June 19: New Church Day

And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)

There was silence in heaven, signifies astonishment that the church is such and that its end is at hand. This is evident from what follows, which describes the destruction of the church and the damnation of all in whom there was no church; that is, in whom there was no conjunction of truth and good or of faith and charity; for this conjunction makes the church in everyone. As these things, when the seventh seal was opened, were perceived in heaven, and therefore engaged the minds of angels, there was astonishment, and from astonishment silence. (Apocalypse Explained 487)

And I, John, saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband….And I saw no temple in her; for the Lord God Almighty is her temple, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in her, for the glory of God enlightened her, and her lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:2,22-23)

When the end of the church is at hand, then it is provided by the Lord that a New Church shall succeed, for without a church in which is the Word and in which the Lord is known, the world cannot subsist; for without the Word, and from it the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord, heaven cannot be conjoined to the human race, nor therefore can the Divine proceeding from the Lord flow in with new life; and without conjunction with heaven and through that with the Lord, man would not be a man, but a beast. This is why a New Church is always provided by the Lord when an old church comes to its end. (Apocalypse Explained 665)

And I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, signifies the New Church to be established by the Lord at the end of the former church, which will be consociated with the New Heaven in Divine truths as to doctrine and as to life. The reason why John here names himself, saying, “I John,” is because by him as an apostle is signified the good of love to the Lord and thence the good of life… It is called "new" because He who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new” (verse 5); and it is said “to come down from God out of heaven” because it descends from the Lord through the New Christian Heaven…. (Apocalypse Revealed 879)

And there shall be no night there, and they have no need of a lamp and the light of the sun, for the Lord giveth them light, signifies that there will not be any falsity of faith in the New Jerusalem, and that men there will not be in knowledges concerning God from natural light, which is from their own intelligence, and from glory arising from pride, but will be in spiritual light from the Word from the Lord alone…. (Apocalypse Revealed 940)

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