Distinctiveness of the New Church
by Rev. Carl Th. Odhner
NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXI. JULY, 1901. No. 7
IN view of certain doubts that have been newly
raised in regard to the Distinctiveness of the New Church, as well as in view
also of the constant recurrence of ancient objections, it seems useful to
consider anew the reasons for the faith that is within us in respect to the
existence of the Lord's New Church as a visible or organized body, distinct
from the Old Church and separate from it in all things, external as well as
internal. We propose, therefore, to review the various ways in which this most
important subject has been understood by the men of the New Church, and to
present as fully as we can the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New
Jerusalem regarding the present and future conditions and whereabouts both of
the Old and the New Christian Church,--how, when, and where the latter is to be
established, and why it exists and continually must exist distinct and separate
from the former, not only in Doctrine, but also in worship and in life.
THE
TEMPTATIONS OF THE NEW CHURCH
It was foretold in the Apocalypse that the
"Woman with the Man-child" would be persecuted by the Dragon for
"a time, and times, and the half of a time," and we have surely
witnessed the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy. A hard and bitter
struggle for bare existence,--for a mere foothold upon the earth,-such has been
the history of the Lord's New Church from its beginning up to the present time,
and such it may still be for ages to come. Water as a flood has been spewed out
to swallow the Church and the Man-child within her, the genuine Doctrine of
Truth. But whence have these "waters" come? Not from the Dragon in
the Old Church round about us, for his attempts from that direction have been
but few and feeble, and his tail was soon cast down. But it is from the Dragon in our own midst,
in the false understandings and the evil wills of ourselves as struggling
members of the New Church,--it is from these hiding-places that the real
infestations have come upon the Church. From the Old Church without us we have
sustained but little damage, but it is from our own selves, from the enemies
within our own households, that we have had and still have everything to fear. It is the members of the New Church that have
made the struggles of the Church so bitter, by their refusal to yield to the
Church a secure foothold in the natural world, or even a place of refuge in the
wilderness.
Speaking for the Church as a whole, and from some
knowledge of its history, we cannot but confess that we have been pouring out
upon the Doctrine of Truth, almost incessantly, such a stream of perversions,
heresies, and falsities that it is a wonder the Church has survived. The
verdict is based on mournful facts, and the evidence is as singular as it is
incontrovertible; for never in the ecclesiastical history of mankind has any
new and small religious community exhibited so many and so radical perversions
of its Doctrines, in so brief a period, as has the New Church in the Christian
world. The members of the early Christian Church, during the first century of
its existence, cannot be compared with us in the wealth of perversions, for the
heresies in the Apostolic Church can be counted on the fingers, whereas among
professed "Swedenborgians" they can scarcely be numbered. This is
cause for humiliation and repentance, indeed, but not for discouragement, for
it proves that there is still something living within the New Church, something
which Hell considers worthy of its attention; for, in spite of all this, the
love of the Divine Truth is still alive within the Church.
The New Church is essentially an internal Church,
and her temptations, therefore, are necessarily internal, coming from within
rather than from without. Nevertheless they are severe only in proportion as
they are at the same time external, or as they concern the external of life as
well as the internal of doctrine. It is especially the life of the Church and
the Doctrine of Life that has been and is being assaulted, and as the whole of
faith and the whole of life is most externally and collectively ultimated in
the organized and visible body of the Church, we cannot wonder that the efforts
of the Dragon have thus far been directed chiefly against the distinctiveness
of the New Church.
Distinctiveness, indeed, is merely a matter of
boundaries, of ultimate discriminating lines of thought and action, which to
many have appeared too external to be worthy of much consideration. Yet in ultimates resides all power, and if the Dragon were only able to break down the
distinctive ultimates, the walls and bulwarks of the New Jerusalem, his filthy
crew would soon lead into captivity the men of the Golden City. Against the
distinctiveness of the New Church, therefore, he has raged from the beginning,
and against it he is still plotting and planning, but now appearing mostly in
angelic garb, with honeyed phrases of toleration, charity, and universal
brotherhood.
AN
HISTORICAL VIEW
In the early Christian Church the first internal
temptation was in regard to the distinctiveness of the Church, and the attack
came through some of the most worthy members of the infant Church;-nay, some if
not most of the Apostles themselves seem to have entertained, at first, the
idea that Christianity was but Judaism reformed, that the Christians were not
to separate themselves outwardly from the Jewish establishment, but to continue
to worship in the ancient temple, and retain the whole Mosaic ceremonial law. Bitter experiences soon taught them how futile was the hope that the light of
Christianity might permeate and reform Judaism, and the efforts of the Church
now turned to the more receptive fields of the Gentile world. Still there were
those whom no experience could teach, and sects of Judaizing Christians
remained for several centuries, active only in condemning their brethren who
had left the Jewish corruption.
Thus also, after the Second Coming of the Lord,
some of the first apostles of the New Church in Sweden and in England fondly
cherished the delusion that the Heavenly Doctrines would; be speedily received
by the clergy of the Old Christian Church, and that thus the New Church would
be established by an internal reformation within the Old, and this without
noise and combat. These first receivers were persons of learning and position,
many of them distinguished clergymen in the established churches, cautious
disciples who, for fear of the Jews, "came to Jesus in the night,"
honorable men enough, according to their light, but perhaps not made of the stuff
of martyrs. They were willing enough to
form and to join private "societies of gentlemen" for the publication
of anonymous translations of the Writings of "the Hon. Baron"
Swedenborg, but when, in these very societies, the proposition was first made
to separate from the Old Church in external worship as well as in internal
faith, then these brethren took offense, remonstrating and protesting with
increasing vigor against the measures of the more outspoken members, who, in
general, were from the humbler strata of society.
Thus began the first great struggle within the
New Church, the controversy between the "separatists" and the
"non-separatists," whose discussions fill the pages of the earliest
journals and pamphlets of our Church; the non-Separatists accusing the others
of narrow-minded and intolerant sectarianism, and protesting that "the
Hon. Baron" had never "contemplated" any such thing as
separation from the mother Church. The "separatists," on the other
hand, replied that they could not be guided by Swedenborg's supposed personal
contemplations but only by the dictates of their own conscience as formed by
the plain declarations in the Writings, from which they furnished long lists of
luminous passages-which, however, were explained away by their more learned
opponents. The non-separatists apparently carried off the palm of victory, with
the result that, towards the end of the eighteenth century, there seemed to be
nothing left of the New Church in England, as was regretfully observed by even
the leaders of the opposition to the separation from the Old Church.
Nevertheless there remained in a few places
struggling and silent little societies of humble receivers, who were willing to
be looked down upon as contemptible sectarians rather than to lose the
privilege of worshiping openly the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God. Little by
little these societies increased and took heart again, until they dared to
renew their long interrupted general conferences. But as the Church in Great
Britain now began to grow in wealth and "respectability," and as the
Old Church gradually assumed a more tolerant and even patronizing attitude to
the quiet little "sect" of Swedenborgians, it began to be unpopular
to attack or oppose or even to allude to the "Old Church" in any way
whatever. The laity demanded less
doctrinal sermons, and the ministers of the New Church became more and more
fond of "exchanging pulpits" with those of the Old; thus the
fraternal feeling for the Old Church has kept on growing, until now each indication
of a breaking down of the line of demarcation is hailed with joy in the English
New Church journals, while any daring reminder that "the Old Church is
dead as to doctrine" is frowned down with severe displeasure.
