Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
If the Second Coming happened why is there still so much pain and dysfunction in the world?
If the Second Coming happened why is there still so much pain and dysfunction in the world?
By Ronald Schnarr | Friday, December 2, 2011
Ronnie is walking a fine line. Informed by the teachings of the New Church, he acknowledges the torment in the world, yet finds a place for this agony within a benevolent perspective. -Editor.
Many people in this world are waiting for the Second Coming because they are so frustrated with some of the apparent pain and dysfunction in the world. So how can we say that the Second Coming has taken place when there is so much craziness in the world?Well, here is my best understanding from the Heavenly Teachings of the New Church on this issue:
The ideal world portrayed in the last chapters of the book of Revelation is coming, and is on its way. The New Heaven has already been formed, and it is growing daily. The New Earth, which represents a New Church, is still among the few for a period, and this is what is symbolized by the woman in the wilderness being kept safe in the wilderness for a time, time and half a time (Revelation 12:14).
If you look at what has happened since the eighteenth century, and more specifically in the world of theology, you will see a world that is increasingly changing for the better. Yes, it is true that much dysfunction is now coming into the open, but this is part of the process. This process is much like the one Swedenborg describes in the second state of processing that people go through after they die; their internal life has to be exposed, and their inner life must be seen.
So, for instance, you can look at some of the abuses that Catholic priests have committed in recent years and think this world is getting worse and worse. Yet, if you do a little study, or read some of Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary, you will realize this stuff has been going on behind closed doors for a long time. It's only now that people care. Although things are now coming out in the open on a deeper level, some really good stuff is happening also. There is a new light of rational thinking in religion, and there is a new freedom to come to religion by one's own choice, unlike the past.
This new spiritual light is from the Lord coming again in the spiritual world and in the Word with a new set of Heavenly Teachings to set in order a world which has almost completely fallen into spiritual darkness.
The prophecy of Jesus’s Coming again "with glory in the clouds" can more literally be translated as coming "with a light in the cloudiness," (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:30; Luke 21:27). This coming, while it happened literally in the spiritual world, represents a new spiritual light in the mind. It is a new enlightenment (glory) in the confusion surrounding the scriptures (cloudiness).
If you take a deep look at what has changed in the last two hundred years, you will see that an understanding of who God is, what the Bible means, and how one should live and believe has really grown. This is seen in the freedom of religion that has entered the world. No longer can religious leaders and kings compel people to believe, as was done during the Spanish inquisition, and other religious movements throughout the dark ages. People can now come to the Lord freely.
Also, people are more and more being turned off by the image of an angry and vengeful God who demands the sacrifice of His Son to quell His anger. They are instead beginning to see that Jehovah loved us so much that He was born into this world and suffered enormous temptations, both spiritual and physical, to save us from the forces of darkness. This belief is being professed by many in the new Emergent movement, and also in some new, more conservative movements within the Evangelicals.
And more and more people are beginning to see spirituality as a process of growing with God, not a one time profession that magically makes us worthy of heaven, but a life committed to being transformed and reformed by the Lord Himself acting upon us.
Hoping for the world to become a better place is a very noble thing, but just like life, things take time. The Lord is in the process of bringing a new light into this world. And, as it is said in the last chapter of Revelation, He will be the light of our hearts in that city, and the “crystal waters” of truth and justice will “flow from the throne of God"—a symbol of the Lord’s loving judgment. God will “wipe away every tear” representing the pain of false and hurtful teachings being dispelled, and there shall be “no more death” meaning the damnation accompanying an evil life being removed.
One thing that must happen before the New Earth can be established is that the hypocrisy that has existed in the world, and especially in the church, must be exposed before healing can occur. When things come out into the open, and people freely choose to reject what comes out, the reformation of society can begin. It is a process of starting to reflect what has already been established in the New Heaven. Then we will start to see the New Earth as the Lord has promised.
Well that’s my spiel on the Second Coming. I promise I know how to kick back and have fun when its called for. :) In fact I’m off to play poker. Hope you are doing well and are finding time to rest in this crazy world.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The Second Coming of the Lord!
from the Theological Writings
of Emanuel Swedenborg
Compiled originally by Rev. C. Th.Odhner and updated by Hugo Lj. Odhner
| Table of Contents |
Editor's Notes:
The Lord will be with us always in His Word, and by allowing us to know of the spiritual world and to understand the Genuine Truths which make up the Doctrines of Heaven, we can continue to grow closer and to prepare more fully for our journey into eternity.
For reasons of our freedom, the Lord will not appear as most people expect. In order for us to return a pure love to our Creator, we must be in freedom. Love compeled is not actual love, but slavery. Therefore we have been placed in a world where there can be no scientific evidence of the existence of God. We must learn to love the Lord willingly. The Second Coming has given us the tools to accomplish this more directly than ever before.
Rediscover your life in the light of Heavenly Wisdom. We can now learn how the spiritual world operates, how the process of salvation occurs and why it takes so long for the world to see Truth:
In the future, all religions will know the Genuine Truths of our Creator and Lord, and we will finally become friends in love and peace.
More information on this subject can be found in your local library or on the Spiritual Frontier Homepage and associated links.
| Table of Contents |
What the Writings Testify Concerning Themselves
A Compilation of Teachingsfrom the Theological Writings
of Emanuel Swedenborg
Compiled originally by Rev. C. Th.Odhner and updated by Hugo Lj. Odhner
| Table of Contents |
Editor's Notes:
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.
In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men.
And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not....
...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..." - John 1:1-14
The Lord will be with us always in His Word, and by allowing us to know of the spiritual world and to understand the Genuine Truths which make up the Doctrines of Heaven, we can continue to grow closer and to prepare more fully for our journey into eternity.
