1. EVERY EYE SHALL
SEE HIM
A Study in the promised
Second Coming of Christ
By REV. CLIFFORD HARLEY
Published by the
MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE NEW CHURCH,
20 BLOOMSBURY WAY, LONDON, W.C.
I
/14-1

3. SYNOPSIS
I. THE DOCTRINE IN THE ApOSTOUC AGE.
~2. OUR LORD'S PREDICTIONS CONCERNING HIS SECOND COMING. ) . S
MESSIANIC PROPHECIES, AND USE OF SYMBOLS.3·
SYMBOUC PREDICTIONS OF THE SECOND COMING.4·
4
c
THE SON OF MAN. - ­5·
"6. THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD. How IT HAS BEEN MADE
KNOWN.
PURPOSE AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE SECOND COMING.
7·
8. THE SECOND ADVENT NOW ACCOMPLISHED.
g. POSTSCRIPT.

4. EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM
INTRODUCTION
THE belief that our Lord would return to the world
and establish His Kingdom on earth was widely held
by the Primitive Christian Church, and appears to
have been an integral part of the teaching oL the
Apostles. It found its most explicit expression in Paul s
first letter to the Thessalonians in the following passage:
" For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, wit h tfie vOIce of the. arch­
anga~ anl):vi(.h"':.Jh~1rump_9I:QOd : aria the 000 in Birist
shall rise first; T hen we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord
in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words" (Chap. iv. 14-18).
So widespread and strongly held was the belief i...n the
imminent return of the Lord in bodil form thatit was,
in large measure ; aresponsl e factor In delaying the
committal to writing of the apostolic oral tradition of
the Lord's life and teaching. For the Apostles, our
Lord's death and resurrection were simply th e prellde,
the opening cha[lter, of a story soon to be given its
glorious completion. Meanwhile, they conceived their
mission to be the delivering by the living voice, of their
own personal testimony to the cardinal facts of the
Gospel-the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus,
the Christ.
Anti~ipating, _a.~~Y: djd, the speedy retur..n_ of the
Lord !.Othe world, and the triumphant establishment
of. His Kingdom, they had no thought of makmg a
written record for posterity, since they believed that the
substance of any such record would find splendid fulfil­
ment in present experience of the Lord's Kingdom.
As the years passed, and the Apostles themselves were
removed by the hand of death from the scene of their
earthly labours, the need was increasingly felt for an
authentic account of the essential facts of the Gospel
stories to be committed to writing, while yet there
remained to the Church some, at least, of the " eye­
witnesses of the Word." And so began the written
3
The belief in
the Early
Church
A reason for
the late
appearance
of the written
Gospels.

5. accounts of the Gospel, which were received as authori­
tative records by the Early Church. '" The late appear­
ance of the writt~n Gos els·is interesting and significant
eviaence~50thof the tenacit of the beliefin, and nature
of thS Second Comjn" Qf_the Lord, w 1cIi was held by
the Apostles and the primitive Church.
The present Nor has the belief ever died out from the Church.view of the
doctrine in But, as might be expected in view of the fact that, as it
the Church.
was interpreted by the Apostles and the FathersL...!l9
literal fulfilment has been give.!ll2...it, many ~!!empts
have been made to find some kind of inter retation 0 It
other th an a litera one. None of th ese, however, has
proved to be acce table to the collective mind of the
urc , so t at m recent years, t~I~Dcegrc;n
oTilie doctrine of the Second.Adv nLhas-.received a
[ shift in emphasis. The doctrine chiefly interests modern
theologian s from the point of view of how it arose. The
recorded sayings about it, attributed to the Lord, have
been closely studied. Parallels with apocalyptic teaching
contemporary with Christ, and also of that contemporary
with the age of the Jewish prophets, have been closely
scrutinized, and the conclusions which have been drawn,
as a consequence, tendtOCIlsmiss the belief in a Second(
Coming as being n01o_~er wormy 0 cre ence:-And
fortlie most part, it nas scarce y any-place in
contemporary theological thought.
' -T he the,i<;pf I1 In this booklet it will be shown that the doctrine of the
Ihls booklet. l Second Advent is n2t_t.9 be sIismissed as unworthy of
creaence, bUttliat all the Lord's teachmg concernmg it
/? -<> liiSactUally been fulfilled,"'and that the Second Coming
/ 11 of the Lord is an accomplished fact.
r In order that the truth of this assertion may be
demonstrated, it is necessary that hat our Lord
( A actuall ta~ht His disciples about His return, snould
De set fort . That done, we shall next proceed to show
, '2 precisely what He meant by the terms that He used
concerning It. Lastly, we shall try to show that the
promise to come again has hl!,d its historical fulfilment.
_ .--R~'
-3 OUR LORD~S TEACHING
CONCERNING HIS SECOND COMING
.. The Little The Gospel accordinz to Mark is probably theApocalypse.' I '-'
earliest of the four Gospels, and in the t~
( chapter of the book we find what is technically known
as T he LIttle Apocalypse. Here we may find the first
connectea account of what our Lord Himself taught
concerning His return to the world.
4

6. Mark narrates the incident which the Lord made the
occasion of His prophetic utterance. He says that
Later that same day, the Lord and His disciples
withdrew from the city to the seclusion of the Mount
of Olives.
" And as he sat upon the Mount of Oli ves ... Peter and
.Tames and John and Andrew asked Him privately, Tell us
when shall these things be? and what shall be the signs when
all these things shall be fulfilled?" (verse 3).
Thereupon, our Lord enumerated a number of signs
that would herald the fulfilment of H is prophecy. They
may be read in detail in verses 5-23. The account is
substantially repeated in Luke's account in chapter 17
of his Gospel, with minor modifications, and with some
additions.
Returning to The Little Apocalypse, Mark now
records the very pith of the promise of the Second
Coming, in the following words:
" But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,;""and the stars
of heaven shall fall, and the powers that ar e in heaven shal/1je
shaken. And then shall they see the 1 of Man in ilLthe
clouds of he:Jven with powe
d
an great glory.
-rr-And then shall H e sen B Is angels and they shall gather
together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost
part of the earth to the ullermost p:Jn of'hea ven " (verses 24-27).
The Little Apocalypse concludes with the parable of
the man who took his journey into a far country, giving
authority meanwhile to his servants, and commanding
the porter to watch.
The parable is expressly linked with the prophecy of
the Second Coming and actually applied to it in the
words,
" Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of
the house cometh.... And what I say unto you, I say un to
~, ~h " (verses 35 and 37).
Matthew's
account.
The account by Matthew of our Lord's teaching
concerning His return to the world, is substantially
the same as that given by Mark, but is slightly more
detailed. The heart of the prophecy is all but identical
with that given in The Little Apocalypse, as will be seen
from the quotation which follows from Matthew xxiv,
29-31.
" Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the
~n be darkened, and the m~n shall not give her light, and the
5

7. stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall
be'Sha ken.
" And then shall appear the Sift of the Son of Man in heaven:
and then shall all the tribes 01 t e earth mourn , and they shall
& the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power
and great glory.
"And H e shall send His angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to th e other. "
Here, then, in the Gospels by Mark, Matthew and
Luke, we have the record of the words which form the
h core of the ro hecies of the Second Commg.l n
addition to these, however, t ere were many parables
told by our Lord, in which the subject received signifi­
cant treatment and application. One of the most
notable is related in Matthew xxv. It is the parable of
the sheep and the goats, which is applied to a judgmen t
I
uI2Qn all nations, to be effected " when the Son QI' man
shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
H im " (verses 31-46) .
Apostolic It was on the teaching set out in the above passages,doctrine.
that the Apostles based their belief, and developed their
interpretation of the pro]2hecies of the Second Advent.
That they interpreted them with the utmost degree of
literalism is clear from Paul's words in Thessalonians
and elsewhere. But by the time the book of R evelation
was written, it is evident that, althoUh the ex ectation
JIof the Lord's ret r • '11 > lshed, the rve y ope
of Its occurrence in the lifetime of the Apostles was
already on the wane; so much so in fact, that the definite
deSCri tions of how th e Lord would come havegiVen
I al' se, to the simple affirmafron tfiat
JHe would return. T he final words 01 the book of
Revelation make this fact very clear. They are,
"behold, I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord J esus "
(R ev. xxii. 20).
4- THE TERMS OF
THE PROPHECY EXAMINED
Old Testa­ Long before th e first advent of the Lord, and from the
ment parallels.
time of the custom of building synagogues, the education
of Jewish boys was entrusted to the R abbis, and the
basis of the instruction given was the Law of Moses.
With more advanced years, instruction in other Old
Testament books was added. And the committal
to memory of certain parts of it (notably the Shema
(Deut. vi. 4-9) and the H allel (Psalms cxiii. to cxviii) )
was an integral part of the course of study.
In the local syn a!I0gue of His own village of Nazareth,
6

8. our Lord would be instructed in the Scriptures of the
Old Testament.
That the instruction was thorough and that o~
I.,OJ:d'S knowled e alike of the · and of
Rabbinical trag!!.i..Qn?-1 interpretations of them, was eep
an~ extensive, is evident from t e account of I!lS'Visit
to the temple, and of the amazement of those who saw
and heard Him, in " the presence of the doctors" of
the law "both hearing and asking them questions"
(Luke ii. 41-48).
These remarks are
subject. Jesus wa
imbued with the s';"=:;i"-:·:- "'0"';f;<=t7 e ~:n.,r:lt- nh -O am tures.
An , as t e ospel records of His life unfold, we find
how frequently He quoted from them, and how very
often, and with what aptness, He applied them directly
to Himself, and indirectly to what He taught.
We should, therefore, not be surprised to find, that '
in speaking with such confidence of His survival of
death, of His return to the world, and of the ultimate
triumph 01 His Ki!lgdom, He should employ the
language of the Old Testament to describe alike the
nature of the necessitv for a Second Coming, and the
manner in whi ch it woul e made. This is a very
important consideration to our understanding of the
subject, and we shall shortly return to it.
At what precise moment in His life the Messianic Messianic
prophecies.
consciousness of the Lord dawned upon Him, is of little
consequence to know. But that He was early aware
that He was the Messiah of Old Testament prophecy
is evident from the records. And that He applied to
Himself and to His life's work the terms of the prophecies
is equally manifest. In part He made literal application
of them as, for example, His claim to be born of the line
of David, His triumohal ride into erusalem sitting
upon a white ass, ~ e stee of e rew -ings an ju~s,
His acceptance of the title of the " Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world", His acceptance of
indignities, sufferings and crucifixion, and His manifest
understanding of these circumstances as being applica­
tions to Himself, as Messiah, of the prophecy of Isaiah
which said,
" the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
" And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in His mouth" (chapter liii ).
These and other instances show how literally the Lord
applied to Himself many of the Messianic passages of
the Old Testament.
7

9. Nevertheless He must well have known, indeed His
words show that He did know, that many a prophecy
which He claimed to have been fulfilled in Himself
and in the circumstances and events that befell I-Em,
could have had no literal counterpart in either. He
believed Himself to be the Messiah. He knew that
prophecy declared of the Messiah that He should ascend
the throne of David: yet He neither hesitated nor
scrupled to apply such conceptions to Himself while
yet He declared, " My Kingdom is not of this world."
And He also knew in how many of the prophecies
relating to the coming of the Messiah, and which so
often were introduced by the words, "in that day,"
there were foretold wars and earthquakes, famine and
pestilences, signs in the heavens and on the earth, and
great cosmic catastrophes, as certain forerunners of the
advent. Nevertheless although none of these predictions
had any literal fulfilment at the time of His birth, nor
during His lifetime, He solemnly announced,
" think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:
I am not com e to destroy, but to fulfil " (Matthew v, 17).
These, and other instances not here mentioned, show
clearly that the Lord applied such passages to Himself,
not in a literal, bur in a symbolical and spiritual sense."
Not among the least of the reasons why the leaders
of Jewry refused then and refuse now, to accept Him
as the Messiah of prophecy, was that neither in Himself,
nor in the even ts of H is life, nor in the circumstances of
His times was the greater JNrt of the terms of the
prop lecies Iiterallv fulfilled . T o writer has grven more
telling e.xpression to this incontrovertible fact than has
been done by the late Dean Farrar in his The Life and
Work 01St. Paul. He writes:
" If the Pharisees regarded it as the main function of their
existence to raise a hedge about the law-the inspiring motive
was a belief that if only for OD e day Israel were entiITly faithful,
the Messiah would come. And what a coming! How should
the Prince of th e I-louse of David smite the nations with the
rod of HIS mou th ! How should He break them in pieces like
a potter's vessel. How should He exalt t~ .children of Israel
into kin s of the eart an d feed them with The flesh of
Be emoth, and LevIathan, and pour at their feet the treasures
of the sea! And to say that Jesus firNararetl: was the promised
Messiah-to suppose that all the splendid promises of patriarchs
and seers and kings, from the Divine Voice which spoke to
I
Adanfin Eden, TOthe last utterance of the angel Malachi- all
ointed to, all centred in One who had been the carpentef'OJ"
zare , and whom !hcy had seen cru clhed between r",'b
brigan s-to say that their vc Messiah liad been • hung '
by G~ntik..l rants at the Instance of thclr own riests:-this,
)1 . . ~~ve be~ w~ . I It ha not seemed too aDsurd.
Was there not one sufficient and decisive answer to It all in
8

