It was prophesied that the Lord's coming into the world would change people's relationship to the Lord. Those who walked in darkness would see a great light: the light of truth.
"Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound." (Isaiah 30:26)
Picture yourself in a dark room. In the darkness you have to construct images of what you think the furniture looks like and what it is used for. You have to create a geography of the room, and yet, even so, the furnishings are not always where you expect them to be. You stumble through the room, bumping against tables, hitting your shins against low stools, stubbing your toes. The darkness hinders your awareness of the room, making it impossible to accurately judge its dimensions. It becomes a symbol of ignorance and pain.
Before the Lord came into the world the church was in a state just like this. It was in spiritual pitch darkness. The learned scholars of those times had to create images of doctrine for people to follow, but they were images based on appearances of truth, on guesses and estimates. Their teachings are like the descriptions of furniture given by a person in a totally dark room: a table can be described as to its basic shape, but the finish, the patina of the wood, the grain, the colour will all be missing. A very valuable table might be declared worthless, and a worthless table valuable.
In the book, the True Christian Religion, we are told how
"All churches which existed before the Lord's advent were representative churches" (The True Christian Religion 109).
The people of those times could only see Divine Truth in shadow (The True Christian Religion 109); consequently they misjudged, misunderstood and misrepresented the truth. The closer the time came for the Lord to be born on earth, the thicker the darkness became.
The sad thing about the church before the advent was that the darkness existed because that is what the people wanted. The Heavenly Doctrines tell us time and again how the people rejected the Word. They were repelled by the truth. In its place they chose to place their faith in their own traditions.
The Word is full of such incidents: the Israelites, newly liberated, cried out continually for the fleshpots of Egypt. No sooner had they conquered and settled Canaan than they fell from their covenant with the Lord and worshipped foreign gods. They repeatedly turned from the Lord's presence to practise their own ways of religion. And in the process their concept of truth steadily diminished until it was a mere shell.
There was no reason why this should have happened. Before the Lord came into the world, He communicated with the people. We read of how He spoke to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the prophets. The Heavenly Doctrines tell us He could not speak directly to them, but He used an angel who was filled with His presence. When the angel spoke, the words that came out of his mouth were Divine Truth, put into images which the people could accept.
Like people in a dark room, for whom colour, patina and finish are unimportant, the children of Israel were only able to receive very gross images of the Lord. Their minds were so closed by the superficiality of their religion, that any deeper, more poignant picture of Him would have been profaned. Thus the Lord was portrayed to them in the way they understood best: as a Father who punishes naughty children and rewards good ones. Beyond that they were not interested, except perhaps to determine how naughty they could be without being punished.
The darkness not only affected their minds, but it caused them spiritual pain and harm as well. Just as we are prone to bump into furniture in a darkened room, so people in a religion devoid of truth will fall into states of spiritual hurt.
When the truth is interpreted to suit our own desires, it very quickly becomes falsity, and falsity breeds evils of life. For example, a person who is taught that he must have faith to be saved, and then interprets that to mean that one is only saved by his faith, soon falls into the habit of separating his daily life from his faith, and faith alone develops. He becomes prone to evil. The Doctrines strike the analogy between evil and pain, for they describe evil as a sore (Apocalypse Revealed 657).
The Lord did not make mankind to live in the vicious environment of darkness and pain. He created us to live lives of light and peace in an environment reflecting His love and His wisdom. To sustain the simple good of the Jewish church, He gave promises, prophecies, of His advent. The darkness would be expelled by light; the pain would be healed. On that day, as we read,
."..The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound." (Isaiah 30:26)
The first Christmas began the fulfilment of this prophecy. The infant Lord, born amid the darkness in Bethlehem's stall, was a ray of light shining in the world, a light which would grow and develop during His years in this world, and then burst fully upon all mankind when at His resurrection He made His human Divine.
The world, lying in darkness had no inkling of the spiritual affairs taking place. Like all people who believe themselves to be right, even though they are completely wrong, the Jews looked for their interpretation of what the Messiah would be like. Seeing only the vague outlines of the teaching, they expected Him to be born, but because they were in such dense darkness, they did not recognise Him when He came.
Yet He came to bring light to mankind. As we read in John:
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him." (John 1:10)
Even though people did not know or recognise Him, the Lord brought light into the world. Suddenly all the things which had been hidden by the darkness for centuries were revealed. The church can be compared to a person sitting in a dark room which is suddenly flooded with light. The details of the furniture spring into view; he can see shape, colour, texture, and relative positions all at once. It is as if a whole new world has opened up. If we live in that light, we stop hurting ourselves by bumping into things; sores caused by colliding with furniture are able to heal, and we are made well.
Something very similar happened to the church. From the time He was very young, the Lord started to teach the truth, to challenge the traditional interpretations people had of the Word. He said over and over again: "You have heard it said, but I say to you." His truth opened up areas of understanding which had never been considered before: we should love our enemies; it is better to be humble than to be proud; forgiveness is better than revenge. He taught about concepts alien to the Jewish culture: about life after death; about the sanctity of marriage; of the need to pay attention to our inner spiritual development.
With each sentence He spoke, the Lord brought more light into the world. There were some, the scribes, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who preferred the darkness. They closed their eyes to His light. So we read in John:
"He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God..." (John 1:11-12)
His truth, however, brought light to many people, and the ability to see the truth, is what we wish for everyone.
As spiritual darkness inevitably creates falsity which leads to a life of evil, so the Lord's light creates faith, and faith, when acted on leads to good. The darkness of falsity is dispelled by the truths of faith. The brilliance of this new faith is compared to the light of the moon when it increases to rival the sun.
True faith, when brought into act, creates good and love. No more shall mankind be wounded by the evils of life, for these are brought about in darkness and ignorance. Instead, walking in the clear light of Divine truth, we know what is good, and how to do it. We can truly love the Lord and our neighbours, truly be cleansed and healed of our sins. The sun, therefore, increases in its power and intensity to give the light of seven days.
With the Lord's coming, a whole new relationship becomes possible between us and Him. The relationship only achieves reality. However, when we take up the teachings the Lord gave in the Word, when we learn them and apply them to our own lives, then our personal darkness in turn will disappear and the light of Divine Truth will flood our lives, transforming us into disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
