The Doctrine Concerning
the Establishment of the Lord's New Church by the Lord in Man
By Rev. Paul Booth
the Establishment of the Lord's New Church by the Lord in Man
By Rev. Paul Booth
All Christians know it was necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son come into the world, that He be born and assume the human of man in order to save mankind. However, most do not know that He came to save the spiritual man, for it is the spiritual man that can comes to be conjoined with the Divine in Heaven while the natural man comes to an at death. The reason the Lord had to come was because man had destroyed all conjunction with the Lord. However, most Christians do not know that a new conjunction was accomplished by the Lord uniting His Natural Human that He 'put on' upon coming into the world with the Divine, thus becoming the Divine Human and that this was seen in His glorification in His defeating the evils that attacked Him while in the world. It is agreed that mankind had closed the way whereby he could be with the Lord and that he wanted to rule himself and this by wanting what was of his 'own' as seen in wanting to know good and evil for his self. Anyone can see that over time this way of thinking destroys the truths that flow 'as it were' from Jehovah and that a man now must learn through his senses through the Word. Yet, most do not know that unless the Lord God closed the man's internal he would have come to profane not only the truth but the good as well and thus, would end any chance of his salvation.
The celestial man, as seen in Adam and Eve, was taught and led directly by the Jehovah and received life through an internal way by perception. The life that flows forth into man is the very quality of the Lord, which is His Love and Wisdom and these in man are called 'good and truth'. Those who were in the Celestial state were called the Most Ancient Church; they were celestial men. Still, they lived here on earth, for life flows from the Lord God first into the celestial degree then into the spiritual and at last into the natural degree. Because the celestial man began to reject this knowledge of good and truth from the Lord God, his soul and internal degrees became closed to him. Yet, Christians know that there was given a promise not only to those in that Celestial Church - to those in paradise - but to all who came after that a time would come that man would be able to come again into conjunction with Heaven and with the Lord. Because of the fall man could now only come to this knowledge through his understanding, which had become merely natural and could no longer come through perception which is from within through the will, this now being ruled by his love of self. Thus, over the ages there have been several Churches established on earth through the man's understanding of the knowledges and scientifics of the Lord from His Word.
Many will agree that the Lord is present with man and that it is the man who has closed his mind and heart to the Lord. The truth that a man receives and believes he often thinks saves him without him doing good 'as if' having the knowledge alone can save. In such belief there is no charity thus, no good of love, no faith of truth, and no good of life. Therefore, it can be said that these two - good and truth - in order to be true or genuine must be conjoined in man and this is only possible through the Lord in His coming and in Him defeating the evils in His self and in subjugating them in hell. Thus, revealing this in Word whereby the internal sense is opened. In this act the Lord approaches man and man can approach the Lord through a new understanding and will. The man then lives his life from the Lord which is then within because the good and the truth can be in man as in a marriage when they are loved for the sake of good and truth. Thus, the spiritual of man is conjoined with the Lord and the Lord in man rules the natural while the man on earth is ruled through the spiritual within, thus through truths, which a man then does because he loves truth for the love of good.
One sees over the course of natural history the celestial and then the spiritual state or the eras of the Golden, the Silver and Bronze ages others that have ended or closed with man. All what remained had with man was the natural state that can be seen in the 'clay of the feet' of statue in Daniel, thus what truth man understood about the Lord was only representative and so genuine goods and truths were not with and in man any longer. Here, it is needed to point out that by a Church is meant the Lord's qualities within the man individually, for it is these in man that are seen as the Celestial and Spiritual Churches and also those Churches coming after - the Israelitish and the Christian. We need to also point out that each Church began in love to the Lord, but turned away and ended in evils. One sees that good and truth make the Church in man and these are the Lord with man in his will and understanding, thus the quality of the will and understanding of man determines the quality of the Church with man. The quality of the Church with man had declined to the representative state. In fact, the state of destruction and consummation was coming in which good and truth would be destroyed in the natural sense. For this cause the Lord came on earth to redeem and save man. The prophets had spoken of the fullness of time when salvation would come.