In our own country the history of the issue has
been different to some extent, but with the same general results. Here we had
no venerable and awe-inspiring Established Church to contend with; nor were
there many Old Church clergymen among the first receivers of the Heavenly
Doctrines in America. Most of the new receivers seem to have come from the
Methodists and Calvinists, from which bodies it was more easy to break away, as
they themselves were nothing but "dissenting sects." Fearless and
sturdy societies of the Church were thus established in various centers in this
free young nation, and the necessity of the external distinctiveness of the New
Church seems to have been taken for granted. Planted in a freer soil, the New
Church in America seems to have developed from the beginning on a more internal
plane than in Europe, and when the inevitable hour of temptation arrived,--in
the middle of the past century,--it came in the guise of very internal
considerations indeed.
Again the infestation came through the medium of
Old Church clergymen who had received the general Doctrines of the New Church,
and who even had openly united with our external organization. They reasoned
thus: Since the time of the Last Judgment there is but one Church in the
spiritual world--the New Church, established triumphant in the New Heaven. This
New Heaven is now connected With and operating upon all the good in the
Christian world, who, also by virtue of the Last Judgment, are now in a freer
condition of thought and of reception of the truth. Now, since truth is
received only in good, and since it is perfectly evident that goodness is
vastly increasing in the Christian world, and since, moreover, all our thoughts
and ideas are from the spiritual world alone, it follows that the New Heaven by
immediate influx into all good Christians, but especially into the minds of the
clergy, is inspiring them with the truths of the new dispensation, almost
without their noticing the grand changes of thought, and thus is establishing
the real New Church in the midst of the magnificent ecclesiasticisms of what
used to be the Old Church.
THE "PREMEATION THEORY"
Thus, by a chain of specious reasonings, and by a
thousand confirmations from the wonderful material progress of the age, members
of the New Church developed what is known as the "Permeation-theory." Week after week, and year after year this phantastic but glittering air-castle
has been exhibited before the astonished congregations of the New Church, until
now the very palladium of the New Church in this country is the precious
conviction that the New Jerusalem is surely and rapidly descending into the
Protestant Churches, with or without the assistance of Swedenborg's Writings;
and that it is but a question of a comparatively brief time when the grand procession
of Protestant Christendom,-the larger and universal New Church
everywhere,-shall have caught up with the advance-guard of our own conservative
and rather conceited little sect of Swedenborgians. Then, when this glorious
moment has arrived, there will no longer be any need of our separate
organization, or, indeed, of our special Revelation, except as a very luminous
and helpful though somewhat antiquated commentary on the Bible, as revised
perhaps by the "Higher Criticism."
Thus the men of the New
Church at this day are still "dreaming the dream of the ages," the
dream that obsessed our ancestors in the Church a century ago. Thus the same
question that occupied the attention of our great-grandfathers is still being
debated: whether there are any really valid reasons for the existence of the
New Church as an organization separate from the religious world round about us. Far from decreasing in volume and intensity, the doubt is becoming more and
more general, as the Christian world day by day is presenting a more pleasing
aspect to the superficial observer, while the organized New Church each year is
presenting a more and more discouraging table of statistics. If the incessant
representations of leaders in the New Church are correct; if the world at large
is actually becoming the real and greater New Jerusalem,--why, indeed, should
not the rank and file listen to those who ought to know best, take them
consistently at their word, and join that great and brilliant throng which
smilingly invites us to "Come out of that narrow little sect,"
"Come out of those steep, forbidding walls of antiquated
doctrine,"--to unite in the worship of the "Fatherhood of
God"--the invisible and unimaginable God,--and in the "brotherhood of
men"--the men who glory in their indifference to any faith or to any
spiritual truth.
Thus the Dragon is echoing
the cry of our God: "Come out of her, my people!" Come out of what? Come out of the only Church in this world that uphold the sole Divinity of the
Lord Jesus Christ and maintains the worship of Him alone? Come out of the only
body in the world that now maintains the integrity, infallibility and absolute
holiness of the Word of God, and the life which is of true charity, the life
which consists of the shunning of evil? Scarcely; scarcely! That is the voice
of Satan, not of God! It is the very opposite that is meant by the Divine
command, "Come out of her, My people!" Come out of her that worships
three gods or no god! Come out of her that is tearing the Word of God to pieces
by ancient perversions and modern criticisms! Come out of her that is teaching
that salvation is attainable by faith-alone, or by good works alone, without
repentance, without the shunning of evil before the doing of good! Come out of
her, My people!
"INTERPRETATIONS" VERSUS PLAIN
DOCTRINE
Now, whatever may be the cause of all these
misconceptions respecting the whereabouts of the New Church, the fault
certainly does not lie in the New Revelation, which is clear and explicit
enough on the subject. It is our intention to present here a summary of the
teachings of this Revelation on this long-mooted question. These teachings have
been brought out before, over and over again, but cannot be brought out too
often nor in too great an abundance, in order to show that the Writings really
do teach the distinctiveness of the New Church. And in so doing it seems
necessary to call attention to the plain fact that the doctrine concerning the
distinctiveness of the New Church is not a mere matter of opinion, nor of our
own understanding or "interpretation" of the Heavenly Doctrines,--as
is continually suggested by those who doubt the existence of any absolute
standard of Truth. The New Church does
not depend for its doctrine upon the notions or interpretations of this or that
man or of this or that "school of thought;" for the Revelation which
the Lord in His Second Coming has given to the New Church is not written in
hieroglyphics or enigmas, but is addressed in simple, definite, and self-interpreting
language to the rational understanding of all men who have ears to hear. The
Theology of the New Church is a Science, the most exact, systematic and logical
of all sciences; and in order to learn the full import of any one of its
general doctrines we simply need to study this scientific Revelation,
systematically and without prejudice, collecting as far as is possible all that
has been revealed on any special subject, comparing one teaching with another,
permitting the general teachings to interpret the particular ones, and thus
draw logically demonstrable conclusion as to the whole. When this is done we do
not interpret the Doctrines, or intrude our own notions into them, but the Lord
Himself interprets them for us, and thus, against our own prejudices and recalcitrant
self-will, it is actually possible for us to learn the Lord's Truth and the
Lord's merciful will, for the redemption of our understandings and for the
subjugation of our self-will. Were this not the case, we would be helpless
indeed!
WHAT AND
WHERE IS THE NEW CHURCH?
First, then, what do the Writings teach as to the
meaning of the word "Church?" The answer to this is plain: "The
Church is the Lord's Kingdom on earth,"* and "the Lord's Kingdom is
the reception of the Divine Good and the Divine Truth."** The New Church,
therefore, is the new reception of the Divine Good and Truth,--or the reception
of that which the Lord has newly communicated to men on earth. And since the
Divine of the Lord, which makes the Church, is communicated to men by no other
means than the revelation of the Divine, it follows that the New Church is
nothing else than the reception of the New Divine Revelation. And as this New
Divine Revelation has been effected through the medium of the inspired servant
of the Lord, Emanuel Swedenborg, it follows further that the New Church means
simply the reception of the Heavenly Doctrines revealed by the Lord in the
inspired Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
* Arcana Coelestia, 2928
** Apocalypse Explained, 683
This is the plain and
common-sense answer to the question: what is meant by the New Church? It is the
answer which any New Churchman will give at once, unless he has been obscured
by the notion that the Heavenly Doctrines are possibly communicated through
some other channels than the Writings of Swedenborg,--that they are being
instilled into the clergy of the Old Church by some kind of immediate influx or
inspiration of truth from the New Heaven, or that the good people in the
Christian world everywhere are being taught these new Doctrines through an
immediate perception while reading the Letter of the Word. In either case the
Writings of Swedenborg would be quite superfluous, for in either case every
good man would be another Swedenborg, an inspired revelator and discloser of
the Spiritual Sense of the Word, enjoying open communication with the inmost
heaven and the personal manifestation of the Lord Himself. And in either case Swedenborg would
be telling a falsehood when he testifies,--"that the manifestation
of the Lord and the intromission into the Spiritual world surpasses all
miracles. This has not been granted to any person, except to me, since the time
of creation." *
* Invitation to the New Church, no. 52
Now, since those who reason about a possible
establishment of the New Church independent of the Writings of Swedenborg have
gained their very first idea about the existence of a New Church from no other
source than those very Writings, they cannot but respect the testimony of Swedenborg
as to where the New Revelations is to be found. And that testimony is so
unanimous that it is truly surprising that any doubt should exist.
