The New Church; What, How, Why/Chapter1
"Unto Him that loved us"
THE • NEW • CHURCH
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I
WHAT
IT may be thought, What need have we of a New Church? there are already too many denominations.
We shall soon see that though there are many denominations, there is need of a New Church now, and that its place is in no way filled by any other.
Often we arrive most quickly at a definite conception of a thing by defining what it is not. The New Church is not a division of any other church. It is not derived from any other church. It is not a denomination or a sect, but a Church.
The New Church has an independent beginning. It stands on its own foundation. It has its distinct history. An illustration can quickly give the right idea of this.
In the world's history there have been four Churches established by our Heavenly Father,—the Most Ancient Church, the Ancient Church, the Israelitish Church, and the Apostolic Church.
When the Ancient Church came to its end, and God desired to make a fuller preparation for His Advent, the Israelitish Church was established. That this might be done, Israel was kept in bondage in Egypt, and then led into the isolation of the wilderness for forty years, that a new church might take form and become permanent. The Israelitish Church was not a sect of the Ancient Church, nor was it derived from it. It was distinctly new, being founded upon new revelations, which were the laws of Moses. The New Church is likewise new.
Coming to more recent times, with which there is more familiarity, we know that when the Lord came upon the earth the Israelitish Church was brought to an end. A new dispensation was commenced. It was founded upon truth newly revealed by the Lord, subsequently reduced to writing, and extant in the New Testament. The church then established by the Lord and His apostles is the Apostolic Church. Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Orthodox denominations in general are sects of the Apostolic Church. That Church was not a division of the Israelitish Church, or a sect of it, nor was it derived from it. The sects of the Israelitish Church were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. The Apostolic Church when established was an absolutely new church coming in fulfillment of prophecy and founded upon newly revealed truth. It was a step higher than the Israelitish Church, and separated from it as one round of a ladder is distinct from the one below it.
The New Church comes likewise in fulfillment of prophecy and at the end of the former or Apostolic Church. It is also a new dispensation, founded upon divine truth newly revealed from the Lord out of heaven.
Though the New Church is distinct from any former Church, there is a certain relation; for each Church comes as a part of the Divine plan of human development. The successive Churches are related as infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood, or as the roots, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits of a tree. The New Church is the end for which all former Churches existed, just as manhood is the end of infancy, childhood, and youth. It is the fruit on the end of the branch.
In the Israelitish and Ancient Churches God was worshiped as an invisible God. In the Apostolic Church He was worshiped under the idea of three persons. The New Church is to be the crown of all the churches that have been, because in it God will not be worshiped as an invisible God, nor under the idea of three persons, but by means of newly revealed truth, the Lord Jesus is clearly seen to be the only God of heaven and earth, and as such He will be worshiped in the New Church. The Lord will be worshiped in the New Church as He is by the angels in heaven.
Though the New Church is distinct as a church, it does not come in antagonism to former churches, but it is supplemental. It comes as the Lord did, not to do away with the law, but to fulfil the law. It is established in fulfillment of prophecy, and is described in the Word as the New Jerusalem, which John saw descending from God out of heaven. It is called by a new name, "New Jerusalem," which the Lord hath named. The name of this last new church is, therefore, the Church of the New Jerusalem.
1. A New Revelation of Divine Truth
A new church is always accompanied by a new revelation of truth from God and the gathering together of a few who accept, preserve, and propagate the truth and life of it. The Most Ancient Church was openly instructed by angels, and so had perpetual revelation. The Ancient Church had a revelation, of which the book of "Jasher," referred to in Joshua, was a part. The Israelitish Church was given the Old Testament. The Apostolic Church had the New Testament. The New Church of to-day is likewise the conservator and propagator of a new revelation, confined to a few at first, but gradually to extend as the capacity to receive internal truth and form an internal Church developes.
God is a self-revealing Being. He did not create men to serve Him, but that He might serve them. From the beginning He has given revelation of heavenly and divine things that He might lift human kind into a higher and more blessed existence. Now in these later days He has made another revelation of a most complete character. This new revelation comprises many volumes. They may be classified under two heads. First, Exegetical, second, Supplementary. The Exegetical primarily explains serially books of the Word. The Supplementary reveals fact and doctrine necessary to the statement and elucidation of the complete system of divine truth.
