1. PROLOGUE 1
2 At this day nothing but the self-evidencing reason of love will restore [the Church], because [men] have fallen away.
The present-day Church is in error about God, in error about faith, and in error about charity, also it knows nothing about eternal life; and so it is in gross darkness.
The whole of religion is based upon the idea held about God, and is in conformity with it.
This is the Church towards which all Churches from the first have pointed as it were in a regular series, and about which Daniel prophesied.
Fußnoten:
1. The Skara Manuscript does not contain the statements printed on this page, but has the following at the beginning:
The reason the New Church could not be established before the last judgment had been accomplished was so that holy things should not be profaned. It has been foretold that the spiritual sense of the Word is to be disclosed then, also that the Lord alone is the Word whose advent then takes place.
The reason religion exists with few at the present day is that
1. It is not known of the Lord, that He is God alone in person and essence, and that the Trinity is in Him; when yet all religion is founded upon a knowledge of God and upon the adoration and worship of Him;
2. It is not known that faith is nothing but the truth, or whether what they call faith is the truth or not;
3. It is not known what charity is, nor what evil is, or good;
4. It is not known what eternal life is.
In so far as truths of life are made a matter of life, truths of faith become a matter of faith, not a fraction more nor a fraction less. Some truths are matters of knowledge, not matters of faith.
2. The Latin of this sentence is elliptical - as follows: Quod hodie non aliud quam suisona ratio amoris instaurabit, quia lapsi sunt.
