Page:The Bible and the Churches.pdf/8

 sense treating entirely of the work of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. (See the Arcana Cœlestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, with more than fifty thousand references to the Old and New Testaments, proving most conclusively the truth of what he asserts; and the Commission for revising the Bible will find great assistance in coming at a true and lasting translation by carefully examining the Arcana Cœlestia, and testing the rendering of Swedenborg against the original.)

It is most important at the present time, particularly, that we should have the proper rendering of the original text of Scripture, which I feel perfectly satisfied will agree with the Apostolic teaching, but it will not agree with the Nicene Creed. (See account of its introduction and effects on the first Roman Catholic Church. 325.)

There are various opinions respecting the existence of the human race om this earth before the Adamic Church. For my own part, I am of opinion that the human race existed for a long period before what is called the Mosaic account of the Creation; and I entertain the idea that all the inhabitants of the earth lived a very considerable period in that state of holiness in which they wore originally created, which is called the golden age of the world. But they gradually fell away from that state of holiness and of brotherly love and patriarchal worship of the Lord to render an external Church necessary—the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Lord accommodating His government to the failings of His declining people, arranged the Adamic Church. (See the first chapter of the book of Genesis.) Sad to relate, the Adamic Church gradually declined, getting worse and worse, until falses and evils brought on its own destruction, described by the Flood; the divine love and mercy still meeting the exigencies