Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Published by the
New-Church Sunday School Union
to commemorate
The New-Church World Assembly
1970 London
Distributed by
The New-Church Press Ltd.
20, Bloomsbury Way, London W.C.1,
and New-Church House,
34, John Dalton Street, Manchester M2 6LE.
Only one man
Therefore, had vou lived 200 years ago, in the year 1770,
Vou would not have noticed anything unusual. No king
or prince, no politician or admiraI, no ordinary man or
woman knew that they were living at a time which would
become one of the most important days in history:
JUNE 19th, 1770.
On that day, 200 years ago, a very wise and humble man
could see that there was great excitement in the spiritual
world, and that the Lord Jesus Christ had called together
the twelve disciples who had followed Him on earth, and
He told them that He had new work for them.
3
ElTIanuel
Swedenborg 1688 -1772
C.f( ~~i
4
One God
of Heaven & Earth
Because you have been brought up in the New Church,
you have a very clear idea about the Lord you worship.
Vou know only Jesus, and you say your prayers to Him,
since you know that there is no other God. When you
read His Word, it is God Himself who is speaking to you
and teaching you.
Vou might believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and
that besides Him there were two other persons: God the
Father, and God the Holy Ghost. Vou would be taught
not to say prayers to Jesus (as vou would wish to) but
to the Father who is the Almighty, though you could not
imagine Him at ail.
5
•
'1 W"as ln the spirit'
Can we really trust Swedenborg, that Swedish scientist?
Can we believe him when he calmly tells us that not only
did the Lord Himself appear to him, but that He also
opened his spiritual eyes, so that he could be in heaven
and in hell while he still Iived on the earth? Are such
things possible?
When the disciple John was an old man living on the isle
of Patmos: the Lord appeared to him and instructed him
to write ail the things that he saw in the spiritual world.
You can read about this in the first chapter of the book
of Revelation. You will then see the Iikeness between the
command given to John and the command given to
Swedenborg.
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Heavenly Mysteries
(j) "People who read the Word of the Old Testament think
that it is only a history of the Jewish people, because
AC.1 this is what it looks like. Vet the Word contains hidden
mysteries which describe the lord, heaven and the
Church."
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understood. It has been like a closed book. But now we
can know that the Lord speaks to us in His Word to give
us power to fight against evils, and to let us see Him
more c1early.
From things
heard and seen
\
Because ARCANA CAELESTIA is so long, it is not the
first work which people buy and read when they want to
find out about the New Church. The book which people
mostly read is one which Swedenborg called: HEAVEN
AN 0 HELL, or, to give it its full title: Heaven and its
Wonders, and Hell. From things heard and seen.
The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about heaven and hell many
times, but when ideas about spiritual truths became con
fused, no one really knew how to understand His words.
People came to know less and less about Iife after death.
9
A book which tells us about heaven arild hell, the world
where ail human lives continue, is bound to be a great
adventure book, full of exciting ideas. But Swedenborg
was a very serious and practical scientist. He was not
interested in writing a sensational book, but in describing
with great care and in great detail ail that we need to
know about the world which we must one day enter. It
is more like a text-book. But what wonderful secrets are
unfolded in its pages! Quietly and patiently (and this is
also how you must read it) the author describes what
heaven is like; what happens to us just after we die; how
we gradually awake and are made welcome by angels and
friends we knew on earth; how little children who die are
educated in heaven and become angels. We learn that
the happiness of heaven is so great because everyone
there has something useful to do, and ail wish to share
what they have with others.
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"1 can tell you this, for the Lord has promised it to me:
1 shall not die before 1 havë recëlvedfrom-the pressthis
~ork whicfi-isnow - ready-tobeprJïïted:-THE'TRUE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
"The principal object of this work is to show that the
Divine Trinity is united in the Lord."
11
-rct<. =rq,
~
This took place on J!;!.ne 19th, 1770y>This is meant by
these words of the Lord:
He shan send His angels and they shall gather together
His elect from one end of the heavens to the other
(Matthew 24:31).
The Lord once said: "God is not the God of the dead
but of the living." We think of people in history as being
frozen in books, statues, or paintings, and having no more
to do than give us a difficult time when we are sitting jor
exams and have to remember their dates and deeds. But,
in fact, no one is dead! Certainly not the disciples-Peter,
James and John, as weil as ail the rest. They are breath
ing now, and they are busy. They, too, went into the
spiritual world as soon as they died and, because of their
love for the Lord, they wou Id try to continue the work
they had done on earth in their simple and forthright way.
But as more people arrived from the earth, they saw that
the Church on earth was divided and falling into greater
confusion. You would have to st~9>" the history of the
Church to know what difficulties arose, how people argued
ancreven fought together, ail in the name of Christianity.
Somehow, e~erything was turning against the simple and
direct message which the discipleshad tried to teach.
But 'Përhaps they were upheld in hope by the words which
Jesus spoke to them while He was with them on the
earth. He had foretold that the Church would become
darkened by taise ideas, and that He would have to come
again when the time became right an-dwhËm the peQpie
coUld understand the truth more fully: --.--_._-- - -
"When the --Son otman comes, will He find faith on the
earth?" (Luke 18: 8).
"1 have still many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now" (John 16: 12).
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of truth, that He alone is the God of heaven and earth.
And because this is so, the truth had to be announced
both in the spiritual world and on the earth.
13
And so we say with the angels, for heaven and the Church
on earth now speak with the same voice:
THE ALMIGHTY.
14
Quotations in the text were taken from the following
books by Emanuel Swedenborg: