“Peace has in it confidence in the Lord: that He directs all things, provides all things, and that He leads to a good end.” - Arcana Caelestia §8455
Kempton New Church

Week 6
Day 2

    Listen:

The Lord’s Prayer

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.—Matthew 6:13

An everlasting kingdom

Daniel 7:13-14. Behold, there was coming with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of Man; and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall worship Him. His dominion is a dominion of ages, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

AC 2853:2. The Lord’s kingdom on earth consists of all those who are in good, who, though scattered over the whole earth, are still one, and as members constitute one body. Such is the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, where the whole heaven represents one man, which is therefore also called the Grand Man.... And what is wonderful and hitherto unknown, all parts of the human body correspond to societies in heaven. And therefore it is sometimes said that some societies belong to the province of the head, some to the province of the eye, others to that of the chest, and so on...

AC 2618. ...The very marriage itself of good and truth, from which comes the heavenly marriage... is the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens and on earth. For this reason the Lord’s kingdom is so frequently in the Word called a “marriage,” and is compared to a marriage. The reason (a secret one) is that all conjugial love, and through this all celestial and spiritual love, comes from the marriage of Divine good and truth, and of Divine truth and good, in the Lord.

AC 2737. With those who live in conjugial love, the interiors of their minds are open through heaven even to the Lord. For this love flows in from the Lord through a man’s inmost. From this they have the Lord’s kingdom in themselves, and from this they have genuine love toward little children for the sake of the Lord’s kingdom; and from this they are receptive of heavenly loves above others, and are in mutual love more than others; for this comes from that source as a stream from its fountain.

AC 3796:4. When the good of his neighbor, the common good, the good of the church and of the Lord’s kingdom, is the end, then as to his soul the man is in the Lord’s kingdom, thus in the Lord; for the Lord’s kingdom is nothing else than a kingdom of ends and uses for the good of the human race.

AC 6821. He who loves his country, and from good will benefits it, in the other life loves the Lord’s kingdom; for there the Lord’s kingdom is his country. And he who loves the Lord’s kingdom, loves the Lord, because the Lord is the all in all of His kingdom; for what is properly called “the Lord’s kingdom” is the good and truth from the Lord in those who are in it.

AC 1880:4. Man was so created that while living on earth among men, he might at the same time also live in heaven among angels, and the converse, so that heaven and earth might be together, and might act as a one, and that men might know what is going on in heaven, and angels what in the world. And therefore, when men depart this life they would pass from the Lord’s kingdom on earth into the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, not as into another kingdom, but as into the same as that in which they had been when living in the body. But in consequence of man’s becoming so corporeal, he has closed heaven against himself.

AE 683:3. The Lord indeed not only rules those who receive Divine celestial and spiritual things from Him, but also those who do not receive, as all who are in hell. Still it cannot be said that the Lord’s kingdom is in hell, since those there are altogether unwilling to be ruled by the Divine that proceeds, and according to the laws of its order. They even deny the Lord and turn themselves away from Him. Yet the Lord does rule them, not like subjects and citizens of His kingdom, but like those who are refractory and rebellious, holding them in bonds that they may not do evil to one another, and especially to those who belong to His kingdom.

Questions and Comments
  1. Is it encouraging to know that the Lord’s kingdom and His New Church will never pass away or be destroyed? How does this fit with the teaching that every church and religion in the course of time declines and is consummated?
  2. When you pray, “For Thine is the kingdom,” do you sometimes picture the Grand Man of heaven, and your place in the Grand Man, serving the Lord and the whole?
  3. When you pray, “For Thine is the kingdom,” do you sometimes think of a wedding, and of the marriage of good and truth or love and wisdom? Do you think of conjugial love, the love of little children, and mutual love, as coming from the Lord?
  4. In what ways do the words, “Thy kingdom come,” and “For Thine is the kingdom,” have special application in the life of a soldier or a good public servant?
  5. When you think of the words, “Thine is the kingdom,” do you sometimes think of eternal life?
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