we might anticipate in the years
to come contributing to this same
end.
Is there a process involved here
that if it were known could help us
to understand where the world has
been in the last 250 years, where
it is now, and what states it might
experience in the future, as the
Lord leads it more and more into
the New Age, the Age of the New
Church? Perhaps if we had a better
idea of where we have been, where
we are, and some idea of where we
are still to go, we could cooperate
better with the Lord in working to
establish His new kingdom in this
world.
I would suggest that the Lord has not left us without some general and
very helpful teaching in this matter. It would appear there is indeed a process
that is broadly suggested in passages such as True Christian Religion 762 and
Invitation 34.
In True Christian Religion 762 the Lord tells us that “in the Lord’s sight
the church [through the ages] is seen as a single human being, and this larger
human being must pass through its stages of life like an individual – that is to
say, from infancy to youth, from this to young manhood, and finally to old age;
and then when he dies, he will rise again.”
When we reflect on this and its companion teaching in Invitation 34, the
following picture emerges:
• The age of the Most Ancient Church corresponds to the infancy of this
greater human being.
• The age of the Ancient Church corresponds to the childhood.
• The age of the Israelitish and Jewish Church relates to the later
childhood up to maturity.
• The age of the Christian Church relates to the maturity of this greater
human being until its natural death.
• The age of the New Church would then correspond to the state of a
human being after death, a state that progresses and, with the good, is
perfected to eternity.
Perhaps, if we had a better
idea of where we have
been, where we are, and
some idea of where we
are still to go, we could
cooperate better with
the Lord in working
to establish His new
kingdom in this world.
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