The Second Coming

The wise parent guiding a child through this process does not force the child along at too great a speed, contradicting the simple illusions of childhood before there is need to. But neither does such a parent hold the child back. When the child asks questions and otherwise shows a need for more complicated "grownup" truth, the parent provides that truth. Does it not seem reasonable then that, if there is a God, the parent of the whole human race, that He might do the same in a larger sense for that race as parents created "in His image" psychologically have done in a smaller sense for individual child members of that race? The Writings teach that this is in fact the case.

As the human race has developed from the childlike states of this planet's original inhabitants to the adult complexities of modern civilization, God has always been an ever-present parent, never forcing the raising of complex new issues but never failing to provide revelation of the moral and spiritual truths needed to deal with those issues either. In fact, when you think about it, you can see that if God did not keep "updating" His truth as the human race grew up, people would not be left in the free will that is the most fundamental basis of our existence as individuals.

Just reflect for a moment on what would happen if the evil side of a person's nature could come up with more "grown-up," "sophisticated" arguments than their good side.  In such a situation, the complex sophisticated arguments for evil might appear more convincing than their "simple" argument for good, or if they though the evil argument so "advanced" it made their argument for good look irrelevant, what then? Might not there be a strong temptation to give up defense of the good side in confusion or despair? Might not there be a temptation to think "you can't beat the system" (of evil), and give in to it? In such a situation, would a person then be in free will, or would they be in effect made prejudiced in favor of the evil point of view? 

The problem of "sophisticated" evil having an unfair advantage over "simple" good is familiar to every parent, and can be met in one of two ways. Either the parent can attempt to prevent the child from becoming aware of or thinking about such things, or the parent can prepare the child to cope with sophisticated evil by providing the child with equally sophisticated ideas of good. An interesting parallel to this choice occurred on a larger scale with regard to the traditional Christian church and its position on what it once regarded as the "sophisticated evil" of science. From the time of Galileo to the Scopes "monkey trial" in this century, some segments of that church thought that men should be protected from this "evil."  But attempting to restrict or "protect" individuals - or a whole race - from growing up is not the solution. As even those churches have come to see, it doesn't make sense. Why would God create in people the capacity of developing a rational mind if He didn't intend them to use it? Would it not seem more reasonable for God to provide a new and more "grown up" understanding of truth about good to prepare people to cope with the more "grown up" evil temptations?

One familiar example occurred when God "updated" the simple and childlike, "Thou shalt not" teachings of the Old Testament with the more grownup parable-based teachings of the New Testament. As with all good parents, His new teachings did not contradict His earlier ones. In Christ's words, "Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the Prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matt.. 5:17) And this fulfilling basically involved a "filling" of the original Old Testament teachings with new, more "grownup" insights.

At the time of the giving of Christ's teachings, however, the race was still far from adulthood, as we can see by comparing that era of history with the far more "adult" nature of today's civilization. God of course knew that this further "growing up" of the race would occur, and so filled the New Testament with prophecies of yet another coming, another revelation that would meet the needs of that more grownup time, our time. Like all true prophecy, such as that predicting the first advent, this prophecy was given in a very ambiguous way. For, as the Writings teach and many science fiction stories have illustrated, if people were told the future exactly, it would interfere with their free will. But some of Christ's own teachings gave fairly clear clues - at least in retrospect - of what the next revelation would be like.

For instance, like a parent explaining to his children that there are things the child won't understand until they grow up, so Christ told His disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). He followed this statement with another one that was - like true prophecy - apparently ambiguous at the time but which we can now, after if has been fulfilled, understand. He said, "... [W]hen He, the spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). By the "spirit" of truth, Swedenborg's Writings teach, He was referring to a further explanation, the internal explanation "spirit" within the external "body" of truth already given in the Old and New Testaments. And like all explanation, and thought itself, this "spirit of truth" would not be something you could see in the physical world but only in your understanding, in the world of your mind. Thus Christ told the Pharisees, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation [i.e. not in the physically visible realm]: Nor will they say, See here! or See there! for, indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20,21). Other prophecies were even more veiled in symbols, such as "every eye will see him" (Rev 1:7) referring to the mind's understanding "seeing" the explanation that was the "spirit of truth," or the references to Him coming in the "clouds of heaven" (Matt. 24:30, Rev. 1:7) referring to how the "sun" of the newly revealed spiritual truth would disperse the "clouds" of human religious confusion so that the mind's "eye" could see again that heavenly truth directly. And the most specific prophecy of all, the Writings teach, was of the coming of a "New Jerusalem" - a whole new "city" of doctrine of a New Church - is nearly impossible to interpret from the literal statements of Scripture.

In the Writings, in other words - if you believe their claim to be revelation - is found a new "update" from God, the promised and prophesied "spirit of truth" full spiritual explanation, providing people with an adult revelation in keeping with the adult state of the human race today. In their great depth and scope of explanation of the truth about a whole huge range of spiritual issues, from God to the nature of marriage to the spiritual history and future of the human race, the Writings provide a free-will-preserving counterweight to the most "sophisticated" temptations or thought distortions of modern evil. If the first advent is viewed as a coming via God's body, Christ, the Second Coming is a coming of God's mind.   Even if Christ had come again in person, in fact, it seems reasonable to assume that He would have had to teach as the Writings do to meet the needs of the modern age. As in the case of the first coming, the Writings are not in the form expected by many for the second coming. But, unlike the first coming, they contain no prophecy of a further coming. As people do not grow up beyond adulthood, so the Writings' adult level explanation of creation is the final revelation, they claim. Even on a "practical" level, it is not difficult to see how this could be so, for the Writings contain in them, especially when taken together with the Scriptures, more truth than anyone will ever be able to master in one lifetime in this world and in the limited confines of one mind. And yet, the Writings teach, all they contain is but the simplest of introductions to vistas of truth and clarity of mind that "come" to all men in heaven.

Further Reading

How the Second Coming Happened - a classic and fascinating review, explaining in logical and inspiring fashion just how it all came about.

The Second Coming - A short and information-packed summary, tying together both the first and second advents, and including such intriguing points as that, since God is omnipresent, how can He "come" where He already is?

The Second Coming of the Lord - Another brief overview, raising some different points, such as why the Lord didn't explain the delay of the Second Coming to His disciples, and, since that Coming has occurred, now what do we have to look forward to?

Link to John and Swedenborg and the Second Coming of the Lord - on the parallels of their respective revelations

Link to "What the Bible Says" about The Second Coming

Two Advents: One Divine Process - a deeper and doctrinally more complex reflection on the relationship between the First and Second Comings

The Truth: Seen and Heard - relating, among other things, the parallel between the miracles at the First Coming and Swedenborg's experiences at the Second Coming

The Mode of the Second Coming - done, as always, by means of a person

The Divine Inspiration of Swedenborg - compares in some detail the mechanics of how the Biblical revelation and Swedenborg's worked

How Prophecy Works