It was seen above, n. 73, that the successive stages of decline and corruption of the Christian Church are foretold and described by the Lord in the 24th chapter of Matthew. There, also, after having spoken of false prophets that should arise, and of the abomination of desolation wrought by them, verses 11 and 15, He says:

Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matt. xxiv 21.

From this it is evident that by great affliction, in this and in other places in the Word, is meant the infestation of truth by falsities until there remains no genuine truth drawn from the Word which is not falsified, and so consummated. This has come to pass because the Churches have not acknowledged the Unity of God in the Trinity, and His Trinity in Unity, in one Person, but in three; hence they have founded a Church in the mind upon the idea of three Gods, and in the mouth upon the confession of one God. By so doing they have separated themselves from the Lord, and at length to such a degree that they have no idea left of the Divinity in His Human Nature (see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 249); when yet the Lord, as to His Human, is Divine Truth itself, and Divine Light itself, as He abundantly teaches in His Word. From this comes the great affliction so prevalent at this day; which, as will be seen in the following pages, has been brought about principally by the doctrine of justification and of imputation through the medium of faith alone.