10. one verse of the Law-' Cursed by God is he that hangeth on
a~c' (Deut. xxi. 23)."
That Christians have accepted Him is because, in the
light of His life and teaching, and in the light of the
splendidly beneficent consequences of both, they see that
~ in senses both literal and svm bolic;-" the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy " (Rev. xix. 10).
Doubtless the reader will not be unprepared nor
should he object to find, that it is now intended to apply
the considerations so far advanced, to the terms in which
the Lord announced the sigrls, the fact, the nature and
purpose olHis Second Coming.
Notable among O ld T estament prophecies concerning
the Messiah, is one made by (fIle-prophet jQ£I) It is
notable for two special reasons:---Tlie 'flrStis that it is
in almost identical terms to that in which the Lord
prophesied His Second Coming. The second is in the
use of it made by the Apostle Peter on the day of
Pentecost (Acts ii.).
Here is the prophecy:
" And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out
Mv Spirit up on all flesh.... And I will show wonders m the
heavens andm the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood,
beforethe great and terrible day of the Lord come " (.Joel ii.
28-3 1 ) .
" The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars
shall witharaw their shmmg" (joel iii. IS), ­
Compare these verses with those already quoted from
Mark and Matthew, and the parallel becomes at once
apparent. There can be no little doubt, also, but that
our ~ord deliberately" drew upon His knowledge of
them'when He made His own predictions.
But why should He have done so, and why should
He have used imagery drawn from other Old Testament
sources, unless He knew that the conditions which ;Qre­
'1 vailed at His First Coming were such as were adequately,
although symbolically, described by them, and that
conditions not dissimilar would present themselvesill
the future, which would constitute the ne cessit for a
Z Second Coming, an which t ere ore could be escn ed
bY the same symbols?
When our Lord spoke of the Jewish Church in such
forthright terms, as, "ye have made the command­
ments of God of none effect through your traditions,"
when He denounced the leaders of that Church as
" blind guides," and " hypocrites," when He declared
in one parable after another, " therefore the kingdom
of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a
9
The foregoing
considerations
are now
applied to the
prophecies
of the Second
Coming.
The Meaning
of the
Symbols.

11. nation that shall bring forth the fruits thereof," He was
revealing at least one of the reasons which had neces­
sitated His incarnation. The Jewish Church, the only
Church in the world which had the DlYme Law, and
the knowledge of the one true God, had utterly failed to
fulfil the purpose for which it had been established.
" The salt had lost its savour," and was" fit only to be
cast out." The Church was consummated . To bring
about its judgment, to reveal its inward corruption to
III itself, to establish a new t ri tual order, a new dispensa­
j1 tion of re1ig-ion, a new C urch m fact, was one of the
reasons why the Divine Being was "made flesh and
dwelt among us." In the spiritual states of the Jewish
Church and the Gentile world, many Old Testament
prophecies were fulfilled, " behold! darkness shall cover )
the earth, and gross darkness the people " (Isaiah lx. 2).
In the advent of the Lord was the complementary part
of the prophecy also fulfilled,
" Rut the Lord shall arise upon thee. And His glory shall
he seen upon thee" (Isaiah Ix. 2).
But the states of the Jewish Church and the Gentile
world were symptoms, not causes. They were symptoms
of the d.~.ep-seated malaise which afflicted all manJilild,
and which neither prophet nor law-giver could any
longer heal.
" Your iniquities have separated between ' you and your
( God, and your sins have hid His face from you" (Isaiah
lix. 2).
The power of th e hells prevailed over the power of the
heavens, and on earth the power of evil over the power
/ of good, and they threatened the freedom of the human
l race, and placed in jeopardy its very existence.
A To subjugatd IN HIS OWN PERSON the e9wer of the j'Z..- l.!£!!s, to rcstoretspi' al freedom t9 mankmd, to~ct
1 a 'ud mel.lL..p-on..a consummated hurch, and to estab­
'7 lish a nevv"reli ious dis ensation- these were the very
reasons why
.. the word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John i. 14).
.. So He became their Saviour; in His love and in His pity
He redeemed them " (Isaiah Ixiii. 8).
Love to God was all but extinguished. Because of th.e
dearth of love there was lack of faith, and with the loss
l
of love and faith the knowledge of things Divine and
sJirituaL!Yas dragged down and immersed in the mire
o superstition, an the" traditions of men."
Is it any wonder that the prophets of Israel, Divinely
inspired to foretell, and to give warning of just such
spiritual conditions, should do so by the use of symbols
that wonderfully corresponded to the desolation of love,
..,
10

