Editing Swedenborgianism (section)

=== New Testament ===
The New Church regards the words of Jesus as divinely inspired, and considers the [[New Testament]] Gospels of [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]], [[Gospel of Mark|Mark]], [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]], [[Gospel of John|John]] and the [[Book of Revelation]] as sacred scripture.<ref>AC, n. 10325.</ref> The church holds the [[Acts of the Apostles]] and the [[epistle]]s in esteem, similar to the Jewish regard for the Old Testament writings. Swedenborg wrote that these books were included as an act of [[divine providence]], since books for the general public explaining Christian doctrine were needed.<ref>Swedenborg, Emanuel. ''The Spiritual Diary'', 1747–65 (SD). Trans. by George Bush, John H. Smithson and Buss, 1883–9, n. 4824.</ref> He believed that although Paul's letters did not contain a word-for-word symbolic correspondence, they were still divinely influenced: "Paul indeed spoke from inspiration, but not in the same way as the prophets, to whom every single word was dictated but that his inspiration was that he received an influx, according to those things which were with him, which is quite a different inspiration, and has no conjunction with heaven by correspondences."<ref>SD, n. 6062.</ref>