Among the Exegetical are the Arcana Cœlestia, which explains verse by verse Genesis and Exodus. Apocalypse Revealed explains in a similar way the book of Revelation. A Summary Exposition of the Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms, is a serial but general explanation of these books by groups of verses.
This class of writings explains fully the law according to which the Word is written, and applies the law for the uncovering of the internal sense of the Word and shows the truth of the law, its workings, and its universality, together with the truth of the Word itself.
Among the Supplementary works are Heaven and Hell, being a revelation of fact and doctrine appertaining to the subject; Divine Love and Wisdom, which is a philosophical presentation of doctrine; Divine Providence, which is doctrinal and philosophical; The True Christian Religion, which is a compendium of Christian doctrine; Conjugial Love, which treats of the divinely intended relation of the sexes and the evils of violated order.
These comprise the books most generally recommended to those who have an interest in spiritual things and desire to acquaint themselves with the subject.
These with others are the writings of of the New Church.
2. The Word Opened
To the two on the way to Emmaus, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets," the Lord "expounded in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." After His resurrection He appeared to His disciples and "opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." From these and like passages it was rightly taught by the Apostolic Church early in its history, and has always been believed quite generally, that the Scriptures have an internal, spiritual meaning.
First, the new revelation sets forth this very, spiritual meaning. It explains the Word so that it may be fully understood and seen as a harmonious presentation of the infinite, Divine truth.
Second, it is a revelation of spiritual facts and laws, which taken together constitute a complete system of all moral and spiritual doctrine.
The New Church is therefore, not a negative church, but a positive church, which has revelations of deeper, divine truth. It comes not in the spirit of opposition, but proclaiming the glad tidings of newly revealed truth that is that very Comforter "which shall lead you into all truth."
The spiritual sense of the Word once having been known, and what was known having become lost, a school of critics has arisen saying that the Word is not the Word of God, but a history of His Word. That it was written when superstition and ignorance were rife, and is consequently full of errors characteristic of the times and of the people who wrote it. The new revelation of truth shows that there is a serial, spiritual sense in the Word running through it from beginning to end. The spiritual sense is not a vague, inferential, loose meaning, but it is related by a universal law to the letter of the Word with mathematical accuracy. In fact, the spiritual sense of the Word now revealed, is related to the letter of the Word by a law of so high and divine a character that when understood it proves that "The Lord gave the Word," though "great was the company that published it." It shows it to be a book that only the Creator Himself could frame. For it has an organized internal, causing it to differ from any other book as much as a human body differs from a statue hewn in marble.
The spiritual sense of the Word is related to the letter not artificially, but by a law that no man could invent, for it is the very law of creation itself. It is such a relation as exists between the lungs and the air, or the eye and the ether, or grief and tears, or joy and smiles, or the soul and the body. The law is profound and deep, yet simple and self-interpretive, when understood somewhat, because it is natural. In the light of it, the Word is seen to be an inexhaustible reservoir of divine truth, the infinite truth itself, the veritable tabernacle of God wherein He dwells, and sends forth as from Urim and Thummim the light and love of heaven.
In the light of the law of the relation between the spiritual meaning and the letter, the Word is known to be formed by the Lord for the very purpose that it may be His instrument through which He can be present with mankind on earth and teach of Himself and heaven for all time. It is shown to be a form whereby the Lord conjoins angels and men to Himself. And now that the Word is completed and opened, the light that will come into the world will be manifold that heretofore received. The Word, which was a sealed book because the law of its composition was not known, is now opened. Heretofore the faith of mankind has been like that of a child, which believes because the parent says so. Now the faith of the Church is to be like that of a man who believes because he sees for himself that it is so.
The New Church therefore stands not only for a new revelation of divine truth from the Lord out of heaven, given in fulfillment of prophecy, but also for the entry intellectually into the things of faith, made possible through that revelation. The faith of the Church on earth will no longer be a faith of darkness, but a faith of light. Faith will now be exalted from confidence to sight. 3. The Second Coming of the Lord
Now we are to state another thing in regard to what the New Church is that may seem surprising, but let us remember that "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty."
