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this revelation, what is finite is removed; the Divine Lord Himself stands fully
revealed. He is revealed as the Lord of love, the Divine Comforter who would
lead each human being to a home in heaven.
In His final Word, the Spirit saith, “Come.” And man’s answer may be:
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” (Revelation 22:17,20)
The late Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs passed on to the spiritual world
in 2009. He is survived by his wife, Helga (Synnestvedt), and
a large family of children and grandchildren. During his long
service to the Church – from 1952 to 1999 – he was: minister
of the Advent Church in Philadelphia; pastor of the Carmel
Church, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada; pastor of the Detroit
(Michigan) Society; pastor of the Olivet Church in Toronto,
Canada, and headmaster of the Olivet Church School; President
of the Academy of the New Church; and Bishop’s Representative in South Africa. He was
also the author of the book, The Golden Thread.
O U R N E W C H U RC H V O C A B U L A R Y
Part of a continuing series developed by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, 1961-1966.
LOVE OF SELF
In the form in which it is usually spoken of, this love consists in wishing well to oneself
alone, and not to others except for the sake of self, and it is a corporeal love of exercising
dominion over others. It was not evil in the beginning, however, but one of the three universal
loves into which man was created; and when it has been purified and subordinated by
regeneration it becomes the proper love of self and preservation for the sake of uses, and one
of the loves which makes man to be truly a man. (See Heavenly Doctrine 65; True Christian
Religion 507)
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