1. THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

A statement of faith, set out in both universal and particular terms, is placed at the beginning to serve as a preface to the book which follows, to be like a doorway leading into a church, and a summary presenting in a short compass what follows at more length. It is called the faith of the new heaven and the new church, because heaven, where the angels are, and the church among men form a single unit, just as the internal and external sides of the personality make up a single individual. This is why a member of the church who possesses the good of love which arises from the truths of faith, and possesses the truths of faith which arise from the good of love, is, so far as the interiors of his mind are concerned, an angel of heaven. Therefore too after dying he comes into heaven, and there enjoys happiness depending upon how far the good and truth are linked. It should be known that in the new heaven, which is at the present time being established by the Lord, this statement of faith serves as its preface, doorway and summary.

254. X. Heresies can be extracted from the literal sense of the Word, but confirming them leads to damnation.

It was demonstrated above that the Word cannot be understood without doctrine, and that doctrine resembles a lantern which allows genuine truths to be seen; and that this is because the Word is entirely written by means of correspondences [226-228]. That is why many things in it are appearances of truth and not bare truths, and why many things are written to be intelligible to purely natural people, and yet in such a way that the simple can understand it simply, the intelligent intelligently and the wise wisely. Seeing the Word is like this, the appearances of truth, which are truths wrapped up, can be taken for bare truths; and when these are confirmed, they become fallacies, which in themselves are falsities. It is the taking and confirming of appearances of truth for genuine truths which have given rise to all the heresies, which there ever have been and still exist in the Christian part of the world. But what damns people is not the heresies themselves, but drawing on the Word and using reasonings on the part of the natural man to confirm the falsities contained in the heresy, and living a wicked life.

For everyone by birth acquires the religion of his country or his parents. From childhood he is introduced to it and afterwards retains it; nor can he extricate himself from its falsities, both on account of his worldly business and on account of the weakness of the understanding in sighting truths of that description. But living a wicked life, and confirming falsities to the point that genuine truth is destroyed, this is what brings damnation. For the person who stays with his religion, believes in God, and if he is in Christian countries believes in the Lord, regards the Word as holy, and lives conscientiously according to the Ten Commandments - he does not swear allegiance to falsities. So when he hears truths and perceives them in his own fashion, he can embrace them and so be extricated from falsities. But this is not the case with the person who has confirmed the falsities taught by his religion, for falsity once confirmed remains and cannot be rooted out. For when it has been confirmed, falsity is as if one had sworn allegiance to it, especially if it has stuck fast to it self-love or pride in one's own intelligence.