The Second Coming

All things in the WORD involve the Lord’s advent.” Emanuel Swedenborg (Heavenly Secrets 2236)

New Church (Swedenborgian) theology rejects an apocalyptic ending to the world and to mankind. We believe that the Lord has made His Second Advent and that it is a continual unfolding and process of coming into being:

We believe that true Christianity has yet to be born, in that the Second Advent (the Lord’s Second Coming) is a gradual process as the Lord comes to us anew in the Spiritual understanding of His Holy Word. With its enlightenment and renewal of life, this disclosure is the spiritual DNA for His Second Coming. This Second Advent is an Organic Birth which involves all of humanity and can be seen as his continual coming into being as we learn to embody His Love & Wisdom, His goodness & truth – the Word made flesh – more and more as we in love Him and love one another. Current scientific research reveals that infants and children at play move and sway and lift their arms and legs in an orchestral response matching the tempo of the ambient sounds around them. As an Organic Nativity, holistically speaking, our every act of compassion and justice becomes “as if” a single heartbeat and blink of His eyes. Every act of charity, every honest and sincere utterance, all prayer, all expressions of heart and mind, every sacred movement, become the ambient “sounds” to which his arms and limbs respond as he is born, lives, and grows to maturity. What we do matters for cherishing Him, for nourishing Him, and caring for Him. What we do matters. It matters for the sake of Heaven, and for all humanity, and so also for the earth. Every act has consequences to eternity: As we struggle toward compassion and justice, few will see Him, or acknowledge Him, since the Second Nativity has to fulfill Scripture just as his First Nativity did:

“And she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered.” (Revelations)

“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)

“Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me.” (John 15:4)

“The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and man does not see it.” (Gnostic Gospel of Thomas)