Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/144

140 26, 27. And again, " Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world," John xvi. 33. From these and similar passages it is evident, that a day of judgment is not spoken of in the Scriptures, as an event which has never yet in any former period taken place, or as decisive of the fate of every individual of the human race: for we find, that the Lord, when on earth, actually accomplished a judgment, not upon the whole race of mankind, but only upon a certain number of those who were deceased, and consequently in the spiritual world.

That the habitable earth was not to be destroyed at the time of the last judgment, is plain from the Lord's words in Luke, "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left," Luke xvii. 34 to 36. Here the last time of the church is called night, because there is no genuine faith or truth remaining, in consequence of there being no true spiritual charity: but that the world would not then be destroyed, is plainly declared by the circumstance of some being left, while others are removed.

These considerations sufficiently prove, that the doctrine of the New Church, respecting the last judgment and the second advent of the Lord, is perfectly consistent with the Word of God; while all those systems, which suppose the destruction of the universe as the necessary consequence of that event, can be considered in no other light, than as so many idle dreams, and dreadful chimeras, calculated to frighten mankind, and to inspire them with no one useful or rational sentiment, but on the contrary with dismal expectation and useless alarm.