“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain… Blessing, and honor, and glory, and might be to Him who sits on the throne, and the Lamb, for ages of ages.”
Revelation 5:12, 13
I just finished reading through “Conjugial Love” with a group of friends. Wow, is it a powerful book! And Wow, is western culture far afield from where Our Lord designed us to be!
It was pretty painful to read, given the disparity between our adulterous world and the “marital union of one man with one wife.. the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion” CL 456. I frequently caught myself wondering “How do I deal with the people my family and I come into contact with who are living lives so contrary to these beautiful Truths?”
Well a few weeks ago I found (and then had emphasized) that the Lord has given us in the New Church very clear boundaries around judgment. First, I came to the end of the book of CL which deals specifically with the topic. Then a few days later in family worship, we read the story of the scroll and the Lamb and its explanation in Apocalypse Revealed.
Below I share my “findings”:
The Lord says, “Judge not, that you be not condemned.” 1 (Matthew 7:1) This cannot in the least mean judging of someone’s moral and civil life in the world, but judging of someone’s spiritual and heavenly life. Who does not see that were it not lawful for a man to judge as to the moral life of those dwelling with him in the world, society would fall! What would society be if there were no public judgments? or if one did not form his own judgment concerning another?
What is not lawful, is judgment as to the quality of the interior mind or soul within man, thus as to what his spiritual state is and hence his lot after death. This is known to the Lord only; nor does the Lord reveal it until after death, and this in order that what a man does he may do from freedom, and that thereby good or evil may be from him and so in him, and he thus live for himself and be himself forever.
That the interiors of the mind, hidden in the world, are revealed after death is because this is a matter of importance and use to the societies into which the man then comes; for there all are spiritual. That they are revealed then is plain from these words of the Lord:
“There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” Luke 12:2, 3.
A general judgment is allowed, such as: “If in internals you are what you appear to be in externals you will be saved or condemned;” but a particular judgment such as, “You are such in internals and therefore will be saved or condemned,” is not allowed.
Conjugial Love 523
“And I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look at it.”
Revelation 5:4
“Neither to look thereon,” signifies not in the least. Since by “opening the book,” is signified to know the states of life of all, by “looking on it” is signified to see what the state of life of this or that person is, therefore by “no one being able to open the book nor to look thereon,” is signified that they were not able in the least. For the Lord alone sees the state of everyone from inmosts to outmosts, as also what a man has been from infancy to old age, and what he will be to eternity, and likewise what place will be allotted to him either in heaven or in hell; and this the Lord sees in an instant, and from Himself, because He is the Divine truth itself or the Word; but angels and man do not see this in the least, because they are finite, and the finite see only a few things, and those only external, and not these indeed from themselves, but from the Lord.
Apocalypse Revealed 262