The New Christian Church and Its Religion
By Rev. Paul Booth
This sermon shows how and why the Lord is establishing a New Church today. In it is explained how important it is that the Word be understood in its internal sense.
By Rev. Paul Booth
This sermon shows how and why the Lord is establishing a New Church today. In it is explained how important it is that the Word be understood in its internal sense.
The idea of a new Church being established today to the average person may be looked at with some suspicion and may even be thought of as not Christian. People just seem to think that if a Christian Church is not either Catholic or one of the many Protestant denominations that exist today, or even maybe one of the many nondenominational Christian churches that it is not considered a true Christian church, and is seen as a mere cult as was the Baptist in Europe often thought of. Thus, a new Church is not seen today as being truly Christian or as coming from Christian origin and one who does not worship the same Lord God Jesus Christ. Neither is a new Church seen as established from the same love as the older Churches feel in their worship is and as the Apostolic and the earlier Christian Churches were from which they had grown.
However, if you examine the Lord God's presence with mankind throughout all history, you can see that as people fell away from their love to the Lord there was always raised up from out of them a 'new' Church, which replaced the prior one. For example: mankind (in the beginning), as we read in the first four chapters of the book of Genesis, had sinned more and more, God's presence with them eventually came to an end. This is seen climaxed in the story of a flood. One sees there a 'new' Church being raised up through Noah and his three sons. And, the end of the Most Ancient Church then on earth 'as it were' is understood as drowning in the flood of evils and falsities. Then, after this, a 'new' Church (then called the Ancient Church) had begun to develop and its doctrine of love towards the neighbor or of 'charity' became foremost with them. As we see the story continuing, mankind builds a 'tower', a city (the tower of Babel) as a monument to man himself. Mankind, in effect, places himself above God and their life of charity began to fall away to the love of self. So again, we see mankind turning from God as before. And again, we see a 'new' Church being raised up out of the remains of that Ancient Church. This time a 'new' Church came through Abram, who later was called Abraham, and from him Isaac was born, and from his son Jacob the twelve tribes of Israel came and the nation of Israel, which later was divided into two kingdoms - Judah and Israel. This was the 'new' Church that the Lord as Jesus Christ was then born on earth.
Again, as this 'new' Church - the Israelites and the Jews - turned to a love of themselves, just as those Churches before had, and so they rejected the Lord whom we know in the proper time had come on earth, and put on the human of mankind. We see that a 'new' Church was soon raised up out of the few faithful - the disciples and others - that accepted and followed the Lord. This time it was the Christian Church that was established by Christ Jesus Himself. This Church was called so because its followers believed the Christ Jesus was God Himself. Remember, Thomas exclaimed "My Lord and God' when he realized that the Lord, indeed, had arisen from the grave. He saw the two as one and the same person. Jesus Himself had said He and His Father were one.
At first, this new Church was the Apostolic Church. Later it became known as the Christian Church - Churches which we, now, see only the remains of today - the Reformed, the Roman Catholic, the Orthodox, among others branching off from these. Thus, that it is today, a new Church - the Lord's New Church - that is now being formed out of the remains of those faithful, out of the goodness and its truths, out of those faithful early Christians at the Lord's second coming in the spiritual world that a new Church descends and is being established here on earth as all prior Churches were.
This new Church, today that is now being established in the minds of men and women, is the true Church. It is a Church in which a person can come to understand the spiritual or the internal sense of the Word and from where the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Human can now reign within in a person's mind and soul and thus, the Lord comes in His Kingdom both here on earth and in Heaven. Did not the Lord come to claim back His Kingdom? This is the Gospel that this new Church teaches.
You might wonder why a 'new' Church is now needed for after all the Christian Church was established by Christ Jesus Himself? Yes, that is true, however, its true establishment with men had to wait for the coming of the Lord again before a place was prepared for that true Christian Church. Until a man's spiritual nature is opened to him and the spirit is joined together or conjoined within him to his natural nature with the Lord, he will continue in a love of and for his 'self' or his proprium, and in worldly love and not in a love to the Lord or towards the neighbor. A man does so because he cannot understand genuine truths or doctrine, because his natural senses only reveal apparent truths according to his 'self', and so there are also appearances that are falsities.
This we see is what happened to all the prior churches before the Christian. Today, such a Church with man is 'at best' only external and the man is actually outside the true Church. He, as such, is but a representative of a Church and not even a representative Church. Note: It is the man in whom the Church is established as the Lord makes His presence known. So, from a religious point of view these prior Churches are today not true Churches, but either representative and of only a representative of a Church. They are the external remains of those prior Churches. As an example: one of which, was the Hebrews, which Abram left in obedience to Jehovah.
