753. CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE ENDING OF THE AGE, THE LORD'S COMING, AND THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

I. The ending of the age is the final period or end of the church.

This earth has seen a number of churches, all of which have in course of time reached their end, and after this new ones have come into existence, and the process has continued up to the present day. A church reaches its end when there is no longer any Divine truth left in it, but only falsified or rejected truth. When there is no real truth, there cannot be any real good, since the whole quality of good is formed by means of truths; for good is the essence of truth, and truth is the form of good, and no quality can exist without form. Good and truth can no more be separated than the will and the understanding, or, what is the same thing, the affection of love and the thought it gives rise to. Consequently, when the truth in a church reaches its end, so does its good. When this happens, then the church is terminated, that is, it reaches its end.

Most of the time, falling means a lowering in spiritual state, from one closer to the Lord to one further. But, as with other common verbs, the meaning of "fall" is highly dependent on context in regular language, and in the spiritual sense as well. People fall on their faces in prayer, fall in battle, fall on others to attack them and fall on each other's necks in greeting. Stars fall from the sky, mountains fall on people, cities fall, and even faces fall. There's a lot of falling, in very different circumstances. When people fall on their faces in prayer -- it shows humility, and an acknowledgement of their own low state and need for the Lord's help. When they fall on each other's necks, it means a communication between the two spiritual states. At the other end of the scale, it illustrates complete spiritual destruction in the fall of a city.