92. Brief Analysis

“Cutting those days short” means bringing the modern-day church to an end and establishing a new church. As mentioned before, Matthew 24 is about the successive states of decline and corruption within the Christian church leading up to its close and end, and about the Lord’s Coming, which happens after that.

The reason why no flesh would be saved if those days were not cut short is that the faith of the modern-day church is based on the idea of three gods, and no one who has that idea can get into heaven. Therefore no one with that faith can get into heaven either, because the idea of three gods is present in every detail of it. For another thing, that faith contains within itself no life from acts of goodwill. As I have shown in §§47– 50 above, it is incapable of being united to goodwill or producing any fruit in the form of good works.

There are two things that build a heaven within us: truths that lead to faith and good actions that come from goodwill. Truths that lead to faith bring us the presence of the Lord and show us the way to heaven. Good actions that come from goodwill give us a partnership with the Lord and bring us into heaven. There we are each brought into a light that accords with how much desire we have for what is true, and into a warmth that accords with how much desire we have for what is good. Faith in its essence is a desire for what is true, and goodwill in its essence is a desire for what is good. The church is a marriage between faith and goodwill; see §48 above. And heaven and the church are united. Faith, goodwill, and heaven (as I have demonstrated fully in the preceding pages) do not exist in the churches that are built on faith alone.

72. It is self-evident that the church is at an end when it has no more truths related to faith and no more good actions related to goodwill. False beliefs extinguish true teachings and evil lives consume good actions related to goodwill; where you find false beliefs, there you find evil lives, and where you find evil lives, there you find false beliefs. These points will be taken up individually in chapters of their own [§§74– 76, 77– 81].

Why has the information lain hidden that “the close of the age” means the end of this church? The reason is that where false ideas are being taught and people trust and honor that teaching as correct, it is impossible for them to realize that the church is coming to an end. False ideas are seen as true and true ideas as false. What is false then rejects what is true and blackens it the way ink blackens clear water or soot blackens a clean sheet of paper. This is because the most distinguished scholars of our age proclaim, and people generally believe, that the church is now standing in the crystal clear light of the gospel, when in reality the entire surface of the gospel is covered in thick darkness for them and white spots have covered the pupils of their eyes.