Love Learn Serve: Recent Episodes
SwedenborgCommunityVictoria
Our Mission is to promote and facilitate personal and community growth by developing lives of useful service to towards God, the Divine Creator, and others in accordance with biblical teaching as understood through the spiritual writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772). Our Vision is to be part of a growing community in Victoria of spiritual believers seeking to serve God, the Divine Creator, through a deepening understanding of God’s love and care for everyone and by sharing spiritual principles in an open and non-judgmental way to foster a supportive environment to facilitate the spiritual journey.
12:29 Recognition: Hearing Your Name Called14:25 Jesus as a Path, Not a Border Guard16:30 Your Invitation to the GardenHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
or trying to find your way through a storm, this perspective offers a way to move forward without having to check your integrity at the door.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction to the Book of Job01:31 Job's Three Friends04:20 Why Is Job Restored?06:56 The Spiritual Significance10:23 Meeting the Lord in the Whirlwind#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #BookOfJob, #DivineProvidence, #Swedenborg, #FaithDeconstruction, #SpiritualTrauma, #Healing
in all our imperfections12:04 - Final encouragement to become better people#Exvangelical #Deconstruction #Swedenborg #ReligiousTrauma #Hagar #ElRoi #SpiritualGrowth #BibleStudy #FaithTransition
Zechariah 9)This episode reflects on John’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, noting that only John mentions palm branches and their strong nationalistic, political, and religious associations. Comparing the gospel accounts, it highlights how the disciples didn’t understand these events until after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and connects John 12 to Zechariah 9’s image of a king on a donkey alongside vivid language about conflict, blood, and conquest—raising the question of whether people’s hoped-for “salvation” can simply become trading one tyrant for another. The message challenges modern expectations of Jesus returning as an earthly king to fix external problems and argues that Jesus instead comes to rule hearts and transform inner character, calling people to live his commands—love, forgiveness, generosity, and letting go of judgment—so real change can emerge in the world.Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org 00:00 Coming Up00:23 Introduction: John's Account of Palm Sunday00:45 The Symbolism of Palm Branches02:18 Zechariah's Vision: A Different Kind of Salvation?03:04 Trading One Tyrant for Another05:03 Jesus: Not the King They Expected07:39 The Lord's True Kingship: Ruling Our Hearts10:38 Closing: Invitation for the Week Ahead#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #discoverswedenborg, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #religion, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #deconstructingchristian, #deconstructingchristianity, #exvangelical, #bible, #deconstruction, #faithdeconstruction
for the spiritually curious and the deconstructing. Hosted by David, a Swedenborgian minister and musician, this channel offers a rational, non-judgmental space to explore the deep spiritual insights of Emanuel Swedenborg as a toolkit for reconstruction and healing.Connect with us: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #ReligiousTrauma, #HealingFromFaith, #SpiritualJourney, #GodIsLove, #Swedenborg, #FaithDeconstruction, #ProgressiveChristianity, #DivineLove, #SpiritualFreedom, #JacobAndEsau
?#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #Genesis22, #BindingOfIsaac, #ReligiousTrauma, #Swedenborg, #PostEvangelical, #FaithDeconstruction, #RationalFaith, #GodIsLove
Entropy, Adaptation, and Faith: Rethinking Suffering Through JobDavid explores why God allows suffering by reframing the question through entropy - the natural tendency of systems toward disorder - seen in everyday energy loss, wear, aging, and death. He argues that suffering is inherent in a physical world and ask instead why life exists at all, noting life’s dependence on entropy-driven processes like osmosis and the universe’s trajectory toward “heat death.”Drawing on physicist and rabbi Jeremy England, he describes life as matter responding to an external drive, using examples like a whirlpool, immune adaptation, and muscle growth through micro-tears, and warn that systems can become “brittle” and shatter when conditions change. We connect this to Jeremiah’s potter, Swedenborg’s divine influx and spiritual friction, and the story of Job as a symbolic account of breakdown and rebuilding, extending the idea to churches and organizations trapped in rigid patterns, and concluding with Adam Fraser’s “third space” practice of reflect, rest, and reset as a purpose of church.Chapters:00:00 Introduction: The Question of Suffering01:02 What is Entropy?03:30 Entropy and Life05:45 Jeremy England and Dissipative Adaptation10:11 The Potter and the Clay11:58 Swedenborg and Spiritual Influx13:00 The Story of Job17:23 The Third Space: Reflect, Rest, ResetHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #discoverswedenborg, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #religion, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #deconstructingchristian, #deconstructingchristianity, #exvangelical, #bible, #deconstruction, #faithdeconstruction, #spiritualtrauma, #religioustrauma, #churchhurt, #punitiveGod, #God'swrath, #Godislove, #DivineLoveandWisdom, #EmanuelSwedenborg, Swedenborgian, #spiritualgrowth
humble? Let’s talk about it below.#exvangelical #deconstruction #religioustrauma #swedenborg #faithreconstruction #spirituality
is often just the uncovering of our own choices.It’s time to move on from fear. Let’s explore how to read these ancient texts as tools for spiritual course correction, not weapons of fear.Chapters:00:00 Introduction to Prophecy00:37 Understanding Biblical Prophecy02:19 The Role of Prophecy in Spiritual Life04:02 Prophecy as a Warning System04:48 Lessons from Biblical Stories06:18 The Symbolism of Babylon08:29 Self-Examination and Divine Truth#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #Swedenborg, #SpiritualAgency, #Prophecy
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #Friendship, #SpiritualGrowth, #EmanuelSwedenborg, #Conscience, #AuthenticConnection
Your Responsibility (Conclusion)#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #discoverswedenborg, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #religion, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #deconstructingchristian, #deconstructingchristianity, #exvangelical, #bible, #deconstruction, #faithdeconstruction, #spiritualtrauma, #religioustrauma, #churchhurt, #punitiveGod, #God'swrath, #Godislove, #DivineLoveandWisdom, #EmanuelSwedenborg, Swedenborgian, #spiritualgrowth, #healingfaith, #rethinkingGod, #progressiveChristianity, #spiritualseeker, #meaningofsuffering, #whybadthingshappen, #divinegoodness, #God'scompassion, #spiritualawakening, #exvangelical, #deconstruction, #job19, #religioustrauma, #spiritualabuse, #myangerwasacage, #faithcrisis, #externalvalidation
15:20 - A Glimmer of Hope16:38 - Teaser for Part 2: Finding the Key#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #AngerAtGod, #SpiritualTrauma, #Psalm89, #FaithCrisis, #ChurchHurt, #SpiritualBypassing
Have you ever felt like you were drowning in doubt? The feeling of having no solid ground beneath you is a core experience of faith deconstruction, and it's a feeling captured perfectly in Psalm 69. For centuries, we've been told to believe in a God who requires blood sacrifice and punishes those who question. But what if that's not the whole story?In this talk, we dive into the deep waters of Psalm 69 and show how its themes of betrayal and suffering are mirrored in the story of a very unlikely prophet: Jonah. But we're not just here to talk about a Bible story. We're here to talk about you. We'll explore how Jonah's decision to run wasn't an act of disobedience, but an act of denial—and how his spiritual journey can teach us about our own.Join us as we challenge traditional views on Jesus' resurrection, reframing it not as an act of appeasement, but as a promise that a spiritual rebirth is possible, even after the death of your old faith. This isn't about guaranteed salvation; it's about reclaiming a purpose-filled life. It’s about leaving behind a natural-level faith of judgment and control and finding a deeper, more authentic spiritual foundation.00:00 Introduction to Psalm 69 and Its Messianic Connections01:22 Jonah's Connection to Psalm 6901:59 The Sign of Jonah and Jesus' Resurrection02:32 Jonah's Mission and Its Implications03:56 Jesus' Resurrection: A Different Perspective05:13 Jonah's Embodiment of Israel's Errors07:12 Natural vs. Spiritual Life09:59 The Spiritual Life: Beyond Natural Tendencies13:58 Invitation to Reflect on Psalm 69, Luke 11, and JonahHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
We dive deep into the true meaning of the word 'spiritual' and how it's often misunderstood. We explore how the term should be used to describe something that relates to the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. By revisiting traditional concepts such as the 'spiritual person', 'spiritual experience', and 'spiritual awakening', we aim to dispel common misconceptions and rebuild a more accurate understanding. We emphasize that being spiritual is not tied to any specific job or supernatural experience, but rather to one's internal motivations and reflected actions. We also discuss Swedenborg's insights on 'spiritual experiences', where the inner nature of an individual is reflected in their environment, and how true spiritual awakening involves personal transformation and the pursuit of a life of love and service. This talk seeks to offer a renewed perspective for those who may have been hurt by traditional religious interpretations.00:00 Introduction: Misunderstood Words01:26 Defining 'Spiritual'07:29 The Spiritual Experience14:02 Spiritual Awakening16:49 Practical Applications of Spirituality20:54 Final Thoughts and Teachings of JesusI mentioned Howard Thompson's video - part of his ongoing series on the book Heaven and Hell - entitled, "Each of Us is Inwardly a Spirit". You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kke3XdSh3ks Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #Reclaiming, #Spiritual, #Superficial, #Supernatural, #Authenticity, #Hypocrisy, #ReligiousTrauma, #Spirituality, #InnerWorld, #OuterWorld, #EmanuelSwedenborg, #Swedenborgian, #Christianity, #FaithDeconstruction, #SpiritualAbuse, #Healing, #NewAge
In this track, we'll explore a radical idea: that the pain of deconstruction isn't a sign of failure, but a necessary step toward genuine healing. Drawing on a surprising historical reframe and the spiritual insights of Emanuel Swedenborg, we'll redefine the salt of our pain and learn to see it as a catalyst for a deeper spiritual life.Join us as we explore: The common experience of "salt in the wound" in evangelicalism. Why the truth can feel like torment, and how to tell the difference.* How to find healing by choosing a path of spiritual regeneration.This is a track for anyone who is ready to move beyond their pain and begin a journey of true spiritual growth.Looking for more?Visit our website to learn more about the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg and find resources for your own spiritual journey: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auFollow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 00:00 Introduction to the Concept of Salt00:09 Origins of 'Rubbing Salt into the Wound'01:15 Salt as a Symbol of Healing and Truth03:05 The Church's Misuse of Truth03:56 The Inner Process of Healing07:07 Reflecting on Personal Growth and Pain08:16 Challenge for the Week Ahead#exvangelical, #deconstruction, #religioustrauma, #spiritualabuse, #churchhurt, #leavingthechurch, #spiritualhealing, #deconstructingchristianity, #swedenborg, #regeneration, #spiritualgrowth, #post-evangelical, #painisapathtohealing, #spiritualrebirth
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Did the idea of "Judgment Day" fill you with dread, guilt, or fear? For many of us who grew up in evangelical or fundamentalist traditions, the concept of divine judgment has been a source of deep spiritual trauma, painting a picture of an angry God ready to condemn.But what if everything you were taught about judgment was missing the most important piece?In this video, we'll dive into the liberating insights of 18th-century scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, who offers a radically different and profoundly healing understanding of divine judgment. You'll discover that:God is Pure Love, Not Wrath: Swedenborg reveals a God who is Divine Love and Wisdom itself, incapable of anger, punishment, or condemnation. This fundamentally shifts the entire conversation around judgment.Judgment is Internal, Not External: We'll explore how judgment isn't something God does to us, but rather a natural process of self-alignment based on what we truly love deep in our hearts. Heaven and hell are not arbitrary punishments or rewards, but self-chosen states of being that perfectly reflect our dominant affections.Your Life is Your Judgment: Learn why "the books out of which the dead are judged" aren't a literal ledger, but rather the very essence of our lives and intentions. Every choice, every love cultivated, contributes to our spiritual destiny.Liberation from Fear: This understanding frees us from the paralyzing anxiety of judgment, allowing us to pursue genuine spiritual growth and authenticity, not out of fear, but out of a desire for genuine peace and connection.If you're an exvangelical or deconstructing Christian seeking to heal from religious trauma and find a more loving, rational, and empowering understanding of spirituality, this video is for you. Join us to redefine "judgment" and reclaim your spiritual freedom.Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #ReligiousTrauma, #SpiritualFreedom, #Swedenborg, #DivineLove, #Judgment, #ChristianDeconstruction, #HealingReligiousTrauma, #PostEvangelical, #NewSpirituality
Join us as we explore Psalm 102, an ancient prayer of profound suffering, and discover how its raw emotions echo the modern journey of faith deconstruction. Many leaving evangelicalism struggle with the image of a distant, punitive God, the fear of judgment, and the pain of religious trauma. The Psalmist's lament about God's 'indignation and wrath' can be deeply triggering for those who have experienced such fear in their faith.In this talk, we dive into:The progression from a 'shrunken, anxious world' (verses 1-11) to a 'wider perspective' and glimmer of hope (verses 12-22).How voices like C.J. Cornthwaite, Jim Palmer, Rob Bell, and Kristi Burke articulate the struggles with traditional theology and church experiences.Emanuel Swedenborg's liberating insights: Discovering God as pure Divine Love and Wisdom—incapable of anger or punishment—and understanding how hell is a chosen state, not divine retribution.The crucial distinction between our 'words' for God and the 'meaning' we seek, and how embracing a spiritual understanding can bring profound comfort.Finding peace with God, not just peace from God.Moving beyond deconstruction towards a meaningful reconstruction of faith, grounded in love, compassion, and authentic living.This message offers a compassionate lens for those healing from religious hurt and seeking a deeper, more loving understanding of the Divine. Whether you're actively deconstructing, curious about alternative Christian perspectives, or simply seeking a more expansive view of God, this video is for you.🔔 Subscribe for more thoughtful discussions on faith, spirituality, and Swedenborg's insights.👍 If this message resonated with your journey, please give it a like!💬 Share your thoughts: How has your understanding of God shifted?#Exvangelical, #Deconstruction, #ReligiousTrauma, #Psalm102, #DivineLove, #Swedenborg, #GodIsLove, #SpiritualHealing, #PostEvangelical, #FaithJourney, #RethinkingGod, #ChristianDeconstruction, #UnconditionalLove,