For reasons of our freedom, the Lord will not appear as most people expect. In order for us to return a pure love to our Creator, we must be in freedom. Love compeled is not actual love, but slavery. Therefore we have been placed in a world where there can be no scientific evidence of the existence of God. We must learn to love the Lord willingly. The Second Coming has given us the tools to accomplish this more directly than ever before.
Rediscover your life in the light of Heavenly Wisdom. We can now learn how the spiritual world operates, how the process of salvation occurs and why it takes so long for the world to see Truth:
- "...the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not...
"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
In the future, all religions will know the Genuine Truths of our Creator and Lord, and we will finally become friends in love and peace.
More information on this subject can be found in your local library or on the Spiritual Frontier Homepage and associated links.
| Table of Contents |
BEHOLD, A WHITE HORSE
by Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse" (Rev. 19:11).The great drama of the last judgment and the birth of the New Christian Church were witnessed by John on the Isle of Patmos in prophetic visions some seventeen hundred years before the events would actually take place. With his spiritual eyes opened by the Lord, John saw into the spiritual world, and there he beheld a series of representative and correspondential visions describing the last states of the Christian Church, the great last judgment upon that church, and finally, the birth of the New Christian Church.
For hundreds of years terrible falsities born from man's evils had captured the minds of the multitude of simple good from the Christian world, and these falsities ruled in the spiritual world. Hidden behind the apparent order and ritual of the church, the lust of rule and dominion extended influence in every direction. Evil leaders had come to rule in the world of spirits and perverted the natural heaven. They even began to disturb the higher heavens. The great red dragon, that old serpent called Satan, together with Babylon the Great, "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," had reached the height of infernal power. Never before had the hells risen to such terrible might, and never before had the light of heaven shone so weakly to enlighten man's mind.
The great last judgment whereby the Lord preserved forever man's freedom from the dominance of the hells did not take place all at one time. Before the heavens and the world of spirits could be freed from the great falsities that enslaved and affected them, and the perpetrators of these falsities moved into hell, the good had first to be separated from the evil. Man cannot free himself from falsity and evil until he has the means to see the nature of falsity and evil. And these means come only from a knowledge and understanding of the truths given by the Lord in Divine revelation. This then was the task which preceded judgment; yet the Word of the Old and New Testaments had been sealed in falsities. What truth then was to serve to free man from the captivity of falsity and evil from Christian profanation? There had to be the revelation of a new truth, a new truth so unmistakably clear that the rational mind of man could understand and be convinced.
The Lord foresaw from the beginning the necessity of revealing Himself to man in open and clear terms, and He prepared all things to fulfill that end. From the time of the fall, and indeed even before, working within the framework of 'that which was necessary to preserve man's freedom, the Lord fashioned the form of Divine revelation. When man was yet in the process of falling, the Lord allowed the knowledges of spiritual and celestial things to be lost so that man would not enter terrible states of profanation. The open and naked truths concerning the Lord, the church, man, and the kingdom of heaven were covered over and hidden. This process is likened in the Writings to a man's body being dressed with garments until the flesh is almost hidden from view. In the final ages of man's decline into externalism and ignorance, the Lord allowed only some small portion of His Word to be seen and understood, only that which could be received without harm to man's spirit. And in the end of this externalism, the end of the Jewish Church, not a single truth remained naked to man's view. The knowledges of heaven were muffled and covered over.
In His first coming the Lord began to remove again the garments that He had placed around the knowledges of celestial and spiritual things. In His instruction by parables the Lord began to open what had been closed. He began to speak of the meaning and the spirit of ancient scripture. Here and there He showed something of the quality and the life of I-Es heavenly kingdom. Good men grasping these glimpses of a new truth were inspired and enthralled with them. The early Christian Church sensed something of the spirit of revelation, something of the charity and love of heaven. Here was a new idealism, a new standard - a new beginning. But it was indeed only a beginning. Men saw, yet they did not see. Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. The function of man's rational understanding could not suddenly be born out of the externalism and literalism in which it had been buried. There had to be a gradual rebuilding; and this rebuilding required continued insights into the letter of Scripture that there could be the light of spiritual truth whereby to proceed. This process could have continued uninterrupted had not other things interfered. But they did interfere, and the Lord had foreseen that they would, and that He would have to make a second coming to reveal fully and openly the spirit and quality of celestial and spiritual goods and truths. And so He prophesied His second advent. And through the visions of John He foretold the states of the Christian Church, and finally, how a true Christian Church would be raised up that would endure forever.
Again, it was man's freedom that made it necessary for the Lord to permit the first Christian Church to fail. Good men were beginning to be enlightened by the vision of a new truth; but evil men were quick to realize that the new truths were a means to an end. They could serve to make possible the attainment of wealth and possessions, of power and dominion. There were new ideals from new truths, but the ideals were not clearly understood because the truth was not yet clearly perceived. And the written testimony of the truth was in the hands of a few. Evil men were quick to assure that the new revelation was brought under their care, and they became the mouthpiece of its message. But the message was no longer there. The truths of the first advent were bathed by man's evils, and were finally twisted and turned into falsities, so that the new light from heaven was quenched almost from its birth. Men of good will became confused by the falsities promulgated in the name of Christianity, and the darkness of falsity and evil again settled over mankind. These falsities and evils, represented by the great red dragon and the woman of Babylon in the Apocalypse, moved from the earth into the spiritual world, where they continued to hold men's minds in captivity.