12. ~
faith and kllQ.wk,dge in the Church and the world,
saying, to quote again the words of one of them, Joel,
" the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, and the stars shall withdraw their shining."
For do not the Scriptures themselves say of the Lord
that He is " the s.!Ln of righteousness" ? Is not faith, the
life of love to God and to the neighbour, reflected in
? religious beliefs, and so, comparable with the ~n,
whose light is the reflected light of the sun? Are not
J the s.tilJS of heaven most fitting, and aptly lovely
symbols of heavenly truths, which in darkness, send out
their rays of hope, consolation, guidance, and counsel,
without which the souls of men grope in darkness, and
walk in the valley of the shadow of death?
If indeed these be the true m~ings of the symbols
employed in the predictions of our Lord's first Advent, J1
are we not compelled by His own use of them, when He
predicted His Second Coming, as well as by parity of t.
reasoning, to give 'tOt1iem the same svmbolic in ter­
[ pretatioIU!s we have seen reason to give to the prophecies
ort11eComing of the Messiah? We proceed, therefore,
to show how, in what sense, and when, th c-fU:omise
L of the Second Comin be~e an accom lished fact.
E; THE FULFILMENT
OF THE PROPHECIES OF THE
SECOND COMING
It is an interesting and significant circumstance that, The Son or
whereas the Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Man.
the Lord invariably refer to Him as the Messiah, the I
( New.Testament prophecies of His Second Coming refer
. to HIm as " the Son of Man." 2­
The title "Son of Man" appears also in the Old
Testament, and is chiefly used of the prophets of Israel
and Judah. Isaiah and Ezekiel were invariably
addressed by the title whenever they were commanded
to deliver a message from the mouth ofJehovah. In the
book ofDaniel the title also occurs, but it is there applied
to a m .cal fiaure who a cared to Daniel in a vision.
The striking similarity 0 the terms used in the account
/ of the vision, with those used by our Lord in the pre­
. dictions of Hi s Second Coming, cannot-fail to impress
the reader. ~ays,
" I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of
Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Anclent
oiDays, and they brought him near before him. And there was
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
11

13. It nations, and lan~es, should serve him: his dominion is an
It everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away!> and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed ' "(Daniel vii 13, 14).
Compare that with our Lord's words in The Little
Apocalypse and in the report of them in Matthew xxiv .
" And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glorY."
But before we make any further comment upon the
title as used in the Book of Daniel, we shall return to
consider the use of it as applied to the prophets.
And first we ask the question, In what, essentially, did
the prophetic office consist? The answer is that the
e~~ of prophecy consisted of two elements, distinct
from each other, and usually complementary. The two
elements are, forthtelling and foretelling. Forthtelling
J was a p~aching function, and foretelling was the function
L of prediction. More often than not the predictionsarose
out of the preaching, and in both cases the message was
what the prophets had heard, when, as they put it,
" in mine ear, saith the Lord of Hosts," or in what they
had seen wh en th ey were " in the Spirit." And both
f preaching and prediction were the uttering of Divine
"truths, revealed as commandment to declare" the Word
Pof the Lord."
I The prophetic office then, essentially consisted in the
declaration of truth revealed by the Divine Being, while
prop-hecy itself may be said to be the tr21th."!-G'{e_~!ed.
" Keeping this thought in mind, the reader's attention
is directed to a memorable occasion on which our Lord
Vad used this title, " Son of Man," in speakingoffiis
crucifixion; whereupon the question had been put to
Him by His hearers, " who is this Son of Man? "
It was when our Lord had gone up to Jerusalem six
days before the last passover feast that He would keep
on earth. Jesus had said,
" I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
Me.
" The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law
, that Christ abideth for ever : and how sayest Thou, Th~o.n
o:.M~n must be lifted up? Wh o is this ~~n ? " ~n
JXli. 32,34).
To their question the Lord made what seems at first
sight to be a quite irrelevant answer,
"Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light
with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come
upon you ." (John xii. 35).
Is the answer really irrelevant, however? Consider that
our Lord had already declared that
" I am the light of the world" (John viii. 12 ).
" I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John xiv. 6).
12
- I
- 1­

14. And does not the relevance of His reply begin to appear?
He was the light because He was the truth. And as the
truth incarnate, the" Word made flesh," He was also
the Prophet of whom Moses had written in the Law:
" The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye
shall hearken" (Deut. xviii. 15).
. If, then, the title " Son of Man" could be used with
Ipropriety of the prophets who were but the mouthpieces
of the oracles of God, how much more pertinently could
He who was the Word incarnate, apply to Himself, the
(. supreme title of" The Son of Man"? And would not
the title carry the same reference, namely, that of fore­
telling and forthtelling the things of the wisdom of God?
Therefore it would bear the same meaning, namely, the
Divine truth.
The" Coming of the Son of Man " is therefore the
same thing as the commg of the Lord as, and in the Divine
t!:!!.ili. If such a Com mg IS a Second COiiiing, It'Can~i~ only consist in a further revelation of such truth to
PImankind, an unfoldment of the Hu ngs of H IS infinite
c love and wisdom, implicit in His First Coming, but not
'l-at that time made explicit. For did not the Lord
Himself say, " I have many things to say to you, but
ye cannot bear them now" (John xvi . 12).
We must assume that the necessity which was the A Conlrast
~ a~a
reason for the assumption of our human nature by God Comparison.
Almighty; was completely met by the unique means
adopted, and by the work which He accomplished in the
world as" the Word made flesh." If the dire and tragic
state of the human race was such, that it could only be
healed by the advent of the Almighty" in the likeness
of slrJuI man," then the advent and the manner of it I
was an act of infinite wisdom as well as of infinite love. L.
Being such, it could n~possibly need to be supple­
mented, at a future time, by a further coming identical
in kind. There could never again be such a human
situation as could only be met by God becoming
incarnate. Is it not clearly evident, then, that, although
our Lord foretold a-S~ond Coming, that coming, when­
ever it should occur, would be different in kind ~is
~firs t ad ye.pt?
The first advent was effected by incarnation, and
-1 .- incarnafioii required the use of a human instrument.
The instrument was a woman who was a vinti.n, and - En
who, by the " overshadowing" of the Almighty, con­
ceived a human form and body, whose soul or inmost
being was the Divine itself of the Father. Foregleams
and anticipations of the incarnation of a Divine Being
13