Reading Emanuel Swedenborg's Conjugial Love for yourself - we shared paragraph 1 and part of paragraph 2 today - https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/conjugial-love-rogers/Exploring HeavenIn this episode, we delve into Swedenborg's teachings on heaven, particularly from his book 'Conjugial Love.' We explore his descriptions of various groups' misconceptions about heaven and the lessons learned from their experiences. Swedenborg emphasises that true heaven is a state of being ratherg than a physical place, which is all about love, wisdom, service. The episode also discusses how living a heavenly life begins in this world and connects to cognitive psychology's "Fundamental attribution error", encouraging a more charitable perception of others.00:00 Introduction to Swedenborg's Concept of Heaven00:50 Exploring Different Perspectives on Heaven05:26 Analyzing the Groups' Experiences of Heaven10:52 Lessons from the Groups' Experiences11:48 Applying Heaven's Principles in Daily Life13:34 The Importance of Positive Attribution16:40 Challenge for the Week: Practicing Positive AttributionHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #melbourne, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #heaven, #lifeafterdeath, #spiritualworld, #misconceptions,
Divided We Stand? Exploring Tensions and TogethernessUnderstanding Heresy: Its Roots, Implications, and Modern RelevanceWant exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 This episode explores the concept of 'heresy,' tracing its Greek origins and usage in the Bible. The discussion highlights the different contexts in which 'heresy' appears in scriptures, such as sects and factions and contrasts works of the flesh with the fruits of the spirit. The speaker reflects on modern divisions within Christianity and society, emphasizing the need for unity, charity, and understanding despite differing opinions. The episode also delves into the writings of Swedenborg, illustrating how heresies arise from focusing too narrowly on specific beliefs. Listeners are encouraged to promote reconciliation and love over discord.00:00 Introduction to Heresy01:38 Biblical References to Heresy03:54 Paul's Teachings on Division06:32 Modern Implications of Heresy07:04 Swedenborg's Perspective on Heresy08:29 Community and Individual Responsibility13:13 Spiritual Principles and Historical Examples14:52 Living with Differences16:24 The Power of ReconciliationHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #heresy, #division, #factions, #sect, #heresies,
Breaking Tradition: Exploring Unseen Spiritual TruthsWant exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 The Importance of Rules: Understanding Their Role in Games, Life, and SpiritualityIn this episode, we delve into the significance of rules in various aspects of life, starting from a simple game called 'Barrel of Monkeys' to more essential societal and spiritual laws. Through interactive demonstrations and thoughtful discussions, we explore how rules shape our interactions, ensure safety, and guide moral behavior. We also reflect on Biblical teachings and their deeper, spiritual meanings, emphasizing how embodying these principles can lead to a more harmonious and fulfilling life.00:00 Introduction to Rules and Games00:19 How to Play Barrel of Monkeys05:34 The Importance of Rules in Games06:07 Rules in Everyday Life07:48 Unspoken Rules of Friendship12:47 Spiritual and Moral Rules22:41 Conclusion and ReflectionReadings from the Bible that will help you explore this subject - Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Luke 10: 25-37; Romans 2:12-14, 28, 29Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #melbourne, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #oldtestament, #law, #oldtestamentlaw, #sacrifice, #sacrifices,
Understanding Spiritual Life through Psalm 34We delve into Psalm 34 and discuss the true meaning of a spiritual life. We explore the distinction between intellectual acceptance of religious facts and the deeper qualities that constitute a spiritual life, such as love, joy, peace, kindness, and self-control. We also examine the messianic elements in Psalm 34, the significance of the name 'Abimelech,' and how spiritual truths can be misjudged through a purely rational perspective. Finally, we discuss applying spiritual principles in our daily lives and experiencing the transformative power of practicing charity, humility, and forgiveness.00:00 Introduction to Spiritual Life01:46 Exploring Psalm 3404:00 Literal vs. Spiritual Interpretation06:42 Faith and Rationality10:12 Living the Spiritual Life15:00 Conclusion: Practice and ReflectionWhy not join us IN PERSON? At 3/20 Duerdin Street, Clayton VIC 3168, 10:30am on most SundaysHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #atheist, #atheism, #heaven, #psalm, #psalms, #psalm34, #messianicpsalms,
Identifying False Teachers: Insights from 1 Timothy Chapter 6Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auIn this video, we delve into the message of 1 Timothy Chapter 6 to explore the characteristics that define false teachers. We examine why teaching for worldly gain rather than spiritual truth is a key indicator of falsehood. Referencing a Bible page from GotQuestions.org, we consider three specific tests to identify a false teacher: their teachings about Jesus, their presentation of the gospel, and their character. Emphasizing the importance of humility, honesty, and intellectual integrity, we discuss how to sift through modern information and identify trustworthy sources. Finally, we reflect on the relevance of Paul's warnings in today's digital age and the importance of presenting truth with genuine intent.00:00 Introduction to 1 Timothy Chapter 600:30 Identifying False Teachers02:02 The Importance of Character in Teaching06:29 Modern Relevance of 1 Timothy07:49 Guidelines for Evaluating Information10:51 Self-Reflection and Humility in TeachingRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #teaching, #teacher, #teachers, #falseteacher, #falseteachers, #gospel, #jesus
Palm Sunday: Embracing Divine Truth and Self-ReflectionThis episode explores the dual responses to Jesus' triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, focusing on the welcoming children and the rejecting religious authorities. It delves into the internal and external aspects of Christian faith, highlighting the story's application to our lives. The episode emphasizes the importance of internalizing divine truth, reflecting on Psalm 8's concept of 'visit,' and understanding its implications of care, judgment, and transformation. By recognizing and embracing uncomfortable truths, believers can undergo a transformative journey towards a brighter future.00:00 Introduction to Psalm Eight and Palm Sunday00:11 Contrasting Responses to Jesus' Entry00:44 External vs. Internal Religious Focus02:51 Understanding the Call of Christianity04:35 The Deeper Meaning of 'Visit' in Psalm Eight06:19 Parables and Judgment07:32 Welcoming Divine Truth08:42 Reflecting on Our Own Responses10:27 Transformation Through Embracing the LightWant exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Read Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #swedenborgmelbourne, #religion, #spirituality, #christianity, #bible, #charity, #spiritualjourney, #deepermeaning, #exvangelical, #deconstructingchristianity, #deconstructing, #psalms, #messianicpsalms
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Understanding Charity: Intentions vs. Actions in Swedenborg's TeachingsIn this episode, we explore the misunderstood concepts of 'charity' and 'goodness' as taught by Swedenborg and the New Church. We clarify that true charity is not about good works or actions, but rather the internal quality of good intentions and goodwill towards others. Using examples from daily life and theological teachings, we delve into the deeper spiritual principles that should guide our actions. The discussion also includes insights from Deuteronomy, highlighting the importance of joyful generosity and the enduring need for divine guidance in embodying goodness and truth.00:00 Understanding Misunderstood Words: Charity01:14 The True Meaning of 'Good'02:23 Intention Behind Actions04:46 Teachings of the Church on Goodness05:45 Charity as an Internal Quality07:19 Biblical Insights on Charity10:30 Inner States and Spiritual PrinciplesRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #swedenborgmelbourne, #religion, #spirituality, #christianity, #bible, #spiritualjourney, #deepermeaning, #exvangelical, #deconstructingchristianity, #deconstructing,
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic In this video, we explore the differing uses and meanings of the word 'fear' in Biblical scriptures, particularly in Psalm 118. We delve into its Hebrew origins, distinguishing between 'fear' as being afraid and 'fear' as reverence or awe. We analyze various verses to identify the contextual meaning, discuss the importance of understanding verb tenses in the text, and examine the metaphorical significance of 'corners' as a foundation in both Biblical teachings and historical structures.00:00 Introduction to the Concept of Fear00:38 Different Meanings of Fear in Hebrew01:50 Examples of Fear in Scripture06:51 Discussion on Perfect and Imperfect Tenses13:57 The Significance of Corners in Scripture17:03 Concluding Thoughts and ReflectionsOur website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #heaven, #fear, #reverence, #imperfections, #temptation,
Understanding Spiritual Corners: Lessons from Swedenborg and ScriptureIn this episode, we delve into the concept of 'cutting corners' and examine the significance of corners both physically and spiritually. Drawing on the teachings of Swedenborg and biblical passages, the discussion explores the idea of 'ultimates,' or the most external expressions of something. We consider the role of physical acts in religion as cornerstones of faith and discuss the symbolism of tassels on prayer shawls as protective reminders of divine principles. Through stories like the one from the Book of Numbers and the interactions between David and Saul, we reflect on the conflict between natural desires and spiritual principles, emphasising the importance of allowing spiritual teachings to guide our actions for true protection and alignment with divine will.00:00 Introduction to Cutting Corners00:39 Understanding Corners in Religion01:35 Biblical Stories and Their Lessons03:52 The Significance of Tassels and Corners07:46 Spiritual vs. Natural Principles11:37 Applying Spiritual Principles in Daily LifeHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
How many times did Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well”? THREEMatthew 9:22 - woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:34, Luke 8:48)Mark 10:52 - blind man [Bartimaeus] near Jericho (Luke 18:42)Luke 17:19 - the tenth leper [Were the other nine NOT healed?]What’s the common ground?In each case, the person healed had DONE SOMETHING - the belief that Jesus could heal, had caused them to ACT.This is NOT said in the case of EVERY healing:In John 5, the man by the pool, Jesus warns the man not to slip back into old habits (John 5:14), having been in a state of apparent helplessness prior to his healing (John 5:7)Think about the way we use the word, “Believe”“I believe in …” Animal welfare Caring for our environment Free education for all Quaker: “Living simply so others may simply live”“Thought does not save anyone, but the life which [a person] acquires to himself in the world through the [knowledges] of faith. …… from this it becomes clear what faith is, namely that it is charity, for all things that are said to be part of the doctrine of faith lead to charity. ... After the life of the body, the soul is such as its love is.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2228, section 2 & 3)Notice the ACTIVE INTENT here:Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)Notice the WARNING here:“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26-29)From the Faith of the New Church, “Saving faith is to believe in Him”“... people who have faith have conscience as well. Conscience is inseparable from faith, so inseparable in fact that it makes no difference whether you speak of faith or of conscience. By faith is meant faith through which charity comes, and which derives from charity. This being so, it is charity itself, for faith without charity is not faith at all. And just as faith is not possible without charity, neither is conscience possible without it.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2325)“… love and wisdom apart from use are only abstractions of the mind, which fade away unless they are applied to use.” (True Christian Religion, 67)For reflection: What does your faith DEMAND of you?“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
WHAT ARE YOU BLIND TO?Like most men, I’m blind to a certain amount of dustTo the blind man, the VISIONARY is always mad - be it an unrealised future or a notion of spiritual thingsSPIRITUALLY, the question is, what CAN’T BE SEEN?The gift / bribe - as a distraction [Exodus 23:8; Deuteronomy 16:19]“And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.” (Exodus 23:8; see also Deuteronomy 16:19; 1 Samuel 12:3)This give us some idea of what is going on here - we are distracted by things of the natural world, forgetting the principles we are supposed to live by. It’s not that the natural necessarily contradicts the spiritual, but it leaves us blind to the greater and more inclusive reality.This is why …Jesus criticised the scribes and pharisees, calling them “blind guides” [Matthew 23: 16,17,19,24,25; also 15:14]Blindness was a problem for a priest. [Leviticus 21:18; 22:22; Deuteronomy 15:21]How does this play out for us as individuals?We can believe that carrying out certain natural activities (religious rituals) makes us spiritual good. Forgetting there’s a much broader category of activity - extending to attitudes, beliefs, and simple decency.I note that for some the notion of Karma, “doing good”, leads some to announce their works. AND that this gets in the way of doing good itself.Michelle’s Near Death Experience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlXJQirefTQSpeaks about the felt need NOT to look at things …Leads to painkiller and alcohol dependence, as a way of numbing - choosing blindness.Also leads to anxiety and depression as we shut down our emotions attempting to look away from.Like kids who don’t want to look at the monster WE KNOW is under the bed.Speaks about the need to “be right” as an external self-validation because we don’t believe our own true value.[Michelle said] “I closed my eyes to an old reality and opened my eyes to a new reality that I did not even know existed.”“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, WHO or WHAT is the enemy Jesus is said to defeat?“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”“O Death, where is your sting?O Hades, where is your victory?”The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)Referring to: “[The LORD] will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8)“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” (1 John 5:4)Is that VICTORY yet to come? Is it a future promise?NO, it can be a PRESENT REALITYThis world is called the “land of the shadow of death” (Isaiah 9:2 [Matthew 4:6; Luke 1:79]; see also Psalm 23:4; 44:19; 107:10,14; Jeremiah 2:6; 13:16; Amos 5:8)How can we be said to be victorious over death? * Physically, we will all die. I would contend that it is another death that is being spoken of - the SECOND DEATH - spiritual death.“He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” (Revelation 2:11)“Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” (Revelation 20:14; see also 20:6; 21:8)3 things to learn: Conquer your own enemies first - otherwise you will never conquer your external enemies. * Understand that your external enemies function to show your the internal enemies that really need your attention.* Spiritually, NO OTHER PERSON can affect your spiritual destiny, “Do not fear him who kills the body, but cannot destroy the soul.”#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #clayton, #monash, #cityofmonash, #spirituality, #christianity, #deconstructing, #exvangelical, #bible, #atheist, #atheism, #enemy, #enemies, #enemywithin,
