Then the reader will inquire, "Why was an external New-Church organization
ever formed?" We have not to look far to find the reason. First, there was
a vast multitude of intelligent men and women who did not belong to any
church organization, and when some of them came to see and believe the new
doctrines, they naturally desired to be baptized and to join a church
organization; but seeing clearly in the light of the new revelations that,
according to the Sacred Scriptures, God is one in essence and in person,
and that that one God was manifested to man in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that He made that human form Divine and is henceforth to be
worshiped as one God in His Divine Humanity, and that a life according to
His sayings and the commandments is essential to salvation, they could not
join the prevailing churches, for they could not assent to their creeds.
Second. When, as soon occurred, both clergymen and laymen, belonging to
various church organizations, began to read the writings, and to see that
the Lord is in very deed now coming in the clouds of heaven, and desired to
let the new light shine among their brethren, they found that they were
often not free to do so without giving offense; and in not a few instances
clergymen found that they were silenced as preachers, and sometimes both
clergymen and laymen were expelled, for believing the Heavenly Doctrines
instead of the creeds; consequently the receivers of the doctrines of the
New Dispensation had no choice but to form a new church organization. But
at this day there is a vast change, and I trust that from but a very few if
any church organizations would a lay member be expelled for believing in
the Supreme Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Sacred
Scriptures are Divine and plenarily inspired, and that a life according to
the Lord's sayings and His Commandments is essential to salvation.
Consequently there are thousands of earnest receivers of the Heavenly
Doctrines of the New Jerusalem scattered throughout the various churches,
gradually leavening, as I trust, the whole lump; and there are clergymen
not a few who are gradually beholding, with more or less fullness, the
light of this New Day; and as they receive it, large numbers of them are
not slow to let the light shine among their fellow-men, as they are
prepared to receive it.
The Lord has given to men freedom and reason, and they are responsible for
their acts. To whom do a clergyman and members of a church organization owe
fealty, to the Lord and His Word and the members of the congregations where
they worship, or to a creed and church or a church organization formulated
and organized during darker ages of the world and Church? Should men or
should they not, when they behold the glorious light of the Lord's Second
Coming in the clouds of heaven, stand in their place and proclaim the glad
tidings to all who are willing to hear?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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