AC 6637 - What Belonging to a Church Really Is

AC 6637

As Israel represents the good of truth, or spiritual good,
and his sons spiritual truths in the natural,
therefore the sons of Israel represent the church;
for the church is the church
from spiritual good and from the derivative truths.
He who is not in spiritual good,
that is, in the good of charity,
and in spiritual truths, that is, in the truths of faith,
is not of the church,
in spite of his having been born within it.
For the whole heavenly kingdom of the Lord
is in the good of love and of faith;
and unless the church is in the like,
it cannot be the church,
because it is not conjoined with heaven,
for the church is the Lord's kingdom on earth.

Its being called the church
is not from the fact that the Word is there,
and that there are doctrinal things therefrom,
nor from the fact that the Lord is known there,
and that the sacraments are there;
but it is the church from the fact
that people live according to the Word,
or according to doctrine from the Word,
and so that the doctrine is the rule of life.
Those who are not of this character
are not of the church, but are outside of it;
and those who live in evil,
thus those who live contrary to doctrine,
are further outside the church than the Gentiles
who know nothing whatever of the Word, of the Lord,
and of the sacraments;
for the former,
because they know the goods and truths of the Church,
extinguish the church in themselves,
which the Gentiles cannot do,
because they do not know them.
Be it further known
that everyone who lives
in the good of charity and of faith
is a church and kingdom of the Lord,
and from this is called a temple,
and also a house, of God.
The church in general is constituted of those
who are churches in particular,
however far apart they may be.
This then is the church which is meant here
and in what follows by the "sons of Israel."