“The Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages.” - True Christian Religion §791
Kempton New Church

December
13

Isaiah 60:11. “And thy gates shall be open continually; by day and by night they shall not be shut, to bring to Thee the force of the nations, and [that] their kings [may be] directed [there].”

For the children from Psalm 24

3. Who shall go up into the mountain of Jehovah? And who shall arise in the place of His holiness?

4. He who [is] innocent of hands, and pure of heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, and has not promised with deceit.

5. He shall bear the blessing from with Jehovah, and justice from the God of His salvation.

6. This [is] the generation of them who inquire after Him, who seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye entrances of eternity, and the King of glory will come in.

8. Who [is] this King of glory? Jehovah, strong and a Hero; Jehovah, a Hero of battle.

9. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and lift up, ye entrances of eternity, and the King of glory will come in.

10. Who is He, this King of glory? Jehovah of armies: He [is] the King of glory. Selah.

Readings from the Heavenly Doctrine

AE 208:5. This [Isa. 60:11] treats of the Lord and of the church about to be established by Him, and these words describe the continual admission of those who are in good and in truths therefrom. “The gates shall be opened continually, and shall not be shut day nor night,” signifies perpetual admission. “The army [or forces] of the nations” signifies those who are in good, and “kings” those who are in truths. And that all will serve the Lord is meant by “the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish.”

AR 922. And the gates of it shall not be shut by day; for there shall be no night there [Rev. 21:25], signifies that they will be continually received into the New Jerusalem who are in truths from the good of love from the Lord, because there is not any falsity of faith there. By “its gates shall not be shut by day” is signified that they are continually admitted who desire to enter in…. The reason why they are continually received who are in truths from the good of love from the Lord is because the light of the New Jerusalem is truth from the good of love, and the good of love is from the Lord, as has been frequently shown above; and into that light no others can enter but they who are in truths from good from the Lord. If aliens enter, they are not received, because they do not agree, and they either depart of their own accord, because they cannot bear that light, or they are sent out.

AC 10483:5. Moreover by “gates” in the Word is signified entrance into heaven and into the church by means of truth and good, and also the influx of truth and good with man.

AE 208:2. When newly arrived spirits are introduced into a heavenly society, the way that leads to it is opened to them by the Lord. And when they come there, a gate appears with a door at the side, where there are guards who admit them, and afterwards there are others who receive and introduce them. From this it can now be seen what “doorways,” “doors,” and “gates,” signify in the Word, namely, admission into heaven. And as the church is the Lord’s heaven on earth, they also signify admission into the church; and as heaven or the church is within man, “doorways,” “doors,” and “gates” signify approach and entrance with man…. And because all things that signify heaven and the church signify also the things of heaven and the church, and here the things that introduce—which are truths out of good from the Lord, and because these truths are from the Lord and are therefore His, even are Himself in them—therefore “doorway,” “door,” and “gate” to heaven and the church, mean in the highest sense the Lord.

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