new church life: november/december 2017
but it has also been the source of the falsity and evil that increasingly plagued
Christianity until the Last Judgment.
The Heavenly Doctrine divides the Christian era into two distinct periods:
the Apostolic Church before the Council of Nicaea, and the Church afterwards.
The doctrine of the Trinity developed at Nicaea, and elaborated on by council
after council in the following centuries, redirected Christian theology, and
therefore practice, leading to increasing corruptions and abuses that destroyed
the Church.
At Nicaea the Trinity was seen to exist in three Persons, who, while
distinct, are of one substance and therefore form one God. At the Council of
Chalcedon – 125 years later – the Person of the Son was recognized as having
two distinct natures, one Divine, the other human, forever separate but within
one person. These divisions within God affected the development of Catholic
and later Protestant doctrine, and the New Church acknowledgment of Jesus
Christ as the One God of Heaven and Earth stands as the complete rejection
of it.
As the centuries wore on, the Roman Catholic hierarchy increasingly
extended papal power. In time the pope was recognized as exercising the
authority of the human nature within the Son of God. He was given the title
the “Vicar of Christ,” meaning that he was God’s representative on earth and
that the work of the Lord was arrogated to him. The sale of indulgences, which
sparked Martin Luther’s outrage, was one outcome of this: the pope believed
he had the power to reduce the amount of time a person spent in purgatory, so
reducing the pain and suffering of those who had passed on.
Pope Urban II used this power in 1098 to launch the Crusades, promising
an indulgence to those who took up arms to liberate Jerusalem from the
Muslims. In 1516 Pope Leo X instituted a massive sale of indulgences, claiming
his right to liberate souls from purgatory, while raising money at the same
time; his goal was to rebuild St. Peter’s in Rome. This was the final straw for
Luther, and the first step towards the Reformation.
Papal power was not the only development in the wake of the Council
of Nicaea. The book, Apocalypse Revealed, outlines a list of grave errors
undermining the church: papal claims of absolute authority over kings and
emperors (not to mention ordinary people), with power to excommunicate
and consequently condemn to hell those who challenged him.
Power connects with wealth, and wealth with greed. Over the centuries,
the Church claimed taxes and tithes from the poorest serf to the ri