Just because you were brought up in the church does not make you a Christian or a New Church person.

But the recognition of sin is useless, unless a person examines what he does in his life, and observes whether he did such a thing in secret or openly. For up to this point all that is mere knowledge; and then the arguments of the preacher are merely a noise in the left ear, which goes through to the right ear and so out. Finally it becomes no more than a thought, a piety on the part of the lungs, in many cases mere imagination and a chimera. But it is quite the reverse, if a person, recognising what is a sin, examines himself, finds one in himself and says to himself, ‘This evil is a sin,’ and fearing everlasting punishment abstains from it. Then for the first time the preacher’s teaching and oratory in church is taken in with both ears and reaches the heart, so that he turns from being a pagan into a Christian.

TCR 525

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