It will be noted that the early visions of the Apocalypse story gradually lead up to the vision of the woman clothed with the sun and her persecution by the great red dragon. Not until then is there war in heaven and the beginning of judgment upon false and evil states. And notice that even then it is only a beginning. The woman and the man- child that she brought forth had to flee from the wrath of the serpent and be hidden from his presence in a wilderness. Even so, judgment began upon the dragon and the woman of Babylon, and they were cast forth onto the earth, there to continue persecution. The great and final conflict between heaven and hell does not take place however until the heavens are opened, and "behold a white horse, and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war ... And the armies which were in heaven followed Mm upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." It was the white horse, and He who rode thereon, whose name was the Word of God, that made possible the final victory over the hells. Without this last great conflict and victory, the New Jerusalem could not have descended out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, nor could it have been received as a beautiful holy city of precious gold and jewels in which men were to live forever. Without the white horse the birth of the New Church would have been as the birth of the Christian Church-it could not have endured; its beautiful truths and ideals would again have fallen under the feet of man's evil perversions.
What did the Lord make possible in His second coming that was not possible in His first coming? What did He give to man to provide a sure defense and protection from the ravages of evil and falsity? He gave the white horse-the interior understanding of the truths of the Word (see AE 820, 826). This understanding was not born of man's intelligence and ingenious reasonings. It was born from the Word of the Lord-not the Word as to its letter but the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word and the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem drawn by the Lord therefrom. This is He who rode upon the white horse and who guided it forth to conquer the power of hell.
The story of how the Lord introduced the truths of His New Church into a spiritual world bound by the ignorance, falsity, and evil of the fallen Christian Church is given in great detail in the Writings. We would simply note here that the steps whereby the New Church was born in the spiritual world are also the steps whereby it is not only born on earth, but born in the mind of each individual. The first truths that filtered down from the higher heavens and began to enlighten the good in the lower heavens and in the world of spirits are like the first truths of the church that are received by man during infancy, childhood, and youth. They are general truths that provide only an obscure and elementary idea. Yet they are perceived to be true. They provide the first vision of the Lord and His kingdom, and establish the first ideals. They lead, and even begin to judge between what is right and wrong, and provide a desire to separate from what is of open disorder. So it was also with the first reception of the New Church by the good spirits of the Christian Church. They commenced to sense something of the hypocrisy and evil of many that surrounded and led them, and they began to separate themselves therefrom. There was something of a new vision of truth with them, and a new life, and they delighted in this; but they did not yet have sufficient understanding to see the falsities that had enslaved them-there was no interior understanding from the knowledge of spiritual truths whereby they could see. There was yet no vision of the white horse.
The state of first reception of truth, of early idealism, and the life therefrom, is a state that is most important for us to understand, for unless we understand both its use and its limitation, we cannot really understand why the Lord made a second coming. In giving examples of this state the Writings speak of courtship and early marriage. Those who are introduced into an idea of the purpose and nature of conjugial love from the Writings first receive this instruction with delight. The general teachings concerning conjugial love form a vision and an ideal. This not only leads and protects them, but it causes a distaste and repugnance for what is of open disorder, what is filthy and promiscuous, and it judges and separates therefrom. This is a first state, and a necessary state, but it does not rest on an interior understanding of truth. It is easily disappointed and confused, and it is often unknowingly misled. For man to have an interior understanding of truth, that truth must descend into the things of his life a little at a time, to be tested and tried so that man may have the means of desiring it to be his own. This is when the wisdom of life is born. But let us note clearly that even this is not enough. If it were, those who received and used the first spiritual truths of the Christian religion would never have fallen under the captivity of falsities. The understanding, in order to come into a full and certain rationality from heavenly light, must not only have general truths, but it must also have specifics and particulars thereof. Truths must be ordered and organized so that one truth may be seen in relation to another, a particular truth in relation to a general truth, a natural truth in relation to a spiritual truth, an effect in relation to a cause or an end. These relationships are what provide the means for man's rational mind to have a clear and certain conviction of the nature of the Lord, of His heavenly kingdom, and of man's place therein. This knowledge is what the Lord caused to be revealed in the heavens as the foundation of a New Christian Church.
As the mind matures and advances into adult life and responsibility, if it heeds the instruction of revelation concerning its state - John's message to the seven churches -and if it inquires of truth from the Lord's Word- the opening of the seven seals-there will come a time when the fragmentary knowledges of religion come together and form a new vision. The New Church will be seen as the woman clothed with the sun, even as it was similarly seen in the confused states of the spiritual world prior to the judgment. There does come a time when the combination of new knowledge and man's effort to apply that knowledge begins to open in him a truly rational thought that is from the light of heaven. This new state introduces many things. Man does not suddenly see clearly all truths that he has learned, that is, he does not see how they relate to the things of life, but he does see that all the great truths of revelation, spiritual and natural, come together and form one unified whole - one picture of a Divine Human God and His purpose, one picture of His church, His kingdom, and man's place therein. And with this there is born a new conviction in the Lord that is clear, even though it is not yet truly wise. It is from such a state that man begins to see what he could not see before, the awful presence and power of hell that is within himself. It is this awareness that brings him into new and very different temptations. The good loves that have been forming in him are attacked by the hells; the dragon waits to devour the offspring of the woman clothed with the sun. In spiritual temptations the vision of the truths of the church is often obscured by the activities of man's evils and his effort to war against them. The woman and her offspring flee away into a wilderness. It was so in the process of the birth of the church in the last judgment, and it is so with man. The seven angels in the Apocalypse story are said to pour out their seven vials full of seven great plagues. So are described the temptations wherein man struggles to have the Lord form in him the loves that he has seen from the knowledge of truth-the vision that is sure in the intellect but obscure in the will.
