Summary of Beliefs

Summary Of Beliefs

We are a congregation of the New Church, a new Christianity that provides a clear path to happiness and addresses your questions about God, love, and life after death with answers that make sense. The teachings are immediately practical and deeply spiritual, providing a new understanding of God’s timeless story.

It is a religion to be lived, not just believed. Some of our most important beliefs are highlighted below (click to read more), with further details on our denominational site (www.newchurch.org).

Core Beliefs

  • Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one loving God.
  • The Bible is God speaking through literal stories and a systematic inner meaning.
  • God came to earth as Jesus Christ to overcome the power of evil.
  • Happiness comes when we let God inspire our daily work and service to others.
  • God endows us with the capacity to choose our eternal destiny.
  • Salvation is progressive and involves an ongoing process of spiritual growth.
  • Marriage Love can become spiritual and continue to eternity.
  • Life after Death is real.
  • Heaven is for all who love God and live according to His Commandments

The Second Coming – A New Christian Church

When the Lord was in this world He spoke of coming again:

“I have yet many thing to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when it shall come, the Spirit of truth, it will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12-13)

“And straightway after the affliction of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and much glory.” (Matthew 24:29-30)

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

As He often did, the Lord was speaking here in parabolic language. The sun being darkened, the moon not giving her light, and the stars falling, symbolically prophecy of a time when the Christian church would fall spiritually: There would be no more charity in the church (sun), no more true faith (moon), and genuine spiritual knowledge would fall (stars).  This spiritual fall came to a completion in the middle of the 18th century. History shows us that indeed the Christian church had become corrupt and spiritually deprived on many levels.

The New Church believes that it was during this spiritual fall in the 18th century that the Lord made His Second Coming, ushering in a new era of Christianity. The new and truly Christian church that the Lord came again to establish is symbolically represent in the book of Revelation by the Holy City New Jerusalem seen by John to be descending from God out of heaven. (Revelation 21) It is this “New Church” that the New Church of Concord strives to embody. Here are a few points to help you understand this beautiful reality:

* When the Lord made His Second Coming He did not come again in person. Instead He “came again” by opening up the spiritual sense of His own Word (the Bible), revealing the internal meaning of the stories in the Scriptures. This opening up of the Word is symbolically meant by, “The Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven (the literal sense of the Scriptures) with power and much glory (the spiritual sense of the Scriptures)” (Matthew 24:30)

* The Lord accomplished this by using Emanuel Swedenborg as His humble servant. The Lord opened Swedenborg’s spiritual eyes so that he could learn about the realities of life after death, the spiritual sense of the Word, true faith, charity, heavenly marriage, the Lord Himself and more. What Swedenborg saw and learned he wrote down in several books called The Writings or The Heavenly Doctrines.  The new and genuine truths contained in these books, in part, constitute the Lord’s Second Coming. While penned by Swedenborg, they contain a new heavenly doctrine, that comes from the Lord Himself.

* While we at the New Church of Concord work hard to create a church that embodies the new teachings that the Lord has now revealed at His Second Coming, we also believe that the Lord’s true spiritual church is above finite organizations. In many ways, the Lord’s Second Coming is having a spiritual effect on all people regardless of religion. By coming again, the Lord has brought a new spiritual light and freedom that affects people’s hearts and minds throughout the world.

Our Pastor would be happy to talk with you more about any of our believes and teachings.

“This, the Lord’s second coming, is taking place by means of a man, to whom He has shown Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His spirit, so that he may teach the doctrines of the new church which come from the Lord through the Word. Since the Lord cannot show Himself in person, as has just been demonstrated, and yet He predicted that He would come and found a new church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by means of a man, who can not only receive intellectually the doctrines of this church, but also publish them in print. I bear true witness that the Lord has shown Himself in the presence of me, His servant, and sent me to perform this function. After this He opened the sight of my spirit, thus admitting me to the spiritual world, and allowing me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to talk with angels and spirits; and this I have now been doing for many years without a break. Equally I assert that from the first day of my calling I have not received any instruction concerning the doctrines of that church from any angel, but only from the Lord, while I was reading the Word.” (True Christian Religion – Swedenborg)