The word, “CHURCH” - only 3 uses in the Gospels, in 2 verses: Matt 16:18 & 18:17ecclesia = "called out", an assembly, could be a mob“TEMPLE”:e.g., Jesus clears the templeWhen He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple …Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”But He was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:15, 19-21)We can see the symbolic intent here. Also, Hebrews, chapters 7-10, on the TABERNACLE and its rituals:For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. (Hebrews 10:1, see also 8:4-6; 9:9,11,23,24)And EZEKIEL’s TEMPLE“Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. ...” (Ezekiel 43:10,11)See also Micah 6:8 and Isaiah 1:15-17The church, as found in our teachings… is where good and truth are presentHeavenly Secrets, 3379 - For Churches are not Churches on account of their being called such and of their confessing the Lord's name, but on account of the good and truth of faith that exist in them. Good and truth of faith themselves are what make a Church, indeed they are the Church, for present within the good and truth of faith there is the Lord, and where the Lord is, there is the Church also.Luke 2 - the presentation at the temple. The recognition of the Lord by that which is truly of the church.Simeon and Anna - what is good and true… is where the Lord is present, in what belongs to Him (and the Lord alone is the whole of the church).Heavenly Secrets, 10125 - Not that those people regarded in themselves constitute the Church, only the Lord present with them does so. Nor therefore do the angels regarded in themselves constitute heaven, only the Lord present with them. For the Lord does not dwell in anything that is a person's or an angel's own, only in what is His with them.Heavenly Secrets, 4292 - If the individual person in particular were not the Church, no Church in general could exist. The expression Church is used in everyday language to describe a congregation in general; but each member of the congregation must be a Church if that greater Church is to exist.… is where the Word is.(Owes its existence to the Word, its quality determined by a person’s understanding of the Word.)Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, 78 - The Lord is present with us when we read the Word; but he is united to us only when we understand what is true from the Word and only in proportion to that understanding; and to the extent that the Lord is united to us the church is within us.Charity is its essential quality. Everyone who leads a good life is a churchHeavenly Secrets, 6637.e - everyone who leads a good life, in charity and faith, is a Church, and is a kingdom of the Lord. He is for that reason also called a temple, and a house of God too. Those who are Churches individually, no matter how remote from one another they may be, constitute one Church collectively.From internal things not externalHeavenly Secrets, 4831 - For a Church is not a Church by virtue of its externals, that is, of its religious observances, but by virtue of its internals; for these are the essential realities, the externals merely forms expressing those realities. (and 10436.2)Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org He that complies against his will,Is of his own opinion still.[Samuel Butler (1612-1680): Hudibras]… there is danger in confirming anything by visions with men who are in falsities, for they would first believe and afterwards deny, and this would profane the truth itself (and they would be) cast down into the lowest and most grievous of all the hells. (Heaven and Hell 456, section 3)acknowledgement of the Church's truths and of the Lord leads to contact with the heavens, and consequently to an opening of a person's interiors towards heaven; and a subsequent rejection of them leads to a joining of the same truths to falsities arising from evil. For everything a person acknowledges remains implanted in him; nothing present with a person which has entered through acknowledgement is destroyed.The state of a person with whom profanation exists is one in which he is in contact with the heavens and at the same time with the hells, through truths with the heavens and through the falsities of evil with the hells. As a result of this, in the next life a tearing apart takes place with such people, which destroys the whole of their inner life. (Heavenly Secrets, 10287)With regard to the profanation of truth the position is that Divine Truth cannot possibly be profaned except by those who have already acknowledged it. For these people have first of all, through acknowledgement and faith, come to the truth, and so have been introduced into it. If after this they depart from that truth there remains within them a permanent imprint of it, which is recalled together with falsity and evil whenever these are recalled. And being attached to falsity and evil that truth is consequently made profane. People therefore with whom this happens have within them permanently that which is condemning, and so the hell which is their own. Indeed when those in hell draw near a sphere where good and truth are present they instantly experience their own hell, for they run into that which they hate, and as a consequence into torment. People therefore who have profaned truth dwell permanently with that which torments them - the intensity of torment depending on the degree of profanation. This being so, the Lord makes the greatest provision to prevent Divine Good and Truth being made profane. He does so especially with anyone who is such that he cannot help profaning them, by keeping him as far back as possible from acknowledgement of and faith in truth and good. For as has been stated, no one is able to profane them except him who has already acknowledged and come to believe them. (Heavenly Secrets, 3398, section 2)‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,And seeing you will see and not perceive;For the hearts of this people have grown dull.Their ears are hard of hearing,And their eyes they have closed,Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,So that I should heal them.’ (Matthew 13:14,15 [quoting Isaiah 6:9,10])A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. (Matthew 12:20 [quoting Isaiah 42:3])
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org Why do the nations rage,And the people plot a vain thing?The kings of the earth set themselves,And the rulers take counsel together,Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,“Let us break Their bonds in piecesAnd cast away Their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3)It's easy to project this outward: “Look how bad THEY ARE!!”I must remember that I am part of a NATION, ruled by a “KING OF THE EARTH”BETTER STILL, remember that they manifest IN ME.What do these Nations & Kings of the earth IN Me rage against?“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)Heavenly Secrets, 2034 - After everything (heavenly) with (people) perished, that is, all love to God, so that as a result the will for what is good existed no longer, the human race was separated from the Divine. For nothing other than love effects conjunction, and when love has been reduced to nothing, disjunction has taken place. And when the latter has taken place destruction and annihilation follow. At that point therefore a promise was given concerning the Lord's Coming into the world, who was to unite the Human to the Divine, and by means of this union was to join (to the Divine) the human race that was abiding in Himself through faith grounded in love and charity.But once faith springing from love did not remain any more in the world the Lord came and united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence so that these were completely one, as He Himself states explicitly. At the same time He taught the way of truth to the effect that everyone who believed in Him, that is, who loved Him and what was His, and who abided in His love, which is a love directed towards the entire human race and so towards the neighbour, would be conjoined and thus saved.Once the Human had been made Divine, and the Divine made Human in the Lord, an influx of the Infinite, or the Supreme Divine, took place with (people) which could not possibly have manifested itself in any other way. Also by means of that influx the dreadful false persuasions and the dreadful desires for evil were dispersed with which the world of spirits had been filled and was constantly being filled by souls streaming into it from the world; and those who were actuated by such persuasions and evil desires were cast into hell and so separated. Unless this had been done the human race would have perished, for it is by means of spirits that the Lord rules the human race. …The rod of iron …QUOTED in Revelation 2:27, also …She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. (Revelation 12:5)Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. (Revelation 19:15)AC 4976.9 - 'A stick of iron' stands for the power of spiritual truth within the natural, for all natural truth that has spiritual truth present within it possesses power. 'Iron' means natural truth, 425, 426.And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:15-17)OTHER VIDEOS:Wrath of the Lamb - https://youtu.be/E5xvYIeKRYIThe Wrath of God (Things you can get wrong reading the Bible) - https://youtu.be/9hYcAlBEm7c
COMPARING this beatitude with the last, WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)I particularly want to dwell on verse 12:REJOICE … conveys a sense of inner joy and delight, often in response to God's grace and goodness. EXULT … conveys a sense of exuberant joy and gladness, often expressed physically or emotionally. … not merely an emotional response but a profound, spiritual state of being …The COMMAND to rejoice!“Present Active Imperatives are COMMANDS that are expected to be followed not once, but as an ongoing process.”Is “persecution” only relevant if we have other people actively attacking us for our faith?OR should we “expect and prepare to be persecuted”?OR Should we even go looking for trouble? I know some Christians all too ready to protest perceived hurts, wearing their persecution on their sleeves - a kind of morbid badge of honour!But that runs counter to the Lord’s DIRECT COMMAND!“Rejoice and Exult!” (Matthew 5:12)“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face” (Matthew 6:17)John Stott comments,How did Jesus expect His disciples to react under persecution? “Rejoice and be glad!” We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor sulk like a child, nor lick our wound in self-pity like a dog, nor just grin a bear it like a Stoic, still less pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. What then? We are to rejoice as a Christian should and even “leap for joy” (Lk. 6:23) (https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/persecution-and-suffering-for-jesus-christ/)There is an INTERNAL and an EXTERNAL way to read EVERYTHING in the Word … WHICH IS ESSENTIAL? THE INNER!If Jesus were to come again, THE WHOLE point is that “every knee shall bow” and every heart acknowledge. His coming without that acknowledgement is meaningless. But when every heart follows Him, He doesn’t need to come physically to rule the world.The same is true of persecution.This INNER transformation, transcends whatever happens to be going on in the external world at the time.It MANIFESTS OUTWARDLY in the ability to withstand whatever the external world happens to throw at it.But it is NOT dependent upon the world opposing you.“So they persecuted the prophets” represents REJECTION OF THE WORDOF COURSE they are going to reject you if you follow what they already despise.It is a kind of litmus test of Divine Truth active in one’s life, that you are rejected by those who reject the Word.We see this in Exodus 1 - Massacre of the innocents, not unlike Matthew 2:16-18Swedenborg’s summary:This first chapter deals in the internal sense with the state of the Church which has been established, a state in which good plays the leading part and is made fruitful through the multiplication of the truths of faith. [the multiplication of the Israelites][... and then Pharoah’s opposition …] Then the molestation of those truths by falsities and evils in the natural is dealt with and the fact that through that molestation good was made even more fruitful by means of truths. The subject through to the end of the chapter is that molestation and the stages it passes through as it increases, as well as the resulting instillation and consolidation of truth from good. (Heavenly Secrets, 6634 & 6635)Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
The story of the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas in:Luke 1:26-38Matthew 1:18-25Luke 2:1-7, and Matthew 2:1-12Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org In this session, David discusses Julian Jaynes' theory of the bicameral mind and its relationship with Emanuel Swedenborg's spiritual philosophy. The main focus of the discussion is on Jaynes' ideas presented in his book 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.' Jaynes proposes that ancient humans operated with a bicameral mind, receiving instructions from god-like voices originating from the right hemisphere of the brain, which guided their actions. This bicameral mind eventually transitioned to a conscious mind due to various social and environmental stresses. We move on to relate this theory to Swedenborg's concepts, particularly the proprium (self-consciousness) and correspondences (spiritual symbolism). The talk also speculates on future changes in human consciousness, influenced by technological and social developments. The session concludes with questions and discussions on how aspects of Jaynes' and Swedenborg's theories align and differ.Based upon two books:Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976)Marcel Kuijsten (editor), Gods, Voices and the Bicameral Mind: The theories of Julian Jaynes (Henderson, NV, Julian Jaynes Society, 2016)... and one video:How God Became “I” - Julian Jaynes / Brian McVeigh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1-ivI6QgXQRecorded on Friday 29 November 2024#swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #atheist, #atheism, #deconstructing, #deconstructingchristianity, #bibleashistory, #thebibleashistory, #historicalbible, #jaynes, #julianjaynes, #bicameralmind
Examining Psalm 109Verses 1-5This is regarded as a "Messianic Psalm" - How does it relate to the Lord?The trial of Jesus - Mark 14:53-65Verses 6-20It seems difficult to accept that the psalmist might speak these words about another person!The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (on vv6&ff): “Some hold that these are the psalmist’s words (his prayer against his enemies); others understand them as those of his adversaries quoted by him. The latter is more likely.”BUT …“v. 8 quoted in Acts 1:20 (along with Psalm 69:26) as scriptural warrant for the election of Matthias to replace Judas in the 12.” [“Let his days be few, And let another take his office.” (v. 8)]Verse 20 is certainly spoken by the psalmist - if 6-19 are spoken by others, he wishes these results also upon his enemies [“Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, And to those who speak evil against my person.” (v. 20)]These verses do reflect a great spiritual truth:“Let…”הָיָה Hebrew 1961. (vv. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 19) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out. The Hebrew verb "hayah" is a fundamental term in the Old Testament, often translated as "to be" or "to become." It conveys the idea of existence, occurrence, or coming into being.Also found in the Creation story!וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־said, Let there be light: (Genesis 1:3)And even before that:וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּAnd the earth was without form (Genesis 1:2)"The Divine Esse is at once Esse [Being] in itself and Existere [Manifestation] in itself. Jehovah God is Esse in itself, because He is the I Am, the Only, and the First, from eternity to eternity, the source of everything that is, without whom it could not be. In this way and not otherwise He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega." (True Christian Religion, 21)verse 17 “As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.”“Anyone there who does good to another with all his heart receives good in like measure; and therefore one who does evil to another with all his heart receives evil in like measure. For good done with all one's heart carries its own reward together with it, and evil done with all one's heart carries its own punishment together with it. So it is that heaven is the reward for good people, and hell the punishment for evil ones.” (Heavenly Secrets, 9049)Verses 21-31V. 6-20 is a principle that applies to us all universally. None escape it. Without this DIVINE work, we are all doomed."… there is nothing of good and nothing of truth in a person except from the Lord, … all evil and falsity are a person’s from his Own; and … any person, and spirit, and even angel, if left in the least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; ... This is acknowledged by angels, and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord’s mercy alone that liberates them, and even draws them out of hell and keeps them from rushing thither of themselves. That they are kept by the Lord from rushing into hell, is manifestly perceived by the angels." (Heavenly Secrets, 868)"... the Lord came into the world and took on the human state of being with all its weakness, for by doing so He was able to be tempted as regards the human and by means of temptations to suppress the hells. He was able to restore every single thing to obedience and to order, and to save the human race which had removed itself so far away from the Supreme Divine." (Heavenly Secrets, 2795, end)Recorded on Sunday 24 November 2024
