"The Word cannot be understood without doctrine, and doctrine resembles a lantern which allows genuine truths to be seen; and that this is because the Word is entirely written by means of correspondences. That is why many things in it are appearances of truth and not bare truths, and why many things are written to be intelligible to purely natural people, and yet in such a way that the simple can understand it simply, the intelligent intelligently and the wise wisely. Seeing the Word is like this, the appearances of truth, which are truths wrapped up, can be taken for bare truths; and when these are confirmed, they become fallacies, which in themselves are falsities. It is the taking and confirming of appearances of truth for genuine truths which have given rise to all the heresies, which there ever have been and still exist in the Christian part of the world. But what damns people is not the heresies themselves, but drawing on the Word and using reasonings on the part of the natural man to confirm the falsities contained in the heresy, and living a wicked life." E. Swedenborg TCR 254

The Word cannot be understood without doctrine. This is because the Word in the sense of the letter consists exclusively of correspondences, allegories, parables and symbols, to the end that things spiritual and celestial may be simultaneous or together therein, and that every word may be their container and support. For this reason, in some places in the sense of the letter the truths are not naked, but clothed, and are then called appearances of truth. Many truths also are accommodated to the capacity of simple folk, who do not uplift their thoughts above such things as they see before their eyes. There are also some things that appear like contradictions, although the Word when viewed in its own light contains no contradiction.

Interesting that the common church system is still locked into a literal view of scriptural content. Jesus instructed those that follow Him to not "judge not according to appearance, but to judge righteously." Appearances are deceptive if only judged by our five senses and do not always give us a clear understanding of what is on the inside of the literal printed "word". Doctrine proper, is the concept of taking Scriptures and connecting similar principles and ideas together to complete a truth. When we say that we are not to judge one another, i.e. "judge not lest ye be judged", we only have a partial truth that can be easily taken out of context. Doctrine proper, brings in other scriptures and we can see or understand that "judgement" then becomes one of "not according to appearance, but a righteous judgment". Then what ever judgment we judge by is then the same we are judged by. Living in and through this particular doctrine, fellowship with others takes on a whole new meaning and clarity.

Of Sin

This scripture, found in Romans, is the most direct comparison to God of what sin is.  We (all) do not think as God thinks.  We miss the mark or fall short of the mind or thoughts of what God thinks. Interesting that the literal fundamentalists use it in their tract about spiritual laws.

Romans 3:23 for all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of God,

Rom 3:23   Pántes gár heémarton kaí husteroúntai teés dóxees toú Theoú

Pántes NT:3956 apparently, a primary word; all, any, every, the whole:
gár NT:1063 a primary particle; for
heémarton NT:264 properly, to miss the mark i.e. (figuratively) to err, especially (morally) to sin:
kaí NT:2532 a primary particle, and
husteroúntai NT:5302 to be inferior; generally, to fall short (be deficient):
teés NT:3588 the def. article; the
dóxees NT:1391from the base of NT:1380; doko, glory (as very apparent)
                              doko NT:1380 a prolonged form of a primary verb, the same meaning; to think; by implication, to seem truthfully
toú NT:3588 the def. article; of
Theoú NT:2316 the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very God

In the following scriptures here, Jesus personifies the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth and then identifies Himself with the Comforter.  Then Jesus indicates how He, the Father and the Comforter who are the same, will manifest or reveal Himself to those that love Him.  Jesus points out also “at that day” that we shall “know” have gnosis or understand.  Gnosis is the knowledge of the same experience because of experience.  Jesus again indicates another very important point and that is of reciprocal love, he that loves me is loved of my Father.  We love Him through the commandments that are to be kept, those that center on all of the law and the prophets.  Matt 22:36-40 (A lawyer asked) Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.   (To exercise the mind or understanding)  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  When an individual truly from the heart (will, affections and desires) loves God and loves the neighbor as himself or herself.  A great gnosis takes place, they begin to think as God thinks, they no longer come short of the mind of God, they become free from the law of sin (falling short of the glory) and death (for to be carnally minded is death).

John 16:7-8 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.  And when he is come, he will reprove the world OF SIN, and of righteousness, and of judgment: KJV

John 14:16-21  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.  Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.  KJV

John 14:23-26  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.   He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.  These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.  KJV

The Apostle Paul relates the following about the second great commandment from Jesus’ answer to the lawyer (Matt 22:36-40).  Rom 13:8-10 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.  The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  NIV

The Apostle also continues this theme  of love and adds the mind (to exercise to think) in Phil 2:1-13 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.   KJV

When we think as God thinks, we will love Him and love one another.  This reciprocal love is what Heaven is.  Hell has no reciprocal love, for it loves itself and the things of the world of self.  The Bible indicates the God is an all-consuming fire and that Hell and death are cast into a lake of fire.  The symbolism here can be confusing to the literal fundamentalist and for many reasons.  If we assume that the lake of fire is literally true, than Heaven is a place where God will consume everyone in His fire.  However, if we look at the word “fire” and replace it with the idea that fire symbolizes love or lust, the scriptures about God and fire, the lake and fire are clearer to the mind and understanding.  That sin is not thinking as God thinks is the “fire” or lust for our personal will, affections or desires.  This personal gratification is self-limiting in the sense that one would gather to themselves only the loves that would promote the self-lived life.  The idea of “working out your own salvation” becomes moot as salvation or saved is to be set free from the power and effects of sin.  The power and effects of sin is the promotion of the self-lived life that does not think as God thinks.  Sin being again we do not think like God thinks and we do not love as God loves. Love is living for God and living for one another, we live what we love and we love what we live (we have affections and desires for what we live or live for our affections and desires).

Does that mean we cannot have a spouse, children, home, land, money (job/business) or recreational interests, because they might promote the love of self?  Priorities, what use then are those without the mind or glory of God?  How much more useful we become for society, as we live for one another as a society and build the Heaven or Kingdom of God within each other and not Hell.

In beginning the consideration of this important subject, we would, first of all, clearly define what is meant by the Atonement. It is a word made up of three distinct syllables, at-one-ment--the latter part of the word being formed from the Latin mens, the mind, and, consequently, the word signifies at one mind. This doctrine takes into consideration that God and man--owing to man's having fallen from the state in which God created him, and intended him to live and advance--have become of two minds. Man departed from communion with God's goodness and wisdom, and sank into a state of evil and falsehood, which, in the Scriptures, is meant by death. "To be carnally minded," the Apostle says, "is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6). This state of things commenced with the fall, and increased with each transgression as men continued to fall, because they continued to sin.

There was no possibility of bringing these two, God and man, who had become of two minds, into communion, so as to make them of one mind again, except by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ in "reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." This reconciliation is the Atonement, and the doctrine upon the subject is the doctrine of Atonement, or at-one-ment, or agreement, or reconciliation.

The doctrine of the Atonement, as we have said before, is the doctrine which turns our attention to that state and period when man, disobeying his Maker, incurred the penalty attached to his transgression, which says, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Then some have imagined that God became angry and indisposed to make man happy any longer because he had become disobedient. But the view that we conceive is taught in the Sacred Scriptures--in harmony with the three grand points upon which we have dwelt--is that although man suffered loss of light, loss of happiness, loss of power for good, loss of communication with God, and loss of that spiritual-mindedness which is called life, and sank into sin and thence into sorrow, God still continued the same. Man changed, but God did not change, because he is unchangeable. He followed man with his care, with his kindness, with his messengers, with his Word, with his teaching, with angels and prophets, and at length he himself became as a man upon the earth, under the name of Jesus Christ, in order that he might save man from sin and the unhappiness which invariably attends sin.