Religion

The Holy City Descending

“Will there be a time where a new age will come to the physical world, or does the kingdom of God refer to our entering Heaven as spirits after death?” (April 2024)

From Expositor’s Bible Commentary, volume 12, page 591, quotes James Moffatt:

“From the smoke and pain and heat [of the preceding scenes] it is a relief to pass into the clear, clean atmosphere of the eternal morning where the breath of heaven is sweet and the vast city of God sparkles like a diamond in the radiance of his presence.” (J.B. Moffatt, EGT, 5:471)

[Continues …] … John sees the city [the New Jerusalem] “coming down out of heaven from God” – a phrase he uses three times (3:12; 21:2,10) in an apparent spatial reference. But the city never seems to come down; it is always seen as a “descending-from-heaven kind of city” (Caird, p. 257). Therefore, the expression stresses the idea that the city is a gift of God, forever bearing the marks of his creation. (p.593)

But this is MORE THAN A GIFT – It offers a clue as to HOW IT TAKES PLACE.

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.” (Revelation 4:1,2)

Notice:

  • “Come up here”, and in response, “Immediately I was in the spirit”
  • John doesn’t GO UP, he goes WITHIN

Using degrees of HEIGHT to describe degrees of INTERIORITY:

“The angels who constitute the celestial kingdom, because they receive the Divine of the Lord more interiorly, are called interior and also higher angels.” (Heaven and Hell, 22)

Spiritual Influx:

“Divine order demands that heaven should rule the world with a person and not the world rule heaven with him; for when heaven rules a person, the Lord rules him, but when the world rules a person, the hells rule him.” (Heavenly Secrets, 9278, section 2)

“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11)

“As in heaven, so upon the earth” (Matthew 6:10)

Elevation gives a new perspective. Going inward – from natural to spiritual concerns – does the same.

“In the spirit” – It’s not that what John sees “in the spirit” is necessarily heavenly, but by means of a heavenly vantage point, he sees its true nature.

Once that higher perspective is found, the result is a reordering of external things – THIS IS THE DESCENT.

AN EXAMPLE OF THIS REORDERING: Heavenly Secrets, 3688, illustrated by means of the doctrine of charity:

  • from seeing only worldly things – external circumstances, such as poverty – 
  • to looking deeper, seeing good as a spiritual quality within the natural,
  • and then making that spiritual reality as the primary determining factor.

Will there be a “New Age” in this world?

  • I hope so.
  • I hope that heavenly principles will one day come to rule our external world – BUT, even when that day comes, whatever it looks like, the heavenly city MUST ALWAYS BE DESCENDING.

But for this this NEW AGE to become reality, there’s a process that MUST take place – which is both UNIVERSAL, and INDIVIDUAL

  • We will begin in a world of purely external concerns, working at a purely external level (environmental problems, politics, economics, poverty, human rights) …
  • No solutions will be found until we look beyond earthly, natural, external solutions … because the HEART and the HEAD must be factored into the equation.
  • Once we do this, a transformation can begin.
  • And then to realise – the HEART and the HEAD are whole essence of the problem, and to determine to act differently.

Interestingly, in Heavenly Secrets, 3688, ES acknowledges the need we all have to obey external commands at those external levels, to push for those external solutions – I think, in order to discover that they don’t really hold the answers at all.

Sometimes things have to get pretty bad before we see a need to change.

But that is a necessary part of the process – we cannot seek real solutions until we acknowledge the real problem.

The UNIQUE promise of the New Church is that:

  • ANY OF US can BEGIN this process at any time.
  • There is no need to wait!
  • If you don’t like what you see – GOOD!
  • Look within.
  • Seek a higher perspective.
  • Bring YOUR OWN outer world into line!

Recorded on Sunday 16 June 2024