New Church Life May/June 2016 | Page 26

n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 6 There is always a higher standard for us than we can see for ourselves. There is a plan for our lives. Each stage can be tense, but it’s always for the purpose of shaping us into better human beings. Each stage can be tense, but it’s always for the purpose of shaping us into better human beings. Why Talk About This at New Church Day? Perhaps the tension that is most pervasive that we experience as members of the New Church comes from the difference between what we are promised the New Church will be, and how we experience it here and now. We are promised in the Old and New Testaments, in their literal and internal senses, as well as in the Heavenly Doctrines, that: • The literal apocalypse in the Book of Revelation is an analogy for the spiritual renewal of the Lord’s Church • The reign of the New Church shall be for ages and ages • That the former church will be destroyed (even though people will continue to adhere to it and worship in it) • That the New Church will be established “in place” of the so-called old church • And most beautifully, that the New Church is the crown of all the churches ever to exist This is pretty exciting stuff! The promise is wonderful and implies a picture of a group that is thriving, that is powerful, that is influential in the world. After all, it is the Lord’s NEW Church, the crown of all the churches, the replacement for what is old and corrupt! The membership of this church should be in the billions! It should be a household name, much the way Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam and Judaism are known far and wide – even the way Scientology is known! What a promise!! Now, let’s look at where we are: • So small • So fringe • So weird • So unknown • So “old-fashioned” 228