It was said previously that the Lord came to save the spiritual man and by this is meant the man's spirit not another separate entity. One may understand this in the light of the creation of mankind as seen through God's love and wisdom preceding forth first to the celestial and then the spiritual Heavenly degrees ending in the natural and earthly degree. In other words, without the celestial degree there would be no spiritual degree and without a spiritual no natural degree, for it is only through heaven that man has any conjunction with the Lord. One is the foundation of the next or creation is like end, cause, and effect. In the natural state the Church is in a representative state where the Lord is present representatively through worship; He is not within in the internal of man, only in the man's external in his memory, the spiritual state having been closed to him. It is into such a state that the Lord came to the earth in order to redeem man. From a spiritual and historical understanding the state of the Church, then on earth - the Israelitish - came to its vastation and consummation or its end. This is why the Lord established the Christian Church: in order to raise up a spiritual Church in man, that man might be conjoined with the Lord and with Heaven.
The Lord had rose up a remnant of the Israelitish and Jewish Church and from them established the (first) Christian Church just as a new Church had been raised up after the fall of all the prior Churches beginning with the Church called Adam. While the progression of the Churches became further and further in their descent from any conjunction with the state where the Lord could come called in the 'fullness of time' and He was born as a man, conceived from the Divine that He might redeem and save man. One sees that at each state that a new Church was raised up there was a new Word given such as the Ancient Word, the Israelitish or Old Testament, and the Christian or New Testament. Therefore, when the Christian Church ended as the Lord foretold it would and as written in Revelation we see another New Church, the True Christian Church being raised up. And, for those who accept that another New Christian Church has come on earth a new Word, the Word of Third Testament is given. Thus was there a connection between man and angel, between Heaven and the (Church) on earth made possible, which can be seen culminating in the revelation of the Word's internal sense.
All Churches were established through the Word, both directly from the Lord in the Most Ancient Church and indirectly through the written Word. However, in the Church's natural state as it was in the Israelitish Church the Lord as the Word Himself had come, for its end had come and unless the Lord, the Word Himself came, mankind could not be redeemed. At such a state a new, Church could not be established except the Lord Himself establishes it. For, in order that a new Church to be established in man the Lord as a man must establish the goods and truths which are the Divine with the Natural that He assumed upon coming into the Word; these qualities must be infinite in order that He could conqueror all evils, thereby redeeming man from evil. This process was called the His glorification and was His making (becoming) the Human Divine.
As the Divine Human, the Lord's work on earth was finished. However, it is not the natural man, his live having been distorted that lives in Heaven, but it is the man's spirit. However it is evil spirits that influence a man's spirit. Therefore, the work of redemption had to continue in the spiritual world, as that the man came there after his death on earth as was attacked. Remember, the Lord in the Last Judgment brought order back to the spiritual world, even Heaven. So, once again the Church on earth, which was the Christian Church that was established by the Lord when He was on earth, turned away from their first love, their love to the Lord as did the Churches before. And, as foretold in Revelation and by the Lord Himself the end of that Church came to which the Lord came again as He had told His disciples He would. Again, the 'fulfillment of time' came for the Lord to come into the spiritual world and there was a Last Judgment and the end came to the old Heaven and earth and there was a new beginning of a New Heaven and new earth - a Heaven established from the first faithful Christians and a New Church on earth on earth came from a new Word that descended through a man chosen man as it before had through the prophets and evangelists.
Has not the Lord gained or won back His Kingdom, His Goods and Truths to Himself? And, hasn't the Lord become the Divine Human so that He could subjugate the evils in hell, so that a man could, as of himself, shun evils and accept goods and truths, whereby the New Church - a True Christian Church - is established with man on earth. And, isn't it from the Lord in man that the Church is established? It is just as the Lord received influx from the Divine - the Father - that man from the Word (Lord) receives influx and when that truth is conjoined with good, both, the truth, which is the Word - the Son of Man - and the Divine - which is Good and the Soul of the Lord become united in Him. So, also the good and truth must become conjoined in man, thus establishing and forming the Church with man. The Lord Himself united the truth with the good in Him self; the Divine and Human became the Divine Human in the Natural state.