What is worldliness? How do we OVERCOME it, while living in the world?Stimulated by comment on recent video (https://youtu.be/oGtYtHxrLis):There is only one God that is not "cool" to the world. That offends every worldly persons beliefs. Who's name is a curse word. Easy, JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.The God of Israel. The only God. There is no other. Read the Bible and stay away from books that a man has set his beliefs in.AND other comments and conversations … English and Biblical languages:WORLD - EARTH - LAND - GROUND - SOILwith overlapping meanings …Ranging from solid, physical meanings to more conceptual, e.g. “land of Egypt”, a geopolitical boundary rather than a physical one; “worldview”John‘s Gospel: approx. 60 uses of the word “world”, ⅓ of 180 in the New Testament as a whole.kόσμος kosmos:World, universe, order, worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world; adornmentOften used negatively, but frequently neutral.IT'S WORTH READING GOSPEL OF JOHN just for its use of this word - only highlight a few of these here …God created / gives life to the world - 1:10, 6:33,51God loved the world - 3:16Effort to save the world - 3:17; 12:47Jesus connects the Father and the world - 8:26, 10:36, 16:28Jesus is the Light of the world / speaks to the world - 1:9; 8:12,26; 9:5,12; 12:46; 17:13,21,23; 18:20,37But not perceived or understood by the world - 1:10; 14:17,19,22,31; 17:25CONTRASTSLife of the World vs. eternal life 12:25Peace of the Lord vs. of the world 14:27IN the world - (Jesus) 11:27 (disciples) 17:11,15,18NOT OF the world - (Jesus) 8:23 (disciples) 17:14,16Disciples have COME OUT OF the world - 17:6,14Judge the world - 9:39; 12:31; 16:8,11Not condemn / judge - 12:47World is beneath - 8:23The world HATES - (Jesus) 7:7 (disciples) 15:18,19; 17:14The world LOVES its own - 15:19Jesus overcame the world - 16:33Jesus is above, world is beneath - 8:23Ruler of the world - 14:30; 16:11Pharisees: “The whole world has gone after Him!” 12:19"The things that are visible in heaven's light cannot be seen in the light we have in this world, the light we call "earthly light"; and conversely, the things that are visible in earthly light cannot be seen in heaven's light: 9577. That is why people who are in this world's light alone, the light we call "earthly light," do not perceive things that exist in heaven's light: 3108." (New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 49)“… a person is born worldly to become spiritual, and .. so long as he remains worldly, it is as if he is sleeping in the night as far as anything spiritual goes, and at that time he does not even know the difference between the outward, worldly person and the inner, spiritual, person.” (Conjugial Love, 340)And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. (John 21:25)What makes a “worldly person”? Who self-identifies as worldly?Recorded on Sunday 17 November 2024Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (verse 10)Links to TWO previous beatitudes: FIRST - Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (verse 3) FOURTH - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. (verse 6)We’ve come full circle … “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”Is this truer than it was for the first beatitude? Does the first speak of potential … and the second of attainment?“Righteousness” (from June)Living in accordance with Divine Order - THE LAW OF LOVEAnd - looking at the Bible - we are to do this … “without fear or favour” (Leviticus 19:15) without being swayed by external concerns and circumstances. DESPITE the OPPORTUNITY and perhaps even the JUSTIFICATION of acting otherwise. (David spares Saul - repeatedly [1 Samuel 24 & 26])“Blessed are those HAVING BEEN persecuted [put to flight] on account of righteousness” (Interlinear) When we live a life of LOVING righteousness, then no outside influence or challenge has any lasting effect upon us and our actions, BUT ALSO, … PAST TENSE - Speaks of the wisdom of experience. A state which can only be attained by means of the difficulties and challenges we have faced. It is only through this path of trial, temptation, spiritual combat, that we have reached this endIf we have done this, it will not have been easy.We may well have faced opposition from othersBut we will most definitely have faced opposition from within.Change is never easyOur habit is to justify and excuse ourselvesPersecuted, means “Put to flight”“The situation with regard to judgement from truth is this: The Lord never judges anyone except from good, for His will is to lift all men, however many these may be, up to heaven, indeed if it were possible, up to Himself. For the Lord is mercy itself and good itself, and mercy itself and good itself cannot possibly condemn anyone. It is man who, in rejecting good, condemns himself. As a person has fled habitually from good during his lifetime, so in the next life he flees from it, and therefore from heaven and the Lord. For the Lord cannot be present except within good.” (AC 2335.3)You WILL flee from something and toward something else, the ONLY question is WHAT?Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
Psalm 45 (from NKJV)To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.1 My heart is overflowing with a good theme;I recite my composition concerning the King;My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.2 You are fairer than the sons of men;Grace is poured upon Your lips;Therefore God has blessed You forever.3 Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,With Your glory and Your majesty.4 And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;The peoples fall under You.6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom.7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;Therefore God, Your God, has anointed YouWith the oil of gladness more than Your companions.8 All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia,Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.9 Kings’ daughters are among Your honourable women;At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.10 Listen, O daughter,Consider and incline your ear;Forget your own people also, and your father’s house;11 So the King will greatly desire your beauty;Because He is your Lord, worship Him.12 And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;The rich among the people will seek your favour.13 The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;Her clothing is woven with gold.14 She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colours;The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.15 With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;They shall enter the King’s palace.16 Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons,Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.17 I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.As for the way love and wisdom form a unity in things beneath or outside us--in the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom--this will come up throughout the following pages. I may mention three things by way of preface. First, there was a marriage of goodness and truth in the universe and in absolutely everything in it that the Lord created. Second, this marriage was broken up in us after creation. Third, it is a goal of divine providence that what has been broken apart should become a whole and therefore that the marriage of goodness and truth should be restored. (Divine Providence, 9)Recorded on Sunday 27 October 2024Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org #swedenborg, #swedenberg, #swedenborgian, #discoverswedenborg, #melbourne, #swedenborgmelbourne, #melbourneswedenborg, #religion, #christianity, #christian, #psalm, #psalms, #psalm45, #messianicpsalms, #Jesus, #JesusChrist, #messiah
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org What does it mean to be a "Son of God"?A focus of the Gospel of JohnBut as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but [of the will] of God. (John 1:12,13)If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:42-44)Paul on adoption (Romans)For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:14,15, also Galatians 4; Ephesians 1)BUT WHAT IS A PEACEMAKER?The only occurrence in the BibleFrom … GK 1515 eirḗnēName, Irene.From eirō, "to join, tie together into a whole" – properly, wholeness, i.e. when all essential parts are joined together; peace.For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19,20)But whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.' And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. … But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. (Luke 10:5,6,12 [Matthew 10:13-15])What we learn from Jesus' saying:"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)Daryl Davis's question: Why do they hate me when they do not know me?https://youtu.be/ORp3q1Oaezwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waVrJEIfahchttps://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robesPEACE ONLY BEGINS WHEN WE ARE REFORMED INWARDLY"The outer self is reformed by means of the inner self when the outer self refrains from the evils that the inner self intends to avoid because they are from hell. We are more completely reformed when for that reason we abstain from [evils] and fight against them. In this way, what is within is intending and what is outside is acting; for unless we do what we intend, there is a lack of real intention inside that eventually becomes unwillingness." (Divine Providence 151)Recorded on Sunday 6 October 2024
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org A new series looking at the Messianic PsalmsWHY “Messianic” Psalms?“… where there is a reference to the Messiah in a psalm, and it is applied to Christ and expounded in the New Testament. Sometimes a whole psalm applies to Christ, e.g., Psalm 22. Sometimes a paragraph, e.g., Psalm 40:6-10. … Sometimes a single verse, e.g., Psalm 41:9.” (https://plymouthbrethren.org/article/11672)"It is obvious that some of the psalms are occupied entirely with the Person and the thoughts and feelings of our Lord while others clearly refer to the experience of the psalmist, … [In Psalm 69] … When David exclaims: “O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from Thee,” he obviously is referring to himself (v. 5)." (https://plymouthbrethren.org/article/11672)“... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher (or originator and perfector) of our faith …” (Hebrews 12:1,2)"Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may [i]obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize [j]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Spiritual Christianity collected from the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg by Charles Augustus Tulk (1846)
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)Revisiting the series so far … The first four: the poor in spirit those who mourn the meek those who hunger and thirst for righteousnessExpressed as negatives, lacking somethingAn inner acknowledgement that, of myself, I possess nothing of Truth or GoodThen, allowing that realisation to filter down into external attitudes and actionsThe next three the merciful the pure in heart* the peacemakersPositivesThese are states of beingManifesting, expressing themselves.The first group is REGENERATINGthe second REGENERATEThe first group: goes against everything that can properly be called ours, our heart, our understanding, our inclinations.This is spiritual WORK.Equates to the SIX DAYS.It requires our obedience to the external authority of the Lord and His Word.The second: just flows.These are SEVENTH DAY, SABBATH states.We DO act, but we act from the Lord.This recognises that everything Good and True flows from the LordWe are no longer standing in the way of that flow.The first group are states in which truth leads, and good results.We see the reality of our own state, and are blessed from it.The second, good leads to truth. (Heavenly Secrets, 10729)There are two states which a person passes through while being regenerated by the Lord; the first exists when he is in possession of truths and is being led by means of them towards good, the second when he is in possession of good and from good sees and loves truths. In the first state the person is, it is true, being led by the Lord, yet by means of what is his own; for when people are motivated by truths they are motivated by something in themselves, but when they are motivated by good they are motivated by the Lord. (Heavenly Secrets, 10729)So, MERCY is stated first - and is all about the giving and receiving of mercy.And THIS beatitude is all about the TRANSFORMED PERSPECTIVE that results from a NEW WILL.PURE - 2513 - [translates as] clean, pure, unstained (either literally or ceremonially or spiritually); guiltless, innocent, upright“Clean” vs “Unclean” in the Bible!… IN HEARTIt’s not about adherence to an external code of conduct. Contrasts with the [EXTERNAL] purity of the Pharisees:[Pharisees] “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!”[Jesus] “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:2,7,8)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” (Matthew 23:25-26)THE CHANGE that takes place in this beatitude is COUNTERINTUITIVE.THE PROMISE IS, clarity of sight coming from within, from a heart for what is good, not from external knowledge or learning.“Perception is ...”“… a certain inward feeling, wholly from the Lord, as to whether a thing is true and good.” (Heavenly Secrets, 104)WHO KNEW?! That a change of heart would bring about a change of perspective? This is the challenge of the Lord’s words:And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)Recorded on Sunday 1 September 2024Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auRead Swedenborg at: www.newchristianbiblestudy.org
