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.

650. VIII. The Lord imputes good to everyone and hell imputes evil to everyone.

It is news to the church that the Lord imputes good and never evil to a person, and that the devil (by which is meant hell) imputes evil and never good to him. The reason this is news is that we read in many passages in the Word that God is angry, takes revenge, hates, condemns, punishes, throws someone into hell, tempts him, all of which are the actions of a wicked person, and so are evils. But, as was shown in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, the literal sense of the Word was composed out of what are called appearances and correspondences. This was in order to link the externals of the church with its internals, and so to link the world with heaven. The same chapter also showed that when such things are read about in heaven, the appearances of truth in their passage from man to heaven are actually changed into genuine truths. These are that the Lord is never angry, never takes revenge, hates, condemns, punishes, throws anyone into hell, or tempts him; thus He never does evil to anyone. I have often observed this transmutation and change in the spiritual world.

626. CHAPTER ELEVEN

IMPUTATION

I. The faith of the present-day church, which is held to be the sole requirement for justification, is one with imputation.

The faith of the present-day church, which is held to be the sole requirement for justification, is one with imputation; in other words, faith and imputation in the present-day church make a single whole. This is because one involves the other, and one enters into the other, and the other into the first, and causes it to exist. For if one talks of faith without adding imputation, faith is simply a meaningless sound; and if one talks of imputation without adding faith, this too is simply a meaningless sound. Even if the two are spoken of linked together, they become an articulated expression, though still devoid of intelligible meaning. For the understanding to grasp any real meaning in it, a third term needs to be added, Christ's merit. This produces a concept that one can utter with some degree of reasonableness. For it is the faith of the present-day church that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son, and sends the Holy Spirit to bring about its effects.