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3. The Second Coming Already Happened - in 1770
By Kurt Simons | May 19, 2007
As noted in The Last Judgment Already Happened - in 1757, even while Jesus was still in the middle of His First Coming, He was already prophesying that He would have to come again (e.g. John 14, 16, 21, 24). And that’s just what He did. The Last Judgment (or, more accurately, as The Last Judgment Already Happened - in 1757 notes, Last Separation) housecleaning set the stage for Jesus’ Second Coming, which took place 13 years later, in 1770. You would think that if the God of the universe came to our planet He would be gladly, even fervently, welcomed by all the people living here. However, that of course did not happen at His First or Second Coming.
The main reason people rejected Jesus, at both Comings, was that He was not what people expected from the prophecies. Thus, for instance, as had been prophesied (Isaiah 53: 3), Jesus was rejected by many of the people of Israel because they thought the prophecies of the Old Testament predicted the coming of a political ruler, not a spiritual teacher. Another example is the Apostles, who expected from their interpretation of prophecies such as Matthew 24: 34 that Jesus would return in their own lifetimes. However, recall that, as noted in The First Coming of Jesus Christ, the physical universe was set up as a place where God is not visible if you don’t want to see or know about Him. That way, a person can freely choose to believe in God and follow His teachings or not. If this world was instead set up like the spiritual world, where the presence of God is obvious, then we would feel intimidated into always believing in Him and doing what He wants us to. But, here again, God wants us in free will, so He partially veils spiritual reality in the physical world. For that same reason God always makes prophecy, including the prophecies of His comings, veiled and ambiguous too. People can thus believe them or not, in free will.
Some perspective on the prophecy question can be found in the fact that prophecies of the First Coming, such as of a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17) and the apparently cataclysmic events of the sun being darkened, the moon turned to blood and the stars ceasing shining (Joel 2:31, 3:15, Isaiah 13:10), are identical to events prophesied for the Second Coming (Matthew 24:29, Revelation 6:12, 21:1). Clearly, those prophecies did not literally come to pass in the natural world at the First Coming, demonstrating that they were symbolic rather than literal and described spiritual events - and the same is true for the prophecies of the Second Coming. Furthermore, if prophecies such as the sun being darkened or the stars falling on the earth happened literally, all life on earth would be destroyed. And that the Second Coming was not to be an external physical event is suggested by the prophecy that, when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17: 20, 21).
A further surprise was that the teachings of the Second Coming were not given in person by Christ returning to the world at large. To fully understand this, it is important to remember that God is omnipresent (Psalm 139: 7-12). Thus, He cannot be said to come anywhere, since He is already everywhere. What He can and does do, however, is to show Himself to us in different ways. At the First Coming, He showed Himself in a human form that people could see and interact with. Jesus does not repeat Himself, however, and the use served by appearing in person and the “glorification” of His human form that went with it had already been accomplished by the First Coming. That appearance opened up a whole new and much more personal way for us to relate to Him (see The First Coming of Jesus Christ). In the teachings of the Second Coming He simply sent, or manifested, His truth, communicating ideas directly as ideas from His mind to ours. He sent that communication by revelation to one man, Emanuel Swedenborg, who then published them in book form, as Jesus instructed him to do.
If you think about it, the methods of revelation for the First and Second Comings are actually very similar. Recall that only a few thousand people actually saw Jesus in person when He was here on earth. Most people throughout history who have come to know of Him have done so through a book - the Bible. In other words, practically speaking, even God’s First Coming has been by means of a book. Nor is that a surprise, since the Divine truths in that book are the Word, which is God (John 1: 1). Thus, it is actually neither unprecedented nor surprising that Jesus at His Second Coming would come in the form of a set of teachings, again written in books. Note, however, that the revelation is the truths Jesus sent us, not the books themselves. They are the medium, but the truths are the message. This is what Jesus was referring to in His prophecy that “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth…. I have spoken of these matters in parables, but the time will come when this will not be necessary, and I will tell you plainly all about the Father” (John 16:13, 25). By the “spirit” of truth, He was referring to the further, internal explanation “spirit” within the external “body” of truth already given in the stories of the Old and New Testaments. This is in keeping with Jesus’ teaching in His Sermon on the Mount that He came not to destroy but to fulfill the teachings of the Old Testament (Matthew 5: 17). Where the revelation of the Second Coming differs from that of the First coming, however, is that its truths are no longer veiled in symbolism as they were in both previous Testaments, but are explicit and exhaustive, that will indeed “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
While prophecies can’t be fully understood ahead of time, they can and should be used to confirm a prophesied event after it occurs. Thus, after the First Coming happened, it could be seen how all the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by it. Similarly, now that the Second Coming has occurred, we can see how it too fulfills those prophecies, most of which, such as in the book of Revelation, are symbolic (or “correspondential“).
