last chapter of this book, dealing with the Ending of the Age, the Lord’s Coming and
the New Church. (Chadwick)
The interesting aspect of this series of redemption (the subjugation of the
hells, the ordering of the heavens, and the establishment of the church) is that
there are three events associated with this series that can be dated.
Redemption could not begin before the Last Judgment had been
accomplished. This makes sense. How could the hells be subjugated and the
heavens ordered before the good and evil in the world of spirits have been
separated and sent to their respective places? As the Lord came closer to the
world of spirits, the evil could not stand the presence of the Divine truth, and
so fled to the hells to avoid the light of truth. So actually the evil were not sent
to hell, but fled there. As noted above in True Christian Religion 115, the Last
Judgment was accomplished in 1757. This is the first of our three dates.
The second date is the date of the Second Coming: 1769.
When Brief Exposition was published [1769] the angelic heaven, from east to west
and from south to north, appeared purple-colored with the loveliest flowers; this
happened before my very eyes and before those of the kings of Denmark, and
others; on another occasion it appeared as if it were on fire, and beautiful.
“The Coming of ” the Lord was written on all the books in the spiritual world;
by command I therefore wrote this in the same place in two copies in Holland.
(Ecclesiastical History 7,8; Elliot)
The third event is the beginning of the New Church, which took place on
June 19, 1770 when the Lord sent the twelve apostles throughout the spiritual
world
. . . to preach the Gospel, that the Lord God Jesus Christ is king, and His kingdom
shall be for ever and ever. (True Christian Religion 791; Chadwick, cf. Ibid. 4, 108)
A brief review of the order of the redemption series before us:
• We have the Last Judgment (1757)
• Followed by the subjugation of the hells and the ordering of the
heavens
• This was an on-going process
• The Second Coming (1769)
• The beginning of the New Church in the spiritual world (June 19,
1770)
The Last Judgment, however could not take place without some
preparation.
This is a series of spiritual events and processes. The spiritual, however,
must also be ultimated in the natural if it is to have any reality. Part of the
ultimation was in the writing and publishing of the Heavenly Doctrines.
Let us see how this series might have been ultimated in the publishing of
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