*You are a New Church? What authorizes or enables you to do the personal worship services, and authorizes and enables you to do a personal Holy Supper?
What is the New Church which enables the personal and family worship services, and Holy Supper?
*AC10760~10766 (HD241~245)
10760. That which makes heaven with man also makes the Church, for the Church is the Lord's heaven on earth. Consequently from what has been previously said about heaven, it is evident what the Church is.
10761. That is called the Church where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word [Bible] is; for the essentials of the Church are love to the Lord from the Lord, and faith in the Lord from the Lord; and the Word teaches how a man must live in order that he may receive love and faith from the Lord.
10762. The Lord's Church is internal and external; internal with those who do the Lord's commandments [Decalogue] from love, for these are they who love the Lord; and external with those who do the Lord's commandments [Decalogue] from faith, for these are they who believe in the Lord.
10763. In order that the Church may exist, there must be doctrine from the Word [Bible], because without doctrine the Word [Bible] is not understood; yet doctrine alone in a man does not make the Church in him; but a life according thereto. From this it follows that faith alone does not make the Church; but the life of faith which is charity.
10764. The genuine doctrine of the Church is the doctrine of charity and at the same time of faith, and not the doctrine of faith without that of charity; for the doctrine of charity and at the same time of faith is the doctrine of life; but not the doctrine of faith without the doctrine of charity.
10765. Those who are outside the Church, and yet acknowledge one God, and live according to their religion in a kind of charity toward the neighbor, are in communion with those who are of the Church, because no one is condemned who believes in God, and lives well. From this it is evident that the Lord's Church is everywhere in the whole world, although specifically it is where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is [Especially the Hebrew Word!].
10766. Everone in whom the Church is, is saved. But everone in whom the Church is not, is condemned.
Form AE1070:2, the weekly worships of the Lord Jesus Christ and daily readings of the Hebrew Word (Decalogue, Bible, and the Heavenly Doctrine) these two things constitute the Church!
“[2] It has been said above that there are two things that constitute the church, namely, the acknowledgment and belief that the Lord has the power to save, and that the Word is Divine; and that where these two are not acknowledged and believed there is no church; and for the reason that the Lord reforms man and gives him faith and love, and the Word teaches the way in which man must go to the Lord that he may receive faith and love from Him. Unless these two truths are recognized in a church it is not a church.”
黙示録講解1056番から
『主〔イエス・キリスト〕が拝され、〔特にヘブル語〕聖言が読まれる所にのみ教会があるためである。』
From AE1045
“・・・there is a church only where the Lord [Jesus Christ] is worshiped and the [especially Hebrew] Word is read.”
AR586, That by " saints" are meant those who are in truths from the Lord through the Word, may appear from the passages adduced in (n. 173), and also from the following:-
Jesus said, Father, sanctify them in Thy truth, Thy Word is truth. I sanctify Myself, that they may be sanctified in the truth; I in them, and Thou in Me (John 17:17, 19, 23).
Jehovah came from Sinai, He came from the myriads of holiness, from His right hand went the fire of the law to them, all His saints are in Thy hand; he shall receive of thy words (Deut. 33:2, 3).
From this it is plain, that they are called "saints" who are in Divine truths from the Lord through the Word: also, that they who live according to the commandments [Decalogue], that is, according to the truths of the Word, were the "saints of Jehovah" (Lev. 19:2; Deut. 26:18, 19). And if they would keep the covenant, they would be a "holy nation" (Exod. 19:5, 6). The Decalogue is the covenant which they were to do (n. 529). Thence the place in the tabernacle, where the ark was, in which was the Decalogue, was called the holy of holies (Exod. 26:33, 34). They are called "saints" who live according to the truths of the Word; not that they are holy, but the truths in them are holy, and they are holy when they are in them from the Lord; and the Lord is in them when the truths of His Word are in them (John 15:7).
AR 529. Verse 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant, signifies the New Heaven, in which the Lord in His Divine Human is worshiped, and they live according to the commandments of His Decalogue, which are the two essentials of the New Church, by which is conjunction. By "the temple of God" is signified the Lord's Divine Human, likewise heaven, where angels are, and also the church on earth; that these three are signified by "the temple of God," and that they cannot be separated, may be seen (n. 191); but here, by "the temple of God," is signified the Lord in His Divine Human in heaven where the angels are, because it is called "the temple of God in heaven." By "the ark in the temple" is meant the Decalogue, for in the ark there were only the two tables on which the Decalogue was written. By the temple being "open" is signified that these two, the Divine Human and the Decalogue, which are the two essentials of the New Church, are now seen, and were seen after the evil were cast into hell (n. 528). The reason why it is said "the ark of His covenant was in His temple," is, because a covenant signifies conjunction....
Also from the signification of "firstfruits of God and the Lamb," as being those who have given themselves to the Lord and have been adopted by Him. That those who are of the new church are meant is evident from their being called "firstfruits to God and to the Lamb," since those who are received in that church acknowledge the Lord's Divine Human and live according to His commandments [Decalogue]. No others are received in the new church which is called "the New Jerusalem," because those who do not believe this and live thus are not in accord with the life of heaven, nor with the light there, nor with the heat there: for the light there is the Divine truth, which is the source of all intelligence and wisdom; and the heat there is the Divine good, which is the source of all love and charity. All man's affection and thought there from not only is within him and constitutes his life but is also outside of him and constitutes the sphere of his life. This is why heaven is divided into societies according to the varieties of the affections and their thoughts; consequently unless the affections and the thoughts therefrom are spiritual, which are formed solely by the acknowledgment of the Lord and a life according to His commandments [Decalogue], they cannot be admitted into any society of heaven, for they are repugnant thereto and this is why those who do not acknowledge the Lord's Divine Human and do not live according to His commandments [Decalogue] in the Word cannot be consociated with the angels of heaven.