Revelation “grows up” with the human race
The Jehovah of the Old Testament often sounds fierce and His teaching was basically at the level of “do this” and “don’t do that.” Jesus, on the other hand, was, with the exception of His treatment of the Pharisees and moneychangers in the temple, warm and loving, and He taught by means of the considerably more “grown up” method of telling parables. It is thus perhaps not surprising that people could be tempted to think of Jehovah and Jesus as two different people. But rather than looking at them as two different individuals, we should see the truth of the matter, of a single God adapting His methods, as any good teacher does, to the audience He is addressing. The Children of Israel were, in many respects, just that, a primitive, child-like people - and often naughty “children” at that! God thus spoke to them at that level. By the time of His first Coming, however, Jesus knew that many people were ready for a more “grown up” message and for His parable-based teaching method. But the story didn’t end at that level. Jesus also told the people at that time that there were more advanced truths yet to come, truths at a more “grown up” level than they could deal with: “Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you cannot bear it now…. I have spoken of these matters in parables, but the time will come when this will not be necessary, and I will tell you plainly all about the Father” (John 16: 12, 25).
Why would people keep needing more “grown up” forms of revelation? Reflect for a moment on what would happen if the evil side of a person’s nature could come up with more “grown-up,” “sophisticated” arguments for doing evil than their good side could come up with for doing good. In such a situation, would a person be in free will, or would they be prejudiced in favor of the evil point of view? To protect free will, God thus always provides truth at a level of sophistication equal to that of the falsity of the evil. Furthermore, why would God create in people a rational mind if He didn’t intend them to apply it fully to the most important issue of life, the question of choice between good and evil? But that “grown up” rational thinking ability would be of no help unless God provided rational truths of religion for it to work with. And that is just what the teachings of the Second Coming are.
Jesus Christ at the Second Coming thus set up a new spiritual Christian church based on the teachings of that Coming to provide that channel between heaven and earth necessary for human existence in this world, just as previous spiritual churches had done prior to their “fall” (see The First Coming of Jesus Christ). This teaching may not, at first glance, seem in keeping with the appearances we see all around us. There are still many people and organizations in this world who follow the teachings of earlier, fallen spiritual churches. However, once again, free will applies. Thus, the death of a church at the spiritual level did and does not prevent its members from living good lives and going to heaven. However, since those churches are in many or most cases still based on the false ideas that brought about their spiritual fall, believing in those false ideas makes it more difficult to follow Jesus than would otherwise be the case. Jesus, in His, as always, kind and helpful way has provided the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the testimony of both His Comings. We are, again as always, in freedom to ignore that truth, but why would we? If I buy a lawnmower, I don’t put sand in the gas tank or take its wheels off. If I want to get the most use out of the lawnmower, if I want a happy lawnmower, I run it according to manufacturer’s instructions, since the manufacturer knows what’s best for it. Jesus has provided the Manufacturer’s Instructions for human life in His revelations. Reading and following those Instructions is the key to us being happy lawnmowers too.
For Further Reading
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine #241-248 - A brief but detailed summary of what a church truly is, and a history of all the churches that have existed since the Most Ancient Church in the Golden Age at the dawn of creation.
The Truc Christian Religion, Containing the Universal Theology of The New Church, Foretold by the Lord in Daniel 7; 13, 14; and in Revelation 21; 1, 2 #753-791 - The final and crowning work of the Second Coming revelation, containing a full review of its teachings, including (in #753-791) a history of the spiritual events leading up to that Coming.
Other Books
W. L. Worcester, Bible Stories and Their Inner Meaning. A Family Study Guide - A review of the inner meaning, the parable, in all the stories in the Divinely revealed books of the Bible.
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