Family Article - A Foundation of Truth

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A Foundation of Truths

The truths that someone learns eagerly and believes as a little child
and which he afterward either confirms, doubts, or denies, are especially these:

There is God and He is one
He has created all things
He rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil
There is life after death
The evil go to hell and the good go to heaven
Thus that there is a hell and a heaven
And the life after death is eternal

Also that people ought to:

Pray every day and do so with humility
Keep the Sabbath day holy
Honor their parents
Not commit adultery, kill, or steal
And follow many other truths like these.

Such truths are learned and absorbed by a person from earliest childhood; but when he begins to think for himself and to lead himself, if he confirms these truths in himself, and adds to them further truths of a more interior kind, and lives according to them, then it is well with him.

(see Arcana Coelestia 5135:3) 

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