Ancient Churches Lexicon Entry:
Doctrine
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Because the people of the Most Ancient Church had a perception of love to the Lord and charity toward to neighbor, they had the doctrines about love and charity “inscribed within them” (AC 2417). However, as that church declined, the perceptive abilities of its members began to fade. The Lord foresaw that soon this ability would disappear entirely and that the doctrinal things of faith would need to be preserved, so that people might know what was celestial and what was spiritual. To accomplish this, the Lord had the people called Cain and Enoch gather together these doctrinal things,consisting of the significations of various objects on earth collected from the members of the Most Ancient Church (AC 920). When the Most Ancient Church was finally vastated, the Ancient Church was raised up by the Lord by means of these doctrinal things, which constituted the Word of the Ancient Church (AC 530, AC 1071).
The people of this new church believed, in a simple way, the things they had received from the Most Ancient Church (AC 736). And because the Ancient Church grew among many nations of people, which differed from each other in both disposition and education, they did not all have the same doctrine (AC 1255). Among these people doctrinal teachings and religious practices differed from one to the next, but there was nevertheless one church, because they held charity to be the essential thing (AC 2385). The situation was similar to that of the human body, where the different organs have different motions, but all of the organs are controlled by the motion of the heart and lungs, and through this they are united into one (AC 1285). But eventually, the Ancient Church turned away from the essential doctrine of charity by separating it from the doctrine of faith (AC 2417).
See also:
Cain, Charity, Enoch ‘Who Walked
with God’, Faith, The Fall, Heresy, Last Judgments,
Perception, Significatives, The Word
Passages relating to Doctrine and the Ancient Churches:
AC 324; AC 325; AC 337; AC 347; AC 377; AC 399; AC 442; AC 464; AC 468;
AC 485; AC 518; AC 519; AC 520; AC 521; AC 528; AC 530; AC 531; AC 555;
AC 557; AC 569; AC 570; AC 573; AC 582; AC 586; AC 593; AC 600; AC 608;
AC 609; AC 614; AC 616; AC 617; AC 623; AC 628; AC 636; AC 640; AC 660;
AC 661; AC 736; AC 764; AC 765; AC 769; AC 788; AC 794; AC 809; AC 875;
AC 920; AC 975; AC 1064; AC 1068; AC 1071; AC 1141; AC 1145; AC 1147;
AC 1149; AC 1151; AC 1152; AC 1154; AC 1158; AC 1176; AC 1184; AC 1187;
AC 1188; AC 1190; AC 1191; AC 1196; AC 1198; AC 1213; AC 1255; AC 1280;
AC 1284; AC 1285; AC 1288; AC 1302; AC 1310; AC 1312; AC 1316; AC 1319;
AC 1321; AC 1322; AC 1323; AC 1324; AC 1327; AC 1330; AC 1409; AC 2385;
AC 2417; AC 2982; AC 3324; AC 3420; AC 4425; AC 4433; AC 4680; AC 4844;
AC 5649; AC 6269; AC 6628; AC 10644; HD 4; HD 8; HD 9; HD 106; HH 481;
HH 558; LJ 39
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