46. CHAPTER IX. FROM THIS HAS COME THE "AFFLICTION" AND "DESOLATION" IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FORETOLD BY THE LORD IN THE GOSPELS AND IN DANIEL

1. Where the Lord is speaking with His disciples about the Consummation of the Age, and of His Coming, that is, about the end of the present Church and the commencement of a new one, He foretold these things:

Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, nor shall be. [Matt. 24:21.]

further that there would be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet:

For after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and ... the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. [Matt. 24:15, 29.]

2. That such tribulation and desolation exists in the Church is altogether unknown and unseen in the world, it being said in every part of the Church that they are in the very light of the Gospel; so that even if an angel were to descend from heaven and teach otherwise, he would not be believed.

The Roman Catholic Church says it, the Greek Church says it, so does each of the three Reformed Churches named after their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, and so does every one of the numerous heretical sects.

3. The tribulation and desolation that was foretold, however, has become visible in clear light in the spiritual world, ¹ inasmuch as all men come into that world after death and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world; for the light there is spiritual light, which uncovers all things.

4. When members of the clergy are asked there about God, faith, and charity, the three essentials of the Church and consequently of salvation, they answer almost like blind people in pits.

Concerning God, they answer, He is One and He is three who are in unanimity; and when they say that the three are one, they are told to express themselves in accordance with their thought; and then, because with those who are in the spiritual world thought and speech act as one, they say out aloud, "three Gods".

Concerning faith, they reply that it is a faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and that God the Father gives it, the Son mediates it, and the Holy Spirit operates it, thus it is a faith in three Gods in order. When they are questioned further about that faith-whether they know the sign of its entering and the sign of its being in anyone-they reply, What does knowing the sign of it mean? Is it not from good pleasure by the election of that one God, without anything from man being intermingled with it?

When they are asked whether that faith-seeing that it is applied to three, and is thus a faith in three Gods, and that man is in complete ignorance about it-is anything, they reply that not only is it something, but it is the all of the Church and the all of salvation. If they are asked whether that is possible, they laugh at the question.

Concerning charity, their reply is that charity exists where that faith is, and that it is both separate from it and not separate; thus it contributes to salvation and does not contribute to it.

5. When the laity are questioned about God, faith, and charity, they know practically nothing, except that a few of them are acquainted with some obscure sayings heard from the clergy, which they call matters of faith; and that these are in general, that God the Father has pity on account of His Son's passion, that He remits sins, and that He justifies.

6. When both the laity and the clergy are examined as to whether they have in themselves anything of God, of faith, or of charity, they are found to have nothing; consequently there is nothing of heaven and the Church or of salvation, except only with those who have done good deeds from religion, these being able in the spiritual world to receive faith in the Lord God the Saviour.

7. From the few things adduced above it is clear whence is the great "tribulation such as was not since the world began, nor shall be", and that "abomination of desolation", which the Lord foretold would come at the end of the Church, which is at this day.

8. The reason that there has not been such tribulation from the beginning of the world, nor will there be, is that neither the Gentiles nor the Jews themselves knew the Lord God the Saviour as the Fountain of salvation; and ignorance excuses; but it is otherwise with the Christians after His Coming, to whom this has been unfolded in the Word of both Testaments.

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