Canons of the New Church # 27
27. CHAPTER IV. THE PROGRESSION OF A CHURCH TOWARDS ITS END, AND THE END ITSELF, ARE DESCRIBED IN VERY MANY PLACES IN THE WORD
1. A successive decreasing of good and truth and increasing of evil and falsity in a Church is termed in the Word its "being laid waste" and "becoming desolate".
2. Its final state, when there is nothing of good or truth remaining, is there termed "consummation" and "being cut off".
3. The end itself of a Church is the "fullness [of time]".
4. The same things also are meant in the Word by "evening" and "night".
5. And also by these things in the Prophets and in the Gospels: then shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. 1
6. Then the Church exists no longer except in name; nevertheless, there is this "remnant" in it, that a man, if he wishes, can know and understand truths, and can do goods. 2
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. See Isa. 13:10; Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15; Amos 8:9; Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24; Luke 21:25-26; Rev. 6:12-13 8:10, 12.
2. In the margin of the Nordenskjold manuscript by another hand are the words: "But now hardly one in the whole of Christendom wishes to know."
Isaiah 13
1
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:
2
Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3
I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.
4
The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.
5
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6
Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7
Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone's heart will melt.
8
They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
9
Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.
10
For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11
I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.
12
I will make people more rare than fine gold, even a person than the pure gold of Ophir.
13
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of Yahweh of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.
14
It will happen that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.
15
Everyone who is found will be thrust through. Everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16
Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
17
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18
Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
19
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20
It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21
But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.
22
Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.