At the end of Revelation, in the closing chapter of the Bible, we discover that evil has NOT been destroyed!“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practises a lie.” (Revelation 22:14,15)Why, after the previous 20 chapters, are these evils still here?“... evils are not separated and cast out from a person, but are only removed and relegated to the outskirts, and when they are there, and good is at the centre, the evils do not appear …” (Divine Providence, 283)You will never be perfect, even as an angel“... it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven, and not the angels from anything of their proprium.” (Heaven and Hell, 8)TEMPTATION IS ... “the distress and anxiety caused by things that clash with a person's loves.” (Heavenly Secrets, 847, section 2)Natural temptations … are not true “temptations”,“... are not temptations at all but merely anxious cares resulting from attacks on people's natural loves caused by misfortune, sickness, and abnormal condition of the blood and fluids in the body.” (Heavenly Secrets, 847, section 2)… but help us understand what’s going on.… can also help us learn necessary skills (self-compulsion) to deal with the spiritual temptations.“Celestial temptations can exist only with people who are moved by love to the Lord; spiritual temptations only with those who are moved by charity towards the neighbour; …” (Heavenly Secrets, 847, section 2)Temptation is a necessary part of spiritual growth:“They who have not been instructed about a person’s regeneration suppose that anyone can be regenerated without temptation; and some that a single temptation is sufficient. But be it known that without temptation no one is regenerated, and that many temptations follow on, one after another. The reason is that regeneration takes place to the end that the life of the old man may die, and the new heavenly life be insinuated, which shows that there must needs be a fight, for the life of the old man resists, and is not willing to be extinguished, and the life of the new man cannot enter except where the life of the old man has been extinguished. Hence it is evident that there is a fight on both sides, and this fight is a fiery one, because it is for life.” (Heavenly Secrets, 8403, section 2)Recorded on Sunday 25 August 2024
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)Begin today with the Ark of the Covenant [IMAGE: https://openclipart.org/detail/334317/ark-of-the-covenant]What’s more important, a box or its contents?“Good is the essential constituent of order, and all aspects of it are forms of mercy. Truth is the secondary constituent of order, .... Divine Good adjudges all people to heaven, but Divine Truth condemns them all to hell. Consequently if the Lord's mercy, which is the very nature of Good, were not eternal, all people - however many these may be - would be condemned. …” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2258, section 2)“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”Reflects the law of spiritual attraction: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14) “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)* “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8)WHAT IS “MERCY”?When we ask for mercy - we are acknowledging our faults and evils, asking someone to overlook them.Mercy is UNDESERVED. “... the reason the evil are condemned to hell is not that Divine Good is separated from Divine Truth, but that man separates himself from Divine Good; for the Lord in no way sends anyone down to hell, but man sends himself down, as stated frequently already.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2258, section 2)“... It is a person who, in rejecting good, condemns himself. As a person has fled habitually from good during his lifetime, so in the next life he flees from it, and therefore from heaven and the Lord.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2335, section 3)Recorded on Sunday 7 July 2024
Looking at a story found in Mark chapter 10:32-45 (also Matthew chapter 20)Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auChapter 10 - Events and teachings - which the Disciples consistently misunderstand (consistent in Mark’s account):The Pharisees question Jesus about divorce (disciples don’t understand, and question Jesus)Disciples rebuke those bringing little children (Jesus welcomes them)The rich young ruler (disciples are astonished) (Peter questions Jesus - “we have given up everything”)Going towards Jerusalem (why are the disciples afraid?) Jesus [again] predicts his arrest (James and John’s request; the other disciples aren’t happy) Version in Matthew 19 - the 12 disciples are promised thrones! In response to Peter’s comments following the rich young ruler (Mark 10:28 = Matthew 19:27,28)Parallels with chapter 9 THREAD RUNNING THROUGH - Being first and last - 9:35, 10:31, and 10:43-45“... whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)WHY isn’t this Jesus’ to give (v. 40)? (see Matthew 20:23 - said to be “prepared [by my Father]”)“Ruling” as abstracted from person - Apocalypse Explained, 333 - [on Revelation 5:10]… * … in the spiritual sense "kings" mean truths, and "priests" goods, abstractly from persons, that is, the truths and goods that are in persons from the Lord; from which it follows that it is truths from good that are to reign, thus the Lord alone from whom these are. The angels, indeed, are in great power, but not one of them from himself; yea, if anyone in heaven believes that he has power from himself he is instantly deprived of it, and then becomes wholly powerless. It is said in the sense of the letter that these are to reign, because the sense of the letter is personal; … but in the spiritual sense everything of person is put off, and thus everything of dominion belonging to person, and dominion is left to the Lord alone.No person reigns over any others, in heavenly order.So, FOR WHOM have those places - on the right and left of Jesus - been prepared? They are for those who have those principles of goodness and truth within.The two laws - attraction, and influx - don’t actually provide for this change to take place, they only confirm and reinforce my present state.Equilibrium - the third law… every single thing - celestial, spiritual, or natural - is balanced in such a way that nobody is able to think, feel, or act in isolation from the many, though each one supposes that he does so independently and in absolute freedom. Nothing in like manner ever exists that is not counter-balanced by its opposite, and things that are opposite by those that are intermediate. As a result the individual by himself, and the many collectively, live in a most perfect equilibrium. Consequently no evil can befall anyone without being instantly counter-balanced. And when there is a preponderance of evil, evil - that is, the evil-doer - is in that case corrected by the law of equilibrium as if of himself; but this never takes place except to the end that good may result. Such is the form, and therefore the equilibrium in which heavenly order consists, an order formed, arranged, and preserved for ever by the Lord alone. (Heavenly Secrets, 689)We experience this equilibrium every day, especially in a natural ways: Do I HAVE to do my exercises this morning? CAN’T I eat this piece of cake?* Hearing others speak, we think of opposite points of view.PRESENTS A CHOICE - What principle will I confirm in my life? What will I reject?
“Will there be a time where a new age will come to the physical world, or does the kingdom of God refer to our entering Heaven as spirits after death?” (April 2024)From Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 12, page 591, quotes James Moffatt:“From the smoke and pain and heat [of the preceding scenes] it is a relief to pass into the clear, clean atmosphere of the eternal morning where the breath of heaven is sweet and the vast city of God sparkles like a diamond in the radiance of his presence." (J.B. Moffatt, EGT, 5:471)[Continues …] … John sees the city [the New Jerusalem] "coming down out of heaven from God" - a phrase he uses three times (3:12; 21:2,10) in an apparent spatial reference. But the city never seems to come down; it is always seen as a "descending-from-heaven kind of city" (Caird, p. 257). Therefore, the expression stresses the idea that the city is a gift of God, forever bearing the marks of his creation. (p.593)MORE THAN A GIFT - It offers a clue as to HOW IT TAKES PLACE"After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne." (Revelation 4:1,2)Notice:“Come up here”, and in response, “Immediately I was in the spirit”John doesn’t GO UP, he goes WITHINUsing degrees of HEIGHT to describe degrees of INTERIORITY:“The angels who constitute the celestial kingdom, because they receive the Divine of the Lord more interiorly, are called interior and also higher angels.” (Heaven and Hell, 22)Spiritual Influx:“Divine order demands that heaven should rule the world with a person and not the world rule heaven with him; for when heaven rules a person, the Lord rules him, but when the world rules a person, the hells rule him.” (Heavenly Secrets, 9278, section 2)"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11)“As in heaven, so upon the earth” (Matthew 6:10)Elevation gives a new perspective. Going inward - from natural to spiritual concerns - does the same.“In the spirit” - It’s not that what John sees “in the spirit” is necessarily heavenly, but by means of a heavenly vantage point, he sees its true nature.Once that higher perspective is found, the result is a reordering of external things - THIS IS THE DESCENT.AN EXAMPLE OF THIS REORDERING: Heavenly Secrets, 3688, illustrated by means of the doctrine of charity: from seeing only worldly things - external circumstances, such as poverty - * to looking deeper, seeing good as a spiritual quality within the natural, and then making that spiritual reality as the primary determining factor.Will there be a “New Age” in this world? I hope so. I hope that heavenly principles will one day come to rule our external world - BUT, even when that day comes, whatever it looks like, the heavenly city MUST ALWAYS BE DESCENDING.But for this this NEW AGE to become reality, there’s a process that MUST take place - which is both UNIVERSAL, and INDIVIDUAL We will begin in a world of purely external concerns, working at a purely external level (environmental problems, politics, economics, poverty, human rights) … No solutions will be found until we look beyond earthly, natural, external solutions … because the HEART and the HEAD must be factored into the equation. Once we do this, a transformation can begin. And then to realise - the HEART and the HEAD are whole essence of the problem, and to determine to act differently.The UNIQUE promise of the New Church is that:ANY OF US can BEGIN this process at any time.There is no need to wait!If you don’t like what you see - GOOD!Look within.Seek a higher perspective.Bring YOUR OWN outer world into line!Recorded on Sunday 16 June 2024
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,For they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)Rev Ian Arnold on the Beatitudes: “... no one reaches out for righteousness, for the Lord's order in their lives, unless they are dissatisfied with the way things are at present.” (https://static.swedenborg.com.au/pdf/transcripts/136TheBeatitudes4.pdf)What is “righteousness”? Living according to the ten commandments - obeying the rules?Dictionary meaning: “the quality of being morally right or justifiable.”HOWEVER, you can behave yourself perfectly well, but still be dissatisfied with the outcome of your life. Is this an EMPTY PROMISE?dikaiosuné: righteousness, justice [Gk 1343] - justice, justness, righteousness, righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness.What is the difference between God’s Righteousness - and human righteousness?“The righteous in the Word mean those who have lived in accordance with Divine order, since Divine order is righteousness.” (True Christian Religion, 96)”When I think of Divine Order, I think of three laws:“... all the statutes commanded to the sons of Israel were laws of order in the external form, but those things which they represented and signified were laws of order in the internal form.” (Heavenly Secrets, 7995)Just as there are natural laws - conservation of energy, momentum - there are spiritual laws.What are those “laws of order in internal form”? Spiritual Attraction“Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)“Like are drawn spontaneously as it were to their like.” (Heaven and Hell, 44) Spiritual Influx “As in heaven, so upon the earth” (Matthew 6:10)“... it is a law of order that exterior things should be subject to interior things, or what is the same, lower things to higher ones, and should serve them as servants” (AC 5127)* Equilibrium“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)NATURALLY, NOT TRUE!“... it is in accordance with the laws of order that no one should become convinced of the truth instantaneously, that is, should instantaneously be made so sure of the truth that he is left in no doubt at all about it.” (AC 7298.2)How do these laws work out, in real life? Recent FACEBOOK conversation:1. Why wouldn’t a “perfect” God create a “perfect” world? What do WE mean by a “perfect” world? A world without suffering.What does GOD mean by a “perfect world”? Perhaps, "fit for purpose": a world which achieves what God intends for it. A world in which we can learn the meaning and practice of love.2. The desire for freedom.What is freedom? Freedom is an illusion as is free will. Free will is not free will when it comes with punishment and reward. It is coercion. Freedom implies no responsibilities no consequences and we know that is untrue.“Few know what freedom is and what non-freedom is. Freedom seems to entail everything that is in keeping with any love and associated delight, and non-freedom to entail everything that is at variance with these. That which is in keeping with self-love and love of the world, and with the desires belonging to those loves, seems to man to be freedom; but that is the freedom of hell. That however which is in keeping with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, consequently with the love of what is good and true, is true freedom, being the freedom that exists in heaven.” (AC 2870)We are blessed:By the acknowledgement that we lack what is Divinely, spiritually, good and true.When we recognise that our perspective has been too outwardly and naturally focussed.Recorded on Sunday 2 June 2024
We might think of ourselves in this way:SOUL [unseen]MIND [bridge between the seen and unseen]BODY [seen]When Swedenborg speaks of internal and external, he is talking only about the MIND [or Spirit]:"The inner and outer parts I am talking about are the inner and outer parts of our spirit. The body is just an extra outer part added on, in which the other two exist. The body does not do anything by itself; everything it does comes from the spirit inside it." (New Jerusale, and Its Heavenly Doctrine, 46)Body = interface with the physical worldSoul = recipient of lifeHe has much more to say about THE MIND or SPIRIT.Heavenly Secrets, 8443.2 - specifically, on TruthDivineProceeding directly from the Divine “Celestial” - Highest heaven.Spiritual” - Middle heaven“Natural” - Lowest heaven:“this may to some small extent be perceived by man, but only if he is enlightened, though even then it is such that human language is incapable of expressing a large part of it.”“Ultimate” level:“the sixth level of God's truth is as it exists with man; it is adjusted to his discernment, thus it is the sense of the letter of the Word.”Swedenborg also refers toan “interior natural” and an “exterior natural” (Heavenly Secrets 5094, below)“Internal memory”, and “External memory” (Heavenly Secrets 9922)IT IS EASIER TO THINK OF THESE AS COMPARATIVE TERMS, rather than as defining levels of being.What can I understand? What can I use?If we think about the MIND - there is clearly: What I am conscious of What I am NOT conscious of (dreams, where do my thoughts come from?)Genesis 40 - PHARAOH, BUTLER and the BAKER“Interior natural” - PHARAOHAnd “Exterior natural” - BUTLER and the BAKER - whose role is to serve what is higher, although they don’t always (which is why they’ve been thrown in prison)PHARAOH - the “ruler”, decision maker, executive function [THE OBSERVING SELF?]BUTLER - serves the understanding, thinks from learned principles, rational things (from HIGHER)BAKER - serves the will, thinks from conclusions of the senses (from LOWER)JOSEPH - brings Divine INSIGHT revealing the proper ORDER of the mind: that lower should serve what is higher.EVENTUALLY … Joseph comes to rule.HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO ME?In every situation, I can make decisions - and bring these into action - based on one of two things:Externals - Conclusions from sensory information The way things appear to be My bodily impulses (e.g. fight or flight)Internals - Learned principles, rational things Love to the Lord and the neighbour Obedience to orderIf you think you don’t have this problem … examine your habitual responses to events and circumstances Do you jump to conclusions about people? How do you handle stressful situations?* How do you react to disagreements? Or to things you don’t want to hear?YOUR TASK - See where each of these paths leadsOne leads to destruction - if it is allowed to rule - more often than not.Recorded Sunday 26 May 2024Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
"Swedenborg says that Jesus is the head of heaven, and then there are 3 levels.I’ve been thinking of people who use religion and Jesus to hate their neighbour, if they will go to heaven or hell.On the one side, they love the lord, but on the other, they hate their neighbour.And Jesus as far as I understand is all about neighbourly love.If these people go to heaven and become, let’s say, natural angels, will they as natural angels hate the spiritual and celestial angels, who are more focused on neighbourly love? What about Jesus himself, when they find out that Jesus is on the side of neighbourly love? Isn’t this a rebellion of the parts against the whole? Isn’t this a divided kingdom?"HOW WOULD YOU ANSWER THIS QUESTION?WHAT’S THE GIST OF THE QUESTION?DIVISION - What is appropriate or inappropriate?JESUS TALKS ABOUT BOTH LOVE AND DIVISION - this can be difficult to navigate.ON LOVE: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)“love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44)ON DIVISION:“Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51)“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)IS THERE VALUE IN DIVISION? There are DISTINCTIONS:Between inner and outer:“unless affection puts itself forth or flows out into acts, …, it is suffocated to such a degree finally that a person has no longer any regard for the neighbour, but only for himself.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 360, section 2)Between will and understanding:"If solely Divine Truth were [the Lord’s], no one could be saved, for truths condemn everyone to hell. But Divine Good, which is the essence of mercy, raises people up from hell towards heaven.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1728)Between GOOD and EVIL:“Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.” (Luke 12:51,52)HOW DO WE SEPARATE WHAT MUST BE, without separating what ought to work together? Where is the “line in the sand”?Good and evil can - and do - exist anywhere in our “house” - internals, externals, in the will, in the understandingShould we separate ourselves from others?“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13)Where is the “line in the sand”, by which we should separate ourselves from others?“When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.” (Luke 12:58)“It is the intent of divine providence that everything created, collectively and in every detail, should be this kind of whole (of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom), and that if it is not, it should become one.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 7)Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Numbers Chapter 12 - Miriam's LeprosyMark chapter 7 - Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician WomanRecorded at Roseville New Church, Sydney NSW, on Sunday 12 May 2024
The story so far … We often use “Blessings” to describe external states or end results (of wealth, happiness, prosperity etc.), but it must refer to internal states as the source of those externals, the Lord is working with the path that takes us there. To be "poor in spirit", I realise I am without merit - I don’t deserve heaven - yet, this becomes the path by which I receive what I do not deserve To "mourn", I see my own state of spiritual death - I lack good - yet gthis becomes the path by which I receive comfortToday ..."Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth." (Matthew 5:5)Jesus is quoting Psalm 37:11“But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”EARTH - erets: earth, landThe same word used in the promise to both Abraham and Jacob:Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” (Genesis 15:7)“... That you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” (Genesis 28:4)The difference between “the land” [a specific place] and the “Earth” [the whole planet] is whether it has been specified as “land of Canaan” or not. (https://www.reddit.com/r/hebrew/comments/148wf9i/biblical_hebrew_the_meaning_of_the_word_eretz/)Although it is not specified in either case here, merely implied.Haven't these verses caused so much death and destruction and misery in our world?! Is that what is REALLY intended?“But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Psalm 37:11)So, we look to a SPIRITUAL understanding of these words.Note "earth"'s tie to heaven (215 verses contain “heaven” and “earth”)“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)A pairing of the first and third beatitude (“the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)But, contrast this with - “The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground (erets).” (Psalm 147:6)How do we understand all this? There is an INTERNAL and an EXTERNAL A “true natural” which corresponds to the heavenly state, and a “false or mere natural”, which is devoid of any heavenly correspondence and connection Swedenborg often refers to the “earth” as meaning the church, by which he means the heavenly state experienced in the natural world, rather than any organisation.MEEK Psalm 37:11 - contrasts with “the evil doers shall be cut off” (v.9), “the meek shall inherit the earth”How is “meek” - or “humble” - different from “poor in spirit”?“To be meek towards others implies freedom from malice and vengeful spirit. Jesus best exemplifies it (11:29; 21:5). we may acknowledge our own bankruptcy (verse 3) and mourn (verse 4). But to respond with meekness when others tell us of our bankruptcy is far harder. Meekness therefore requires such a true view about ourselves as will express itself even in our attitude towards others.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary, volume 8, page 133)We see it in Moses:“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3 - yet he does not enter the land! Because of his presumption - see Numbers 20:12; Deut 32:48-52)We often think of meekness as shrinking from conflict or the responsibility to speak truth. There’s the old joke, “The meek shall inherit the earth … if that’s alright with you.” We might think that having a meek population makes people easy to govern and control.But this is not the meekness we are talking about here. It is to have a true understanding of one’s own failings, and our dependence upon God, for anything good such that we see things as they truly are, but from a position of strength to practise firm gentleness in our dealings with others. Only in positions of responsibility have I realised its importance as a quality of leadership.Recorded on Sunday 5 May 2024
How DO you offend UNCONDITIONAL love?About HELL ANXIETY (Kristi Burke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLXwKkBXEXw)On the other side … Christians terrified that they've committed the unforgivable sin (see Matthew chapter 12)How do we resolve this? The nature of God, and What sin is.God is … … LOVE! (1 John 4)“… the Lord desires to raise [all people] up to heaven towards Himself. For His mercy is infinite since it is Divine mercy itself and is indeed directed towards the whole human race, and so towards the evil as well as the good.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2401, section 4)So, what’s the deal with sin? How DO you offend UNCONDITIONAL love?“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5, NKJV)In Jeff Benner’s Mechanical Translation, "evil" is translated as “dysfunction” - https://www.mechanical-translation.org/mtt/G6.html“The more you try and control someone, the further they will slip from your grasp.” (https://howardkingston.com/counterintuitive/)You are harming yourself by what you have done, not offending God. That is hell.Hell is … “We are all judged according to our deeds. It is not that these deeds are tallied up but that we return to them and behave the same.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 277b)“a person's love … determines the life he leads, ... As is people's love therefore, so is their life ... Love towards the neighbour receives the life of heaven, while self-love receives the life of hell.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 4776, section 4)“Fear him who, having killed the body, has power to cast into hell.” (Matthew 10:28)The Unforgivable sin“... when a person thinks in one way and lives in another, truth and evil or goodness and falsity are combined with each other; that is, things of heaven with a person are combined with those of hell. This combination cannot be dissolved, and so the person cannot be healed, except by a tearing apart which takes away with it everything of spiritual life.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 8882)“'Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit' means speaking well of things that belong to the Lord, to His kingdom and Church, and also to the Word, but thinking ill of them; and doing well in respect of them while desiring what is ill.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 9013, section 6)"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." (Matthew 12:33)I do not believe in a God who condemns. Anyone. Ever. God will never fail to love you, no matter what you do. But the chaos you cause along the way … and especially as it harms others … That is what makes you miserable.There's not judge watching and waiting to condemn us.God STRIVES to lead us out of it. He's looking for every opportunity to lead us away from what is harmful to what is helpful and healthy.Calwell High School: "We're all works in progress".Recorded on Sunday 28 April 2024
Why doesn't God just say what he means? Lay it all out in one hit? Say it like it is? On the road to Emmaus: “And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:45)Why is that even necessary?This is PART 2 of “Story as a vehicle for truth”Why isn’t the Bible User manual?We ignore the user manuals, but something deeper, too.We actively resist the truth. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18)Do you believe me?! (https://howardkingston.com/counterintuitive/)Another strange thing to say …Don’t believe in God? It’s OK. God believes in you.“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)If it were not for the love of God, we would all be done for - spiritually, and naturally (physically) would quickly follow“Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him. But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there.” (Matthew 12:14,15a)“And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet” (Matthew 12:15b-17)“A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20)Another strange thing to say … God protects us from the truth.“[The Lord] neither shatters man's illusions nor stifles his desires. Instead He bends them towards truth and good.” (Secrets of Heaven, paragraph 25)Cherubim represent that protection: The cherubim at the garden. (Genesis 3) Cherubim on the mercy seat (Cover on the ark of the Covenant - Exodus 25) Woven into the tabernacle fabric (Exodus 26) In the temple (1 Kings 6)* Glory departs from the temple (Ezekiel 10, 41)Divine Providence, paragraph 60“Every religious person thinks about [heaven] and wants to go there. Heaven, though, is granted only to people who know the path to it and follow that path. We can know the path to heaven to some extent simply by considering what the people who make up heaven are like, realizing that no one can become an angel or get to heaven unless he or she arrives bringing along some angelic quality from the world. …… We all see our own paths, spontaneously, it seems. We see them because the paths there are for the loves of each individual. Love opens the paths and leads us to our kindred spirits. No one sees any paths except those of her or his love.”Heaven and Hell, paragraph 349“All the people who have acquired intelligence and wisdom in the world are received in heaven and become angels, according to the quality and amount of their individual intelligence and wisdom. … People who have had little affection and desire accept little, but still as much as they can accept on their own level. People who have had great affection and desire accept much. … This is the meaning of the Lord's words, "To all who have, it will be given, and they will have more abundantly" (Matthew 13:12; 25:29)” Divine Providence, paragraph 232"… the Lord does not grant us inner access to the truths that wisdom discloses and the good that love does except as we can be kept in them to the end of our life."Recorded on Sunday 21 April 2024
Reviewing past talks and addresses, we speak a lot about “the Lord”: What do we mean by “the Lord”? When we talk about inviting the Lord into our lives, what do we mean? And, what does that look like?THE LORD IS LOVE“The essence of love is not to love self, but to love others and through love to be conjoined with them.” (Divine Love & Wisdom 47)THE LORD IS ORDER“The Lord is order itself, and therefore wherever He is present order exists, and wherever order exists He is present.” (Secrets of Heaven, 5703.2),THAT ORDER IS WRAPPED UP IN THE ESSENCE OF GOD WHICH IS LOVE“Our proper code of life is to love one another as we love ourselves, but what we actually do these days is to love ourselves more than others and thus hate everyone else.” (Secrets of Heaven, 637.2)ON THE WAY TO EMMAUS …Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. [SLIDE] … He was known to them in the breaking of bread. (Luke 24:30, 31, 35)“... the breaking of bread was a sign that meant mutual love.” (Secrets of Heaven, 5405.2)So what DOES it look like to LIVE FROM THE LORD? Perhaps we all have our answers … but for me: COMMUNITY - works when I am committed to you, and you are committed to me: But is that all? No. It has to be about something bigger than us. A greater purpose that transcends the sum of the individuals in the room. Our greater purpose - whatever that is - is our god. But is it the Divine? That depends upon how well we reflect the Divine essence and purpose.“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34,35)But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16)“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’“ (Matthew 25:40)Something I quoted last week:“It is a person who, in rejecting good, condemns himself. As a person has fled habitually from good during his lifetime, so in the next life he flees from it, and therefore from heaven and the Lord.” (Secrets of Heaven, 2335.3)Recorded on Easter Sunday, 31 March 2024Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/b15jfY-BRdoHead on over to our KIDS CHANNEL to see the children's talk, about CLOTHES: https://youtu.be/Dgwp-ffShhYHave you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auWhy did Jesus curse the fig tree? Uncharacteristically harsh from “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” * True, [depending upon the account we read] he’s just evicted the sellers from the temple, or he’s just about to. But what’s the fig tree done wrong? It isn’t even the season for figs (Mark 11:13). In Australia, we’ve just enjoyed fig season, but in the Northern Hemisphere it’s July to September. Something else is going on here.Whenever I think of leaves and fruit in the Word … Ezekiel 47 - “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.” (Ezekiel 47:12) Also Revelation 22:2 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) "'a leaf' means truth is clear from various places in the Word, where man is compared to or actually called a tree. 'Fruit' in those contexts means the good that stems from charity, and 'leaf' the truth deriving from this, for these are indeed like fruit and leaves. " (Secrets of Heaven, 885)But these are dependent upon one thing: conjunction with the Lord“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6) "The Lord never judges anyone except from good, for His will is to lift all people, however many these may be, up to heaven, indeed if it were possible, up to Himself. For the Lord is mercy itself and good itself, and [these] cannot possibly condemn anyone. It is a person who, in rejecting good, condemns himself. As a person has fled habitually from good during his lifetime, so in the next life he flees from it, and therefore from heaven and the Lord." (Secrets of Heaven, 2335, section 3)The fig tree is a parable in action - a commentary upon the spiritual reality of the time. Despite all the show, the external religious rituals, there was no connection with the Lord and nothing worthwhile which results from it.What can we learn? The triumphal entry is like the conversion experience - a joyful occasion. But whenever we invite the Lord into our lives, we’re going to start seeing what’s wrong,.This is not going to be an easy experience.* But it’s worth bearing in mind what the purpose of this is …"the Lord enters into those things with a person that the person knows, not into those he does not know. He does not therefore amend evil or falsity until the person has learned that it is evil or falsity. So it is that those who have to do the work of repentance must see and acknowledge their evils, and accordingly lead the life of truth, 8388-8392." (Secrets of Heaven, 9088., section 2)We need to see what is wrong and then the Lord will help us remove it. So much hangs on our response to this experience. Do we sweep it under the carpet again, pretend nothing’s wrong? OR do we acknowledge it, and turn to the Lord as the only true source of anything that is good?Recorded on Sunday 24 March 2024