As his states advance, the Lord performs for man many judgments; his internals are cleansed, and so it is written that Satan, that old serpent, was cast to the earth. The Lord does indeed cleanse man's internals as man works in external things. But even so, evil tenaciously holds onto the external things that form so much of man's conscious life. Hell continues to attack the New Church with man, even as it did in the last judgment. One final conflict must yet be fought. Man is not free from hell until he meets it consciously; he feels its evils with him and knows full well what they are, and he sees the monstrous falsities that cloak and support their presence and life with him. It is not enough for the Lord to overcome man's evils secretly through man's efforts; in reality, this is indeed what happens. But it is a most necessary part of man's freedom that he feels he himself is doing the combat and works consciously to bring about a victory. So it is that in time the Lord gives man to behold the white horse. The Lord opens man's internal rational faculty so that he can see the spiritual sense of the Word and the heavenly doctrine from interior understanding. This is the perception wherewith all the states of heaven are present-the armies of heaven on white horses. The last war with hell is quickly accomplished, and the new and final vision of the Lord and His New Church is born - the bride descending from heaven and the holy city New Jerusalem wherein is the peace and joy of heaven.
The vision of the white horse is not easy to understand, because the interior understanding of the Word is most complex. Yet it is a symbol that shall become more and more cherished as the New Church is received on earth. The horse symbolizes the understanding of truth, and its whiteness signifies the purity of that truth which is the spiritual sense of the Word and the heavenly doctrine. The white horse and its rider had great power, because such is the power of the interior understanding of those truths that form the New Church-it is such perception and power as has not been known from most ancient times. And now it is offered again to the man of the New Church that he may see and live the truths without danger of captivity and enslavement by evils and falsities, however they may be amassed against him. But let this much be crystal clear-the white horse will not be seen from simple faith or simple Christian charity, whatever may be the good intent therein. Such faith and charity have existed before, and their limitations are amply described in the chaos and disorder that gripped the spiritual world before the last judgment. The Lord revealed a new truth because that truth was needed to give man power over the hells that are with him-and there is nothing that will take its place.
There is no easy way to behold the white horse-it requires the accumulation of knowledges through reading and study, through sermons and classes; it requires reflection upon knowledges and their implications in our natural life; it requires discussion and exchange of thought and enlightenment; it requires application and effort to bring the life and power of spiritual good and truth down into the ultimate life of our work, our country, and our church. But is it not worth all of this? The white horse is a wonderful vision to keep before the eyes of our understanding, for in it is all the purpose and meaning of the New Christian Church born from heaven. The vision is beautiful because we see the Lord therein; and the promise is sure, and he who seeks will find. Amen.
Lessons: Revelation 19:1-10; 11-21; AR 935
Presented in Bryn Athyn June 9, 1974
Apocalypse Revealed 935
... it shall be told how it is to be understood that the Lord produces the goods of charity with a man according to the state of truth with Him. He who believes that a man does good that is acceptable to the Lord, which is called spiritual good, unless there are truths from the Word in Him is much deceived. Goods without truths are not goods, and truths without goods are not truths with man, although in themselves they may be truths: for good without truth is like the voluntary of man without the understanding, which voluntary is not human, but is like a beast's, or like that of a carved image which an artificer causes to operate. But the voluntary together with the intellectual becomes human according to the state of the understanding by which it exists. For the state of life of every man is such that his will cannot do anything except through the understanding, nor can the understanding think anything except from the will. It is similar with good and truth, since good is of the will, and truth is of the understanding. It is manifest from this, that the good which the Lord produces with man is according to the state of the truth with him from which is his understanding.
THE SECOND COMING
A June 19th New Church Day Addressby Rev. James P. Cooper
"Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory' (Matthew 24:30).
We have gathered here today for many reasons: to worship the Lord; to promise to shun evils as sins through the covenant of the Holy Supper; and to celebrate the Lord's Second Coming.
We need to stop for a moment and think about that. Do we realize how casually we speak about the Second Coming in the New Church? Do we have any idea how strange it must seem to those who are not familiar with our doctrines to hear us talk about the Second Coming, or the life after death, like when one New Church woman expressed her sympathy for the death of the other's mother after a long and painful illness. The shocked looks of the others in the shop when she said, "I was so glad to hear that your mother died,' can easily be imagined. We in the church are so familiar with the spiritual world that death is to us a blessing, a peaceful passing from one life to another, something to look forward to when the end of fife approaches. And because we know so much about the spiritual world, we even know some amazing things about its history, particularly the history of the Second Coming which we refer to in the past tense-which also causes surprise to those not in the church.
As we said, we are gathered here to celebrate the completion of the Last Judgment, the Second Coming of the Lord, and the establishment of the New Church, and in order to do so, we need to have a clear idea of what those things mean.
The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church tell us that the Last Judgment and Second Coming of the Lord, foretold in the gospels and in the book of Revelation, actually took place in the world or spirits some 200 years ago.
The world of spirits is a place of introduction for people who have died, for although we have all been created to live in the spiritual world, no one is ready to go straight into heaven or hell immediately upon the death of the natural body. This is because all of us have elements of good and evil, and these need to be sorted out before we can enter our final home. The world of spirits lies between heaven and hell just so it can be a place where both the good and evil from the world can be gathered, instructed, and finally prepared to enter their home society in heaven or hell.
Each one of us, while we live in the world, is a mixture of good and evil, truth and falsity. While we live in the world, the mixture is acceptable, but once we die, we must either remove all the evil and falsity before entering heaven, or remove all good and truth before entering hell, for there cannot be a confusion or mixture of good and evil in either heaven or hell, and no one in heaven or hell is allowed to have a "divided' mind, that is, a mind that contains both good and evil loves.