Thus, the Lord united the Divine Good and the Divine Truth in the (His) Natural Human; He did so by overcoming temptations and by combats and victories over falsities and evils attacking Him coming from hell. As a Human on earth the Church was then instituted by Him as is a New Heaven instituted by Him. Even at His Second Advent when He subjugated the hells and put Heaven back into order, He was establishing the Church, for is not Heaven the Lord's and the angels but a conjunction with the Lord? Does not the Church descend from the Divine through the Heavens to the earth, heaven being the cause and earth the effect? Thus, the redemption of man has been complete, and man need no longer wait for the Lord to come on earth again, since He now has come in a new Word. Of course, unless a man acknowledges that there is an internal sense in the Word, he will remain skeptical about this and many things that have been revealed in the New Word that has now come on earth. Such wait for His return to the physical world and for Him to set up His kingdom here - some say for a thousand years. They do not see a new Church, but the only Church they see is the one that they are in.
Think, if the Christian Church could be established with man without first being established through the Lord' Human, without glorifying His Human and without Him becoming the Divine Human, then, when He appeared in the form of an angel to those in the beginning Israelitish Church He could have overcome the evils and would not had to have come again in the physical or natural sense. However instead, we see that each time the Lord came was in a new Word and the Church on earth at that time ended in vastation and consummation. We know that if the Lord had not come, mankind would have perished. It was only the Lord who came as a Man that evils could attack and who could defeat them and receive the Divine qualities - the proceeding goods and truths - from the Divine that makes the Church, just as it is only the Lord who makes Heaven. In the Lord's human put on upon coming into the world could He be led such as all men are - through an external way - through the natural senses. Therefore, He could overcome all temptations through the very process that forms a Church in man. Thus, this was first accomplished and formed in the Lord. Thus, it was perfect and, so, when the Lord is accepted as the Divine Human a man has these truths and goods in him united in a new will and understanding and thus, receives a new life. In this way the Lord is conjoined with man in what is called the crown of all Churches - the New Church - that now descends from God out of Heaven as is told in a new Word, the Word of the Divine Human - The Third Testament. This could only take place when the Lord came to reign over the spiritual world, when He subjugated the evils in hell and brought order back to the Heavens and this is called the Second Coming.
Let us review. The Church is in man from the Lord (God). It came first through influx from God through an internal way. This way ended when man turned away from Jehovah and a new way had to be made in order that man comes into heaven. This new way comes through the man's senses, through his understanding. It was now through an external way, which became distorted though evil. We see that before man could enter Heaven this way could only be made possible when Lord had to come on earth as a man. Still, the Lord was always present with man through various means, such as appearing as an angel, or in the burning bush, but primarily through the written Word such as the Ancient and the Old and New Testaments and now in the Third Testament. Today, the Lord remains present, but He may also be conjoined with the man who has accepted the internal truths now revealed in a new Word. Thus, the Lord approaches man through internal truths and man approaches the Lord in a new understanding by shunning evils and doing goods 'as if' of himself, but knows that he can do nothing of himself but that it is the Lord only who does good, who has made His Human Divine. These truths can be seen and known in the Word of the Third Testament.
All those who the Lord would save who lived before His Coming had to wait for the Lord to come. They had to believe that a new way for the Church, for the Lord, to be in man was to be established. It was the Advent (the first and second) of the Lord that was to make such a way possible. In the Lord's Coming and in His subjugating the evils in hell the Lord could be conjoined again with man and not just present and this in proportion to the goods and truths of faith in man from the Lord. One sees here that it was a necessity that the Lord make His Human Divine, that He unite the Good with the Truth in Himself because it was not possible for man to do so, evil having rule in him.
The Lord or Jehovah God created man with both a spiritual and a natural; He was within man from an internal influx. In time, man from being 'empty' of God's good and truth became spiritual and later became celestial and lived in peace as it were in paradise on earth. Yet, man was not satisfied and wanted that knowledge from or of his own and, so, he fell from the celestial state through distorting that knowledge. As a result of this fall the knowledge of Celestial Church gradually came to an end. However that knowledge was written down for his posterity and again in time a Spiritual Church was raised up in man through a remnant from the Most Ancient that followed what had been taught to the Celestial Church. Yet, over the years, this Church, too, was consummated or ended. In the Celestial state and the Spiritual state, that is, in the Heavenly states with man the Lord was present through a Celestial and Spiritual Human before their fall and could teach and lead mankind - the celestial through perception and the spiritual through the natural senses from the written Word, but when man fell from those states into the natural the Lord at that time had no Human that He could be with man. That is why there was the promise of the Lord's Advent given to the Celestial Church when it had sinned. (Note: In Heaven there are two states, the celestial and the spiritual.