15. are commonplaces of the religious thought of the ancient
world, and they found their most definite and clear
expression in the Scriptures of the Old Testament,
where the prophecies of the Messiah are proQhedes Of)
the coming of Iehovah God in human form, to be the
deliverer of the Jews and the Saviour of all mankind.
Such a prophecy, for example, is to be found in the
Book of Isaiah:
" It shall be said in that day, La, this is our God, we have
waited for Him, and He will save us. T his is ]chovah: we
will be glad and rejoice in His salvation" (Isaiah xxv. g).
And also (whatever meaning we may choose to attach
- to the word " vIrgin " in the passage) there is the
prophecy, which the Church universal has always seen
as applicable in an ultimate sense, only to the Messiah,
" Behold, a virgi n hall conceive, and bear a son, and shall
call his name lanuel' (Isaiah vii. 14).
Z. But in all the predictions of the Second Coming of the
Lord, there is no hint of incarnation, no suggestion of
bodily Coming. On the contrary, a feature common to
all the predictions is that the Lord would appear to
@ - mankind, as " the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory." Let it be well
observed, also, that the clouds which are mentioned are
not the clouds of earth, but the clouds of heaven.
The Clouds of VVe have already seen that the Lord identified the
Heaven. • §9n of Man with Himself, but with Himself as being
~ " the ligh t ori:he worl ,'and we have urt ier seenthat
i the light of the world is the Divine truth proceeding
from the Lord. At an earlier stage still in our treatment
of the subject of the Second Coming, we pointed out
the symbolic meaning of the sun, the moon, and the
stars, and showed that these symbols all had relation
to the Divine Being as love, and wi~m, and to man's
love towards, and faith fri" H im . In the Old Testament
r the name of the Diving Being is Jehovah. In the New
Testament the name of Jehovah in His incarnation is
z Jesus Christ. The Old Testament and the New Testa­
nle'Iit together are the supreme revelation of the Lord to
the human race. In and by the New T estament the
Lord may be said still and always to come to men, for
it is there that we have the record of the incarnation,
and of the life and teaching, the death and resurrection,
which wrought the redemption of the orld.
I n an abstract sense, therefore7'the wri tte , I' f
(God may fitti ngly be called" T he Son of an, since
it is the written form of that living Divine truth, which
was" th e word made flesh." And it follows from this,
' ,,''1{'. <: that if the second Coming of the Lord is the coming of
14

16. I )..C:.,.e ~ ~ w...:..tz;jl '1 J'"J , J----:
"L "w--":n __ w. ~d .. ~ lI), d .... J-c..•. --..-. (c.A.....,/rj
" the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with power and
11 grea t glory," -then that coming is a coming in the D ivine l
}J truths of thd'written) word, and tEe full manifestation of I
tile""""Son ofM an Him:;elf, as the Divine Man, "the
Alpha and O mega , the First and the Last, the Almighty,"
and" the only wise God, our Saviour."
Ifsuch is indeed the character of the Second Coming,
then " the clouds of heaven " (in which, it was pre­
dicted, the Lord would come in "power and great
( glory") must have reference to the written "Vord, and
to s specific aspect of that Word. What th at aspect
~:... ... 0 the Wore is we shall now endeavour to show.
= h 0'1 are the clouds of earth formed? And what use
do they serve ? T he questions are asked because the
answers to them will enable us to see clearly why clouds
are used as a symbol of that in which the Lord promised
that He would come again.
Clouds are formed by the action of the rays of the sun
upon the surface of the earth, whereby its moisture is
drawn up into the air, and is there condensed into the
forms that we know as clouds. The clouds, being
formed, serve many uses, but especially do they temper
to the earth and its inhabitants, the fierceness and
brightness of the rays of the sun, and by tempering them,
they enable the things of earth that could not live
without them, to receive and to endure them.
In similar manner as the sun comes forth to the
world (and tern el's its arde~ the clouds, which are
cr eated by its own actryjnes , so the m mte ardency and
brilliancy of the D ivine Love and Wisdom, brought
forth in revelation to mankind, clothe themselVeS]
in the "lan uage" of the objects of the world, a nd 11- "c,f"e­
t C istorres 0 a race, III w IC I t ley are tempered J",""h. 'ok ..... .
and accomm odated to n mte powers of perception and
unders tanding.
T his clothing aJ]d acco mmodation is itself the letter,l -1'1.... A. S .
and the sense of the letter of the Old and New T esta­
ments, the WrItten Word of Go d. And it is this sense)
wh ich, i~ that Wor~ IS symbolized by " the clouds of -tt.; A.s.
h~n. ~~. S . ')..;;,--c,
If~ however, the literal sense 0 he ''Vord vere the Power and
hat I - L d great glory.
onIy sense t at It pos es, t le comin 0 or to )
mankind in such clouds would need no renewal or 'Tt-.. ~ S
amphficatIOn, smce:the 'Vord in that sense~is with men, • •
and needs only that men should read It reverently and ~.s .
intelligently,jorsthe Lord in His truth to come to them.
2. - Bu t the literal' sens~ is not the only sense of the word.
There IS WIt m t at an internal and sp'iritual sense, -:J-. W";t:../ I ..}
1 - distinct from that of the letter, and treating not of j "" "/4j, _
~ . s. 15

17. ~.S . JWJ'~
earthly things, but exclusively of spiritual things. And
williiii.t hat sense again, which itselfis an accommodation
i t.... . p. . oS of infinite tru th to the und erstandin of an el-men and
(
women in the spintua WOI' , is the Divine Isdom
itself; which is another way of saying that the Lord
-- Himself is inane-wor.9) and is its very spirit and life.
Let it be n""Otedliere that the prophecies concerning
the Second Coming of the Lord do not stop with the
assurance that H e will come " in the clouds of heaven."
j They testifY that He will come" in-l?0wer and great
{glory." ,.Ju.. .q • s , -:-----....
'2... _ _ - - lhe " clouds" ar the Word in its liter~..~ The
" power and great glory are t e or _ 10 Its sp~rit~al
A ~(;C. Sr - sejise, The very coming~tself, therefore, COnsists 1!L1he
~ rcveIation of the internal ~ iritual sense of th~'~Word,'
- I Whteh'in essence treats of the ord alone, an 0 Im) A. .r
in His Divin e or glorified Humanity,...in His relations '.
J with angels and ~. This revelation of1~S: truths and
= <' )1~~i'p~s wh ich constitute t?e spiriftiaf !!CnsL,gf the}1
»: «/ WoM, and are the essen tla :tower an<L great gory"
.d r. J + orit, is none ot er than the fUffi ment of a promise made
re. .. . """'~ . by the Lord when, in the flesh, He " dwelt among us."
The promise was,
It "in th at A .J.lY, I will no more speak unto you in parables,
Jl but I 'IL how you plainly of the Father" (J ohn xvi. 25).
And the fact of the promise having been given, and of
the terms in which it is couched, are themselves a dis­
clo~:,::re of the very nature of the literal sense of the ~e{
Word, which is, thatit iS~E..arable. And no small part
( orthe parable is the story of our Lord's life on earth. 71.... R.J
True history the story undoubtedly is. Being such, its
) revelation of the Lord primarily shows Him in the
I infirm humanity, put on in the womb of the Virgin. ) - R.S .
o necessity, t erefore, It must pjcture Him in H is states
of humiliation and in the depenaence 0 t e umaruty ) - R. S.
upon the Divine Father which had created it.
For this reason, the very record which is a revelation
of the Lord as " a Man of sorrows and ac uainted-2vith ) _ A. S.
g~," tends to obscure the momentous truth tnat
, verv Man" though H e was, H e was "Ve~d " ­ ILS .
also.=Ualso tends to hide from us the triiTIlthat,
although as to His Humanity, He was the Son of God, - A .[ .
He nevertheless was as to His soul, "the Everlasting
Father." Sw. «.s .
Not until the truths of the internal sense of the Word
,., had been revealed, and the fUllness of its disclosure of
---'" how the Lord was God and Man?and of how He fought
vIth, ana overcame the hells, an~glorified by making
I IJJ • -~ Divine, His Humanity~ thereby effectIng the redemption
n . S. ]6