By a 'representative' Church is meant that man's worship is only external that it is but a shell with no interior. Such worship, indeed, may have within it truths that correspond to heavenly or spiritual truths truths that are from the Lord. Although a man who is in a representative church or is a representative Church, unless he is somehow enlightened, does not know this. He does not know the internal or the spiritual sense that lies hidden in the Word. Thus, it is that before the Lord came into the world that all Churches were representative Churches, that is, the worship they had was representative and over time they were not even representative because they came into idolatry.
In the beginning, in all Churches, past and present, the Lord calls man out of his or her sinful life into living a life of love towards the neighbor and of love to the Lord, which is a life of charity. Thus, even as He called out Noah, Abram, and the disciples and raised them up into a 'new' Church on earth, which had became the Ancient, then the Israelitish and Jewish and then the first Christian Churches. He is now calling out a 'new' Christian Church today. You might be wondering how the Lord is doing this? We are created with both a natural body in which we live in this natural world with all it natural senses, and with a spiritual body with all its senses in which one day we will live in the spiritual world, either in Heaven or in hell. The truth is that our spirit lives in the spiritual world now with other spirits according to its life, either evil or good. Though, in this material body, unless we are conjoined with the Lord through out spirit, we are unaware of our spiritual nature. And, because of mankind's hereditary evil nature, man no longer hears the Lord from within. From the celestial and spiritual there lies within what is called man's internal life. This internal has been closed off, so to speak, to man because of his sin. The Lord must now reach man through his external senses. Because of this, man ends up wanting to rule over the Lord. He believes that what he thinks and does of himself is good and true.
The Lord calls man through his natural senses by coming to him in the Word of God; that is, He calls us through or by the Truth. In other words, the Lord comes to man through the Word and, as it were, appears to us within our understanding. The question then is how does a man understand the Word? What does man understand about the Lord and His Kingdom, which, as He said, is within us?
We take in or appropriate into our natural mind and we develop our faith and doctrine accordingly. Thus, the new Church 'as it were' can come to a man of today. If it involves truths that were revealed through the Word of the Third Testament - the Word of the Divine Human who is the risen and glorified Lord - then the spiritual sense is again taught and is opened for him to rationally understand. Then, when man follows and does the truths taught therein, he is not only enlightened, but also he can again perceive the Lord's presence. We then are benefactors of His love, and for doing so, the fallacies and falsities we learn through our natural sense of the Word are now revealed in their spiritual sense and genuine truths are opened to us.
One who does not see that there is an internal sense in the Word or who believes that the spiritual sense cannot be known today thinks, if there is a 'new' Christian Church being established today, then how is it different from those earlier Christian Churches that still appear to be alive today? Why is it needed or necessary? Is it because the doctrine of these earlier Christian Churches concerning the Lord is different? More importantly, why would there need to be a new Church if the old Churches worship the One true God who is revealed in the Word? People come to know Him somewhat differently in the many different Churches of today, but to believe in Him is what really matters, isn't it?
One of the very first things that is learned about the new Church of today is that it recognizes the religious writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg as holy and on a equal level with the Old and New Testaments. However, those of the early Christian Churches today do not accept the Word of the Divine Human as the Word of God. Herein, we get a glimpse of what the differences is between the old and the new Christian Church. If it is accepted that the understanding of the Bible often is lacking and seemingly counters itself, that often even religious and Biblical scholars and clergy cannot explain the meaning and the why of many passages, and agree on others, then you can see why there are several theories advanced and doctrines being taught. That is one reason that there are so many Christian Churches today. So many different beliefs and doctrines that are taught in all these Christian churches, sects, and cults. One, therefore, can understand that man lacks the ability to understand God's revelation of the Old and New Testaments. Even more than that, if doctrine or one's faith matters, than which of the many theories is the correct one? Is there a correct one? And, also, wouldn't that mean that there are many fallacies and false doctrines being taught today in these churches and don't false doctrines lead astray?
Let us examine why it is that we need to know and acknowledge the genuine truth. First, the truth is the Lord with man. The truth reveals the Lord to man. If we do not have the truth or the Lord dwelling 'as it were' within us, if we don't know the truth, if we do not accept the truth or the Lord as our life, then we will remain, not only in ignorance and in falsities, but we begin to sin and come into evil. Here, let us remember that the Lord has told us that we can do no good that is good of ourselves. You may ask how is it then possible that just because a person does not have the truth that the belief he has is a false faith and that he eventually will sin and come into evil, especially if you say man understands according to his natural senses and mind? Is that their fault, after all aren't all men born into the natural degree of life? The answer to that is that when truths are not received from God, then what a man thinks is true really is not, for man's thought comes from himself, his forefathers having fallen from God's grace. He himself has rejected God. As you may know, when man rejects the Lord's truth, he distorts his life; he begins to think that what he learns and knows are from himself, and that what he thinks, he thinks is the truth. As we said, this is an appearance and is not the genuine truth. And, in fact, all that man knows are apparent truths understood according to 'self' and not from the Lord, unless he is enlightened.
