Summary Exposition

This is a sample from volume 22 of The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem, a multi-volume work containing all the published theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg where all of the references and indexes are hyperlinked for ease of study. This work contains a summary of the doctrines of the Catholic and Protesant churches, and amazingly, from an analysis of the decrees from the Council of Trent and the the propositions of the Formulae Concordae of the Protestants, Swedenborg shows how the the basic underlying theology of these two major branches of Christianity are the same. He next discusses the main theological errors that have crept into Christian theology over the centuries, which can be summarized as a belief in a Trinity of three persons, and that salvation comes from faith alone. These are then briefly compared with the doctrines of the New Church (the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse), which was revealed to the author in heavenly visions for over 25 years. The purpose of this work is to provide a brief summary of the basic theology of Catholicism and Protestant Churches and expose their errors, so that the groundwork can be laid for understanding the theology of the New Church, a restored version of Christianity from the first century A.D. He then reveals why the doctrines of the New Church will be more acceptable to those of the Roman Catholic Church than the Protestant Churches.

When Swedenborg completed this work, he wrote of seeing the following vision: "the angelic heaven from the east to the west, and from the south to the north, appeared of a deep scarlet color with the most beautiful flowers. This took place before myself, and before the kings of Denmark and others. At another time it appeared flamy, most beautiful. In the spiritual world there was inscribed on all these books: "The Lord's Advent." The same I also wrote by command on two copies [of Summary Exposition] in Holland."