he is an angel of heaven. But to the extent that he does evil and so believes falsity, which he does also as though of himself, he is to that extent an angel of hell. You are surprised to be told that he does this also as though of himself, but yet you see it when you pray to be protected from the devil, that he not lead you astray, lest he enter into you as he entered into Judas, fill you with all iniquity, and destroy both soul and body. ¹

"Still, everyone makes himself responsible for an action if he believes that he does it of himself, be it good or evil, but does not make himself responsible for it if he believes that he does it as though of himself."

[11] Regarding baptism the angels said that it was a spiritual washing, which is reformation and regeneration, and that a little child is reformed and regenerated when he becomes an adult and does the things that his sponsors promised for him, of which there are two, namely, repentance and faith in God. For his sponsors promise first that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and second that he will believe in God. All little children in heaven are initiated into these two, though for them the devil is hell and God is the Lord.

"Moreover, baptism is a sign to angels that a person belongs to the church."

[12] Having heard this, some of the gathering of spirits said, "We understand it." But a voice from the side was heard crying, "We don't understand it." And another voice, "We don't want to understand it."

The spirits then inquired into whose voices they were, and they found that they belonged to people who had confirmed themselves in the falsities of their faith, and who wished to be credited as oracles so as to be revered.

The angels said, "Do not be astonished. Such is the character of very many people today. From heaven they look to us like sculpted forms, so skillfully made that they can move their lips and make organism-like sounds, but they do not know whether the breath they use to make sounds comes from hell or from heaven, because they do not know whether anything is false or true. They reason and reason, and defend and defend, but they do not see whether anything is so.

"You should know, however, that human ingenuity can defend whatever it wishes, even to the point that it appears to be the case. Heretics, therefore, can do this. So can the impious. Atheists indeed can make it appear that there is no God, but only nature."

[13] After this the gathering of English spirits, burning with a desire to become wise, said to the angels, "People say such different things about the Holy Supper. Tell us what the truth is."

The angels said, "The truth is that anyone who turns to the Lord and repents is, by that most holy act, conjoined with the Lord and introduced into heaven."

But some of that gathering said, "This is a mystery."

To which the angels replied, "It is a mystery, but yet of the sort that one can understand.

"The bread and wine do not create the conjunction. There is no holiness in them. But material bread and heavenly bread correspond to each other, and so do material wine and heavenly wine. Heavenly bread is the holiness in love, and heavenly wine is the holiness in faith, both originating from the Lord, and both being the Lord. This occasions a conjunction of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord - a conjunction not with the bread and wine but with the love and faith of a person who has repented - and conjunction with the Lord is also an introduction into heaven."

Then, after the angels taught them something about correspondence and its effect, some of the gathering said, "Now for the first time we understand."

And when they said, "We understand," suddenly something flame-like descending with its light from heaven affiliated the spirits with the angels, and they loved each other.

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