This problem came to man when he separated himself from God and turned to self, or to what is his own. Said in another way, man loves his 'self' more than he loves God and more than others. It, then, becomes obvious that man, because of his hereditary nature is sinful. To think man has the truth is an act that is contrary to the two great commandments taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, which is to love others as oneself and the Lord God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then the question is, how can man return from or be saved from his sin and become conjoined with God? Of course, it is why man believes that God has given to him His Word, which is the Truth and that Truth is revealed in certain writings that is called the Bible. However, such Revelation comes to man through his senses, mainly through his hearing and seeing. That is why and how man believes and how he had faith. Again, these senses are natural; that is, they come through the man's natural state. He has left his spiritual state. Man chooses to live in his natural state or degree of life when he rejects the Lord and does not want the Lord's love or wisdom. So, today, unless a man has a new revelation he knows nothing of his spirit or the spiritual sense of the Word, and in fact, his spiritual sense is closed to him.
The New Church or the person who has accepted this new revelation is enlightened and may receive a new rational understanding from the Lord and, so, may learn and acknowledge genuine truths, that is, he now does so from the Lord within. The Divine Truth or genuine truths are seen in true appearances. The appearances learned through his natural senses no longer lead him into fallacies and falsities, for his spiritual nature begins to rule within him and not the contrary, his natural nature ruling over his spiritual, that would even rule over God if it could.
You may say, okay, but can an example be given of how does knowing the spiritual sense of the Word help lead a person to true life? Doesn't our natural understanding tell us about the Lord and how we should love one another? So, what if we might not be exactly correct about who God is and about Heaven? Doesn't the Lord have mercy and will understand and forgive us if we understand only according to appearances? In answer, the Lord does love us and He wants us to be together with Him. Of course we will be given an opportunity to show that we do love Him, and that His Love dwells within us in our life. That is why we will be judged by how we live on earth.
One final question: To whom do you pray - the Father or the Son or to the Holy Spirit? Or to all of them? Can the Father do more than the Son can? In prayer is there a formula to follow, such as praying to the Father for the sake of the Son? Either way, if you pray to them as being three separate persons you are saying that God is divided, which is false. The same God that created man and that sustains man also redeems and saves him.
Amen.
However, if you examine the Lord God's presence with mankind throughout all history, you can see that as people fell away from their love to the Lord there was always raised up from out of them a 'new' Church, which replaced the prior one. For example: mankind (in the beginning), as we read in the first four chapters of the book of Genesis, had sinned more and more, God's presence with them eventually came to an end. This is seen climaxed in the story of a flood. One sees there a 'new' Church being raised up through Noah and his three sons. And, the end of the Most Ancient Church then on earth 'as it were' is understood as drowning in the flood of evils and falsities. Then, after this, a 'new' Church (then called the Ancient Church) had begun to develop and its doctrine of love towards the neighbor or of 'charity' became foremost with them. As we see the story continuing, mankind builds a 'tower', a city (the tower of Babel) as a monument to man himself. Mankind, in effect, places himself above God and their life of charity began to fall away to the love of self. So again, we see mankind turning from God as before. And again, we see a 'new' Church being raised up out of the remains of that Ancient Church. This time a 'new' Church came through Abram, who later was called Abraham, and from him Isaac was born, and from his son Jacob the twelve tribes of Israel came and the nation of Israel, which later was divided into two kingdoms - Judah and Israel. This was the 'new' Church that the Lord as Jesus Christ was then born on earth.
Again, as this 'new' Church - the Israelites and the Jews - turned to a love of themselves, just as those Churches before had, and so they rejected the Lord whom we know in the proper time had come on earth, and put on the human of mankind. We see that a 'new' Church was soon raised up out of the few faithful - the disciples and others - that accepted and followed the Lord. This time it was the Christian Church that was established by Christ Jesus Himself. This Church was called so because its followers believed the Christ Jesus was God Himself. Remember, Thomas exclaimed "My Lord and God' when he realized that the Lord, indeed, had arisen from the grave. He saw the two as one and the same person. Jesus Himself had said He and His Father were one.