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3: 15)
This is, of course, is talking about the serpent who tempted Eve in the story of Garden of Eden. By serpent is meant the man's sensual natural that has turned itself from the Heavenly natural and, thus, to evil in general. The "seed of the serpent" is meant all infidelity. The "I" who "will put away enmity' is thus the Messiah who was to come. It is the "woman" who is meant the Church. By the "seed of the woman" is meant faith in the Lord. And by "thou" is meant also the Lord Himself. The 'head of the serpent' is the dominion of evil and the love of self. Thus, to "trample" is meant depression and to "go upon its belly and eat dust". The "heel" is the lowest Natural, as the Corporeal or man, which the serpent should bruise. This, of course, is what fell of man. Therefore, the Lord had to come and fulfill this promise to the fallen man. And in so doing, He needed to become Human in the Natural, for evil cannot approach the Divine. This Jehovah God did by become born of a woman, Mary, conceived from the Divine. At this time when the Lord came, the Church was in a representative state and had reached its end so that the establishment of the first Christian Church could come on earth. Thus, they not only rejected the Messiah, the Lord, but their own Word. Thus that Church ended. However, one needs to remember that the Lord prophesied that that Church would come to its end too and this is foretold in Revelation.
One can see that it was only by the Lord becoming the Divine Human which He did in His first Advent by overcoming evils and, so established a New Church (the First Christian) and in His second Advent by subjugating the evils in hell to where could not attack a man coming from earth, establishing a New Church the True Christian Church. Still, it must be understood that this New Church was not established until a new Word came revealing the internal or the spiritual sense whereby genuine truths could be known and acknowledged and, thus, man could approach the Lord God. And this could come only when the Last Judgment came to the (first) Christian Church where, as before, a remnant was raised up to be with the Lord, though this time into a new Heaven so that they would be with Him were He was as He had told them. Influx from the Divine Human can now come into a man's rational through truths that he appropriates 'as if' by himself, though he knows the Lord within are those truths. This Divine Influx is the Divine Proceeding, or the Holy Spirit influencing man.
By the Church is meant a man who is in the love of good and faith of truth, thus the good of life. This Church's quality is according to the degree that truth and good is in man. But, also by the Church can be meant a society of people who have a like understanding of the Word. In such a Church are all those who are in the love of good and faith of truth. However, there are within such societies such who are not in any love of good and the faith of truth except in the external. Again, the Church is mostly thought of as man's and established by man from claiming obedience to the Word. This is because men are in the business of 'running' it, of organizing it, and all the other things required to 'establish' it. Nonetheless, the true Church is spiritual and comes from the Divine. It is the qualities of good and truth flowing 'as it were' from the Lord, who is the Divine Human. And, unless the Lord, while as a man on earth, united His Human with the Divine, the New Church would not have been established, for a new Word would not have come by which the internal sense could be seen. Thus, a New Church can be today in man.
Thus, today with each person a New Church may be formed within. With man this is called a renewal or reparation and is the instauration or the establishment of the true Church within. One sees that before this was possible, the Lord, while on earth as a man, had to glorify His Human, which with man is called regeneration. In the glorification the Lord received the power to save man. Before this good and truth could not be conjoined in man until he could receive a new will and understanding. Good and truth flow as one united from the Lord though man receives them separately. Now it - the marriage of good and truth - can be formed in man from the Lord, the Divine Human, because the Lord holds evils subjugated in hell.
"And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and He Himself shall be with them their God' signifies the Lord's conjunction, which is such that they are in Him and He in them."
"That the assumption of the Human, and the uniting of it with the Divine that was in himself from birth and is called 'the Father', has for an end a conjunction with men is plain."
(The Apocalypse Revealed 883 § 1, 2)
The assumption of the Human with the Divine, the Truth united with the Good, that is, the Father - the Divine - with the Divine Truth, that is, the Son makes the Divine Human Thus, with the Lord in His Human was there the establishment of the New Church in man, therefore fulfilling the conjunction of the Lord with man.
