Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/102

96 revealed for the New Church, yields a perfectly rational and consistent meaning. Every Greek scholar knows that (Aiōn) does not mean world, as rendered in our common English version, but an age, a life, any full period from beginning to end. And sunteleia means the consummation, end or completion of that age or period. So that this Greek phrase correctly rendered into English, would read, "the consummation of the Age," and not "the end of the world" as in our common version.

And what is to be understood by the consummation of the Age"? According to the teaching of the New Church, this phrase refers to the first Christian Age and its consummation, or to the end of the first Christian Church, when also a new Age and Church were to commence. History records several different Ages—as the Golden, the Silver and the Copper Ages—each of which has passed away or been consummated. In general, the period during which any particular system of opinions, either political, social, philosophical or religious, bear sway over the minds of men, is denominated an Age. And when the sway of such opinions is loosened or destroyed, that Age is consummated. When, therefore, our Lord foretold a "consummation of the Age," what else could He refer to but the end or consummation of that church which had just commenced, and