18. of mankind in all worlds from the preponderant power
j:<.v •of the hells-~til the n could mankind read the )
- - A.J_" parable " of the incarnatlOn/l and plainly see t e
SW·Divinity of the Lord's Humanity;r~md that He and the
:FatTle"r are one and the same Divine Being. fur •
It is precj;;ely in the revelation of the inll;rnal sense
of the W9J"tr,'~'md in the~..octrine concerning t~d)l _ J"".
as the One onl God i~te for man's redemption, ,4. S .
1that e come { again. It is iIA the power andas '~
/1great glory of the sp1l'1tual sense of the·.l:Word, lighting
I
"/ j Up, and beaming t1lrough the " clouds" of its literal n.r f c;(~
T_ . A. r'pscnse, that the predictions of the Second Coming are ,I - '11 - .., J-­
made clear as to their"genuine meaning: .--l- 1I
. . 2. ~·s /I
" they shall see the .son of Man cormn III the clouds of heaven, " _ Mol. ro...f.
,with pow er and great glory" ( att ew XXIV. 30 • M4"J- I
~ and when that revelation was made, the purpose
for which it was made, and the consequences of its
having been made, is the subject of our final inquiry
into the teach ing concerning the Second Coming of the
Lord.
6' HOW THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF
THE WORD HAS BEEN MADE KNOWN
In any act of knowing there is involved a subject and A human
instrument
an object, the knower and the thing known. In the was necessa ry
act of revelation there are likewise involved the revealer,
and the person or persons to whom the revelation is
made. It is advisable that we should here confine the
use of the word "revelation" to mean, the act of
Divine disclosure to m~ truths that man could not
discover for himself. It is in this strict sense that we
use the term "revelation" of th~ disclosure of th e
truths contained in the internal or spiritual sense 0.£.J.h!:
Word. A. JI1".~ . f.,.
T herefore, if such a revelation is to be made, the
revealer must be the source of what is revealed, and thus
the Divine Being Himself. I t is also evident that"a
human instrument will be employed as the medium of
~ tJiC"disclosure.
~ - At th e first Ad yent of the Lord, and in order that God
might manifest Himself in a human form and body, it
was necessary to raise up a human instrument for the
purpose. The agent used was a woman, the Virgin
( ~, in whose womb God formed and fashioned for
I His full indwelling, the humanity which was known to
, men a~the Christ. By the process of glorification
17

19. this H umanity was united to the Divinity of which it
r. was begotten; so that the Divine Humanity of the LordJ}
JJ...... Ad. S~, . ~fJesus Christ is" th.f. visible God in whom 'Uheinvisible,
I as'the soul is in th e bOdy."
But the visibilitY-OLthe Divine Humanity is visibility
not to physical, but only to mental sight. The Divi e
~ . S . H~ty is at once conceivable, and comprehensible
by men. It is "visible" to their understanding, and
for this reason, namely, that since H is ascension the Lord
is in His glorified humanity; He can no longer ~Eear'" ­
'i. J. - - Ilbefore the eyes of man's body.> Wherefore, when
e s owed- Himself to His disciples after His resur­
rection, He first of all opened the eyes of their spirit.
And so we read of the appearance of the risen Lord
to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road that,
" their eyes were o~ened, an d they knew Him; and He vanishedff'J.S . out of their sIgh t j (Luke xxiv, 31).
Ernanuel These considerations are offered to the reader, inSwed enborg.
order that he may not hastily dismiss from his mind
what is about to be said. The claim to have been the
instrument raised u b the Lord in order to effect His
Ic)d -r. S~ond oming- by revea ing Himself in the truths of
C'-- - His WQfd, in its opened internal sense-is made by thatlrf4.ul . I.
good and great "servant of the Lord Jesus Christ,
.3A. S .
Emanuel Swedenborg." The claim is unpretentiously,
but firmly, made in a book written by him, which bearsIthe title, True Christian Religion. And it is put forward
in the words which follow :
" Since the Lord cannot manifest H imself in person to the world
(on account of the glOriJ1caiiOriOffiishumanity), and yet He has
foretold that H e would CO!!1l:-llQcis stablish a New Church,
which is the new !erm alem, it follows that He will do this by
means of a Man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines Of)
that Church in his understanding, but also to make tnem Rnown
by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself before me, His
servant, that He sent me on this office and afterwards opened
the sight of my spirit, and so let me into the spiritual world,
permitting me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to
converse with angels and spirits, and this now continually for
many years, I attest in truth; and further that from the first
day of my call to this office, I have never received anything I
relating to the r!ocu:i.lles of that Church from any angel, but e , r.
from the LOrd a[one, w.hilc I Was read ing " the word " . 1. H: T.
(paragraph 779) · A .s
To this claim, Swedenborg added the further statement J • •
that,
"To the end that the Lord might be constantly present, He
revealed to me the spiritual sense of His word, in which sense
Divine truth is m lIS light, and 10 thiS light"l-Ie is continually
present; for H is presence in the wprd is only by means of its
spiritual sense through the light 0 which He passes into the
A • .r. ' shade, in whi ch is the sense of the letter. eo: .. The literal ~Qlse - A oS' •
____ is as a c~(J , ,!!!d the sJllritual sense Wry, and the Lord Himself
S.....,8 t:::=,

