new church life:
Should we decide that
this is the legacy we
should embrace, the
General Church will,
in time to come, be
richly blessed and will
be able to serve as a
nucleus and axis from
which the Lord will be
able to communicate
the Heavenly Doctrine
to those who truly
hunger and thirst after
the righteousness
that it reveals.
j u ly / au g u s t 2 0 1 5
to and responsive to the universal
affirmative, which contains within itself
and embraces all the most particular
and singular goods and truths now
revealed to us: “That the Word IS the
Word, that the Lord IS the Lord, and
Providence IS IN the most singular
things.”
Should we decide that this is the
legacy we should embrace, the General
Church will, in time to come, be richly
blessed and will be able to serve as
a nucleus and axis from which the
Lord will be able to communicate
the Heavenly Doctrine to those who
truly hunger and thirst after the
righteousness that it reveals.
The New Church will spread from
the few on this earth to the many and
achieve its Divinely intended state as
the crown of all the churches that have
preceded it – a church in which there
will be “true faith and true charity.”
This New Church, truly Christian, which
at this day is being established by the Lord,
will endure to eternity, as it is proved from the Word of both Testaments; also it
was foreseen from the creation of the world; and it will be the crown of the four
preceding churches, because it will have true faith and true charity. (Coronis,
Summary LII; see also Coronis 24e, 59:5e; Invitation 392, 34e; and True Christian
Religion 762, 764)
The Rev. Willard L. D. Heinrichs is retired and lives with his
wife, Vanessa (van Rij), in Longmont, Colorado. During his
active ministry he served in Dawson Creek, British Columbia,
Canada; as Superintendent of the South African Mission; and as
a teacher of Religion in Bryn Athyn College of the New Church
and its Theological School. This paper was originally presented
to the Western United States Clergy meetings.
Contact: [email protected]
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