"And I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21: 2).
Lower thoughts see a city - New Jerusalem. Higher thoughts see a bride - the New Church. (AR 881) Lower thoughts see a Church, higher thoughts, the Lord, who is the Heaven within us and on earth the Church in man.
The Church proceeds from the Lord, who is the Divine Human. And that which proceeds is His essence which is good and truth and has became conjoined in the Human of the Lord who is God-Man and Man-God.
End.
The celestial man, as seen in Adam and Eve, was taught and led directly by the Jehovah and received life through an internal way by perception. The life that flows forth into man is the very quality of the Lord, which is His Love and Wisdom and these in man are called 'good and truth'. Those who were in the Celestial state were called the Most Ancient Church; they were celestial men. Still, they lived here on earth, for life flows from the Lord God first into the celestial degree then into the spiritual and at last into the natural degree. Because the celestial man began to reject this knowledge of good and truth from the Lord God, his soul and internal degrees became closed to him. Yet, Christians know that there was given a promise not only to those in that Celestial Church - to those in paradise - but to all who came after that a time would come that man would be able to come again into conjunction with Heaven and with the Lord. Because of the fall man could now only come to this knowledge through his understanding, which had become merely natural and could no longer come through perception which is from within through the will, this now being ruled by his love of self. Thus, over the ages there have been several Churches established on earth through the man's understanding of the knowledges and scientifics of the Lord from His Word.
Many will agree that the Lord is present with man and that it is the man who has closed his mind and heart to the Lord. The truth that a man receives and believes he often thinks saves him without him doing good 'as if' having the knowledge alone can save. In such belief there is no charity thus, no good of love, no faith of truth, and no good of life. Therefore, it can be said that these two - good and truth - in order to be true or genuine must be conjoined in man and this is only possible through the Lord in His coming and in Him defeating the evils in His self and in subjugating them in hell. Thus, revealing this in Word whereby the internal sense is opened. In this act the Lord approaches man and man can approach the Lord through a new understanding and will. The man then lives his life from the Lord which is then within because the good and the truth can be in man as in a marriage when they are loved for the sake of good and truth. Thus, the spiritual of man is conjoined with the Lord and the Lord in man rules the natural while the man on earth is ruled through the spiritual within, thus through truths, which a man then does because he loves truth for the love of good.
One sees over the course of natural history the celestial and then the spiritual state or the eras of the Golden, the Silver and Bronze ages others that have ended or closed with man. All what remained had with man was the natural state that can be seen in the 'clay of the feet' of statue in Daniel, thus what truth man understood about the Lord was only representative and so genuine goods and truths were not with and in man any longer. Here, it is needed to point out that by a Church is meant the Lord's qualities within the man individually, for it is these in man that are seen as the Celestial and Spiritual Churches and also those Churches coming after - the Israelitish and the Christian. We need to also point out that each Church began in love to the Lord, but turned away and ended in evils. One sees that good and truth make the Church in man and these are the Lord with man in his will and understanding, thus the quality of the will and understanding of man determines the quality of the Church with man. The quality of the Church with man had declined to the representative state. In fact, the state of destruction and consummation was coming in which good and truth would be destroyed in the natural sense. For this cause the Lord came on earth to redeem and save man. The prophets had spoken of the fullness of time when salvation would come.
It was said previously that the Lord came to save the spiritual man and by this is meant the man's spirit not another separate entity. One may understand this in the light of the creation of mankind as seen through God's love and wisdom preceding forth first to the celestial and then the spiritual Heavenly degrees ending in the natural and earthly degree. In other words, without the celestial degree there would be no spiritual degree and without a spiritual no natural degree, for it is only through heaven that man has any conjunction with the Lord. One is the foundation of the next or creation is like end, cause, and effect. In the natural state the Church is in a representative state where the Lord is present representatively through worship; He is not within in the internal of man, only in the man's external in his memory, the spiritual state having been closed to him. It is into such a state that the Lord came to the earth in order to redeem man. From a spiritual and historical understanding the state of the Church, then on earth - the Israelitish - came to its vastation and consummation or its end. This is why the Lord established the Christian Church: in order to raise up a spiritual Church in man, that man might be conjoined with the Lord and with Heaven.