At first, this new Church was the Apostolic Church. Later it became known as the Christian Church - Churches which we, now, see only the remains of today - the Reformed, the Roman Catholic, the Orthodox, among others branching off from these. Thus, that it is today, a new Church - the Lord's New Church - that is now being formed out of the remains of those faithful, out of the goodness and its truths, out of those faithful early Christians at the Lord's second coming in the spiritual world that a new Church descends and is being established here on earth as all prior Churches were.
This new Church, today that is now being established in the minds of men and women, is the true Church. It is a Church in which a person can come to understand the spiritual or the internal sense of the Word and from where the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Human can now reign within in a person's mind and soul and thus, the Lord comes in His Kingdom both here on earth and in Heaven. Did not the Lord come to claim back His Kingdom? This is the Gospel that this new Church teaches.
You might wonder why a 'new' Church is now needed for after all the Christian Church was established by Christ Jesus Himself? Yes, that is true, however, its true establishment with men had to wait for the coming of the Lord again before a place was prepared for that true Christian Church. Until a man's spiritual nature is opened to him and the spirit is joined together or conjoined within him to his natural nature with the Lord, he will continue in a love of and for his 'self' or his proprium, and in worldly love and not in a love to the Lord or towards the neighbor. A man does so because he cannot understand genuine truths or doctrine, because his natural senses only reveal apparent truths according to his 'self', and so there are also appearances that are falsities.
This we see is what happened to all the prior churches before the Christian. Today, such a Church with man is 'at best' only external and the man is actually outside the true Church. He, as such, is but a representative of a Church and not even a representative Church. Note: It is the man in whom the Church is established as the Lord makes His presence known. So, from a religious point of view these prior Churches are today not true Churches, but either representative and of only a representative of a Church. They are the external remains of those prior Churches. As an example: one of which, was the Hebrews, which Abram left in obedience to Jehovah.
By a 'representative' Church is meant that man's worship is only external that it is but a shell with no interior. Such worship, indeed, may have within it truths that correspond to heavenly or spiritual truths truths that are from the Lord. Although a man who is in a representative church or is a representative Church, unless he is somehow enlightened, does not know this. He does not know the internal or the spiritual sense that lies hidden in the Word. Thus, it is that before the Lord came into the world that all Churches were representative Churches, that is, the worship they had was representative and over time they were not even representative because they came into idolatry.
In the beginning, in all Churches, past and present, the Lord calls man out of his or her sinful life into living a life of love towards the neighbor and of love to the Lord, which is a life of charity. Thus, even as He called out Noah, Abram, and the disciples and raised them up into a 'new' Church on earth, which had became the Ancient, then the Israelitish and Jewish and then the first Christian Churches. He is now calling out a 'new' Christian Church today. You might be wondering how the Lord is doing this? We are created with both a natural body in which we live in this natural world with all it natural senses, and with a spiritual body with all its senses in which one day we will live in the spiritual world, either in Heaven or in hell. The truth is that our spirit lives in the spiritual world now with other spirits according to its life, either evil or good. Though, in this material body, unless we are conjoined with the Lord through out spirit, we are unaware of our spiritual nature. And, because of mankind's hereditary evil nature, man no longer hears the Lord from within. From the celestial and spiritual there lies within what is called man's internal life. This internal has been closed off, so to speak, to man because of his sin. The Lord must now reach man through his external senses. Because of this, man ends up wanting to rule over the Lord. He believes that what he thinks and does of himself is good and true.
The Lord calls man through his natural senses by coming to him in the Word of God; that is, He calls us through or by the Truth. In other words, the Lord comes to man through the Word and, as it were, appears to us within our understanding. The question then is how does a man understand the Word? What does man understand about the Lord and His Kingdom, which, as He said, is within us?
We take in or appropriate into our natural mind and we develop our faith and doctrine accordingly. Thus, the new Church 'as it were' can come to a man of today. If it involves truths that were revealed through the Word of the Third Testament - the Word of the Divine Human who is the risen and glorified Lord - then the spiritual sense is again taught and is opened for him to rationally understand. Then, when man follows and does the truths taught therein, he is not only enlightened, but also he can again perceive the Lord's presence. We then are benefactors of His love, and for doing so, the fallacies and falsities we learn through our natural sense of the Word are now revealed in their spiritual sense and genuine truths are opened to us.
