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The
New
Church,
which is a sect which bases its teachings and practices on the writings of
spiritist Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), teaches that the second coming of
Jesus has already taken place. They say that Jesus never said that He would
come again in person, but He said that He would come as the Spirit of truth
(cf. John 16:13).
And His second coming was fulfilled when God ‘revealed’ the spiritual sense
of the Word to Emmanuel Swedenborg (so it took place in the eighteenth century).
For the Writings of Swedenborg are the Spirit of
truth the Lord Jesus spoke of. Willard D. Pendleton in his book God, Christ and the Second Coming
affirms: ‘For the Writings are not, as is generally supposed, an enlightened
commentary upon the Scriptures; neither are they the works of Emanuel
Swedenborg, a man. They are, on their own testimony, that Spirit of truth of whom the Lord spoke to His disciples, saying, "When
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth."
(John 16: 13)
…. Hence it is said in the Scriptures that the Lord would come "with
power and great glory" (Matthew 24: 30); that is, in the full power of
His Word. (TCR 776) Yet at this day who is prepared to believe that the
Writings are what they claim to be? Who, men ask, was Emanuel Swedenborg,
that he should speak for God? But the Writings solemnly affirm that
"this second coming of the Lord is effected by means of a man to whom
the Lord has manifested Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His
Spirit, that He may teach the doctrines of the New Church from the Lord by
means of the Word." (TCR 779) …. When we speak of the integrity of
doctrine, therefore, we have reference to the acknowledgment that the Lord is
the Word, and that it is He who has come again as the Divine doctrine. For it
is by means of the Divine doctrine, and in no other way, that the Lord's
Divine Human is made visible to the sight of the understanding. Hence it is
said in the Writings that "this New Church is the
crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth, because it
is to worship one visible God." (TCR 787) Let us have no illusions,
therefore, in regard to the New Church. It is a
doctrinal church, and it cannot be otherwise. Because the Lord has come as
the Divine doctrine, it is essential to the establishment and growth of the New Church that
these doctrines be understood. …. But what men fail to perceive is that
without the idea of a God who is good, and whose Word is the truth, they have
no standard of authority, no point of reference, no basis of judgment whereby
they may distinguish between right and wrong, and good and evil. That is why
the Lord has come again into the world, not as to His person, but in, and as,
the Human which He made Divine, that is, as the Divine doctrine. When seen
for what they are, and when rightly understood, it cannot be said that the
Writings lack relevance. For what is truth but a form of good; that is, the
form in which good appears to the sight of the understanding. …..One thing, however,
is certain: a small beginning has been made, and feeble as it may be, it is
nevertheless founded upon the firm acknowledgment that the Writings are what
they purport to be, namely, the Word of the Lord in His second coming. For,
as clearly stated in the work, The True Christian Religion: "The Second
Coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the Word which is from
Him, and is Himself." (TCR 776) Nothing could be more explicit than
this. As promised in the Scriptures, therefore, the Son of Man has come
"with power and great glory," (Matthew 24: 30) that is, in the
glory of the spiritual sense and in the full power of His Word. (TCR 776: 1).
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I
would like to point out that even some people who claim to be Evangelical
affirm that Jesus has already come back. For instance, Waldensian theologian
Giovanni Luzzi (1856-1948) in his book La
religione cristiana secondo la sua fonte originaria [The christian
religion according to its original source], wrote that Jesus predicted that
He would come again during the life of the generation among which He was, and
in fact – according to him - His second coming took place at Pentecost;
therefore His second coming was invisible and spiritual (cf. La religione cristiana secondo la sua
fonte originaria, Roma 1939, pages 338, 339, 340, 342, 343, 344), and the
late Pentecostal preacher Francesco Aiuppa, who lived in the U.S.A, wrote
that Jesus Christ came back in the first century after Christ (cf. Francesco
Aiuppa, Il Regno di Dio: presente o
futuro? [The Kingdom
of God:
present or future?, 2001, pages 20-21).
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In
the book of the Acts of the apostles it is written: “And when he had spoken
these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him
out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he
went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye
men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”
(Acts 1:9-11). As you can see, those angels who appeared to the disciples of
the Lord, as Jesus was going into heaven, affirmed that the same Jesus who
was taken up into heaven before their eyes will come in like manner as they
saw Him go into heaven. However, keep in mind that while at His ascension
only a few people saw Him go into heaven, at His return everybody will see
Him come back from heaven, as it is written: “Behold, He is coming with
clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the
tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7
– NKJV). That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will come back in person and
visibly is evident also from the following biblical passages: “Then the sign
of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth
will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory” (Mt. 24:30 – NKJV); “I saw in the night visions,
and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and
languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed”
(Daniel 7:13-14).
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