328. These items need now to be presented in their sequence.

(a) Every religion eventually wanes and comes to completion. There have been several churches on our planet, one after the other, since wherever the human race exists there is a church. As already noted, heaven, which is the ultimate goal of creation, comes from the human race, and no one can get to heaven without the two universal principles of the church, belief in God and leading a good life (see 326 above). It follows that there have been churches on our planet from the earliest times all the way to the present day.

These churches are described in the Word, though only for the Israelite and Jewish church are we given historical accounts. There were several churches before them, but these are described only by the names of some people and nations and a few facts about them.

[2] The earliest church, the very first, is described by Adam and his wife Eve. The next church, called the early church, is described by Noah, his three sons, and their descendants. This was extensive, and spread through most of the nations of the Near East: the land of Canaan on both sides of the Jordan; Syria; Assyria and Chaldea; Mesopotamia; Egypt; Arabia; and Tyre and Sidon. They had an early Word that is discussed in Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 101-103. The existence of the church in these kingdoms is witnessed by various statements about them in the prophetical books of the Word.

This church changed significantly with Eber, though, who marks the beginning of the Hebrew church. This was the point at which sacrificial worship was established. From the Hebrew church, the Israelite and Jewish church was born, formally established for the sake of the Word that would be authored in it.

[3] These four churches are meant by the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, with its head of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, and its legs and feet of iron and clay (see Daniel 2:32-33). This is exactly what is meant by the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages mentioned by ancient authors. It is well known that the Christian church followed after the Jewish church.

We can also see from the Word that each of these churches declined to its close, called a "consummation," with the passage of time. The consummation of the earliest church, brought about by eating from the tree of knowledge (meaning pride in our own intelligence) is described by the Flood [Genesis 3:6; ].

[4] The consummation of the early church is described by the destruction of the nations mentioned in the historical and prophetic books of the Word, and especially by the Israelites' expulsion of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. The consummation of the Israelite and Jewish church is meant by the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, by the carrying off of the people of Israel into permanent captivity and of the nation of Judah into Babylon, and ultimately by the second destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and the scattering of the people. This consummation is foretold in many passages in the prophets, and in Daniel 9:24-27.

The Lord describes the eventual total destruction of the Christian church in Matthew 24 Mark 13 and Luke 21 but the consummation itself is found in the Book of Revelation.

This shows that with the passage of time the church wanes and reaches its consummation, as does its religion as well.

[5] (b) Every religion wanes and comes to completion by inverting the image of God within us. We know that we were created in the image of God and after the likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), but what is this image and what is this likeness of God? Only God is love and wisdom. We are created to be recipients of both, so that our volition may be a recipient of divine love and our discernment a recipient of divine wisdom.

I have already explained [324] that we have these two recipient vessels in us from birth, that they are what make us human, and that they are formed within us in the womb. Our being images of God is our being open to divine wisdom, and our being likenesses of God is our being open to divine love. This means that the vessel we call "discernment" is the image of God and the vessel we call "volition" is the likeness of God. This then means that since we have been created and formed to be vessels, it follows that we have been created and formed to have our volition accept love from God and our discernment accept wisdom from God. We do in fact accept them when we believe in God and live by his commandments. We do this to a lesser or greater extent, though, depending on what we know about God and his commandments from our religion. Specifically, our acceptance depends on what truths we know, since truths are what tell us what God is and how we are to acknowledge him, what his commandments are and how we are to live by them.

[6] God's image and likeness in us have not been actually destroyed, but they have been virtually destroyed. They are still there, innate within those two abilities called freedom and rationality that I have already said so much about. They become virtually destroyed when we make the vessel of divine love--our volition--a vessel for self-love and make the vessel of divine wisdom--our discernment--a vessel for our own intelligence. By so doing we invert the image and likeness of God. We turn the vessels away from God and toward ourselves. This is why they are closed on top and open on the bottom, or closed in front and open behind, even though they were created open in front and closed behind. Once they are opened and closed in this inverted fashion, then the vessel of love, our volition, is open to an inflow from hell or from our own sense of self-importance, as is the vessel of wisdom, our discernment. This has led to the birth in our churches of the worship of particular people in place of the worship of God, and a worship based on teachings of falsity rather than on teachings of truth, the latter from our own intelligence and the former from our love for ourselves.

We can see from this that in the course of time a religion will wane and come to its conclusion by inverting the image of God within us.

[7] (c) This happens because of the constant increase of hereditary evil from generation to generation. I have already stated and explained [277] that we do not inherit evil from Adam and his wife Eve because they ate from the tree of knowledge; instead evil is gradually handed down and transplanted from parents to children, and so by constant increase gets worse with each generation. When this cumulative evil becomes strong enough among the majority, it spreads evil to even more people by its own momentum, since in every evil there is a compulsion to mislead, in some cases blazing with a rage against everything good, and so there is a consequent infectious evil. When this gets control of the leaders, managers, and chief representatives in the church, its religion is corrupted. Its means of healing, its truths, become defiled by distortions. This leads to an ongoing destruction of what is good and an abandonment of truth in the church until finally it is brought to its close.

