“All religion is of life; and the life of religion is to do good.” - Doctrine of Life §1
Kempton New Church

Week 2
Introduction

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Sunday Worship
What Spiritual States do our Rituals Represent?

And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven golden lampstand One like the Son of Man. Revelation 1:12–13 This signifies the Lord as to the Word… He represented Himself as the Word because the New Church is a church from the Word, and according to the understanding of it. Apocalypse Revealed 44

Worship must be from the Word.

AC 8943. …That which is from self-intelligence is in itself void of life, in fact, is spiritually dead, for man’s own is nothing but evil. And therefore if Divine worship is performed from it, this worship is nothing else than the worship of an idol, carved or molten, in which there is no spirit, that is, no life. But only that which is from the Word is serviceable for Divine worship, because it is in itself alive. For within everything of the Word there is a spiritual sense, which treats of the Lord’s kingdom; and within this sense is the Divine, because the Word in its inmost sense treats of the Lord alone. From this is the sanctity and the life of the Word, and not from any other source….

From all this it is now evident that worship truly Divine has its existence from those things which are of the Word, and in no case from those things which are of self-intelligence.

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