The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained/Chapter19
XIX.—Believing in God.
Nothing reveals the searching and eminently practical character of the New Church doctrines more clearly, or shows more distinctly the wide difference between this Church and those which have preceded it, than the strength and frequency with which its teachings emphasize the importance of keeping the commandments, or living the divine precepts. There are doubtless multitudes in all the churches of to-day, who do not even believe in God, according to the New Church standard of belief. For this Church teaches that only those really believe in Him, who reverently obey his precepts. The following brief extracts from Swedenborg are given in confirmation of this:
"To believe in the Lord is not only to acknowledge Him, but also to keep his commandments. . . . Man's mind consists of understanding and will; and it is the part of the understanding to think, but of the will to do. Wherefore when man only acknowledges the Lord from the thought of the understanding, he approaches Him with only one-half of his mind; but when he keeps his commandments, he approaches Him with his whole mind; and this is to believe in Him." (T. C. R. n. 151.)
"To believe in God is to know and to do; but to believe those things which are from God, is to know and yet not do. They who are really Christians, both know and do, that is, they believe in God; but they who are not truly Christians, know and do not." (A. C. 9239.)
"Man supposes that, although he lives wickedly, he can still have faith to believe at least that there is a God, that the Lord is the Savior of the world, that there is a heaven and a hell, that the Word is holy, and so on; but I can assert that, if he does not shun evils because they are sins, and thence look to the Lord, he does not believe in those things at all; for they are not of his life and love, but only of his memory and knowledge; and they do not become of his life and love before he fights against evils and overcomes them. This has been made evident to me from many after death, who supposed that they had at least believed in the existence of God, and that the Lord was the Savior of the world, with other things of a like nature; but still they who had lived in evil, had in reality no belief at all." (Ap. Ex. 839.)