Here, first, is the statement from True Christian Religion 791:
“After this work was finished, the Lord called together the twelve disciples who followed him in the world. The next day he sent all of them out to the entire spiritual world to preach the gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns and that his kingdom will last for ages of ages, as foretold by Daniel (Daniel 7.13-14) and Revelation (Revelation 11.15) also that “people who come to the wedding feast of the Lamb are blessed (Revelation 19.9) This took place on June 19th 1770.”
One can of course take those words completely literally. The Lord did that at that point in time. It isn’t really an issue, although the statement may raise eyebrows with people who wonder how that can get reported.
It’s good to go behind worded statements and try and get hold of the essential idea it is presenting. The heart of the statement is that the Lord broadcast the resonating truth from one end of heaven to the other and as a result into our own world, that there is one God who is the Lord God Jesus Christ.
This is the centrepiece of what we celebrate on June 19th, on New Church Day. And from that comes everything else: that the one God Jesus Christ is the true way of understanding and loving the Lord; that the one God Jesus Christ has overcome the power of evil to swamp the minds of people and given us our freedom to choose and follow what is good; that the Lord’s Word is true because it shows us the right way we are called on to live our lives; and that this breath of fresh air from all of heaven is not for a chosen few but is for absolutely everyone who will worship the Lord Jesus Christ by whatever name they call him, and who translates that into their own dedication and personal practice, shunning all evils as sins and turning towards the light as the glory of God.
May that extension keep growing in all peoples’ hearts and minds in but also beyond the confinements of any one particular church organization.