One who does not see that there is an internal sense in the Word or who believes that the spiritual sense cannot be known today thinks, if there is a 'new' Christian Church being established today, then how is it different from those earlier Christian Churches that still appear to be alive today? Why is it needed or necessary? Is it because the doctrine of these earlier Christian Churches concerning the Lord is different? More importantly, why would there need to be a new Church if the old Churches worship the One true God who is revealed in the Word? People come to know Him somewhat differently in the many different Churches of today, but to believe in Him is what really matters, isn't it?
One of the very first things that is learned about the new Church of today is that it recognizes the religious writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg as holy and on a equal level with the Old and New Testaments. However, those of the early Christian Churches today do not accept the Word of the Divine Human as the Word of God. Herein, we get a glimpse of what the differences is between the old and the new Christian Church. If it is accepted that the understanding of the Bible often is lacking and seemingly counters itself, that often even religious and Biblical scholars and clergy cannot explain the meaning and the why of many passages, and agree on others, then you can see why there are several theories advanced and doctrines being taught. That is one reason that there are so many Christian Churches today. So many different beliefs and doctrines that are taught in all these Christian churches, sects, and cults. One, therefore, can understand that man lacks the ability to understand God's revelation of the Old and New Testaments. Even more than that, if doctrine or one's faith matters, than which of the many theories is the correct one? Is there a correct one? And, also, wouldn't that mean that there are many fallacies and false doctrines being taught today in these churches and don't false doctrines lead astray?
Let us examine why it is that we need to know and acknowledge the genuine truth. First, the truth is the Lord with man. The truth reveals the Lord to man. If we do not have the truth or the Lord dwelling 'as it were' within us, if we don't know the truth, if we do not accept the truth or the Lord as our life, then we will remain, not only in ignorance and in falsities, but we begin to sin and come into evil. Here, let us remember that the Lord has told us that we can do no good that is good of ourselves. You may ask how is it then possible that just because a person does not have the truth that the belief he has is a false faith and that he eventually will sin and come into evil, especially if you say man understands according to his natural senses and mind? Is that their fault, after all aren't all men born into the natural degree of life? The answer to that is that when truths are not received from God, then what a man thinks is true really is not, for man's thought comes from himself, his forefathers having fallen from God's grace. He himself has rejected God. As you may know, when man rejects the Lord's truth, he distorts his life; he begins to think that what he learns and knows are from himself, and that what he thinks, he thinks is the truth. As we said, this is an appearance and is not the genuine truth. And, in fact, all that man knows are apparent truths understood according to 'self' and not from the Lord, unless he is enlightened.
This problem came to man when he separated himself from God and turned to self, or to what is his own. Said in another way, man loves his 'self' more than he loves God and more than others. It, then, becomes obvious that man, because of his hereditary nature is sinful. To think man has the truth is an act that is contrary to the two great commandments taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, which is to love others as oneself and the Lord God with all one's heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then the question is, how can man return from or be saved from his sin and become conjoined with God? Of course, it is why man believes that God has given to him His Word, which is the Truth and that Truth is revealed in certain writings that is called the Bible. However, such Revelation comes to man through his senses, mainly through his hearing and seeing. That is why and how man believes and how he had faith. Again, these senses are natural; that is, they come through the man's natural state. He has left his spiritual state. Man chooses to live in his natural state or degree of life when he rejects the Lord and does not want the Lord's love or wisdom. So, today, unless a man has a new revelation he knows nothing of his spirit or the spiritual sense of the Word, and in fact, his spiritual sense is closed to him.
The New Church or the person who has accepted this new revelation is enlightened and may receive a new rational understanding from the Lord and, so, may learn and acknowledge genuine truths, that is, he now does so from the Lord within. The Divine Truth or genuine truths are seen in true appearances. The appearances learned through his natural senses no longer lead him into fallacies and falsities, for his spiritual nature begins to rule within him and not the contrary, his natural nature ruling over his spiritual, that would even rule over God if it could.
You may say, okay, but can an example be given of how does knowing the spiritual sense of the Word help lead a person to true life? Doesn't our natural understanding tell us about the Lord and how we should love one another? So, what if we might not be exactly correct about who God is and about Heaven? Doesn't the Lord have mercy and will understand and forgive us if we understand only according to appearances? In answer, the Lord does love us and He wants us to be together with Him. Of course we will be given an opportunity to show that we do love Him, and that His Love dwells within us in our life. That is why we will be judged by how we live on earth.
One final question: To whom do you pray - the Father or the Son or to the Holy Spirit? Or to all of them? Can the Father do more than the Son can? In prayer is there a formula to follow, such as praying to the Father for the sake of the Son? Either way, if you pray to them as being three separate persons you are saying that God is divided, which is false. The same God that created man and that sustains man also redeems and saves him.
Amen.
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