Tom smiled. "Even Kim at school in New York?"  Pete nodded.  "Hey, Dude -- congrats!  We'll be doing something in the evening for Father's Day tomorrow.  We'll be staying late at church for a celebration."

"Yeah? What are you celebrating?" Pete asked.

"New Church Day."

“What’s that?”

“Well, it’s a celebration of the birthday of our church: June 19, 1770."

"Really? I didn’t know your church had a specific start day. I’d love to hear that story.”

Sandwiches arrived, and the men dug in.

“OK," Tom began between bites. "Here’s the story. 1770 was late in Swedenborg’s life; he died in 1772. He had just finished writing his 2-volume True Christianity. He was told that the Second Coming happened in heaven that day.” 

"Oh, come on! 2nd Coming! I know my church is pretty fundamentalist from your perspective. We have really clear doctrine on the 2nd Coming. Jesus will come back to earth and there will be a final judgment with the believers going the heaven. Others will be left behind – like in those books."

"Well, that is the traditional Christian approach, of course; Swedenborg was quite adamant that it was wrong.”  
 Tom pulled out his Kindle, on which had all of the books of Swedenborg's writing.  Pete was impressed.  "Hey, a Kindle!  I'm hoping my kids are giving me a Kindle Fire tomorrow!  

The prevailing opinion in the churches at the present day is, that when the Lord shall come for the last judgment, He will appear in the clouds of heaven with angels and the sound of trumpets; will gather together all who still dwell on the earth, together with all who have died; will separate the wicked from the good, as a shepherd separates the goats from the sheep; will then cast the wicked or the goats into hell, and will raise the good or the sheep into heaven; and at the same time will create a new visible heaven and a new habitable earth, and will send down upon that earth the city called the New Jerusalem,; …also that into that city will be gathered all the elect, both those who are still alive and those who have died since the beginning of the world; that these will then return into their bodies, and in that magnificent city, as their heaven, will enjoy eternal blessedness. This is the prevailing opinion in the Christian churches of today respecting the Lord's coming and the last judgment.{True Christian Religion, #768]

"That’s so different from my tradition. I was raised that the Second Coming is where only true Christians are saved. Everyone else is ‘left behind."

"I know. That’s what made Swedenborg so different. He rejected some of the basic concepts of Christianity; and said that being saved isn’t about belief – it’s about how we live our lives day by day."

In Martin Luther King’s 'I Have a Dream' speech he says: 'It’s alright to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preacher must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee.'  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s concept of the New Jerusalem is similar to Swedenborg’s. It is not something for us to dream about in the future; it is something for us to create now in this world.  Longing for the New Jerusalem is the theme of many African-American spirituals such as “Gonna put on those golden shoes down by the riverside.” Rossing asks where that river side is, and answers her own question: “For slaves, the New Jerusalem vision gave hope for freedom even in this life, for a riverside not just in heaven but experienced also as a very real river in their lives that could be crossed to freedom, here and now. They found a glimpse of the riverside of God in the geography of their place. That crossing between the two worlds is key to God’s New Jerusalem for us as well.' [165].  The Second coming is about living NOW and changing our world NOW; not about preparing to snatched off the earth. Swedenborg is all about living in the here and now; not preparing for some judgment and 2nd coming."