The Lord had rose up a remnant of the Israelitish and Jewish Church and from them established the (first) Christian Church just as a new Church had been raised up after the fall of all the prior Churches beginning with the Church called Adam. While the progression of the Churches became further and further in their descent from any conjunction with the state where the Lord could come called in the 'fullness of time' and He was born as a man, conceived from the Divine that He might redeem and save man. One sees that at each state that a new Church was raised up there was a new Word given such as the Ancient Word, the Israelitish or Old Testament, and the Christian or New Testament. Therefore, when the Christian Church ended as the Lord foretold it would and as written in Revelation we see another New Church, the True Christian Church being raised up. And, for those who accept that another New Christian Church has come on earth a new Word, the Word of Third Testament is given. Thus was there a connection between man and angel, between Heaven and the (Church) on earth made possible, which can be seen culminating in the revelation of the Word's internal sense.
All Churches were established through the Word, both directly from the Lord in the Most Ancient Church and indirectly through the written Word. However, in the Church's natural state as it was in the Israelitish Church the Lord as the Word Himself had come, for its end had come and unless the Lord, the Word Himself came, mankind could not be redeemed. At such a state a new, Church could not be established except the Lord Himself establishes it. For, in order that a new Church to be established in man the Lord as a man must establish the goods and truths which are the Divine with the Natural that He assumed upon coming into the Word; these qualities must be infinite in order that He could conqueror all evils, thereby redeeming man from evil. This process was called the His glorification and was His making (becoming) the Human Divine.
As the Divine Human, the Lord's work on earth was finished. However, it is not the natural man, his live having been distorted that lives in Heaven, but it is the man's spirit. However it is evil spirits that influence a man's spirit. Therefore, the work of redemption had to continue in the spiritual world, as that the man came there after his death on earth as was attacked. Remember, the Lord in the Last Judgment brought order back to the spiritual world, even Heaven. So, once again the Church on earth, which was the Christian Church that was established by the Lord when He was on earth, turned away from their first love, their love to the Lord as did the Churches before. And, as foretold in Revelation and by the Lord Himself the end of that Church came to which the Lord came again as He had told His disciples He would. Again, the 'fulfillment of time' came for the Lord to come into the spiritual world and there was a Last Judgment and the end came to the old Heaven and earth and there was a new beginning of a New Heaven and new earth - a Heaven established from the first faithful Christians and a New Church on earth on earth came from a new Word that descended through a man chosen man as it before had through the prophets and evangelists.
Has not the Lord gained or won back His Kingdom, His Goods and Truths to Himself? And, hasn't the Lord become the Divine Human so that He could subjugate the evils in hell, so that a man could, as of himself, shun evils and accept goods and truths, whereby the New Church - a True Christian Church - is established with man on earth. And, isn't it from the Lord in man that the Church is established? It is just as the Lord received influx from the Divine - the Father - that man from the Word (Lord) receives influx and when that truth is conjoined with good, both, the truth, which is the Word - the Son of Man - and the Divine - which is Good and the Soul of the Lord become united in Him. So, also the good and truth must become conjoined in man, thus establishing and forming the Church with man. The Lord Himself united the truth with the good in Him self; the Divine and Human became the Divine Human in the Natural state.
Thus, the Lord united the Divine Good and the Divine Truth in the (His) Natural Human; He did so by overcoming temptations and by combats and victories over falsities and evils attacking Him coming from hell. As a Human on earth the Church was then instituted by Him as is a New Heaven instituted by Him. Even at His Second Advent when He subjugated the hells and put Heaven back into order, He was establishing the Church, for is not Heaven the Lord's and the angels but a conjunction with the Lord? Does not the Church descend from the Divine through the Heavens to the earth, heaven being the cause and earth the effect? Thus, the redemption of man has been complete, and man need no longer wait for the Lord to come on earth again, since He now has come in a new Word. Of course, unless a man acknowledges that there is an internal sense in the Word, he will remain skeptical about this and many things that have been revealed in the New Word that has now come on earth. Such wait for His return to the physical world and for Him to set up His kingdom here - some say for a thousand years. They do not see a new Church, but the only Church they see is the one that they are in.
