In This Issue
T
he Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs writes about “The Pass-Fail Test the Lord Has
Presented to Every Church Down Through the Ages” – including the New Church.
Throughout history, he says, every church has been destroyed by the same evil: people
not believing in the Lord or His Word but in themselves and their own senses. Are we
in the General Church sufficiently aware of this challenge – both internal and external?
If we resist and then embrace the legacy, he says, the Church will be richly blessed as
the means for the Lord to communicate with all who hunger and thirst after heavenly
doctrine. (Page 328)
Suicide is always tragic, on many levels, and no one is immune – including those in
the New Church. The Rev. John L. Odhner offers thoughtful “Reflections on Suicide,”
emphasizing the Lord’s mercy and cautioning that we cannot judge those who take
their own lives. He offers a wealth of teachings from the Writings that “will not take
away all the pain, but may bring a little clarity and comfort to people who have been
faced with suicide.” (Page 335)
The news is discouraging. Polls suggest that Christianity is in steep decline and that
cherished religious principles are under attack in an aggressively secular culture. The
Rev. Kenneth J. Alden finds comfort in the Word, particularly in Revelation where the
Woman Clothed With the Sun – representing the New Church – is threatened by the
dragon and a flood. But “the earth helped the woman,” swallowing up that flood. No
matter how helpless, threatened and persecuted we may feel, the Lord is always there
with His protection. (Page 345)
In a sermon for ANZAC Day in Australia – commemorating the first major
military action by Australian and New Zealand forces in World War I – the Rev. Todd.
J. Beiswenger, pastor in Hurstville, Australia, talks about the power of “Laying Down
Our Lives for Our Friends.” It relates not only to wartime sacrifice but to our own
willingness to lay down our old self – our old will – for the sake of a new will and
following the Lord. (Page 348)
In a sermon about “States Preceding Repentance,” the Rev. Scott I. Frazier uses the
biblical story of the “scape goat,