Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/106

100 Such is a brief explanation of the doctrine held and taught by the New Church, concerning that event referred to by the passage in the New Testament mistranslated "the end of the world." Of its reasonableness as compared with the old doctrine, it is needless to speak here. The candid reader will judge of that for himself. But if he will look at the state of the world and of the church at the present day, and compare it with what it was prior to 1757, he cannot resist the conclusion that we have actually entered upon a new Era, and that some such event as that described by Swedenborg, must have occurred in the spiritual world—the realm of causes—about the middle of the last century. No other adequate and philosophical reason can be given for the astounding phenomena and the marvelous progress and developments,—scientific, industrial, moral and religious,—which have so conspicuously marked the period since 1757, the alleged date of the last general judgment.

In three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), we have a prophetic announcement of