[8] (d) The Lord still provides that everyone can be saved. The Lord provides that there will be some religion everywhere, and that in every religion there will be the two elements essential to salvation: belief in God, and not doing evil because it is against God. The other matters of intellect and thought, what we call the elements of faith, are offered to different people according to the way they live, since they are optional elements as far as living is concerned. If they are put first, we still do not receive life until we live them.

The Lord also provides that everyone who has led a good life and has believed in God will be taught by angels after death. Then people who have been devoted to the two essential principles of religion in the world accept the truths of the church as they are presented in the Word and recognize the Lord as God of heaven and of the church. They accept this more readily than Christians who have brought with them from the world a concept of the Lord's human nature as separated from his divine nature. The Lord has also provided that all the people who die in early childhood are saved, no matter where they were born.

[9] We are all given the means of amending our lives after death, if we can. The Lord teaches and leads us through angels, and since by then we know that we are living after death and that heaven and hell are real, we accept truths at first. However, if we have not believed in God and abstained from evils as sins in the world, before long we develop a distaste for truths and back away. If we have professed these principles orally but not at heart, we are like the foolish young women who had lamps but no oil. They begged others for oil and went off to buy some, but still they were not admitted to the wedding [Matthew 25:1-13]. The lamps mean the truths that our faith discloses and the oil means the good effects of our caring.

This shows that under divine providence everyone can be saved, and that it is our own fault if we are not saved.

[10] (e) He also provides that a new church will take the place of the one that has been razed. This has been going on from the earliest times: once a church has been razed, a new one succeeds the former one. The early church followed the earliest church, the Israelite or Jewish church followed the early one, and after that came the Christian church. After it there is going to be still another new church, the one foretold in the Book of Revelation. That is the meaning of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven [Revelation 21:2, 10].

For the reason the Lord provides a new church to take the place of an earlier one that has been razed, see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 104-113.

4345. 'And he put the servant-girls and their sons first, and Leah and her sons further back, and Rachel and Joseph even further back' means an ordering beginning with quite general things in which all else is included. This becomes clear from what has been stated directly above about the meaning of 'the servant-girls, Leah, Rachel, and their sons' to the effect that 'the servant-girls' means the affections for knowledge and for cognitions, 'Leah' the affection for exterior truth, and 'Rachel' the affection for interior truth. The affections for knowledge and for cognitions are the most external ones since knowledge and cognitions are the foundations out of which truths arise and on which they are based. The affection for external truth follows them and is more interior, while the affection for interior truth is more interior still. The more external they are the more general they are too, and the more internal they are the less general they are and in relation to the general are called particular and specific.

[2] With regard to general truths, they are called general because they are made up of the particular truths and so include the particular ones within them. General truths without particular ones are not general truths, but are called such from the particular. They are like a general whole and its parts. No general whole can be called a whole if there are no parts, for the parts make up the whole. Indeed nothing exists in the nature of things which does not first exist from and then continue to exist from things other than itself. That which exists and continues to exist from things other than itself is called general, and the things which compose it and keep it in existence are called particular. Being composed of internal things, external ones in relation to internal are therefore general. The same applies to the human being and his mental faculties: the more external these are the more general they are since they are composed of things that are more interior, while these in turn are composed of those that are inmost.

[3] In relation to the rest of the human being the actual body and the things belonging to the body, as its external senses and its actions are called, are most general. The natural mind and the things belonging to the natural mind are less general because they are more internal, and in relation to the body and bodily things are called particulars. The rational mind however and the things belonging to the rational mind are more internal still, and are - in relation to the body, the natural mind and the things belonging to these - called specifics. These differences are clearly observable by a person when he casts aside his body and becomes a spirit, for then he is able to observe clearly that the things of the body had been nothing more than the most general forms taken by the things of his spirit, and that bodily things received their existence and were kept in existence by those of his spirit. Thus he sees that the things of his spirit in relation to those of his body were particulars. And when the same spirit becomes an angel, that is, when he is raised up into heaven, he is able to observe that the same things which previously he has seen and experienced in an obscure light he now sees and experiences in their particular form and in bright light. For he now observes countless details which previously he had seen and experienced as a single entity.

[4] The same is also evident from what is the case while that person is living in the world. The things which he sees and experiences in early childhood are most general, whereas those which he sees and experiences in later childhood and youth are the particular aspects of those general ones; and those that he sees and experiences in adult years are the specific details of those particular aspects. For as a person advances in years he introduces the particular ideas into general ones acquired in early childhood, and after that specific notions into the particular ideas; for he advances gradually towards more interior things, filling what is the general with the particular, and the particular with the specific. From this one may now see the implications of an ordering beginning with general things in which all else is included, which is the meaning of 'he put the servant-girls and their sons first, Leah and her sons further back, and Rachel and Joseph even further back'.

[5] A similar situation exists when a person is being regenerated, or what amounts to the same, when in him truths are being joined to good; and this situation is the subject here. During that time general affections together with their truths, meant here by 'the servant-girls and their sons', are the first to be introduced into good; after that the less general are introduced, that is, those which in relation to the general are particular, meant here by 'Leah and her sons'; and finally the less general still, that is, those which in relation to the same are specific, meant here by 'Rachel and Joseph'. For when being regenerated a person passes so to speak through comparable phases of life - he experiences early childhood first; after that later childhood and youth; and finally adult years.