Out of the abundance of statements to the effect
that the Doctrines of the New Church are revealed in the inspired Writings of
Swedenborg, and are to be found in them alone, we need to adduce only the
following:
The Second Coming of the Lord is effected by
means of a man, before whom He has manifested Himself in Person, and whom He
has filled with His Spirit, to teach the Doctrines of the New Church, through
the Word, from Him.*
* True Christian Religion, no. 779
That this "man" was none other than
Emanuel Swedenborg is shown beyond peradventure further on in the same number. And again:
The New Church is not
instaurated and established through miracles, but through the revelation of the
Spiritual Sense, and through the introduction of my spirit and at the same time
my body into the spiritual world.*
* Invitation to N. C., vii
Lest, therefore, the man of the New Church like
the man of the Old Church, should wander in the shade, it has pleased the Lord
to open the sight of my spirit.*
* True Christian Religion, n. 771
It will be noticed that "the man of the New
Church" is here identified with him who reads and accepts the Writings of
Swedenborg. Equally definite is Swedenborg's letter to Oetinger, where he
testifies that the New Church will come only in the proportion that the old
doctrines are extirpated, and that this will be brought about "through
this work."* (Brief Exposition), and that after the appearance of The True
Christian Religion the Lord would "operate both mediately and immediately
towards the establishment, throughout Christendom, of a New Church, based on
this Theology."**
* Documents ii, 274
** Documents ii., 383
This last passage has been understood to teach
that the Lord, by influencing the disposition of all in Christendom, would
immediately establish the New Church everywhere, but we know that the Lord does
not force the will of any one, either by violence or by coaxing. But by His
immediate operation he sets men free to receive the Truth, if they are willing
to receive it, but by His mediate operation He teaches the Truth, through His
written revelation, to those who are willing.
That no one can enter the Lord's New Church
except by the gateway of knowledge and faith, openly and consciously gained
through the new written Revelation, is clear from the following teachings:
"And over the gates twelve angels,"
signifies the knowledges by which man is introduced into the Church, and guards
lest anyone should enter into the New Church, unless he be in these knowledges
from the Lord.*
* Apocalypse Revealed, n. 903
Those who have confirmed with themselves the
faith of the Old Church, cannot, except with great danger to their spiritual
life, embrace the faith of the New Church, unless they have first disproved,
one by one, and thus have extirpated the former faith with its dogmas.*
* Brief Exposition, n. 103-4
How these
"knowledges" can be gained, and how this severe intellectual
repentance is to be effected, except by the direct study of the Writings of the
New Church, let those tell who can. But these Writings, or the Doctrines
revealed in these Writings, are not only the sole gateway into the New Church
on earth, but equally so into the New Church above, for these Doctrines are the
only Doctrines of Heaven, and the Writings exist there as well as on earth:--
Hereafter no one comes into Heaven, unless he is
in the Doctrine of the New Church as to faith and life.*
* Canons, Trinity, viii
No one comes into the New Church, thus no one is
hereafter received into Heaven, except he who acknowledges God, one in Person
and in Essence, in whom is the Trinity, thus the Lord; and unless by some
combat he removes and shuns evils as sins.*
* Last Judgment (posth), n. 352
This means nothing less than the reception of the
Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord. But finally, to remove all
doubt, we read the following in the work On the Athanasian Creed:-
When the [Christian] Church was being established
by the Lord, the primary thing was to acknowledge and receive Him: that He is
the one of whom the Word of the Old Testament treats: that He is God, and hath
all power. The case is similar at the present day, when the New Church is being
established, which is called the New Jerusalem, and when its Doctrine is being
taught: the primary thing is to know and believe that the Lord is the only God,
from whom is all salvation. It is for this that this is now being taught; this
is the reason for the present work, for without this faith no one comes into
the New Church or receives anything from its doctrine; consequently after this
no one can be saved without this faith. For henceforth it is not allowable to
believe in three equal gods and to say one, nor to think of the Human of the
Lord as separate from the Divine, as is done by so many.*
* Athanasian Creed, n. 213
It does not seem possible that stronger evidence
can be required in order to prove that the New Church means nothing more and
nothing less than the conscious reception, in faith and in life, of the
Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and that this Doctrine is revealed and
is to be found nowhere else than in the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. And as there call be no reception except by the people who receive,
it follows that the New Church exists nowhere else than among those men and
women who have actually received these Writings. For we are taught that "by the Church
which is called the 'Bride,' is not meant those who are in falses of faith, but
the Church consisting of those who are in the truths of faith,"* that is
"those who are able to receive the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,"**
and, ultimately and definitely, those who actually have received it.
* Apocalypse Revealed, no. 955
** Apocalypse Revealed, n. 88
These alone, therefore, constitute the New
Jerusalem on earth or in Heaven, for these alone have entered through the gate
and are dwelling in the Holy City, either as to their understanding or as to
their will. There is no other gate into this sheepfold than the revealed
Doctrine of the New Church received in the rational understanding. He who would
enter through some other way, whether by "influx," or
"perception," or "permeation," or natural goodness, he is
"a thief and a robber."
This Doctrine, as stated in a universal summary
in the preface to the True Christian Religion--"the Faith of the New
Heaven and of the New Church in a Universal form"--is there declared to be
the "gate by which there is entrance into the temple,"* and the
collective whole of all those who have thus entered,--whether known to one
another or not,--constitutes the Lord's Universal New Church. But the simple
good in the Christian world and the members of the Lord's Universal Church among the
Gentiles, who have not yet received these Doctrines, cannot yet be said to be
members of the New Church. They are not yet within the city of the New
Jerusalem but are on the way to it. The gates are open to them, night and day,
and they will all enter in, when they are really,--either in this world or in
the world to come.
* True Christian Religion, n. 1
THE GOOD IN THE OLD CHURCH
But, it has been asked, Are we not Apocalypse
Revealed, that all those in the Christian world who have religion, i. e., those
who do good and who love truth, constitute "the Universal New Church"
in all its varieties, as signified by "the Seven Churches which are in
Asia,"* to whom the New Revelation is addressed? Is not every good
man essentially a New Churchman? Yea, we
know that prominent teachers in the New Jerusalem have set forth this idea, and
have even taught that since the Church is the Church essentially from good, and
since the New Church is now the only Church, therefore the essential New
Church, the New Church in an essential and celestial sense and potency, is
constituted of all those everywhere who are in the good of life.
