DP 327, 328 - Why Religion Perishes

DP 327

The person himself is at fault if he is not saved.

The reason for the adoption of evil . . .
to the point that religion finally perishes --
this we shall state under the following series of headings:

1.  Every religion in the course of time declines
and comes to an end.

2.  Every religion declines and comes to and end
by the inversion of the image of God in mankind.

3.  The results from continual increases in hereditary evil
through the generations.

4.  The Lord nevertheless provides that it be possible
for everyone to be saved.

5.  He also provides that a new church follow
in place of the earlier, devastated one.

DP 328 [5-6]

God alone is love and wisdom.
Man was created to be a recipient vessel of both --
his will to be the recipient vessel
of Divine love,
and his intellect to be the recipient vessel
of Divine wisdom.
These two vessels are . . . in man from creation
and are what make him human,
and are also formed in everyone in the womb.
The human being is therefore an image of God
in his being a recipient of Divine wisdom,
and a likeness of God
in his being a recipient of Divine love.
Consequently the recipient vessel
called the intellect is an image of God,
and the recipient vessel
called the will a likeness of God.
Because the human being
was created and formed to be a recipient vessel,
it follows then that he was so created and formed
that his will might receive love from God
and that his intellect might receive wisdom from God.
And a person also receives these
when he acknowledges God
and lives according to His commandments,
but in a lesser or greater degree
according to the knowledge of God he has from religion
and knowledge of His commandments,
and according therefore to his knowledge of truths.
For truths teach what God is
and how He is to be acknowledged,
and also what His commandments are
and how one is to live according to them.

The image of God and likeness of God
are not lost in mankind, but only seemingly so.
For they remain implanted in his two faculties
called freedom and rationality . . ..
They became seemingly lost
when mankind made the recipient vessel of Divine love,
his will, a recipient vessel of self-love,
and the recipient vessel of Divine wisdom, his intellect,
a recipient vessel of his own intelligence.
In so doing he inverted the image and likeness of God,
for he turned these recipient vessels away from God
and directed them toward himself.
It is because of this
that these recipient vessels
are closed above and open below,
or are closed in front and open behind,
even though from creation
they were open in front and closed behind.
And when their opening and closing are thus reversed,
then the recipient vessel of love, or the will,
receives influx from hell or from its own native self,
and so, too,
the recipient vessel of wisdom, or the intellect.
For this reason there arose in the churches
a worship of people instead of a worship of God,
and a worship founded on teachings of falsities
instead of a worship founded on teachings of truth,
the first owing to people's self-love,
and the latter to a conceit in their own intelligence.

It is apparent from this
that religion in the course of time declines
and comes to an end
by an inversion of the image of God in mankind.