At least this is what happens when things are in the order of creation. But when a church is coming to its end, as happens from time to time in history, and before the Lord has established a new church to take its place and serve its uses to the human race, the world of spirits comes into a state of confusion and disorder because those spirits who are entering it from the world are themselves in a state of confusion and disorder. And whenever and wherever there is confusion and disorder, the evil spirits are sure to be there, adding to the turmoil and unhappiness. We are told that the evil spirits were able to pretend that they were angels, and the new spirits from earth were so uninformed as to spiritual things that they were unable to see through their deception, and so were captured in 'false heavens' set up in the world of spirits.
These people were made captives by their own ignorance of spiritual truth. The only way they could be freed was by being taught the truth. The problem was that the truth of their own churches had been so changed by the ideas of men that it could no longer help. The genuine truth of the Word was no longer known in the churches. And so the Lord began His great judgment by coming to earth Himself and teaching truths about heaven in words and stories that were suited to those times and those people. These new truths were heard in the spiritual world as well, and served to free the captives in the world of spirits. They heard the Lord's teachings, and saw their captors for what they were, and fled from them. Once they could see the difference between good and evil, truth and falsity, they could then prepare themselves for heaven or hell, and were free to do so, and find their eternal homes.
The state of mankind was such at the time of the Lord's first coming that He was not able to reveal everything that Ile wanted us to know. What He was able to teach was certainly enough to lead men to heaven and to provide for their spiritual freedom, but He wanted to give far more than people were ready to receive at that time. As He himself said, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when Ile, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:12, 13). Jesus had taught enough to get things moving, but there was more to be done, more to be taught, but lie had to wait until the human race had digested what had already been taught before He could add anything more. So He returned to the spiritual world while mankind worked with the teachings that are now in the New Testament.
Sometimes, when a person is critically ill, there is more than one disease attacking him. The main disease responds to medication and only then reveals a second disease lurking behind it. But once it has been revealed, that second disease can also be treated. The same kind of thing happened in the spiritual world. Once the problems caused by the literalistic and power-hungry Pharisees and Sadducees had been solved by the teachings of the Lord, other evils in mankind began to reveal themselves as the leaders of the Christian Church began to use that church as a means to acquire personal power and possessions. By the year 325 A.D. the leaders of the Christian Church were determining the doctrine of that church by political councils. When that happened, when the leadership of the Christian Church turned away from Scripture and toward themselves, it marked the spiritual end of that church.
Any student of history can trace the fall of the Christian Church from that time. Soon the leaders of the church became so corrupt that a whole period of the history of the church is called, by Christian historians, "the pornocracy," the rule of filth. Hard on the heels of that came the Inquisitions and the Crusades, and quite a few other unchurchlike things. It was forbidden for anyone but a priest to take the wine of the Holy Supper or read the Bible, and no church services were conducted in a language understood by the common man.
Still speaking from the point of view of history, as Europe emerged from the Dark Ages and began to experience a rebirth of freedom of thought, many great men began to question the hold that the church had placed on the bodies, minds, and spirits of men, and through their questioning and thought, the Reformation was -born. But as is often the case, when a movement arises to counteract an abuse, the pendulum swings too far in the other direction. While the Catholic Church had put emphasis on obedience to the rituals of the church, or "works," the Reformers decided to move entirely away from works to faith without works, and began to teach that faith alone would save. The problem with the Catholic Church was that its doctrines were made by men, but the Reformers missed that point, and instead of turning back to Scripture, based their doctrine on the views of other, different men. The two great movements of the Christian Church swept back and forth across the face of Europe, and thousands died because they said their prayers in the wrong language-or their kings did.
And as they died, once again they were entering the world of spirits without sufficient truth to be able to make the basic decisions between good and evil, truth and falsity. The hells were once again able to rise up and set up their false heavens in the world of spirits. Once again, innocent people from the world were prevented, through their own ignorance of spiritual truth, from entering heaven. The falsities that had lain hidden beneath those that had been dealt with by the first judgment on the Jewish Church were now exposed in their fullness. It was time for the Lord to finish the work that He had begun when He came to earth as Jesus Christ. It was time for Him to show all mankind that the Word does not teach either works alone or faith alone, but the truth that the life of faith and charity together is the path to heaven.
The nature of prophesy is such that it is very difficult to tell what is going to happen in advance. It is only after it has already passed that you can recognize it. We know that the twelve disciples did not understand that Jesus Christ had come to establish a heavenly kingdom until after He had refused to fight when betrayed by Judas and allowed Himself to be crucified and then rose again, even though the Old Testament was full of prophecies of that very sequence of events. In the same way the prophecies of the Second Coming are not so clear unless you have seen the event in the past. Then you can look at what happened and see if it fits the prophecies.
The Lord first opened the spiritual eyes of Emanuel Swedenborg in the year 1743. Swedenborg spent the next 27 years being guided through the spiritual world, and, like John, being commanded to write in a book the things he saw. His observations filled volumes, detailed notes of things seen and heard at the command of the Lord Himself, and perhaps the most important thing he saw and reported during those years was that the Lord was making His Second Coming, not in person but in the spiritual sense of the Word. Swedenborg was shown that everything in the Word contains a spiritual sense that can be worked out using what was called 'the science of correspondences." By this new science the Bible became a work that spoke of the Lord and His kingdom in every verse, instead of being a book that appeared to be merely a history of the Jewish people. But most important, it told us that when Jesus said that He would return in 'the clouds of heaven," it meant that He would be re-appearing through a new understanding of the stories of the Old and New Testaments. The stories are represented by clouds because, like mist, they stand in the way of the genuine meaning within, but they are clouds of heaven because the truths contained in the Bible are heavenly truths from God.
So the Lord came again, not in person but through a new revelation that opened up the spiritual sense of the Word so that for the first time it could actually speak to all the spiritual states of mankind if only they used the proper key. This new truth was revealed in the world of spirits as well, and as before, when the confused, unhappy spirits heard the genuine truth from the Lord, they immediately recognized it, loved it, and made it their own. This new truth made it possible for them to see their captors for what they were and, reject them, thus allowing them to freely choose their own heavenly society.