* Apocalypse Revealed, n. 66
This is supposed to be a
most comforting conception, broadening our view, delivering us from the narrow
bonds of sectarianism and exclusiveness, and enabling us to mingle with our
fellow men with the feeling that every good man is really, though
unconsciously, a brother and fellow member of the Lord's New Church. (On the
other hand it enables us to look down upon professed New Churchmen with the
feeling that they are only members of the external Church, and that, though
they may be away in advance intellectually, still they cannot claim our
sympathy in the same degree as the "celestial" members of the New
Church in the grand world at large!)
Now, we might remain in this idea, if we were to
stop our inquiry at the introductory statement in the Apocalypse Revealed, n.
66, and shut our eyes to the numerous teachings which qualify it and explain
its meaning. But if we continue our investigation we will find that "the
Seven Churches" have a two-fold signification and a two-fold application. They describe first the spiritual condition of those who will be of the New
Church, but are not yet actually of it; and secondly, the spiritual condition
of these same, after they have received the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, thus
when they are not only potentially but also actually members of the Lord's New
Church.
For in the introduction to each of the chapters
in the Apocalypse Explained which describe the Seven Churches we are told that
these are the ones who are "invited" and "called" to the
New Church; but surely they cannot be said to be actual members of that Church
until they have had an opportunity to accept the invitation and the call. And
again we are taught that by the Seven Churches are meant, "those in the
Christian world who accede to the Church,"* i. e., who approach and draw
near to it,--those, therefore, who are not yet within it. And these persons are further defined as
"those who will be of the New Church on the earth,"**--"those
who are in falsities as to doctrine, but who, provided they are not in
falsities from evil, will receive the truths of the New Church and will
acknowledge them,"***--thus, in general, "all in Christendom who are
able to receive the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,"**** and "from
whom the New Church can be formed."***** These are the ones who are
exhorted in the Revelation to "hold fast that which they have" until
the Lord comes, that is, "to retain and live according to the few things
which they know from the Word concerning charity and faith, until the New
Church is formed."****** These persons, therefore, constitute the
Universal New Church in a potential sense only, but not in any actual sense
whatever; for a prophecy does not become an actuality until it is fulfilled.
* Apocalypse Revealed, n. 10, 43
** A. R., 70
*** Ibid, 183
**** Ibid, 88
***** Ibid, 69
****** Ibid, 145
It is absolutely necessary to rational thought to
discriminate between what is potential and what is actual. Potentially the
Divine Human of the Lord has existed from eternity, but what a difference to us
men between this and the human actually assumed in the world and glorified!
Potentially the New Church also has existed from eternity, in the eternal
counsel of the Divine Providence, but actually only after the Lord had effected
and had been received in His Second Advent! Potentially every man who is
willing to be saved is an angel, but what a difference between angels and the
poor, sinful members of the militant Church on earth!
It will not do, therefore, to apply the name of
"New Churchmen" to those who are still in utter ignorance of the
fundamental truths of the New Church,--men who have not yet become the
disciples of the Lord in His Second Advent,--men who still are in the
fallacious appearances of the Literal Sense and who have not yet the faintest
conception of the glories of the Internal Word. And though these simple good
Christians are said to be in "the good of religion," yet it is plain
that their good can be measured only by the truth which they possess. They
cannot be expected to do better than they know. But though their desire for
better things is genuine, still, as a matter of fact, neither the good nor the
truth with them is as yet genuine and spiritual, since they are not yet in the
truths of the Spiritual Sense of the Word, and therefore cannot yet be in the
good of spiritual truth. It is these
persons that are described in the Word as "spirits bound," and as
"souls under the altar,"--spirits who are still in the Lower Earth,
in the sphere of Hell, dominated as yet by the imaginary heavens of the Old
Church in this world,--men who are seeking for the Truth, longing for
Redemption, and anxiously awaiting the Lord. Potentially, in spe, in a future
sense, these are of the Lord's Universal New Church; actually, they are in the
vastated and consummated Church, although internally still members or remnants
of the primitive Christian Church.
Concerning these good and simple-hearted
Christians we are told that--"after death they reject the doctrine of the
present Church. . . .
and convert themselves to the Lord God the Savior, and with
pleasure imbibe those things which are of the New Church,"* and
again,--"All who have led a life of charity, and still more those who have
loved truth, in the Spiritual world suffer themselves to be instructed, and
they accept the doctrinal things of the New Church."** And these future
New Churchmen, "before they have accepted the Doctrine of the New Church,
are likened to trees that bear good fruit, although but little, and also to
trees that bear excellent small fruit. . . . In Heaven these are clothed with raiments of a red color; and after initiation into the goods of the New Church
they are clothed with raiments of a purple color, which acquire a beautiful
yellow glow as they receive truths also."***
* True Christian Religion, n. 536
** Ibid, 799
*** Ibid, 537
THE
INVISIBLE CHURCH NOT OUTSIDE THE VISIBLE CHURCH
There are those who reason that since truth is
visible, but good invisible, therefore the visible New Church consists of the
open receivers of the New Revelation, but the invisible New Church consists of
all good men, universally,--thus forgetting that the invisible Church resides
within the visible Church, and not outside of it, even as the soul resides
within the body, and not outside of it. This applies to the Church Universal as
well as to the genuine Church. These truths constitute the external or visible part of
the Church Universal with them, whereas those who are also in good according to
these truths, constitute the invisible or internal part of the Church
Universal. Even so in the New Church. Those who possess the faith of the New
Church constitute the visible New Church, but among these believers those who
are in good according to these and Spiritual truths constitute the invisible
New Church, and are the only real and genuine members of the New Church,--but
who these are, the Lord alone knows. Their good, however, is very different
from the good of simple Christians, and the still more simple and external good
of the Gentiles, for it is spiritual good, resulting from the victory of
spiritual truth in spiritual temptations. So much so is this the case that we
are taught that those of the Church Universal in the other life do not dwell
together with those who are of the genuine Church, but separate from them, in
heavens of their own,--and this in spite of the fact that they have been
instructed after death in the general truths of the True Christian Religion.
(Arcana Caelestia, 925, 7975, 3778, 2049; Conjugial Love, 347)
THE LAST
JUDGMENT STILL CONTINUES
Others, reasoning from the fact of the Last
Judgment, maintain that since the Old Church is dead and judged, there is no
longer any Old Church in the world, but the New Church is the only Church in
existence. And, since the Church
Specific is the heart and lungs to the Church Universal, and since the heart
and lungs have been made new by the Last Judgment, therefore the body which
lives from the heart and lungs has been made new also, for, they maintain,
there cannot be a new heart in an old body. Whence it follows that the Church
Universal is identical with the Universal New Church!
It is, indeed, difficult to untangle this mass of
confused reasoning, but it is clear that it is based on a misconception as to
the immediate effects of the Last Judgment.
For the Last Judgment which took place in the
year 1757 was a judgment upon the Old Church, as it then existed, in the
spiritual world, not in the natural world. The imaginary heavens which were
then cast down were the accumulation of hypocritical Christians who had
occupied certain regions in the lowest heaven. These were then judged, and the
World of Spirits was cleared of their presence. But was this the final exit of
the Old Church in the spiritual world? No, for there were still wicked men
among Christians, and these, after death, immediately began to form colonies of
their own,--of brief duration, it is true, but they were still imaginary
heavens on a miniature scale. None of these colonies has been permitted to
remain more than about twenty years, we are told, yet new supply is abundant
and constant. This is what is meant by "the Dragon being cast down to the
earth," for this succession of draconic colonies is still continually
acting upon those on earth who are of the same evil and falsity as they
themselves.
