to how your contribution and participation can equip and support others for
such service. In the end, worship must not be for our sake but the Lord’s, not
for having our way according to our understanding, but for doing the Lord’s
will according to His wisdom, and so entering more fully into His kingdom of
uses.
*See also the Rev. N. Bruce Rogers, “Why Join the General Church?" New
Church Life, March-April 2015. It is available online at: www.newchurch.org/
materials/publications/nc-life/archive.html
The Rev. Kenneth J. Alden will conclude his term as pastor
of the Boynton Beach New Church in Florida on June 30. He
has served also in Detroit, Michigan; the Washington New
Church in Mitchellville, Maryland; the Carmel New Church
in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada; and the Colchester Society in
England. He lives with his wife, Kim (Truax), in Lake Worth,
Florida. Contact: [email protected]
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.
FORESIGHT
This term is applied in the Writings to a particular operation or mode of the Divine
Providence. Only that which is good is provided by the Lord; yet He knows all evil before it
comes to pass and provides for it. This pre-knowledge of evils is what is meant by the Divine
foresight. It is to the Lord what prudence is to the human race, with the notable difference that
it is infinite, infallible and not cumulative but simultaneous.
Divine foresight does not interfere with or qualify human freedom. The Lord does not
foresee what will happen because He has predetermined what shall happen; He foresees what
man will do in his freedom. The term itself is an accommodation to the finite mind. Because
all things are present to Him, and there is no past or future, He does not “look ahead.” (See
Arcana Coelestia 3854)
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