20. is as the sun from which the light proceeds, and thus the Lord
is !Ie W~" (paragraph 780). ).S...... c.
However astonishing this claim .may appear to be,
the reader is' asked to reflect upon what has been
advanced in the pages of this booklet. I t has been
r - shown (firstly) that the Second Coming of the Lord is
made in a revelation of Divine truth from Himself, in
"T which revelation He has clearly revealed "H imself as
.. -~.:::. being~ in is Divine Humanity: the one God of heaven
A·S. L - and earth; (secondly) the revelation consists in th e", L J ~.('.f­
disclosure of the internal sense of the Word of God; - d A. f . .s.:? _ and (thirp lY) such a revelatIOn"must needs be made by
means orJl'human instrument. ~ - ---_ J,..;.-
That the claim to have been the aforesaid instrument A.S .
is made by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), has been
affirmed in his own words. - What the reader must
decide for himself-namely, can the claim be sub­
stantiated ?-can only be fairly decided on available
evidence, such as the eminence of the claimant as a
man of science, philosophy and statesmanship, his
profound scholarship, the integrity and purity of his life,
his probity, and his competence to the mission entrusted
to him. The life of Swedeobor is on record and may
A be read in t le annals of his country . we en and in
the biographies written by George Trobridge, and the
Rev. Wm. Worcester. Above all else, the testification
7 ( to the truth of the claim is to be found in the books
Iv i written by Swedenborg, from the time that he
i ~urrendered himself to the call he received, to his death
In 1772.
There we must leave this particular matter. And we
are well content to do so if the reader will make impartial
inquiry in the directions indicated above.
f We have answered the ques9,ons ofhow, l od (approxi­
~ mately) when, th e spiritual s ense of t!:lc r.Word was
I. " made known " and the SecOi1clCOming olt'he Lord
thus effected. There remains that we should answer as
briefly as possible two more questions.
.:j FOR WHAT PURPOSE HAS THE LORD
MADE HIS SECOND COMING AND
WHAT CONSEQUENCES HAVE
FOLLOWED IT?
We have seen that the language in which th e coming Parallels
between the
of the Lord as the Messiah was prophesied, was symbolic First and
Second
in character, and that it aptly described the desolation Advents.
of I2Y..e, faith, knowledge, and spirituallifc, which would
• z . ] 't
19

21. prevail in the Church and the world, at the i~f
His coming. Furthermore, this "abomination of
desolation" was what constituted the necessity for His
Coming, and which, therefore, involved the Divine
work of redemption. The work 0 redemptIOn Itself
consisted in the Lord's taking upon Himself our fallen
nature, and therein combating, conquering and removing
hell from man. The conquest of the hells by His
victories over them in temptations, involved at the same
time the glorification of the Lord's Humanity. -- - ­
This Divine work of redemption also effected a
judgment upon the Jewish Church-an opening of its
internal states, and the bringing it to an end. Thus our
Lord declared that
.. for judgment am I come into the world" (John ix, 39).
That the Jewish Church was self-jud~J2Y-jts re'~on
of the Lord as the Messiah,ls a matter of history. And
that it had reached the nadir of its futile and em2ty
f~m at the time that our Lord came into the world,
cannot be doubted by any unbiased student of the age.
It was indeed a consumm_~~~sLQ1Utrch, utterly inctRable
~ rebuking or r~g the age in which it ha come
to the end of its spirinial.aisefulness. Its doom was
pronounced by the Lord Himself in the dreadful words:
If God were not to be left without a witness in the
world, it was most urgent and necessary that a ~d }
more spiritual Church should be established. Accord­
ingly.a New Churcll,was founded upon the rock of faith ~
in .th e Lord l-Iims~lf. On His life and teaching, and
guided and inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, the
Christian Church began its glorious and conquering
career.
The last judgment on the Jewish Church was actually
effected by the Lord's work of redemption, in the
spiritual world. To this judgment He referred when He
said,
.. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven (Luke x, 18).
And to its immediate consequences He made pointed
reference in the words, >
.. Now is the judgment of this world : now shall the prince of
this wOrld be cast out: An d I If I be lifted u fr m the earth'l! l....cA •• J
will d raw all men unto e 0 n xii. 31, 32 ) . ,,0.".
It was by means of this general judgment in the spiritual
world, that the way was opened for a new inflowing of
20

22. h.caY.cnly love and light into the minds of men upon
earth. Without that influx there could have been no
reception of t h e ord as God and Saviour, and no
affirmative response to His message. And apart frOm) I 9.1...;.
suchjreception it is impossible to conceive how the z. j)£ ~f •
Christian Church could have been established amongst ] JW d ~J­
men.
We see, then, that an essential purpose in the advent
of the Lord in flesh was the work of judgment, the
winding up, as it were, of the ewish Churc , and the
establishment of a new dispensation of religion, or the
Christian Church.
ll
--- We should expect to find, therefore, that like events
were involved in the Lord's Second Adyent, and that }.l
l::iecause of them, th e Lord could use in His predictions .. t l
concerning it, the very language of corres&ondential
sy.mhQls, which had been employed by ose who
delivered the prophecies of His First Advent. - 4~
That, in point of fact, our Lord did use these symbols
has already been shown. That He also foresaw the
ecline and fall of the Church which He had established
by the la ours of HIS postles must be manifest to any
discerning student in the words in which He foretold it,
"when the Son of Mall cometh shall He find faith on the
1I earth? " (Luke xviii. 8). ­
The parable of the sheep and the goats, related in
Matthew xxv., as a part of the predictions concerning
the Second Coming, as clearly shows that the making of
a general judgment was an integral part of its purpose.
As a consequence, a re-orientation in the world of
_ ,Ispirits, the formation of new heavens and the estabhsh­
---=:.) ment of a new Church, are described in the book caned
" T he Apocalypse," in which the visions recorded as
having been seen by John, the revelator, are concluded
with the vision of tl:ll;, descent of the Holy City, the new
-- J erusalem. The description of this vision is introduced
by the words,
" I saw a new heaven and a new eart h " (Rev. xxi. I).
And in the course of it we meet with the declaration
made by Him "who sat upon the throne," that,
"Behold! I make all things new" (Rev. xxi. 5).
The inference, then, appears to be irresistible, that a
vital part of the purpose for which the Lord would
make a second Advent was th e judgment of its faith and
~ JI life upon the first Christian Church, and the founding
Mthereafter of a new Christian Church, which is the
JChurch of T he New Jerusalem.
21