But what is it that enables these dragons to
establish, even temporarily, their imaginary heavens? What but the appearance
of Christianity with which they surround themselves, and by which for
restricted periods they deceive the simple good! And what is it that causes
their downfall? What but the Divine Truth of the Heavenly Doctrines which the
angels bring to the simple, and which, by unmasking the evil, sets free the
good.
Now it is clear that if the Old Church still
exists in the spiritual world, and if the Judgment is not yet completed upon
it, but is constantly recurring, it is because the Old Church still exists in
the natural world, where the vastation and the Last Judgment are proceeding
still more slowly. And as in the other world, so here on earth, it maintains
itself solely by keeping up the appearance of religion and the external
functions of a Church, whereby the simple good are led to believe that it is
actually the true Christian Church. And
the Old Church will continue to do this, until it has openly rejected even the
external things of Christianity, and until the Judgment actually comes upon
each one of its members, i. e., when the Heavenly Doctrine is presented to and
rejected by every wicked Christian, and is presented to and accepted by every
good man in the Christian world. Then, and not before, there will be an end to
the Old Church.
THE DEATH OF THE OLD CHURCH NOT A
SUDDEN EVENT
No person with common sense will insist that the
Doctrine of the New Jerusalem has already been presented to all in the
Christian world, and that all have had an opportunity of either rejecting or
accepting it, for the mere existence of the Writings is as yet known to but a
few, and of these few there are still fewer that have any correct idea of their
contents. The Last Judgment, therefore, has barely begun to be effected in this
world, nor will it be completed for ages and ages to come. It is clear,
therefore, that the Old Christian Church still exists externally as a Church in
this world,--inwardly corrupt and moribund, dead as to the true spirit of
Christianity, hopelessly and inevitably dying even externally, but not yet
completely dead! Sick unto death at the root, rotten in stem and branch, the
ancient oak of the Christian Church still retains more or less intact the outer
and the inner bark, by which it is still able to clothe itself with verdure and
even to bear some fruit,--is able to remain still the appearance of spiritual
life.
And this "bark" is nothing else than
the Letter of the Word, which the Old Church still possesses and from which,
professedly, it still derives its teachings. As long as the Clergy of the Old
Church are able to keep up this profession, so long will they be able to persuade
the simple good to remain with them, and so long will they be able to perform
externally the functions of a Church Specific, i. e., of providing a medium of
conjunction between Heaven and Earth.
On the face of it, the Old Church is performing these
functions more actively than ever before, even as a tree often bears its
richest crops just before its death. For never before was the Christian world
more active than now in "charitable" work, in missions to the
heathen, and in the translation, publication, and distribution of the Letter of
the Word to all the ends of the earth, nor was that Letter ever studied more
minutely and extensively than at the present time. It is this increased external activity that
deceives so many New Churchmen into thinking that the true New Church is being
built up within the Old, by some invisible influx or agency.
THE
DISPLACEMENT OF THIS OLD CHURCH BY THE NEW, A GRADUAL PROCESS
But the worms that consumed the marrow are now
gnawing at the outer bark also, and in the degree that Skepticism and
"Higher Criticism" are effective in destroying the faith in the
Letter of the Word, in that proportion will the tree wither and its leaves
fall, nay, in that proportion will the highest form of civilization disappear
from the Christian world. Most devoutly we should pray that this disintegration
of external Christianity may not take place more rapidly than the simultaneous
organic increase of the visible New Church, for otherwise the simple good would
be left without a home and the Gentile world without a medium by which the
Letter of the Word may reach them. The signs of the times are alarming, indeed,
yet there is bound to come a re-action, before long, against the flood of
denial of the Word which just at present seems to be overwhelming the
Protestant Church. At any sate, the organized New Church is certainly not yet
ready to take over the external ecclesiastical uses which the Old Church is
still performing to the simple and to the heathen, as is shown most strikingly
by the doubtful attitude that New Churchmen assume toward the authority of the
New Revelation and as to the whereabouts of their own Church.
But, it may be asked, can there possibly be more
than one Specific Church or general dispensation on earth at one and the same
time! No! Essentially, internally, in the sight of Heaven and the Lord, there
can be but one genuine Church Specific at any one period, yet it is clear that
a remnant of the Old Church Specific is preserved while the New is being raised
up, and that the displacement is not a matter of a day or a year, but of
centuries and ages. For we are taught:
"It is provided by
the Lord that when a Church is ceasing to be, a New Church is being raised up,
and this at the same time; for without a Church somewhere on earth, the human
race would perish." (Arcana Caelestia, 2323; See also 4535, 10134)
This, while the Jewish Church is as dead
spiritually as dead can be, yet its blind faith in the Old Testament in the
Hebrew has been a medium sufficient to keep it alive externally as a sect or
religion for nearly two thousand years. And thus also we learn that even the
Ancient Church has not yet fully disappeared from the earth, although
internally and as a whole it was consummated and judged from five to ten
thousand years ago. And what is it that still preserves a fragment of the
Ancient Church among the tribes of Great Tartary? What but the fact that the
Ancient Word is still preserved there, and that worship is still conducted
there according to it. As the Lord regenerates man, so also He builds up His
Church. The old will, the old heart, is never reformed or regenerated, but a
new will, a new, clean heart, is created,--separated most distinctly from the
Old proprium, or the Old Church within him. But as regeneration is not effected
in a moment, but is the work of a life-time, so is the upbuilding of the true
Church the work of ages and ages. In the meantime, while the New is growing,
the Lord still is able to use the old proprium for the purpose of external
uses. He Permits man to act from mixed motives until the new will and the new
understanding has penetrated into and purified the external mind also. Thus, as
the Lord does not abolish the reign of the old states at once, neither is the
Old Church abolished at once. It is evident, therefore, that while the New
Church will increase to all eternity in this world, the Old Church--that is,
falsity and evil,--will be decreasing in the same proportion, yet never totally
ceasing to exist. The Last Judgment, which began in 1757, will therefore be
continued as long as there still are evil men to be separated from the good.
THE NEW
CHURCH NOT YET ESTABLISHED TRIUMPHANT ON EARTH
At any rate, we are distinctly taught that the
New Church was not to be established triumphant, immediately after the Last
Judgment, for
"the ordination of the Heavens and the Hells
has continued from the day of the Last Judgment until the present time [1770],
and still continues." (True Christian Religion, 123)
"While the
vastation lasts, and before the consummation supervenes, the Advent of the Lord
is announced, and Redemption by the Lord, and after this a New Church." (Coronis,
xviii)
"That the time is protracted before the New
Church is fully established after the Last Judgment, is an arcanum from Heaven
which at this day cannot fall into the understanding, except with a few."
(Apocalypse Explained, 624)
How "few," indeed, those are who can
grasp this teaching is only too evident from the long-continued state of
doctrinal confusion and obscurity in the New Church.
From what has been shown above, viz., that the
Old Christian Church is still externally performing certain heart-and-lungs
functions to the Church Universal in this world, it follows that the New Church
on earth has not yet taken external possession of its position as the Church
Specific, except in an initiatory, minute and almost invisible manner. Nor will
it do so except in the degree and proportion that it becomes actually and
organically established among the "remnant" in the Christian world,
and afterwards, enters organically into communication with those who are of the
Church Universal,--bringing to them not only the Letter but also the Spiritual Sense
of the Word, for this is the distinct function of the New Church.
