The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma, usually referred to as the Lord's New Church, is an international,
Christian church
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...
based on the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
, and the theological writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mysticism, mystic. He became best known for his book on the ...
, which its members view as the Third Testament.
It was founded in 1937 by former members of the
General Church of the New Jerusalem, also a
Swedenborgian
The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) can refer to any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed under the influence of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). The Swedenborgian tradition is considered to ...
church, after a doctrinal dispute led to the ousting of Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer of The Hague Society, a branch of the General Church located in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
Headquartered in
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S., the Church maintains an international congregation, with ministries or societies in Africa, Europe, and the United States, and has a total membership of approximately 1,500.
History
The Church was founded in 1937, under the principal leadership of Rev.
Theodore Pitcairn (son of
PPG Industries
PPG Industries, Inc. is an American Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company and global supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. By ...
founder
John Pitcairn) and the Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer of The Hague Society in the Netherlands, by former members of the
General Church of the New Jerusalem who had left as a result of a doctrinal dispute.
The dispute in question centered on theological ideas proposed by a Dutch layman, H. D. G. Groeneveld, in ''De Hemelsche Leer'' (The Celestial Doctrine), a Dutch periodical started by Pfeiffer in 1929. Emanuel Swedenborg, whose writings compose the distinctive body of material used by the General Church, had proposed the idea that the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
had, in addition to its intended material meaning, a spiritual meaning that had been revealed through the communications between Swedenborg and the angelic realm. The General Church placed paramount authority on the writings of Swedenborg, but Groeneveld went beyond this; he proposed that Swedenborg's theological writings themselves were nothing less than a Third Testament, and thus, according to Swedenborg's ideas, must also have an inner, spiritual meaning.
In the United States, Pitcairn emerged as an early proponent of Groeneveld's perspective. In 1927, he wrote a short book entitled ''The Book Sealed with Seven Seals'' to introduce the idea to the American church.
In the 1930s, first the leadership of the General Church, and later, its Council of the Clergy, rejected the leading theses propounded in ''De Hemelsche Leer''. Rev. Pfeiffer, whose Hague Society supported the periodical, was thus ordered to stop publication. When he refused, he was forced, in 1937, to leave the General Church by its leading Bishop, the Rev. George de Charms. This led other leading adherents of the theses, including Pitcairn, to resign that year as well. That same year, Pitcairn, Pfeiffer, and others proceeded to establish the ''Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma'', centered in
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, and
The Hague, The Netherlands.
Hierosolyma is a Hellenized pronunciation of a Hebrew word for Jerusalem.
In 1939, Rev. Pitcairn established a non-profit corporation for the purposes of promoting and maintaining the new church.
The events of the Second World War delayed formalization of the new Church's organization. Finally, in March 1947, the Church's international governmental structure was drawn up by a provisional international council composed of the laymen Groeneveld and Anton Zelling, and the Revs. Pfeiffer, Pitcairn, and Philip N. Odhner, and approved by Church members in America and Holland later that year.
Teachings and practices
The Church is a branch of what is commonly called the "New Church" or the "Swedenborgian Church",
and is a post-Reformation form of Christianity that bases its
teachings on the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
(written in Hebrew), the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
(written in Greek), and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (written in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
), the last of which is referred to as the ''Latin Word''. The Lord's New Church differs from the General Church, as its parent denomination is commonly called, and from other Swedenborgian branches, in that the former's members view Swedenborg's theological writings as a Third Testament.
The Three Essentials
The Church propounds three essential theological principles:
# The acknowledgment of the Lord
Jesus Christ
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
in His Divine Human as the one only God of
Heaven
Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
and Earth, in Whom is the
Divine Trinity.
# The acknowledgment of the Word of the Lord in its three Testaments, the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, the
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
, and the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which are the Third Testament. In this Third Testament the Lord has fulfilled His
Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...
, and all the Divine Truth of His Divine Human from firsts to lasts is present therein in fullness, holiness and power. What is said in this Testament concerning the Sacred Scripture or Word applies also to itself.
# The life of faith, charity and love into the Lord that is of Heaven, being the Divine essence of eternal life in man and in the Church.
The Principles of Doctrine
The Church also identifies three 'Principles of Doctrine':
# It is not the Word that makes the Church, but the understanding of it. The Church is according to its Doctrine and the Doctrine is out of the Word. However the Doctrine does not instaurate the Church, but the integrity and purity of the Doctrine, consequently the understanding (intellectus) of the Word.
# The Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial origin not out of rational origin.
# The Third Testament without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read that Testament without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves Doctrine out of the Third Testament, are in darkness as to all Truth.
Church structure and organization
The Church is essentially organized as an
episcopal polity
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ''*ebiscopus''/''*biscopus'', . It is the ...
, a form of
church governance which is hierarchical in structure, and in which the chief authority over a local Christian church rests with a bishop. The external governmental structure of the Church is based upon a portion of Swedenborg's writings that describes a 'circle of life' composed of a 'descending line' and an 'ascending line'; the priesthood corresponds to the former and the laity to the latter.
Headquartered in
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S., the Church has ministries or "societies" in Africa, Europe, and the United States. It has a worldwide membership of approximately 1500,
with the majority of these residing in southern Africa.
The Church operates two primary schools and one secondary school in Lesotho, Africa.
[thelordsnewchurch.org/lesotho]
The headquarters of the church, with its main church building, are located adjacent to the Pennypack preserve, west of the
Pennypack Creek and the creek road trail.
The Church is supported by a non-profit corporation of the same name.
References
External links
Website of The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma- An English translation of extracts of the original Dutch publication
{{Swedenborgianism
Swedenborgianism
Swedenborgian churches
Christian organizations established in 1937
Nontrinitarian denominations
Swedenborgian denominations
1937 establishments in the Netherlands