Think, if the Christian Church could be established with man without first being established through the Lord' Human, without glorifying His Human and without Him becoming the Divine Human, then, when He appeared in the form of an angel to those in the beginning Israelitish Church He could have overcome the evils and would not had to have come again in the physical or natural sense. However instead, we see that each time the Lord came was in a new Word and the Church on earth at that time ended in vastation and consummation. We know that if the Lord had not come, mankind would have perished. It was only the Lord who came as a Man that evils could attack and who could defeat them and receive the Divine qualities - the proceeding goods and truths - from the Divine that makes the Church, just as it is only the Lord who makes Heaven. In the Lord's human put on upon coming into the world could He be led such as all men are - through an external way - through the natural senses. Therefore, He could overcome all temptations through the very process that forms a Church in man. Thus, this was first accomplished and formed in the Lord. Thus, it was perfect and, so, when the Lord is accepted as the Divine Human a man has these truths and goods in him united in a new will and understanding and thus, receives a new life. In this way the Lord is conjoined with man in what is called the crown of all Churches - the New Church - that now descends from God out of Heaven as is told in a new Word, the Word of the Divine Human - The Third Testament. This could only take place when the Lord came to reign over the spiritual world, when He subjugated the evils in hell and brought order back to the Heavens and this is called the Second Coming.
- In the degree (proportion) that the Lord is conjoined with man, (the same proportion) the Church is with Him. The Church is within man."
Let us review. The Church is in man from the Lord (God). It came first through influx from God through an internal way. This way ended when man turned away from Jehovah and a new way had to be made in order that man comes into heaven. This new way comes through the man's senses, through his understanding. It was now through an external way, which became distorted though evil. We see that before man could enter Heaven this way could only be made possible when Lord had to come on earth as a man. Still, the Lord was always present with man through various means, such as appearing as an angel, or in the burning bush, but primarily through the written Word such as the Ancient and the Old and New Testaments and now in the Third Testament. Today, the Lord remains present, but He may also be conjoined with the man who has accepted the internal truths now revealed in a new Word. Thus, the Lord approaches man through internal truths and man approaches the Lord in a new understanding by shunning evils and doing goods 'as if' of himself, but knows that he can do nothing of himself but that it is the Lord only who does good, who has made His Human Divine. These truths can be seen and known in the Word of the Third Testament.
All those who the Lord would save who lived before His Coming had to wait for the Lord to come. They had to believe that a new way for the Church, for the Lord, to be in man was to be established. It was the Advent (the first and second) of the Lord that was to make such a way possible. In the Lord's Coming and in His subjugating the evils in hell the Lord could be conjoined again with man and not just present and this in proportion to the goods and truths of faith in man from the Lord. One sees here that it was a necessity that the Lord make His Human Divine, that He unite the Good with the Truth in Himself because it was not possible for man to do so, evil having rule in him.
The Lord or Jehovah God created man with both a spiritual and a natural; He was within man from an internal influx. In time, man from being 'empty' of God's good and truth became spiritual and later became celestial and lived in peace as it were in paradise on earth. Yet, man was not satisfied and wanted that knowledge from or of his own and, so, he fell from the celestial state through distorting that knowledge. As a result of this fall the knowledge of Celestial Church gradually came to an end. However that knowledge was written down for his posterity and again in time a Spiritual Church was raised up in man through a remnant from the Most Ancient that followed what had been taught to the Celestial Church. Yet, over the years, this Church, too, was consummated or ended. In the Celestial state and the Spiritual state, that is, in the Heavenly states with man the Lord was present through a Celestial and Spiritual Human before their fall and could teach and lead mankind - the celestial through perception and the spiritual through the natural senses from the written Word, but when man fell from those states into the natural the Lord at that time had no Human that He could be with man. That is why there was the promise of the Lord's Advent given to the Celestial Church when it had sinned. (Note: In Heaven there are two states, the celestial and the spiritual.