Remember, we are speaking of conditions in this
world! In the other world the New Church is, indeed, established triumphant as
the only Church Specific to those who are in that world. But the Church in the
spiritual world is not the heart and lungs of the Church in the natural world,
but it is its invisible soul and spirit, and it inflows and operates through
the medium of all those in this world who in any measure acknowledge the Lord
and regard the Word as holy. The Old Church has not yet completely rejected the
Divinity of the Lord and the Holiness of the Word, and its worship is still to
some degree--though in an ever decreasing degree--effective in opening Heaven
to those who have not yet become aware of the internal corruption in the
Temple. The New Heavens are, indeed, inflowing with the simple good, but cannot
ultimately establish the New Church with them, except in the degree that
organic vessels of spiritual truth from the New Revelation find lodgment in
their minds. For the angels of Heaven
are not permitted or willing to instruct men immediately In the truth,--for
then human freedom would be destroyed,--but they are in the continual effort to
awaken with men a thirst for the truth, and to guard the freedom of the
understanding of men, so that the truth may be seen, when presented, and when
man is willing to see and receive.
The simple good, and the men of the Church
Universal, are therefore those to whom the New Gospel is to be proclaimed, in
order that they, too, may take up their cross of spiritual temptations and
follow the Lord in His Second Coming. But if the Church Universal were already
the Universal New Church, then the mission of the Church Specific would already
be accomplished, and there would remain no more work for it to do.
Those who maintain that the New Church has been
established universally and triumphantly by the mere fact of the Last Judgment,
are closing their eyes to the plain evidence of human history as well as of
Divine Revelation. When the Lord executed the Last Judgment upon the Jewish
Church, did that Church suddenly become Christian, or did all good Jews
suddenly become disciples of the Lord, or did all the Gentiles throughout the
world suddenly become Christians, either in name or in spirit? Evidently not,
for the Jews still remain Jews, and the Gentiles are still Heathen,--for the
progress of the Gospel, which was intended for them, was arrested early in the
Middle Ages on account of the internal corruption of the Christians, and from
that time to the present day not a single heathen nation has become converted
to Christianity. And if the Church Universal among the Gentiles has not yet
become the Universal Christian Church, still less has it already become the
Universal New Church.
THE FUTURE STATE OF THE
CHRISTIAN WORLD
But, it will be asked, is it possible for us to
ignore the evident signs of the times,--to close our eyes to the marvelous
change in the Christian world, the stupendous progress of the past century in
moral and intellectual improvement and material development? And are we not
authorized to regard these things as the descent of the New Church in the whole
world, when we are taught by the Writings that "henceforth"--since
the time of the Last Judgment--"the men of the Church will be in a freer
state of thinking about spiritual things," (Last Judgment, 73) and that
"the slavery and the captivity, in which the man of the Church has been
heretofore, has been taken away, and that now, from restored freedom, he is
better able to perceive interior truth and to become more internal." (Ibid, 74) Or, as stated even more distinctly, "the state of the Lord's
Kingdom after the Last Judgment has been made different from what it was before
it; for the reception of Divine truth and good after it, is more universal,
more internal, easy, and distinct." (Apocalypse Explained, 1217)
But if we examine the whole teaching of those
important passages in the work On the Last Judgment which deal with the future
state of the Christian world, we shall find that the new state of freedom which
there is described, is not identical with the New Church itself, but is the
condition which makes possible the establishment of the New Church among the
remains of the Old. We read:
ON THE STATE OF
THE WORLD AND OF THE CHURCH AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT
"It will be quite like what it has been
heretofore: for that grand change which has been effected in the spiritual
world does not induce any change in the natural world as to external form; and
therefore there will be henceforth civil things just as before; there will be
wars and treaties of peace as before, and all other things which belong to
societies in general and in particular. But as concerns the state of the
Church, this it is which hereafter will not be the same; it will indeed be
similar as to external appearance, but will he dissimilar as to internal
appearance. As to external appearance
there will be divided Churches as before; their doctrines will be taught as
before, and in like manner the religious things with the Gentiles. But
henceforth the man of the Church will be in a freer state of thinking about the
things of faith, thus about the spiritual things which are of Heaven, because
spiritual freedom has been restored; for all things have now been reduced into
order in the Heavens and in the hells; and thence inflows all thought
concerning Divine things and against Divine things. But this change of state is
not observed by a man in himself, because he does not reflect upon it; nor does
he know anything about spiritual freedom or about influx." (Last Judgment,
73)
"I have spoken many things with the angels,
concerning the state of the Church hereafter; they said that things to come
they know not, because to know things to come is of the Lord alone; but that
they do know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of the Church has
been heretofore, has been taken away; and that now, from restored freedom, he
is better able to perceive interior truths, if he wants to perceive them; and
thus to become more internal, if he wants to so become; but that they had small
hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much hope of some nation remote
from the Christian world." (Ibid, 74)
From these teachings it is evident that though
the Lord has indeed effected the Last Judgment and the final universal
Redemption, and thus has anew opened the way to Heaven for man, yet He has in
no wise interfered with human freedom either to receive Him or reject Him in
His Second Advent. Human freedom is not only as free as it was before, but even
more free, and human nature is still human nature. The freedom to receive the
light is greater than ever before, but so also is the freedom to reject. "The
reception of Divine truth and good" is now "more universal,"
simply because those who desire the Light are now more free to receive it than
they would have been before the intervening clouds had been cleared away, and
before the Light had appeared. But still, as ever before and as ever hereafter,
this reception depends solely and absolutely upon the willingness of man to
receive it. The single question remains then: Is the willingness more
universal? Are the men of the Christian Church more willing, now, to receive
the Light, more willing to become internal men?
How can we know? Judging from the slow reception
of the Heavenly Doctrines heretofore, it would appear that they are not. The Light has certainly been offered to the
world freely and for nothing, by all possible and thinkable means. The
Writings have been published in sixteen different languages, and have been
issued in over three thousand editions, and in millions of copies. And the
Doctrines have been set forth in countless discourses, and have been distributed
in millions upon millions of copies of tracts. The literary activity of
the New Church has been greater than that of any other religion in the world, not only in
proportion to its age and membership, but out of all proportion in every way. And what is the net result? A glorious one, when we consider that some have
received, but most remarkably discouraging, when we consider the many who have
not received. As has been well put by a bitter enemy to the New Church (Mr.
White), "the material out which Swedenborgians can be produced is quickly
exhausted in any one city." The rest simply cannot be brought to read or
listen, no matter what inducements may be offered, any more than a horse can be
made to drink if he is not thirsty. Were they offered a fortune, they could not
be made to read and digest a single volume of the Writings. Their minds revolt
at the sight of the titles of the books. The willingness does not seem to be
universal. The "hungering multitudes" are singularly apathetic.
The statement of the angels "that they have
small hopes of the men of the Christian world" is thus fully borne out by
the testimony of History. And this is not only the prognostication of the
angels, or our own observation from evident facts, but it is Divine Revelation,
for the Lord Himself has actually opened to us a distinct view of the future of
the old Christian Church,--a prophecy which, though unpalatable, is
nevertheless Divine and therefore infallibly true. What are the words of this
prophecy? They are these:
These "doctrines" are the dogmas
concerning the three divine -
1. "As to external appearance there will be
divided Churches as before, and their doctrines will be taught as before."
