promise once we confront and overcome Babylon: once we are reborn through
regeneration, when falsities are exposed and rejected, and when the Lord and
heaven are embraced.
Ever since the Last Judgment – and the creation of the New Church in
heaven in 1770 – civilization has lived with tension, vacillating between conflict
and hope. The world is transforming – but to what? And we are transforming
in our lives – but to what? It is up to our free – and now thankfully spiritually
informed – choices.
The New Church is being established in heaven and descending upon
earth as we learn and love new truth, which is for the salvation of all humanity.
We all need to look inside ourselves and ponder where we are in the midst of all
this: overwhelmed by dragons at times, perhaps lured astray by the siren songs
of Babylon, or fighting alongside Michael and his angels to slay the dragon.
So Revelation is not just an account of what John saw on the Isle of Patmos.
It is a prophecy for the churches of today, and for all of us as individual
“churches” – where the Lord resides within each of us.
The whole purpose of the Second Coming is to take away our blindness
by shining a new light of truth so that we can see more clearly and understand
more completely, and then freely decide what kind of a spiritual life we will
lead. The most important phrases for the New Church in Revelation are “Nunc
Licet” – now it is permitted to understand the mysteries of faith – and “Behold,
I make all things new.” It is for us to be made new by the light of the “bright
and morning star” and the “water of life” as the Spirit of Truth leads us into
all truth.
The gift of the Lord’s revelation lies in both the responsibility and
opportunity it confers. We are to help build the Church in the world by building
it first within ourselves. This is what Revelation offers – a vision for the world
and for our own lives, and a mirror reflecting where we are and showing us all
we can be as that “New Church” grows within us.
(BMH)
the marriage supper of the lamb
June is traditionally a favorite month for weddings. In fact, the month of June
is named for Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth. It is a happy
season of light and warmth, beauty and new life, when flowers bloom and
birds pair off and build nests for their offspring.
The delights of springtime on earth represent the delights of heaven,
where it is always spring. And of all heaven’s delights, the greatest are those that
accompany conjugial love. (True Christian Religion 847) This is because that
love serves the greatest of all uses, namely, the propagation of the human race,
and thus the creation of new angels to add to the ever-increasing perfection of
189