This new revelation of heavenly truth constitutes the Second Coming of the Lord. It is the promised "Comforter" that shall abide with us forever. It is the embodiment of the "spirit of truth" that will guide into all truth. It enables us to see no more "through a glass darkly" but "face to face," and to know not only "in part" but "even as also we are known." Whereas we have walked by a faith that did not see, we shall now walk by a faith that sees. For the prophecy is now fulfilled, "The time cometh when I will no more speak unto you in parables, but I will show you plainly of the Father."
Forty days after the crucifixion Jesus appeared to His disciples, and when He had blessed them, He was seen to ascend until the clouds enveloped Him. While they stood gazing steadfastly into the sky where He seemed to disappear, an angel stood by and said that as they had seen Him ascend, so He would descend. From this some have thought that the Lord would come again in the material clouds and in a material way. To know how He was to come we must know how He ascended.
The Lord after His crucifixion appeared not by assuming a material body, but by opening the vision to see Him in the spiritual world, for God is a Spirit.
No angel or spirit can be seen by the natural eyes. Since the Lord appeared by opening the inner vision, He disappeared by closing it. His apparent ascension into the sky was an appearance from the gradual closing of the spiritual sight. When that was entirely closed, He disappeared. We may know this if we stop to think, for heaven is not up in the sky, but up in life. "The kingdom of heaven is within."
Now since the Lord ascended by closing the inner vision, He will come again in the same way—by opening the inner vision; by rolling back the clouds that obscure the knowledge of Him.
Further, that the Infinite might reveal Himself to the finite in verbal declarations, it was necessary that He should speak in terms of a language known to man. He was obliged to use words and ideas with which the finite is familiar. So in forming the Word that perpetually reveals Him, He had to take human words and ideas. Often He spoke not according to reality, but as things appeared to man. Otherwise there would have been no approach to man and no conjunction with him. The letter of the Word is therefore formed of words, language, and ideas taken from human minds. These words, language, and ideas constitute the letter of the Word, and form a covering of the thought and life of God within. It forms an approach of God to man, and necessarily veils the truth and life of God, who is within the Word as its internal. The letter of the Word is like a cloud that obscures the sun, or like the atmosphere that receives and tempers to the body the consuming heat and light of the sun. The letter of the Word is the clouds of heaven because when not understood or misconstrued it obscures the heavenly things within and the Lord. The Second Coming of the Lord occurred through His coming in these clouds of heaven, the letter of the Word. There this same Jesus, by removing mental clouds, and the consequent opening of man's vision to Himself in the letter of the Word, comes again to abide with us forever.
This is such a coming that two can be in one bed, or grinding together at the mill, or in the same field, and one be taken and the other left. One may see in light like the lightning that shineth from the east unto the west, while the other remains in outer darkness.
The Second Coming of the Lord is spiritual, not physical. We must guard against having the same material conceptions of the Second Coming of the Lord that the Jews had of His first advent. The Writings of the New Church reveal the Lord in the Word, both as to His Divinity and Humanity, and bring us face to face with Jesus Christ there. They therefore constitute the Second Coming of the Lord to the world.
The New Church is the last Church to be established on the earth by the Lord, for in it is fulfilled all prophecy. There will be no need of another Church, because all truth is now revealed and committed unto the promised Church of the New Jerusalem.
What, then, is the New Church?
The New Church stands, first, for a new revelation of all truth from the Lord out of heaven. Second, for the Divine Word opened, whereby it is seen to be a repository of infinite, divine truth and the means of conjoining men and angels to the Lord forever. Third, for the entry intellectually into the things of faith, life, heaven, and the Lord. Fourth, for the Second Coming of the Lord as already having taken place in the world through a new revelation of all, divine truth and of the Lord in the Word. Fifth, for the final church promised by the Lord, named by Him "the New Jerusalem," and described by John as "the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven."
Such stupendous claims as these, with a declaration of the Church that it has the actual, rational, and spiritual evidence of its assertions, ought not only to arrest the attention of one here and there, but to move every one having a remnant of affection for the truth to a thorough, impartial, and prayerful investigation of the facts.