Читать книгу Swedenborg: Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church онлайн | страница 9

It was the sign of the Son of Man to be seen again in the clouds of heaven that was to effect the judgment. It was the Lion of the tribe of Judah who alone could prevail to loose the seals of the Book, at once the Book of the Word and the Book of the judgment. The two prophecies are one. In the written Word after the resurrection, as in the flesh transfigured on the mount, the Lord showed Himself to His disciples in glory, Son of God in Son of Man. But in the succeeding centuries, as we have seen, clouds of misinterpretation, the clouds of tri-personalism, of vicarious atonement, and of salvation by faith alone, had hidden His face from men's minds. The dispersion of these clouds, the re-appearance of the face—the grace and truth—of the Son of Man, even ​in the letter of His written Word, was to effect the judgment on the declining age of the Church and reveal the dawning light of the new age.

Under this simple interpretation of the judgment we are to look for its effects in the clearing of the spiritual atmosphere, in release of men's minds from the bondage of perverted faith—Peter girded by another and carried whither he would not—and in increasing return to the simple, heart-felt instruction of the Gospel. It was the beloved disciple John who was to remain till his Lord should come again, and to whom in vision the spiritual judgment was portrayed—John, who stands for the love of the Church in good works, as Peter for its faith. And as among the Jews at our Lord's first coming, so in the midst of the desolation of the eighteenth century there were not a few memorable examples of God-fearing, self-denying, Samaritan lives. Into this good heart coupled with trained intellect, preserved as the germ for the new age, was received the first dawn of light, and in the marvellous spread of this light thus far we recognize the certainty of the Lord's renewed presence in His Church. Most strikingly is this shown in the ​new charity now prevailing between one sect of the Church and another and between Christian and pagan. Never before since the angels' song was heard on the hills of Judea—Peace on earth and good-will toward men—has its accomplishment seemed so near. Year by year, day by day is the evidence accumulating that the crisis is past and the new coming of our Lord begun, and this dating from about the middle of the eighteenth century. But where and how was the vision to John fulfilled?