As we prepare for the Holy Supper on this important anniversary of the completion of the Lord's great work of salvation, let us resolve to turn to the Word for ourselves, and with the knowledge that it contains heavenly truths that will help us live happy lives in this world and the next, make a covenant with the Lord today to make those truths our own by bringing them into our daily life, by striving to throw out those evils that oppose them, and by living a life of charity to all. If we do these things, then the Lord will indeed have made His Coming, for He will have come into our lives, bringing peace, happiness, and eternal life. Amen.
Lessons: Daniel 7:9-14, Matthew 24:15-31, TCR 787
Presented in Durban, South Africa
True Christian Religion 787
This New Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth, because it is to worship one visible God in whom is the invisible like the soul in the body. Thus, and not otherwise, is a conjunction of God with man possible because man is natural, and therefore thinks naturally, and conjunction must exist in his thought, and thus in his love's affection, and this is the case when he thinks of God as Man. Conjunction with an invisible God is like a conjunction of the eye's vision with the expanse of the universe, the limits of which are invisible; it is also like vision in mid-ocean, which reaches out into the air and upon the sea, and is lost.
Conjunction with a visible God, on the other hand, is like beholding a man in the air or on the sea spreading forth his hands and inviting to his arms. For all conjunction of God with man must be also a reciprocal conjunction of man with God; and no such reciprocation is possible except with a visible God. That before the assumption of the Human, God was not visible, the Lord Himself also teaches in John: 'Ye have neither heard the voice of the Father at any time nor seen His form' (v. 37). And in Moses: "No one can see God and live" (Exodus 33:20). But that He is visible through His Humanity is stated in John: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath manifested Him" (1:18). And in the same: "Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. He that knoweth Me knoweth the Father, and he that seeth Me seeth the Father' (14:6,7,9).
That there is a conjunction with the invisible God through the visible, that is, through the Lord, He teaches in the following passages: "Jesus said, Abide in Me and I in you; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit" (John 15:4,5). 'In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in Me and I in you' (John 14:20). "The glory which thou hast given Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and Thou in Me, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them" (John 17:21-23, 26; also 6:56). It is also taught that He and the Father are one, and that in order to have eternal life, man must believe in Him. That salvation depends on conjunction with God has been frequently shown above.
THE SECOND COMING
by the Rev. David R. Simons
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all Truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come." (John 16: 12, 13)The promise of a source of truth by which the Lord Jesus Christ would tell His disciples things they were unprepared to receive at His first coming is unmistakably given in the New Testament. Something of what this new truth would be like is also stated. It would involve the inner spirit of truth; it would be a guide to all truth; it would not speak of itself, but what was heard; and it would reveal things to come. "These things," the Lord said, "have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father" (John 16: 25).
Christians who search the New' Testament Word can distinguish two differing ideas about the second coming of the Lord: one, that there will be some agency by means of which He will come and yet that it will be the Lord Himself who comes. The other, that this agency is spoken of as a detached Spirit of Truth, a Comforter who will testify of the Christ: "But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me" (John 15: 26). This Comforter is also identified as the Lord Himself: "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him... I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14: 16, 17).
Careful reflection on the passages concerning the second coming of the Lord in the New Testament, a sincere analysis of how the Lord fulfilled the Old Testament by His first advent, and a realization of why the Jews rejected their Messiah, can prepare Christians to recognize and receive the Lord in His second coming. Although the Lord comes exactly as He promises in His Word, still He does not come as men expect. We are therefore to "watch . . . for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come . . . be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh". (Matthew 24: 42, 44).
Every devout Jew at the time of the First Advent was aware of the promises of Scripture that a Messiah would come to save His people. Many were acquainted with the particular teachings about His coming. Yet few received Him when He came. They were for the most part suspicious of the Lord's teachings. They viewed them as contrary to Scripture. Despite the fact that the Lord made His relation to the Old Testament perfectly clear, saying, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5: 17), His words were considered blasphemous. His new doctrine was rejected. The old bottles could not contain the new wine of Christian truth.
However, the teachings of the New Testament did not repudiate the Old, but made it living and full. Rather than destroying them, the Lord filled the law and the prophets with new meaning. He showed men an inner layer of truth by which the Scripture might be understood and become more effective in their lives. Far from taking away the need for such teachings as the Ten Commandments, Christian doctrine made them more fully applicable to life, thus providing the means whereby evil might be fought directly. "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill," the Christ taught; "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment" (Matthew 5: 21, 22). It is not enough merely to refrain from murder externally, but man must reject hatred and unrighteous anger from his mind. "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5: 27, 28). It is not merely actions of the body that' are to be shunned, but intentions as well. The emphasis of Christian doctrine is on internal things of the mind and heart, on the cleansing of the inside of the cup and the platter.
Any Jew who was willing to think deeply could see that this new doctrine did not do away with the law, but actually made it full by revealing its inner purpose and spirit. He was therefore free to recognize that the day of the Lord was at hand, and to receive Him with joy and thanksgiving.
That the Lord fulfilled the prophets was even more apparent. Was He not born of a virgin in Bethlehem? Did He not come up out of Egypt? Did He not ride into Jerusalem a King? And was He not hated without a cause, led as a lamb to the slaughter, rejected of men, and, as Jonah the prophet had represented, resurrected on the third day? Anyone who sincerely compared the life of Christ with the Old Testament could see that He literally became the Word in the flesh. The direct evidence is convincing; the indirect overwhelming. For once the mind was affirmative to His coming - that He was indeed the promised Messiah - His presence throughout Scripture became increasingly obvious. Once the mind was disposed to accept the First Coming of the Lord, it could travel with Him to Emmaus and hear Him beginning at Moses and the prophets expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24: 27).