(Last Judgment, 73)
-
persons, the vicarious atonement, the imputation of the merit of Christ by
faith alone, and all the rest,-which have been taught, and still are being
taught and will continue to be taught throughout Christendom,-dogmas which are
as different from the Doctrines of the New Church as darkness is from light.
2. "The destruction
of this Church [the Christian], is foretold by the Lord in the Evangelists, and
by John in the Revelation, and is what is called the Last Judgment; not that
Heaven and earth were then to perish, but that a New Church will be raised up
in some region of the earth, the former one remaining in its external worship,
as the Jews do in theirs, in whose worship, as is known well enough, there is
nothing of charity and faith, that is, nothing of the Church." (Arcana
Caelestia, 1850)
This agrees entirely with the prophecy that there
will be divided churches as before, and that their doctrines will be taught as
before. Now we learn in addition that the Old Christian Church will remain in
its external worship, as the Jews do in theirs; i. e. will become a mere
externalism, and formalism, and ecclesiastism, such as the Jewish,--lifeless,
stereotyped, cold and dead, such as Catholicism has become already. Not a
pleasing Prospect this, such as to fill us with enthusiasm and sanguine
expectations for the growth of the New Church in the organization of the Old!
3. "The Dragonists have been cast down from
Heaven into the World of Spirits, and are thence in conjunction with the men on
earth, whom, from hatred of the New Church they excite to persevere in their
falsities and derivative evils." (Apocalypse Revealed, 558)
Here we have the reason why the doctrines of the
divided Churches in Christendom "will be taught as before." But this
is stated still more clearly in what follows:
"This I can relate: that those in the Church
who hereafter confirm faith alone with themselves cannot recede from it, except
by serious repentance, because they conjoin themselves with the dragonists who
are now in the World of Spirits, and who are in great agitation, and there,
from hatred against the New Church, are infesting all whom they meet; and
because they are conjoined with men on earth, they do not suffer those to
recede from them, who have once been caught by their reasonings; for they hold
them as bound with chains, and then shut their eyes, so that they can longer
see any truth in the light." (Ibid, 563)
"How the case is with the rejection of an
Old Church and the adoption of a New Church, scarcely anyone knows. . . . The
people of the Old Church are not about to perish, but the Church perishes,
principally as to the states of the interiors. . . . In such case Heaven removes
itself from them, and consequently the Lord, and transfers itself to others,
who are adopted in their place. . . . Those who are of the Old Church are then in a
sort of inundation as to the interiors. . . . It is like a cloudy mist with which they are
encompassed, and thereby separated from Heaven. The state of those who are in
that cloudy mist is such that they cannot possibly see what is the truth of
faith, and still less what is good, for the light of Heaven, in which is
intelligence and wisdom, cannot penetrate into that mist. This is the state of
the vastated Church." (Arcana Caelestia, 4423)
How clear it is from this, that our sanguine
brethren in the New Church, the permeationists, do not take the presence and
influence of the dragonists in the spiritual world into their calculations,
when they dream about the immediate establishment of the New Church within the
Old. And in the last passage quoted, what serious words, and yet how clearly
applicable! Have we not all come into contact with that "cloudy mist"
which is spoken of, and which makes it so utterly impossible to present one
single ray of truth, or rational idea, to our friends and relations in the Old
Church,--labor as hard as we may!
4. But what is the reason? From what hellish pool
does that mist arise which has enveloped the Old Church in the impenetrable
darkness of night? The answer is plain:
"The reason of this [night in the Church] is
because evils increase every day, and in so far as they increase, so far one
infects another like a contagion, especially parents their children; moreover
hereditary evils are successively concentrated and thus transmitted."
(Ibid, 10134)
We need not quote further respecting the doctrine
of hereditary, evils, for it is well-known that hereditary evil never grows
less, but is constantly accumulating and increasing in volume and vehemence in
a Church that has once entered the downward grade. The only possible means of
checking this growing avalanche is by universal, serious, and complete
repentance, and this can be effected only by the universal acceptance of a New
Divine Revelation. There was no way of cleaning the dung-crowded stables of Augeas except by Hercules letting in a whole river of water upon it. But if the
doors of the stable are closed, how then can they be cleansed? But let us
listen further to the words of the prophecy:
5. "'He calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman,
what of the night Watchman what of the Night The Watchman said, The Morning
cometh and the night also.' (Isaiah 21: 11, 12) By 'watchman' in the internal
sense, is meant one who observes the states of the Church and its changes,
thus, every prophet. By 'night' is meant
the last state of the Church; by 'morning' its first stage. By 'Seir, from
which the watchman cries, is signified the illumination of the nations which
are in darkness. 'The morning cometh and also the night,' signifies that
although those hare illumination who are of the New Church, yet that it is
still night with those who are in the Old." (Ibid, 10134)
6. Where the Lord is in His Second Advent there
is the New Church, but where the Lord is not, there is the Old. And where
is the Lord? In the tomb, among the dead? Nay, He is risen, and is
among the living.
"The last time of the former Church, and the
first of the New Church, is what is called the Consummation of the Age, and His
Advent; for the Lord then recedes [departs] from the former Church, and comes
to the New Church." (Ibid, 4535)
"'And I shall be with you all days, even
unto the Consummation of the Age,' signifies even to the end of the Church; and
then, if they do not approach the Lord Himself, and live according to His
precepts, they are left by the Lord; and when they are left by the Lord they
become as pagans who have no religion; and then the Lord is solely with those
who will be of His New Church." (Apocalypse Revealed, 750)
7. A terrible prophecy, this, for those who love
the Old Church; yet the inevitable and immutable Law of Divine Order. Not that
the Lord leaves the men of the Old Church, but they leave the Lord, and become
as pagans who have no religion. A miserable fate, for our proud Protestant
races, but one which is surely theirs, unless they receive the Lord in His
Second Advent and live according to His precepts! But will they receive? The
prophecy gives but "small hopes," even for the external of the Old
Church, as a Church:
"'Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My
words shall not pass away, signifies that the internals and externals of the
former Church shall perish, but that the Word of the Lord shall abide." (Arcana Caelestia,
4231)
In the passages quoted above we have a gradual
unfolding of the gradual passing away of the Church from those of the Old
Christianity. Its doctrines will be taught as before, and divided Churches will
exist as before. They will remain in external worship, as the Jews do in
theirs. Hereditary evils will increase, and the shadows of night will gather
thicker and darker, until finally even the externals of the Church will perish,
and the men of the Old Church become as pagans who have no religion. What can we do with these plain statements? How can we ignore them, or explain them away?
