This New Church — The Crown Of All The Churches

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

THIS NEW CHURCH IS THE CROWN OF ALL THE CHURCHES
THAT HAVE HITHERTO EXISTED ON THE EARTH.

There have been, in general, from the beginning, four churches on this earth, one before the flood, the second after it, the third the Israelitish Church, and the fourth that which is called the Christian Church; and as ALL CHURCHES DEPEND ON A KNOWLEDGE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ONE GOD, WITH WHOM THE MAN OF THE CHURCH CAN BE CONJOINED, and as none of these four churches has possessed that truth, it follows that a church must follow these four which will know and acknowledge one God.

The sole end of God's Divine love, when He created the world, was to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man that He might thus dwell with man.

This truth the former churches did not possess, the Most Ancient Church, which preceded the flood, worshiping an invisible God with whom no conjunction is possible; the Ancient Church which followed the flood, did likewise; the Israelitish Church worshiped Jehovah, who in Himself is an invisible God (Exod. 33:18-23), but under a human form, which Jehovah God put on by means of an angel, in which He was seen by Moses, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Gideon, Joshua, and sometimes by the prophets. This human form was a representative of the Lord who was to come, and because this was representative so each thing and all things in their church were made representative. It is a well known fact that the sacrifices and everything else pertaining to their worship represented the Lord who was to come, and that when He came they were abrogated. The fourth, which is called the Christian Church, did indeed with the lips acknowledge one God, but in three Persons, each One of whom was singly or by Himself God; thus it acknowledged a divided Trinity, but not a Trinity united in one Person; and from this an idea of three Gods adhered to their minds, although the expression "one God" was on their lips. Moreover, the teachers of the church from that doctrine of theirs which they concocted after the Nicene Council, teach that men ought to believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all of them invisible, because existent in a similar Divine essence before the world was (although, as said above, with an invisible God no conjunction is possible), for they still do not know that the one God who is invisible came into the world and assumed a Human, not only that He might redeem men, but also that He might become visible, that thereby conjunction with man might become possible. For we read:

The Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 14).

And in Isaiah:

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and His name, God, Mighty, Father of Eternity (9:6).

It is also frequently declared in the Prophets that Jehovah Himself would come into the world, and would be a Redeemer, which He also became in the Human which He assumed.

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 a 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 (5:37).

And in Moses:

That no one can see God and live (Ex. 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.

THAT THIS CHURCH IS TO FOLLOW THOSE THAT HAVE EXISTED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD, AND THAT IT IS TO ENDURE FOR AGES OF AGES, AND IS THUS TO BE THE CROWN OF ALL THE CHURCHES THAT HAVE PRECEDED, WAS FORETOLD BY DANIEL; first, when he narrated and explained to Nebuchadnezzar his dream of the four kingdoms (which mean the four churches that were represented by the statue that he saw), saying:

In the days of those kings the God of the heavens shall make a kingdom to arise which shall not perish for ages, and it shall consume all those kingdoms; but itself shall stand for ages (Dan. 2:44).

And this, he said, should be done, By a stone becoming a great rock and filling all the earth (verse 35); "rock" in the Word meaning the Lord in respect to Divine truth. The same prophet also says elsewhere:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him; His dominion is the dominion of an age, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (7:13, 14).

And this he said after he saw the four great beasts coming up out of the sea (verse 3), which beasts also represented the four prior churches. That all this was prophesied by Daniel respecting the present time, can be seen from his words in 12:4, as also, from the words of the Lord in Matt. 24:15, 30. Like things are said in the Apocalypse:

The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become our Lord's and His Christ's; and He shall reign unto the ages of the ages (11:15).

Furthermore, the other prophets have made many predictions respecting this church, what its character would be, a few of which shall be cited: In Zechariah:

It shall be one day that shall be known to Jehovah, not day nor night, for about the time of evening it shall be light. In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; and Jehovah shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Jehovah and His name one (14:7-9)

In Joel:

And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and Jerusalem shall abide to generation and generation (3:17-21).

In Jeremiah:

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, because of the name of Jehovah at Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart (3:17; Apoc. 21:24, 26).

In Isaiah:

Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; the stakes thereof shall never be removed, and the cords thereof shall not be broken (33:20).

In these passages "Jerusalem" means the new and holy Jerusalem described in the Apocalypse (chap. 21), by which the New Church is meant. Again in Isaiah:

There shall go forth a Shoot out of the stem of Jesse and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and truth the girdle of His thigh. Therefore the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the basilisk's den. They shall not do evil nor corrupt themselves in all the mountain of My holiness; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah. In that day it shall come to pass that the nations shall seek the Root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign of the people; and His rest shall be glory (11:5-10).

That such things have not yet taken place in the churches, least of all in the last, is well known. In Jeremiah:

Behold the days come, in which I will make a new covenant; and this shall be the covenant, I will put My law in their inward parts, and upon their hearts will I write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them (Jer. 31:31-34; Rev. 21:3).

That this state of things has not existed in the churches heretofore is also known. This was because men did not approach the visible God whom all shall know, because He is the Word or law which He will put in their inward parts and write upon their hearts. Again in Isaiah:

For Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of Jehovah shall declare; and thou shalt be a crown of beauty and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Jehovah shall delight in thee, and thy land shall be married. Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with Him. And they shall call them, the people of holiness, the redeemed of Jehovah, and thou shalt be called, a city sought out and not forsaken (Isa. 62:1-4, 11-12).

What this church is to be is fully described in the Apocalypse, where the end of the former church and the beginning of the new are treated of This New Church is described by the New Jerusalem, by its magnificence, and by its being the future bride and wife of the Lamb (19:7; 21:2, 9). Besides these I will cite only the following quotation from the Apocalypse: When the New Jerusalem was seen descending from heaven it was said:

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, Himself shall be with them, their God. And the nations that are saved shall walk in the light of it; and there shall be no night there. I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning Star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let them come. And he that wisheth, let him take the water of life freely. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen (Rev. 21:3, 24-25; 22:16-17, 20).

NOTE. - After this work [Universal Theology of the New Church -True Christian Religion] was finished the Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that THE LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages and ages, according to the prediction in Daniel (7:13, 14), and in Revelation (11:15).  Also that blessed are those that come to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). This took place on the nineteenth day of June, 1770. This is what is meant by these words of the Lord:

He shall send His angels and they shall gather together His elect, from the end of the heavens to the end thereof (Matt. 24:31).

(True Christian Religion 786 - 791)