True Christian Religion # 754
754. There are various ways in which a church comes to an end. It happens principally through circumstances which cause falsity to look like truth; and when this happens, the good which is inherently good, what is called spiritual good, can no longer exist. What is then believed to be good is only natural good, the product of a moral life. The reason for truth coming to an end, and good with it, is principally the two natural loves which are diametrically opposed to the two spiritual loves; these are called self-love and love of the world. When self-love is dominant, it is the opposite of love to God; and when the love of the world is dominant, it is the opposite of love towards the neighbour. Self-love is wishing well to no one but oneself, except for selfish reasons; and likewise the love of the world. Once those loves have got a grip, they spread like mortification through the body, and stage by stage destroy every part of it. It is clear that such a love attacked past churches from the description of Babylon (Genesis 11:1-9; Isaiah 13, 14, 47; Jeremiah 50; and in Daniel 2:31-47; 3:1-7ff; and Daniel 5; 6:8-end; Daniel 7:1-14; and in Revelation 17, 18, both from beginning to end). In the end, Babylon vaunted itself so much that it not only transferred to itself the Lord's Divine power, but also did its best to attract to itself all the riches of the world.
[2] Omens and far from misleading appearances allow us to conclude that outside Babylon similar loves would have broken out from many of the leaders of churches, had not their power been checked and so limited. What else might be expected but that such a person would look upon himself as God, the world as heaven, and pervert all the church's truth? For real truth, which is inherently true, cannot be known and acknowledged by a purely natural person; nor can God impart it to him, because it turns upside down and becomes falsity. As well as those two loves there are many more causes for truth and good coming to an end, and so causing the end of churches; but these are secondary causes, subordinate to the two mentioned.
Isaiah 48
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"Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness
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(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name):
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I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.
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Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
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therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'
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You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.
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They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'
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Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
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For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.
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Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
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For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.
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"Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
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Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
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"Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.
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I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
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"Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.
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Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
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Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:
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your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.
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Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.
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They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
