From the Pastor
Fundamentals of Religion
We are taught in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church that a life of religion consists in doing that which is good, from faith in the Lord. In seeking guidance on what we need to do to become a good person spiritually, we often find that teachings about what not to do precede teaching about what to do. Cease to do evil, learn to do well. (Isaiah 1:16, 17) What is the quality of goodness that comes from a person who does not shun what is evil and false first?
We especially see this in the Ten Commandments. To live according to the Lord’s words for the sake of the Divine and not just for the sake of civil, moral or natural law is to become a spiritual-minded person.
We see this in the work, Apocalypse Explained:
Religion with a person consists in a life according to the Divine commandments, which are contained in a summary in the Decalogue. He that does not live according to these can have no religion, since he does not fear God, still less does he love God; nor does he fear man, still less does he love him.
Can one who steals, commits adultery, kills, or bears false witness, fear God or man?
Nevertheless everyone is able to live according to these commandments; and he who is wise does so live as a civil, moral, and natural person. And yet he who does not live according to them as a spiritual person cannot he saved; since to live according to them as a spiritual person means to so live for the sake of the Divine that is in them. All laws, civil, moral, and natural, prescribe that one must not steal, must not commit adultery, must not kill, must not bear false witness; and yet a person is not saved by shunning these evils from these laws alone, unless he also shuns them from spiritual law, thus unless he shuns them as sins. For with such a person there is religion, and a belief that there is a God, a heaven and a hell, and a life after death; with such a person there is a civil life, a moral life, and a natural life; a civil life because there is justice, a moral life because there is honesty, and a natural life because there is humanity. But he who does not live according to these commandments as a spiritual person is neither a civil, moral, nor a natural person; for he is destitute of justice, of honesty, and even of humanity, since the Divine is then not in these. For there can be nothing good in and from itself, but only from God; so there can be nothing just, nothing truly honest or truly human in itself and from itself, but only from God, and only when the Divine is in it. (Apocalypse Explained #948)
This month we begin exploring the fundamentals of the faith of the New Church in a course called New Church Foundations. With these classes we can explore and review the core teachings of our church together. Classes are after church at 11:30 a.m. on the following Sundays: October 19, November 2 & 16, January 4 & 18, and February 1 & 15.
- Tom