And as if this evidence was not enough, the Lord told men directly who He was. In Nazareth, after reading from the prophet Isaiah, He put down the book saying: "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4: 21). To the woman of Samaria who knew that when the Christ should come He would tell all things, He said: "I that unto thee am He" (John 4: 26). The leaders of the Jews were shocked and enraged when the Lord identified Himself with Jehovah God, who spoke to Moses at the burning bush and called, Himself "I Am." For "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 58). And He led His disciples to know Him as the way, the truth, and the Life - one with the Father, their Lord and their God.
But because the Jews were so external, because they could not lift their minds to the inner fulfillment of Scripture, because they were possessed by their own preconceived ideas of how the Christ would come, they failed to receive Him when He revealed Himself. Blinded by natural loves - the desire for wealth, power, and national salvation - they could not see the truth in human form nor open their minds to His spiritual salvation. For one brief moment on Palm Sunday, when the Lord seemed about to fulfill their earthly ambitions, they hailed Him as their king; but when they discovered that His kingdom was not of this world and that He came to save them from their own evil loves, they cried for His crucifixion. None but a remnant of the Jewish Church received the Lord at His first advent. "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (John 1: 10, 11).
For sincere Christians who await the second coming of the Lord, a clear understanding of His first advent can be most useful. For from a knowledge of how the Lord fulfilled the law and the prophets, how He revealed Himself directly, and how the Jews rejected Him because He did not cater to their preconceived ideas, Christians can be prepared to receive Him when He makes His second coming. This they can know with sureness, they must not look externally for this coming, but to the Spirit of Truth. They must not look for salvation from national calamity, but for a truth which can save them from their own evils. They must seek for a new doctrine - one that unveils the inner content of the Ten Commandments and presents a new fulfillment of the law. They must see through the "letter that killeth" to the "spirit that giveth life." They can expect the Lord to reveal Himself in His own way and so not be blinded by their preconceptions of how and when He will come. And finally, they can expect Him to identify Himself when He comes - to state that this is His coming, and to invite all to receive Him and to enter His New Church.
A mind so conditioned and prepared, a mind willing to examine the claims of a New Christianity in the light of Scripture, is a mind prepared to accept the Lord as He reveals Himself in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. For all the requirements of New Testament prophecy are fulfilled by this new doctrine. The Writings given from God out of heaven, that is, revealed through a mind ordered and elevated to receive Divine truth directly from the Lord, tell the "many things" the disciples could not bear. They are a revelation of spiritual truth which relates to all truth. They do not speak of their human author, but of things heard and seen. And they show us things to come - the world of the human spirit as it lives here and in eternity.
As the Lord at His coming fulfilled the law, in His new coming He unfolds Christianity in its fullness - the inner laws of the human spirit in its body as it lives in this world and in the world to come. Whereas the Old Testament was seen in an entirely distinctive light from the New, so both the Old and the New Testaments shine with meaning when viewed from the interior light of rational truth in the Writings.
The Old Testament law condemns murder and the New the anger that is its cause. The Heavenly Doctrine enters more interiorly into the commandments and reveals layer within layer of meaning. It shows how the commandments apply naturally in our external relations with men, bow they apply spiritually in our relations with the eternal minds and spirits of men, and celestially in our relation to our God, the Lord. We learn from the work called the True Christian Religion that "not to kill... also means not to inflict any deadly harm on it person's name... In a broader natural sense [it] means enmity, hatred and revenge... In the spiritual sense, murder means all the devious modes of killing and destroying the souls of men... of turning them away from God, religion, and Divine worship by insinuating scandalous thoughts against these... Such murderers are all the devils and satans in hell," whose states are described fully, elsewhere in the Writings. "In the celestial sense to kill means to be rashly angry with the Lord, to hate Him, and to wish to blot out His name. It is said of such that they crucify the Lord, and this they would do, as the Jews did, if He were to come again into the world as before" (no. 311).
That the Heavenly Doctrine is a new law is further evident from its treatment of the Seventh Commandment. The Old Testament forbade adultery in act, the New in thought. The Writings enlarge on these teachings showing that the intention of a lust is a spiritual deed. Man is not made chaste merely by abstaining from doing, but by abstaining from willing because it is a sin against God. So far as anyone abstains from adulteries merely for external reasons - from fear of the law and of reputation or "on account of some natural or moral law, and not at the same time on account of spiritual law, he is nevertheless inwardly an adulterer" (TCR 316). Such a one believes that adulteries are not sins, and therefore in spirit he commits them, even if he does not commit them in the body; and in consequence, when after death he becomes a spirit, he speaks openly in favor of them. In the spiritual sense "to commit adultery" means to adulterate the goods of the Word and to falsify its truths. This is done by those who deny and profane the holiness of the Word, and ridicule all things of the church and of religion, which are from the Word (see TCR 316, 314, 315). Commandment after commandment is unfolded as to its inner meanings, as a law of the human spirit, an eternal law of life. Neither the Old Testament nor the New is repudiated by the Heavenly Doctrine. Both are made full and complete. Their inconsistencies and mysteries are rationally explained.
These rational truths would have been beyond the grasp of the disciples and of the primitive Christian Church. Their minds could not have comprehended them. How could men understand spiritual law who had no real conception of natural law? How could men who knew little about the consistencies of order by which the Lord rules the external world ever have grasped the consistencies of order by which the internal world of the mind and spirit are governed? As the individual man is prepared by growth to understand things naturally, so the human race had to advance to an age of rationality before the Lord could reveal Himself plainly. "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:12).