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3: 15)
This is, of course, is talking about the serpent who tempted Eve in the story of Garden of Eden. By serpent is meant the man's sensual natural that has turned itself from the Heavenly natural and, thus, to evil in general. The "seed of the serpent" is meant all infidelity. The "I" who "will put away enmity' is thus the Messiah who was to come. It is the "woman" who is meant the Church. By the "seed of the woman" is meant faith in the Lord. And by "thou" is meant also the Lord Himself. The 'head of the serpent' is the dominion of evil and the love of self. Thus, to "trample" is meant depression and to "go upon its belly and eat dust". The "heel" is the lowest Natural, as the Corporeal or man, which the serpent should bruise. This, of course, is what fell of man. Therefore, the Lord had to come and fulfill this promise to the fallen man. And in so doing, He needed to become Human in the Natural, for evil cannot approach the Divine. This Jehovah God did by become born of a woman, Mary, conceived from the Divine. At this time when the Lord came, the Church was in a representative state and had reached its end so that the establishment of the first Christian Church could come on earth. Thus, they not only rejected the Messiah, the Lord, but their own Word. Thus that Church ended. However, one needs to remember that the Lord prophesied that that Church would come to its end too and this is foretold in Revelation.
One can see that it was only by the Lord becoming the Divine Human which He did in His first Advent by overcoming evils and, so established a New Church (the First Christian) and in His second Advent by subjugating the evils in hell to where could not attack a man coming from earth, establishing a New Church the True Christian Church. Still, it must be understood that this New Church was not established until a new Word came revealing the internal or the spiritual sense whereby genuine truths could be known and acknowledged and, thus, man could approach the Lord God. And this could come only when the Last Judgment came to the (first) Christian Church where, as before, a remnant was raised up to be with the Lord, though this time into a new Heaven so that they would be with Him were He was as He had told them. Influx from the Divine Human can now come into a man's rational through truths that he appropriates 'as if' by himself, though he knows the Lord within are those truths. This Divine Influx is the Divine Proceeding, or the Holy Spirit influencing man.
By the Church is meant a man who is in the love of good and faith of truth, thus the good of life. This Church's quality is according to the degree that truth and good is in man. But, also by the Church can be meant a society of people who have a like understanding of the Word. In such a Church are all those who are in the love of good and faith of truth. However, there are within such societies such who are not in any love of good and the faith of truth except in the external. Again, the Church is mostly thought of as man's and established by man from claiming obedience to the Word. This is because men are in the business of 'running' it, of organizing it, and all the other things required to 'establish' it. Nonetheless, the true Church is spiritual and comes from the Divine. It is the qualities of good and truth flowing 'as it were' from the Lord, who is the Divine Human. And, unless the Lord, while as a man on earth, united His Human with the Divine, the New Church would not have been established, for a new Word would not have come by which the internal sense could be seen. Thus, a New Church can be today in man.
Thus, today with each person a New Church may be formed within. With man this is called a renewal or reparation and is the instauration or the establishment of the true Church within. One sees that before this was possible, the Lord, while on earth as a man, had to glorify His Human, which with man is called regeneration. In the glorification the Lord received the power to save man. Before this good and truth could not be conjoined in man until he could receive a new will and understanding. Good and truth flow as one united from the Lord though man receives them separately. Now it - the marriage of good and truth - can be formed in man from the Lord, the Divine Human, because the Lord holds evils subjugated in hell.
"And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and He Himself shall be with them their God' signifies the Lord's conjunction, which is such that they are in Him and He in them."
"That the assumption of the Human, and the uniting of it with the Divine that was in himself from birth and is called 'the Father', has for an end a conjunction with men is plain."
(The Apocalypse Revealed 883 § 1, 2)
The assumption of the Human with the Divine, the Truth united with the Good, that is, the Father - the Divine - with the Divine Truth, that is, the Son makes the Divine Human Thus, with the Lord in His Human was there the establishment of the New Church in man, therefore fulfilling the conjunction of the Lord with man.
"And I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21: 2).
Lower thoughts see a city - New Jerusalem. Higher thoughts see a bride - the New Church. (AR 881) Lower thoughts see a Church, higher thoughts, the Lord, who is the Heaven within us and on earth the Church in man.
The Church proceeds from the Lord, who is the Divine Human. And that which proceeds is His essence which is good and truth and has became conjoined in the Human of the Lord who is God-Man and Man-God.
End.
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