SWEDENBORG'S ESCHATOLOGY
BY THE REV. JOSEPH J. THORNTON,
of
Glasgow
International Swedenborg Congress,
London, July 4 to 8, 1910
V. THE SECOND
ADVENT.
Coincident with
the Last Judgment in the eighteenth century was the Lord's
accomplishment of His own promise to come again with spiritual light
in His Holy Word. Nothing could have been more explicit than His own
statements concerning His SECOND ADVENT. He said to His disciples:
"I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am
there ye may be also" (John xiv. 2). "For as the lightning
cometh, out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matt. xxiv. 27). The Lord's
Second Advent, on the side of the World of Spirits, involved a
repetition of His redeeming work. He again delivered mankind out of
the hands of their enemies, by removing from them the ascendency of
evil spirits. But, to men in this world, the Lord's Second Advent was
different from His first. He came not in a body of flesh, tempted and
infirm, but "as the lightning." So Divine Truth came upon the
world. He prepared Swedenborg to be the human recipient, seer, and
scribe, by means of whose labours He could give to this world a true
understanding of the Holy Word, together with many facts relating to
the other life, and a system of spiritual philosophy and theology such
as could suffice for the rational faculties of men, who receive His
guidance and live according to His law.
It is to be
noted in the Book of Revelation that immediately after an angel had
declared to John that "the testimony of JESUS was the SPIRIT of
prophecy" (Rev. xix. 10), John saw heaven opened; and there
appeared a representative and living form. It is described as a
"White Horse," whereon the Lord sat. That likeness of a Horse
represented the Divine Intelligence of the Lord Himself—His own
understanding of the interior meanings contained in Holy
Scripture—meanings full of that fidelity and truth which had first
originated from Him, when He ruled "the spirits of the prophets"
(Rev. xxii. 6, R. V.); by which also He "made war" on all the
evils of hell. The literal sense of Holy Scripture, whereon men had
for centuries wrought such great violence, was represented by the
"vesture dipped in blood"; but the Lord's own Name was still
called "THE WORD OF GOD"; and in that Word He is thus
represented as making His spiritual Advent—an Advent now affecting the
whole human race.
Nothing is
plainer in the world to-day than that a new feeling is now pervading
the nations. A disposition, never to be checked, is to-day growing up,
that is justly intolerant of the old cruelties. The brutalities and
oppressions of tyrants, whether domestic, local, national or
ecclesiastical, sicken our moral senses; and the awakening
intelligence of the world cries out for their abolition. But the power
that lies behind all the holier impulses of our times is that of the
Lord's own Presence in His DIVINE HUMAN, and in the spirit of His HOLY
WORD. He has come again! and He has bestowed from Himself, and out of
His angelic heaven, a New Doctrine, wholly in accordance with His own
infinite Wisdom and Love—a Doctrine represented by "The Holy City,
New Jerusalem; descending from God out of heaven" (Rev. xxi. 2).
[References,
other than from the Holy Scriptures referred to in this article, are
from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century scientist biography. Swedenborg penned thirty-five volumes from things he
heard and saw in the spiritual world for a period of more than
twenty-five years. This material is available
online or in literature form. If I can be of assistance, feel
free to contact me.]
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