Christians who look for an external coming of the Lord, like the Jews who expected an earthly king, will look in vain. The Word has already been made flesh. To repeat this miracle would be useless. The Lord has already come into the world and glorified His Human, and this for all time. What is needed, and what the Writings provide, is an interior understanding of the First Advent - of the New Testament and of the Old which it fulfilled.
The Heavenly Doctrine fulfills New Testament prophecy to the least detail, but not in an external way. The Lord has not come in physical clouds. There has been no cosmic disturbance in which the sun was darkened and the moon's light dimmed. The stars have not tumbled from their appointed places in the external world. Yet what about the world of the human spirit? Who would say that the sun of love to the Lord has not been darkened? Who does not recognize that the moon of genuine faith in the Lord scarcely shines among men? Who is not aware that the stars of heaven-the knowledges of good and truth in the Word have fallen from importance in our modern world? And who does not realize that the literal Word of the Old and New Testaments is full of mysteries which men do not understand - that it is veiled in clouds? It is to unfold these mysteries of faith, it is to show the living spirit, the consistent threads of truth within the letter, that the spiritual sense has now been revealed. "This revelation is what is meant by the second coming of the Lord" (AE 641). The scribe of the Second Advent teaches that "in order that the Lord might be continuously present with me, He has unfolded to me the spiritual sense of His Word, wherein is Divine truth in its very light, and it is in this light that He is continually present. For His presence in the Word is by means of the spiritual sense and in no other way; through the light of this sense He passes into the obscurity of the literal sense, which is like what takes place when the light of the sun in day-time is passing through an interposing cloud. The sense of the letter of the Word is like a cloud, and the spiritual sense is the glory, the Lord Himself being the sun from which the light comes, and thus the Lord is the Word" (TCR 780).
That an inspired revelation can be the Lord with man is because the Lord is the Word. Even as the real man is his spiritual qualities of love and wisdom, his will, purposes and thoughts, in "like manner, but in a preeminent degree the Lord is Divine love and Divine wisdom" (TCR 778). Thus "whether you say, 'the Lord' or 'the Divine truth' it is the same, since all Divine truth is from Him, and therefore He Himself is in it" (AE 411). This makes clear why the Lord said of His new revelation that it should both testify of Him and that He should come by means of it.
The Lord on earth openly identified Himself. In the Heavenly Doctrine He plainly states His coming: "This revelation is [what is] meant by the second coming of the Lord," He teaches in the Apocalypse Explained (no. 641): "This immediate revelation is the advent of the Lord," we are taught in the treatise on the Athanasian Creed. The most direct declaration was written by command on all copies of the Heavenly Doctrine in the spiritual world and on two volumes in this. Here the Lord says: "This book, is the Advent of the Lord, written by command" (Auto-graphed by Swedenborg on the flyleaf of the Summaria Expositio).
The direct evidence is convincing. The indirect - the manifold teachings about the spirit of man, the spiritual sense of the Word, and about the Lord Jesus Christ - is overwhelming!
"Who in the Christian world," the Writings ask, "could ever have known anything about heaven and hell, had it not pleased the Lord to open the sight of some one's spirit and show and teach him?" (TCR 851). Who would know anything about the spiritual sense of the Word as a consistent thread of meaning within all the Scriptures? Who would know anything about the creation of the natural universe from the spiritual sun? Who would know anything about the origin of evil and why evil is permitted by a merciful God? Who would know anything about the laws of the Divine Providence by which the Lord rules the human race, the inner purposes of creation, and the modes by which those purposes are carried out? And who would really know the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth, who has not left us comfortless but has come and revealed Himself in the fullness of rational truth so that we can enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith, and so that a New Christianity, a spiritual Christianity, may be established among men?
We must distinguish between the presence of the Lord and His coming. Of this distinction we read: "The Lord's presence is unceasing with every man, both the evil and the good, for without His presence no man lives; but His coming is only to those who receive Him, who are such as believe in Him and keep His commandments" (TCR 774). That all may believe in Him, and this from an interior sight of His truth, that all may receive Him and keep His commandments spiritually, He extends an "invitation to the whole Christian world to [His New] Church, and an exhortation that they receive the Lord worthily, who foretold that He would come into the world on account of [this church] and to it" (Summary of the Coronis LV). And in the heavens He has "called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world and . . , sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach [this] gospel, that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose Kingdom shall be for ages and ages" (TCR 791). Amen.
LESSONS: John 16: 12-33. Matthew 24: 29-51. TCR 777, 779.
True Christian Religion 777, 779
777. That the Lord is the Word can be clearly seen from the following in John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 14).
"The Word" means here Divine truth because Divine truth among Christians is from no other source than the Word, which is the fountain from which all churches bearing the name of Christ draw living waters in their fulness; and yet a church accepting the Word in its natural sense is, as it were, in a cloud, but one accepting it in its spiritual and celestial senses is in glory and power. That there are three senses in the Word, a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial, one within the other, has been shown in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture, and in the chapter on the Decalogue or Catechism. From all this it is clear that "the Word" in John means Divine truth. John also bears testimony to this in his first Epistle:
- We know that the Son of God hath come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ (1 John. 5:20).
- And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished out of their sight (Luke 24:31).
It is idle therefore, to believe that the Lord will appear in the clouds of heaven in Person; but He is to appear in the Word, which is from Him and therefore is Himself.
779. Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, as shown just above, and nevertheless has foretold that He was to come and establish a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man, who is able not only to receive these doctrines in his understanding but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward opened the eyes of my spirit and thus introduced me into the spiritual world and granted me to see the heavens and the hells, and to talk with angels and spirits, and this now continuously for several years, I affirm in truth; as also that from the first day of that call I have not received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while I have read the Word.
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