THE CHURCH
TO BE TRANSFERRED TO THE GENTILES
8. But the sad, sad story continues:
"The reason the interior things of the Word
are now being opened, is that at this day the Church is vastated so
greatly,--that is, is so devoid of faith and love, that although men know and
understand, still they do not acknowledge and still less believe; except a few,
who are in the life of good and are called 'the elect,' who can now be
instructed, and with whom a New Church is to be instituted. But where these are
the Lord alone knows: there will be few within the Church: it was the Gentiles
with whole New Churches were established before." (Ibid, 3898)
"With respect to the Churches the case is as
follows: in the beginning charity is held as the fundamental,...but in process
of time charity begins to grow cold and to become none; afterwards there arises
hatred towards one another. . . . There were several Churches which have come
to such an end: the Most Ancient Church thus expired about the time of the
Flood; in like manner the Ancient Church which was after the Flood, and also a
second Ancient Church which was called the Hebrew Church; and lastly the Jewish
Church. . . . Afterwards a New Church was raised up which was called the Church
of the Gentiles, and which was an internal Church, in as much as interior
truths were revealed from the Lord; but this Church is now at its end, because
now there is not only no charity, but hatred instead of charity, which hatred,
although it does not appear in an external form, still exists internally and
breaks forth externally as often as possibility allows, that is, as often as
external bonds do not operate to prevent it. . . . There are several causes of
such decrease and destruction. One is that parents accumulate evils, and by
frequent use, and at length by habit, implant them in their nature, and thus
transmit them to their offspring hereditarily. . . . But when the Church is
consummated and perishes, then the Lord always raises up a New Church
elsewhere, yet seldom, if ever, from the men of the former Church, but from the
Gentiles who before were in ignorance." (Ibid, 2910)
"It is to be known that when any Church
perishes and a New Church is being established by the Lord,--rarely, if ever,
is this effected with those with whom the Old Church had been; but with those
with whom there was no Church before. It was thus, when the Most Ancient Church
perished: then the New Church which was called 'Noah' was established with the
Gentiles. . . . In like manner when this Church perished; then the
semblance of a Church was instituted with the descendants of Abraham, for
Abraham, when called, was a Gentile, and the descendants of Jacob in Egypt
became still more Gentile. After this semblance of a
Church had been consummated, the Primitive [Christian] Church was established
from the Gentiles, the Jews being rejected. In like manner it will be with this
Church, which is called the Christian." (Ibid, 2986; cf. 4747)
9. Notice this direct statement "In like
manner it will be" with the Christian Church. There is no
"perhaps" about it, but it will be with the Old Christian Church as
it was with every preceding vastated Church. Is there nothing to be considered,
in this, by those who continually insist that the New Church, differently from
other Churches, will be established within the vastated Church? We could fill a
volume with similar direct statements of the same prophecy, but cannot here do
more than adduce a few:
"From these things it may be evident, whence
it is that a New Church is always established with nations who are outside of
the Church, which takes place when the Old Church has closed Heaven against
itself. Hence it is that the Church from the Jewish people was transferred to
the Gentiles, and also that the present Church is now also being transferred to
the Gentiles . . . and, what is wonderful, the Gentiles adore one only God under
a human form; wherefore, when they hear of the Lord, they receive and
acknowledge Him; neither can a New Church be established among any
others." (Ibid, 9256)
10. All this, of course, is perfectly well-known
to most of the members of the New Church, but many have interpreted these
"Gentiles" as meaning people in the Christian world who have become
"gentilized," that is, such as have lost faith in any of the existing
Churches,--those who, from indifference or from lack of any religious
education, have not imbibed the falsities and interior evils which really
constitute the Old Church. But though this may he true in a secondary sense,
and very remotely, yet we are distinctly taught that by the
"Gentiles" is primarily meant the heathen nations outside the
Christian or European world.
"By the Holy Jerusalem descending from
Heaven is meant a New Church with the Gentiles, after the present one which is
in our European world has been vastated." (Ibid, 9407, 2955, 9643, 9717,
9863)
A POSSIBLE HOPE FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORLD.
Is there, then, no hope whatever that the men of
the Old Christian Church, or their descendants, will ultimately receive the
Doctrines of the New Jerusalem? Yea, though there are "small hopes,"
still there is some hope, and this hope is based on two different conditions or
contingencies. The first of these is the presence of those "few
remains" of primitive Christians who still exist within the external
borders of the Old Church, and who gradually will be gathered into the external
borders of the New Church, even as they have already begun to be so called out. These people, however, cannot be called "Gentiles," for they are
distinctly and most earnestly Christians, good religious persons who in
simplicity worship the Lord and read the Word in holiness. These, and their
descendants, are to form the beginning of the New Church in the Christian
world, by separating from the Old Church, but of them we will speak more later
on. But in the proportion that these "remains" actually are called
out, in the same proportion there will remain less and less of actual
Christianity in the organizations of the Old Church, and the vastation will
proceed until, as we have seen from the Doctrines, the men of that Church shall
have become as pagans with whom there is no religion." This process of
degeneracy may yet take hundreds, if not thousands of years, but in 'the
meantime the New Church itself,-and with it the centre of civilization,-will
have been established in its greater glory and fulness among the Gentiles in
Asia and in Africa. And then, secondly, from that center of the New Church, the
light may again spread to the descendants of the present Christian nations,
when these have become so utterly gentilized that even the semblance of Christianity
has disappeared from among them. Such, at least, seems to be the lesson in the
following important teaching:
"With respect to
interior worship being obliterated, or annihilated, the case is this: the
Church cannot be established anew in any nation, before it is so vastated as to
have nothing of what is evil and false remaining in its internal worship: for
so long as there is evil in the internal worship of a church, those principles
of good and truth which ought to constitute its internal worship, find
obstacles to their admission,-as may appear from this fact, that they who are
born and educated in any heresies, and have confirmed themselves in them so as
to be altogether persuaded of their truth, can with difficulty, if ever, be
brought to receive truths which are contrary to their false persuasions;
whereas, with the Gentiles, who do not know what the truth of faith is, and
still live in mutual charity, the case is otherwise. This was the reason that
the Lord's Church could not be reestablished amongst the Jews, but only amongst
the Gentiles who were not in possession of any knowledge of faith. . . . So, in
the case here treated of [the establishment of the Jewish Church], those were
chosen, among whom all knowledge of the good and truth of faith was
obliterated, and who, like the Gentiles, had become external idolaters."
(Ibid, 1366, 2986)
As, therefore, the
Jewish Church was established among a gentilized nation of the Ancient Church,
and as the Christian Church was established among Gentile nations which were
remotely descended from that same Ancient Church,-for the Greeks and Romans,
Celts, Slavs and Teutons have their common ancestor in Japheth,-and as,
finally, we are told that the Church of the New Jerusalem is to be established
in its glory among the completely heathenized descendants of Ham, so also there
is a possibility that the descendants of the present corrupt Christian Church
may, in some far distant period, be received as heathen converts into the New
Church.
But before that day shall have come, what
upheavals and revolutions and vastations will the Christian world have
witnessed! The seeds of degeneracy and decay which close students in the world
have recognized in the modern civilized nations, will before then have
blossomed forth in 'ways we cannot even imagine; yet we are not the only ones
who have foreseen the day when avaricious and land-hungry Christendom shall no
longer be able to rob and oppress the black and the brown and the yellow men,-
the day when these latter shall have received the Letter of the Word and the
externals of civilization. The day will come when the Doctrines of the New
Jerusalem shall have been received by the countless millions in Asia and
Africa,-the day when Japan and China and India and the Mohammedan world and the
nations of the Dark Continent shall have awakened from their ages of slumber,
shall have joined hands together and risen in their might against their common
enemy, the impious, thieving, cruel, adulterous white man, who thinks he is a
very god of light, yet inwardly is more irrational, more stupid, because more
selfish, than the despised heathen. Then,
when his pride has been utterly broken by humiliation upon humiliation, when he
sees that the light and the power has departed to the Gentiles, then, perhaps,
he will begin to see reasons for investigating the Doctrines of the Church of
the Gentiles, the True Christian Religion which had been offered to him, but
rejected ages agone, the Revelation to the Church of the New Jerusalem.
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