At The End of Every Church Period, There is a Small Group of People who are to Start a New Church – They Are Called a “Remnant”

Open your Bible to Genesis Chapter 5

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to show in part why this blog is secondarily called the New Emerging Church among those of the Christian faith. We will examine and see the spiritual meaning of Genesis Chapter 5. For it is an introduction to a New Emerging Church as our example of what will soon be happening on the earth.

Key to Blog Text

Bold highlighting = Important terms and concepts. Blue highlighting = words, terms, and concepts containing primarily a spiritual sense or TRUTH. Red highlighting = words, terms, and concepts containing a sense directly related to The Lord Himself or LOVE. Gray highlighting = words, terms, and concepts relating to evil and hell. Italic letters in (parentheses) = my emphasis.

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“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God” (Genesis 5:1)

From the Bible commentary on Genesis and Exodus called “Secrets of Heaven” by Emanuel Swedenborg (Chapter 5 Study number 468 – teaching on the church remnant)

Study Number 468: It becomes clear that the names in this chapter do not mean specific individuals (the person’s name) but other things that existed. Here (in this Chapter) they mean systems of doctrine or Churches which, though they underwent certain changes, were preserved (the good things of the church before the flood were kept going) from the time of the Most Ancient Church (before the flood) down to that of Noah.

Now it so happens that every Church in the course of time gets smaller (the true worshipers) until at length it remains among only a few people (a small group of people). The few with whom it remained (the true worshipers) at the time of the Flood were called Noah (at the end of Chapter 5 is Noah and his children). (we could say like today they will become the New Emerging Church)

The fact that the true Church gets smaller and remains among the few (in numbers) becomes clear from other Churches (in the history that has been given to us) which have in a similar manner got smaller. In the Word (Bible) those who remain are called “the Remnant’ and ‘that which is left‘, and indeed people ‘in the midst (or the middle) of the land‘.

What applies in general applies in particular also (what it means in the big picture it also means in the close-up picture); that is, what is true of the Church is equally true of individuals (what happens in a group of people also happens in one person). If the Lord did not preserve “remnants” (spiritual growth in the born-again Christian that has made progress toward heaven) with each individual (one person) he would inevitably perish in eternal death, for those “remnants” contain spiritual and celestial life (that they will take with them when they enter into the Lord’s heaven after the world). The same applies to what is general or universal (the great big picture); were there not always some people among whom the Church, or true faith, existed (there always needs to be people who are true worshipers in the world), the human race would perish (if there is no true worshipers in the world but a corrupted people, there is no Spirit of God in the world for light cannot have fellowship with the darkness). For as is well known, a city, even a whole kingdom, is preserved for the sake of a few (read the story of Abraham who negotiated with God in Genesis 18:16-33). These factors are akin (much like) to the heart in man: as long as the heart is sound the surrounding organs can go on living (if a person in the world is not living well in the body he will die sooner, this is true also of spiritual life in the church). But when it is weak, deterioration sets into them all and the person dies. Final “remnants” are meant by “Noah“, for with the exception of these, as is clear from verse 12 of the next chapter, “the whole earth was corrupt“. (the spiritual life of nearly every person on earth was corrupt just before the big flood except for Noah and his family)

The “remnants” residing with the individual or within the Church are frequently the subject in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,

“He who remains in Zion, and he who is left in Jerusalem will be called holy to Him, everyone who has been written for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord will have washed the filth of the daughters of Zion and washed away the blood of Jerusalem from its midst” (Isaiah 4:3-4)

Here holiness is attributed (given to) to the “remnants“, which mean “remnants” of the Church, and also of the member of the Church, for those left in “Zion” and in “Jerusalem” could not be holy people merely because they had been left there.

Similarly in the same prophet,

“On that day, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob that escaped will no more lean on him that smote them; but they will lean upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the God of power” (Isaiah 10:20)

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If we examine our Christian Holy Bible this same process took place several more times and the same process is occurring today as we approach the second coming of Jesus Christ the Lord. The Catholic Christian religion which blankets vast regions of the earth proclaims the Pope is the representative of Christ on earth and that their clergy can forgive sins. The Protestant Christian religion proclaims that once you confess repentance and turn away from your sins they are forgiven forever through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Both of these doctrines are grave errors and unacceptable. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord of heaven and earth is now forming a remnant church on the earth.