23. ~~Ys~a';,ew . The r~<i;der will naturally ask, What circumstances in
Chureh was Athe condition of the first Christian Church coula possIbly
ne eded. anse tliat wou a reqUIre that the Lord should come
'2. again and establish a_new-Church ?
Our reply can only be brief: for the story is too long
to be told in detail within the limits of this small booklet.
But, although the reply be brief, it shall be succinct,
and history shall be appealed to in verification of its
truth.
I1 The simplicitl: and purity of the Atostolic Church
--- .11 dianot long survIve the age of the Ap~t es, ifit survived
it at all. 1 ne EpIstles of the Apostles bear eloquent
witness to that fact. The primitive Church, which may
be said to have been the Church survivin the A ostles,
an astmg or a out ~ears at most, was requently .?ao .
rent by heresies and schisms. With the Church of~the
Fathers" false beliefs multiplied themselves and malice
and hatred marked their interminable disputes.
So disturbing were these factional disputes, and so
widespread was one of the most formidable heresies that
has ever rent the Church, namely, that known as
Arianism, that the Emperor Constantine called an
assemblage of the Bishops to Nicea, There the Council
of that name drew up a creed-.rn rebuttal of the Arian
heresy. In its immediate object of stamping out the
heresy, the Council was generally successful; and the
Creed of Nicea became the orthodoxy of the Church
concerning the Godhead, and remains so to this day.
It answered the assertions of Arius that Christ, though)
begotten before all time was neverthelessa creature.
As such, He was not God, although, s~d Arius, H e ~as
Divine, because His " reasonable soul w~h~ ~gQs."
In short, accordinf to Arius, Jesus Christ was a semi-)
Divine Being, and a super-man,~ but He was not God.
The Nicene Council affirmed that Christ was Very
God and Very Man. So far it was right. But the creed
it drew up insisted that, although of the same substance ~
as the Father and the Holy Ghost, He was a distinct
Person, as were also the Father and the Holy Ghost. )
t moreover asserted that, as to His Humanity, it was
inferior to His Godhead, and so it was not Divine. While
it was careful to say that the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit were each distinct persons, it was nevertheless
affirmed that there was but one God.
Thus Deity was said to consist in three persons, each
one of whom is " God and Lord." I n e breath the
Creed asserted that there is bUt one God, and"' in the
other it declared in effect, although not in words, that
22

24. there were three Gods, and that the Humanity of Christ
was not Divine:--
Here, then, is the fountain-head of the subsequent 11 1=.vG 1S .
decay of the fi!:.l!! ChiistIan---!:!!:..ch. From it followed
a host of consequences which corrupted the life of faith
as well as the doctrines of faith. The doctrine of the
vicarious atonement, and salvation by faith alone in the
redeeming merits of Jesus Christ, with all its evil conse­
quences to the life of pure religion, could never have
arisen ifthe Church had maintained the faith upon which) - DUI S ~
she had been founded, namely, faith in the Divine Lord .
as the One only Godclheaven and earth, w~e
Humanity is Divine, and faith in the teaching of her
Lord that men can only be saved out of their sins by
shunning evils as sins against Him, and by living in
accordance with His commandments.
g CONCLUSION
It has been the aim of this booklet to explain the New
Testament doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord.
It has endeavoured to show that the Lord has come ~ _f""""
again as He promised to do, and that He has done so bYJ} L A.S"Cl>"- c r.........,
a revealing of Himself as the One God 01 all mankmd
on earth and In heaven. In Its fullness, the revelation
consists in the disclosure of the ~es of the internal - r'oV.
sense of tl~d, an~1l11estation in its literal - A·S4
sense. The revelatiOlFwas made by a human instrument,
and set forth in the theological works of1'the revelator)
Emanue1 Swedenborg, wherein also the nature of the
spiritual world and of life in that world are made known
" from things heard and seen."
In the revelation, committed to writing" by command
of the Lord," and penned in freedom by His servant
Emanue1 Swedenborg, the Second Coming of the Lord J_ I J.......
is an accomplished fact, and by that commg, and in the ~ A ..s.
truths in which it is made, a_ new Church has been
established, and is now in process of rowth and ten­
J(sion throughout the world. The many things which our
J1 Lord wished to teach ~hen He tabernac1ed ~~ng
men, but could not because men could not "hear
Z. them, " have now been .12ld, ancf"'~lthings'are being
made new. And of The N~ Church~ur Lord Jesus
Christ, " the only wise God, our Saviour," it is written,
"His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not
Danie
ass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed"
vii, 14).

25. .3 POSTSCRIPT
The principal works written by Swedenborg at the
" command of the Lord" are as follows:
- Arcana Calestia.
Tli£I5ivzne Love and Wisdom.
The Divine Providence.
The Apocalypse Explained.
The Apocal'l1l.se Revealed.
Heaven and its wonders and Hell.
The Heavenly Doctrine.
- True Christian Religion.
These and other works not here mentioned were all
written between the years 1]40 and 1])0. T neTast of
the m tol);Wnnen: y,,'-ai:True Chri--rliq!L lJ:iligion. In an
addendum to this work, Swedenborg wrote the following:
" After this work was finished the Lord called together His
twelve disclpI cs-wJiololloweill -lim in the world, and the next
day He sent them throughout the whol e spiritual world to
preach the Gospel, that the Lord God r~sus Chri sLrrigneth
whose kingdom shall endure for ever and ever a din to the
prophecy in aniel ViI 13, 14) and in th evelation Xl . 15)
and that 'HI e ~e those who arualled ,to !!!i!!Ilage
sU!per of the Lamb' ( evelation xix. 9). This was done on
the nineteent h clay of June, in the year t770' This is under­
stood fiy the Lord 's words: • H e slialhcrnt1'Iis angels and they
shall gather together His elect from one end of heaven to the
other' (Matthew xxiv, 31)."
~n that date, therefore, it may be said that the Second 1
Coming of the Lord became a fact of history, and froml
irdates the commencement 0 The New Church,
-.s-- symbolized by The New erusalem' in Revelation xxi.
AIade and Printed in Great Britain. by
The Campfteld Press, St. Albans, Herts.