104. By Means of the Word, There Is Light Even for People Who Are outside the Church and Do Not Have the Word

THERE can be no union with heaven unless somewhere on our planet there is a church where the Word is present and the Lord is known by means of it. This is because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and there is no salvation apart from the Lord.

It is adequate if there is simply a church where the Word is present even though that church may consist of relatively few people. Even so, by means of it the Lord is present everywhere in the whole world, because by means of it heaven is united with the human race. As for the union being by means of the Word, see §§62-69 above.

3486. The preliminary section of the previous chapter, paragraphs 3353-3356, explained what the Lord has said and foretold in Matthew 24:3-7 about the close of the age or end of the days of the Church. Here, in the Lord's Divine mercy, let the next section be explained, that is to say, verses 8-14 of the same chapter in that gospel, where it is said,

All these are the beginning of sorrows. At that time they will deliver you up to affliction, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And at that time many will stumble, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray. And because iniquity is multiplied the charity of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all nations; and at that point the end will come.