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auIf you’re interested … this examines material found in:The Worlds in Space (Earths in the Universe),Secrets of Heaven (Arcana Coelestia)The idea of life on other planets is not so far fetched …Scientists are looking for extra-terrestrial life!It was a commonly held in his day:“How it may be with the dwellers on other planets and their nature we do not know. If, however, we carry out well the mandate given us by Nature, we can perhaps flatter ourselves that we may claim among our neighbours in the cosmos no mean rank.” (Immanuel Kant, Note 2, SIXTH THESIS, Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View [1784], Translation by Lewis White Beck).Compared to the infinity of God, and the unlimited potential of heaven, the population of a single planet is insignificantly small:“How would this appear to the Deity, who is infinite, to whom thousands, or rather tens of thousands, of worlds, all full of inhabitants, would seem trifling and almost negligible?” (Worlds in Space, paragraph 4)“... there is no way that [the heaven of angels] with all its correspondences could have come into existence without drawing on the inhabitants of very many worlds.” (Worlds in Space, paragraph 5)The problem is Swedenborg’s assertion that it exists on the planets of the solar system.Many different theories attempt to explain this.Also, in relationship to the European question - what about other people of other cultures, who do not know Jesus Christ, are they saved too? Other planets, perhaps just an extension of cultures on this planet (see this in paragraph 120)."In every other world Divine truth is made known by word of mouth ... But this is restricted to family groups, for in most worlds the human race lives apart divided into families. [It] does not therefore spread far beyond family groups, and unless renewed by a succession of revelations it is perverted or lost." (paragraph 120)WHAT CAN WE LEARN? What does Swedenborg himself say?There’s an interest in alien life - 5thKind.TV has over 1 million subscribers on YouTubeAnd we are external people:More interested in the technology of our hands than wisdom of the heart and soulOur use of writing (the spirits of Mercury teasing about knowledgeable paper - paragraph 28)Jesus came here for the sake of the written Word (113)Look at the way we react to this question!We evaluate what we read based upon current, scientific, factual, accuracy.We tend to dismiss whatever doesn’t fit neatly into our [external] worldview.The cherubim at the entrance to the Garden of Eden.(Cherubim are not from outer space! - another form of our externalism!)The cherubim on the mercy seat - the lid on the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25).Try to throw a stone at God, what would you hit?Swedenborg’s purpose in writing (from John Chadwick in Translator's Preface to Worlds in Space):A Spiritual mission: “the purpose of his visionary powers was to reveal the nature of the spiritual world, and by his writings to guide his fellow men towards a better understanding of religious and spiritual matters.” (Chadwick’s Preface, p. viii)“[Swedenborg] was kept in ignorance of facts about the natural world, and was allowed to persist in the false beliefs current in his time. … if he had been able to demonstrate [huge advances in scientific knowledge], his reputation would have become such that everything he said would have been automatically accepted. Yet he frequently insists that mere assent to a proposition is not the same as whole-hearted belief, …” (Chadwick’s Preface, p. x)Recorded on Sunday 17 March 2024
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”(Matthew 5:4)The Death of the Wife of the Biblical Prophet Ezekiel, by William Blake (c. 1785)But we see in Ezekiel’s actions a spiritual side. It reflects REPENTANCE - To see the pain you cause yourself and to seek to change.What is the benefit of spiritual mourning? “Blessing”? “Happy”?!“For they shall be comforted” - the English doesn’t cut it!Comforted - παρακαλέω parakaleóTo call to or for, to exhort, to encourage“Call to one’s side”SAME WORD IS THE ROOT OF …John 14:15-31 - The Helper / comforter - παράκλητος paráklētos WHO IS CALLING? WHO IS RESPONDING? In its truest sense, it needs to be a two way street Would you call a lawyer then ignore his advice? One cannot call for the Spirit of the Lord to be present without at the same time allowing His presence, removing anything that stands in the way of His entry. True comfort is to remove the blocks that prevent the Lord from flowing in. True Christianity, paragraph 366, section 2"God's life is present in all its fullness not only in people who are good and religious but also in people who are evil and ungodly. That life is the same in angels of heaven as it is in spirits of hell. The difference is … that evil people block the road and shut the door to prevent God from coming down into the lower areas of their mind. Good people, on the other hand, smooth the road and open the door. They invite God to enter the lower areas of their mind since he already inhabits the highest areas of it. They change the state of their will so that love and goodwill may flow in, and change the state of their intellect so that wisdom and faith may flow in - they open themselves to God.Evil people block that inflow with various bodily cravings and spiritual garbage that they spread around to prevent access. Nevertheless, God with all his divine essence still dwells in the highest parts of evil people and gives them the ability to will what is good and understand what is true. This ability is something that all human beings have, although it would not be theirs at all if life from God were not present in their soul. Many experiences have taught me that even the evil have this ability."Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2041, section 2"It is these two kinds of so-called love (of self and of the material world), along with their cravings, that block the inflow of the Lord's heavenly love. When they take control of our intermediate and outer selves and overrun us, they either reject or smother the inflow of heavenly love. They also corrupt and pollute it, because they are absolutely opposed to heavenly love. … The more they are set aside, on the other hand, the more the heavenly love that is flowing in from the Lord starts to grow visible and even to gleam in our intermediate self. To the same extent, we start to see that we are beset with evil and falsity, in fact that we harbour what is unclean and filthy, and finally that this is what our selfhood has been. People who are being reborn are the ones from whom these things are removed."Rumi“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”Recorded on Sunday 3 March 2024
“I believed that stories helped us to ennoble ourselves, to fix what was broken in us, and to help us become the people we dreamed of being. Lies that told a deeper truth.” — Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld Season 1Stories: * Hold our attention. * Present diverse perspectives* Lower our resistance - * Inspire us to action.“Maybe financial gurus shouldn't be telling us to imagine that we’re filthy rich; instead, they should be telling us to replay the steps that led to our being poor.” (Made to Stick, p. 212)“All Bible stories are the kind of truth that is relatively distant from real, divine teachings. Still, they serve as a means for gradually introducing children and youths into deeper teachings about truth and goodness and eventually to truly divine teachings (since divinity is at the core of the teachings). When the stories are read by children and touch their innocent hearts, the angels with them experience heavenly delight, being drawn by the Lord to the inner meaning and therefore to the things that the narrative details represent and symbolise. The heavenly delight of the angels is what flows into the children and gives them pleasure. The whole point of putting stories in the Word was to bring about this first stage, the childish and youthful stage of people who are to be reborn. That is why the stories were written in such a way that absolutely everything in them would contain something divine.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 3690)All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:“I will open My mouth in parables;I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 13:34,35)Parable: “to cast [throw] beside”Recorded on Sunday 25 February 2024Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Answering the question: “Animals don't have souls. Really? I think this teaching is just so cruel. I've known a few animals more inteligente than some people.” What do we mean by “soul”?“... a soul symbolizes what is alive in us and so our life itself.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1436)“... the soul … is nothing else than the actual person living in the body. That is, the soul is the person's inner self acting in the world by means of the body and imparting life to the body.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6054)There is only one life … which flows in, … according to the nature of a person’s life“No man, spirit, or angel possesses any life that originates within himself. … There is only one life, the Lord's. It flows into everyone but is received in varying ways, its reception being determined by the character a person has given his soul through the life he leads. …” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5847)Animals DO also have a soul … of a different kind. Natural and spiritual, as compared to purely natural …"… the souls of human beings exist on a higher level and in a more perfect state, and are such that they are able to look upwards, and so to heaven and the Lord. Consequently the Lord is able to join them to Himself and grant them eternal life. But the souls of animals are such that they cannot do other than look downwards, thus merely to earthly things, and so can be joined only to these. This is also why they perish together with the body. It is their ends in view that show what the life possessed by man is like and what that possessed by a beast is like. Man is able to have spiritual and celestial ends in view, and to see, acknowledge, and believe them, and to have an affection for them. But beasts can have none but natural ends in view." (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 3646, section 2)“... [animals] perish together with the body.” - this is the real issue!Another way to express this … People also have a spiritual MIND."We have an earthly mind and a spiritual mind, the earthly mind below and the spiritual mind above. The earthly mind is our mind for this world and the spiritual mind is our mind for heaven. The earthly mind can be called the animal mind, while the spiritual mind can be called the human mind. We are differentiated from animals by our having a spiritual mind that makes it possible for us to be in heaven while we are in this world. It is also what makes it possible for us to live after death." (Doctrine of Life, paragraph 86)THREE reflections:1. Who is Swedenborg’s audience? He’s talking to us, for our sake … because we DO NOT live in the order in which we were created. Animals do.“Because we humans, regarded in ourselves, are much lower than animals, we have no chance at survival unless we are intimately connected with the Lord through heaven and the world of spirits. Left on our own we would plunge headlong into destroying ourselves and everyone else, because the ruination of ourselves and everyone else is all we long for.Our proper code of life is to love one another as we love ourselves, but what we actually do these days is to love ourselves more than others and thus hate everyone else. Now, with unreasoning animals the case is totally different. Their proper code is the one they live by, and so they live in thorough harmony with their destiny. We humans, though, live exactly opposite to the pattern ordained for us, so if the Lord did not take pity on us, if he did not bind us to him through angels, we could not possibly survive a single moment.Of this fact humanity is unaware.” (Heavenly Secrets, 637, section 2)2. Our relationship to animalsWith thanks to SHARK BYTES, who produced this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYxf4FsylN83. Animals represent something within us, aspects of our character Recorded on Thursday 15 February 2024
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auWhat's the problem with being poor?It is a life threatening condition. It’s the uncertainty, the insecurity of it - not knowing where your next meal is coming, nor where you’re going to sleep tonight, not being able to look after your own needs and the needs of your dependents. Relying upon someone or something else outside of our control.And the shame - acknowledging one’s helplessness - to be looked down upon, pitied.We see all this in the Greek word …Πτωχοὶ ptóchos: (of one who crouches and cowers, hence) beggarly, poorNaturally, this is a terrible thing.Spiritually, it’s essential.So many important principles fall into place when we accept this state: Our ability to forgive hangs on our need for forgiveness Letting go of Judgement Mercy, and especially, Recognising that we can never MERIT (deserve) heaven. The Lord is the ALL IN ALL of heaven. From Heaven and Hell:"THE DIVINE OF THE LORD MAKES HEAVEN7. … it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord which inflows with the angels and is received by them, that makes heaven in general and in part. …8. [A person] wills and does nothing good from himself; and he thinks and believes nothing of truth from himself; but from the Divine, thus from the Lord …9. … there is but one fountain of life and that [a person’s] life is a stream therefrom, which, if it did not unceasingly come into existence from its fountain, would immediately flow away. …"Reminds me of Laodicea:“you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:7)This is one of the most difficult ideas for us to comprehend when we are young. Such is our belief in ourselves, as independent, self-governing beings, as “GOOD”. Unfortunately we live in a world which is governed around the perceptions of youth, and stands in the way of enlightenment - and with it real joy and happiness.We are the biggest obstacles to our own happiness. But life has a way of teaching us the folly of our beliefs ... AND THAT IS A BLESSING!FINISHING … we read …“… 'blessing' means the Lord's presence and grace. … the Lord is present only in charity, ... The Lord is present with everyone, but as is a person's distance from charity, so is the degree of the Lord's presence.” (Heavenly Secrets, 981)Recorded on Sunday 4 February 2024
Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our website: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.auDoes winning the lottery make life better?Turns out, it does.Most people believe that lottery wins are destructive: Media reports of ruined lottery winners - negativity sells more newspapers. An invented statistic that 70% of winners go bankrupt. Envy: cushions the blow for the rest of us, who haven’t won the lottery.“Blessed” Μακάριοι makarios: happy, blessed, to be envied.Often we say, “I'm blessed” when really we mean: I am happy [in this moment] I’ve been lucky, or fortunate I am privileged, prosperousThese are descriptive of external circumstances. They’re OK, but really it’s a state of being, not a state of emotion or natural prosperity.Reframing what we mean by “blessing” - It’s easy to see external circumstances as “blessing”, but what about the path that leads there: is that a “blessing”, too?Hard decisions, easy lifeDifficulties, the path to blessings, are blessings in themselves, because of where they lead, without which we cannot be blessed.Why? Because we’re stubborn creatures, unwilling to do the work, we want it laid out on a platter.Notice the guy at the bottom - is there any reason why he WON’T reach the top? No, it's just hard work.The third essential of the love of God, … is to render others blessed from Himself … (Heavenly Secrets, 2434)The Lord seeks to bless us! To make our life enviable! When we think of “blessing”, we often imagine the end result, but forget the path that leads there."In the Word, in the external sense, 'blessing' means being enriched with all earthly and bodily good. … But in the internal sense 'blessing' means being enriched with all spiritual and celestial good, a blessing which neither does nor can possibly exist unless it comes from the Lord. …" (Heavenly Secrets, 981)Why doesn’t the Lord “bless” us externally?The real blessing is so much more than we imagine. There are intangible benefits to be found on the path:“For some people, work provides a sense of purpose and identity. Quitting your job could lead to feelings of isolation, boredom, and depression.” https://moneymarshmallow.com/why-do-lottery-winners-go-broke/“... the Lord provides the good, who accept His mercy during their time in the world, with such things as contribute to the happiness of their eternal life. He confers wealth and important positions on those to whom they can do no harm, and withholds wealth and important positions from those to whom they can do harm. To the latter nevertheless, during their time in the world, He imparts the ability to be glad with a few things instead of important positions and wealth, and to be more content than those who have wealth and important positions.” (Heavenly Secrets, 8717, section 3)Recorded on Sunday 4 February 2024
Responding to the question:“You go with heaven speaking the same languages you speak here. Not this thing of heavenly language. This is also unnecessary. There are all languages in heaven: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, all of them and also the languages that are no longer spoken in Earth anymore.”If you want to know more … HH 234-245; 246-257; 258-264;Index: IDEA, SPEECH“A picture is worth a thousand words” - perhaps this is the closest we get to experiencing angelic language?Rainn Wilson , Soul Boom, p. 97. “How can one use a tool as deficient as language to attempt to express the inexpressible? Language is merely the flitting of the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave in the grand scheme of things. A Finger pointing at the moon.”Our language is external"Although the external or natural memory remains in man after death, the merely natural things in it are not reproduced in the other life, … For this reason the external or natural memory, as to those things that are material, is then quiescent, and only those things that man has imbibed in the world by means of material things, and has made rational, come into use." (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 464)But angels’ speech is interior “Language [in heaven] is not learned but implanted by nature with everyone, for it flows from their very affection and thought. … it is affection sounding and thought speaking” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 236)How angels speak and we “hear” them“When angels and spirits talk with us, it sounds just as audible as when we talk with each other, but it is not audible to people who are nearby, only to ourselves. This is because the speech of an angel or spirit flows first into our thought and then by an inner route into our organ of hearing so that it activates it from within.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 248)Did something like this take place at Pentecost (Acts chapter 2)?Angels’ speech is EFFICIENT“The speech of angels is … full of wisdom because it proceeds from their interior thought, and their interior thought is wisdom, as their interior affection is love. … Consequently, … they can express in a single word what man cannot express in a thousand words.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 239) Angel’s speech is not subject to limitations of the natural world (AC 5253)Angels cannot say what they don’t mean, or don’t think,“… spirits and angels speak from those affections and consequent thoughts that are of their minds, and are therefore unable to give expression to things that do not square with their affections and thoughts, …” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 464)We make a great virtue of honesty, but we also need to consider that angels cannot say what does not accord with good and truth … they ARE angels because of the Lord’s presence in them.Zephaniah chapter 3“For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language,That they all may call on the name of the Lord,To serve Him with one accord.” (v.9)“The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousnessAnd speak no lies,Nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth;For they shall feed their flocks and lie down,And no one shall make them afraid.” (v.13)What can we learn from this?LISTEN for meaning [internal], not just words [external]SPEAK in such a way that your meaning may be received,and if necessary, be prepared to try again.ANYONE CAN BE HONEST, but is it IN ACCORD with what is good and true?
The gospels are NOT a series of chronological and disconnected stories with no relation to one another. There’s a deeperr connection and progression.The withered fig tree connects to the stories that come before and that follow. The most obvious connection is “fruit”Both the following stories take place in the vineyard: The fruit of obeying the father’s command, rather than the agreement to obey. The wicked vinedressers Finally, the chief priests and Pharisees get the message:“Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.” (Matthew 21:45,46)The entry into Jerusalem, clearing of the temple, the fig tree, the parables, all relate to THEIR SPIRITUAL STATE.Fig and VINE - WHY different fruit?“... the “vine” is used in the Word to signify spiritual good, and the “fig-tree” natural good …” (Arcana Caelestia, 217)Fig - natural actions: What you can see and measure What the chief priests and pharisees are doing in spadesVine - spiritual good: The intelligence that lies behind it (and beyond that, the love, motivation, intention)What does any of this have to do with finding fulfilment?JESUS’ AUTHORITY QUESTIONED (vv. 23-27):“By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (verse 23) Jesus wasn't saying anything new. He wasn’t creating a problem for a religious system that was working, He was exposing its flaws.A HARD LESSON: What is in the Heart IS ALREADY FULFILLED!If the results you want aren’t there, or aren’t working, you HAVE TO LOOK at what lies behind them.“Let no one suppose, therefore, that the Lord dwells in those who merely adore Him, but that He dwells in those who do His commandments, thus who do things of use.” (DLW 335)There is a difference between loving to do God’s Will, and loving the IDEA of doing God’s Will.We are a mess of - sometimes contradictory - lovesOur challenge is to bring that mess into alignment with what we say we want.If we look at our lives with dissatisfaction, you can KNOW where the problem lies.“... love and wisdom apart from use are only abstractions of the mind, which fade away unless they are applied to use.” (TCR 67)Think about SUCCESS, and what success means. We are attracted to the IDEA of success, what we see as the EFFECTS of success, We are not at all interested in what success actually requires - the hard work, the dedication, the single minded pursuit of the thing we want to be successful in Because in all this talk of success, we’ve forgotten that in order to be successful, one has to be dedicated to some ideal MORE than one is dedicated to successHow do you find fulfilment? Success? PURPOSE: Find the thing that we are actually going to fulfil, and dedicate our lives to that principle. PUT ASIDE THE DISTRACTIONS - it’s easy to waste time! SET ASIDE IDEAS OF FULFILMENT AND SUCCESS - they are themselves distractions! TO BE OF “USE” - work single mindedly towards that goal.IN EVERY ENDEAVOUR, to look or feel successful, fulfilled, happy, the answer is NOT TO SEEK success, fulfilment, or happiness.These CAN ONLY ever be byproducts of other, deeper processes, commitment to a value greater than self. TO BE OF USE.Recorded on Sunday 7 January 2024
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our Christmas Day Message, recorded on Monday 25 December 2023.Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic #swedenborg, #discoverswedenborg, #swedenberg, #religion, #spirituality, #bible, #christianity, #light, #heaven
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Our Christmas Eve message, recorded on Sunday 24 December 2023.Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic #swedenborg, #discoverswedenborg, #swedenberg, #religion, #spirituality, #bible, #christianity, #light, #darkness, #dark
Responding to the Question:“Separate heaven in 2 kingdoms and 3 levels? Really? Why is that? Just one heaven and everybody there you can have access, and all the places, some places in heaven are better than others and some people are more enlightened than others, but you don't need to have 3 heavens. What about if your parents went to the first level and you to the second or third, you'll never see them anymore?”There are no restrictions, no one saying you aren’t “allowed”“... after death no one is prevented from coming up into heaven. We are shown the way and given the resources, and we are let in.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 338)Perhaps “distinct” is a better word than “seperate” - for example, the human body has distinct organs and systems, yet the body itself is one, and each of the organs, though distinct, is essential for the healthy functioning of the whole bodySwedenborg describes the whole of heaven as in the image of a person, the “Universal Human”:“As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 73)This is our own form! The human form.WITHIN THAT FORM, there are: Kingdoms and Degrees or levelsKingdoms: have reference to a “king” - that is the ruling principleThey are: Love-good-will and Wisdom-truth-understandingWe all operate from a different relationship to the two ruling principles, the “kingdoms”.“Heavens” - Degrees or Levels - we’re talking about deeper LEVELS of the mind. They correspond to one another, there is a relationship between them, yet higher levels transcends the lower onesThe levels or degrees are:Celestial - Love [Will] - Love to the Lord - End [motivation, goal] - headSpiritual - Wisdom [Understanding] - Love to the neighbour - Cause - bodyNatural - Use [Action] - Obedience and faith - Effect [manifestation] - legsWhat is it like to live from different levels? Can we understand it?Love of doing one’s duty and external morality (honestly, not hypocritically) vs love to the neighbour vs love to the Lord.The Golden ruleThe natural heaven, though perhaps less “enlightened”, nevertheless performs an essential function in grounding the higher heavens.These levels are represented in the construction of the temple and the tabernacle: The outer court - the natural - conscious and subconscious, experience Altar and Sea - actions of external religion - offering and self examination The holy place - the spiritual - the furniture speaks of the connection (CORRESPONDENCE) between the levels - Bread and Light (receiving love and wisdom), Incense (offering prayer)The holy of holies - the celestial - the Ark - presence of the Lord* Note the three levels of chambers on the outer wall of the templeTaj Mahal, similarly - Joe Vandermeer, Friday 24 NovemberKing David - Building the Lord’s house (2 Samuel 7) - what does that look like?It is the human form - which we all partake of.We have our own, particular place in it, the centre from which we operate.There is a place for everyone: “In My Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2)Being “more evolved”, attaining a “higher heaven”? In a sense it doesn’t matter what level or kingdom you operate from - we can seek these things from a sense of ego or pride - it is that you are seeking to operate from a heavenly perspective …Which is to be led by the Lord. David didn’t build the house, he had to await the Lord’s plans, but he expressed the wish to do so - reiterated by his son, Solomon.“Unless the Lord builds the house, They labour in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1a)Recorded on Sunday 3 December 2023
The letter to the church at Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)“Laodicea” - from laos (the people, laity) and diké (properly, right, especially a judicial verdict which declares someone approved or disapproved; a judgement (just finding) that regards someone (something) as "guilty" or "innocent.")Where we’ve been [see YouTube playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMo1nH11Md33QyjE4d6ZdD3ggo-bYL5ZL]A successive revelation of our own inner statesEach step follows on from the previous one and leads inevitably to the nextSO, WHAT COMES NEXT? What does that clarity of vision (which we find in Philadelphia) show us?Our own true nature, and it's NOT A PRETTY PICTURE!How is this DAY SEVEN, the SABBATH?!“... good from the Lord is heaven for angels, and not anything of their own.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 12)This is DEATH TO SELF - “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35)“before love of self and the world are quiescent, celestial and spiritual things cannot inflow” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 2967, section 2)“A person should think, will, and act as if doing so all by himself, yet should attribute to the Lord all his thought of what is true and endeavour towards what is good. When this happens the Lord implants within the person the ability to receive Him and influx from Him.” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 10299, section 4)How do you need to get out of the way of the Lord’s work this week?Recorded on Sunday 26 November 2023.
How do you think the world’s going right now?In this world, how do we address the problem of evil?WHY? What are we trying to achieve?Does it work?The problem we face here is that we can only see the externals, the actions, not the whole person.However, in the spiritual world, the whole person becomes manifest.We enter the next life with our mask but as it drops away, the internal person - our motivations, desires, and thoughts - shows itself.As this occurs in me and others, we come to see whose company we gravitate towards. “Birds of a feather flock together.”THIS IS JUDGEMENT.The Lord acts from LOVE! Does not restrict the entrance to heaven Never sends anyone to hell Seeks to raise all to heaven (or at the very least, to restrict their descent into hell) No one is born for hell, nor with any spiritual disadvantage“... divine providence is a predestination only to heaven … … everyone is created to go to heaven. This is the ultimate goal of creation. The reason not everyone gets to heaven, though, is that people immerse themselves in pleasures of hell that are contrary to the blessedness of heaven. People who do not enjoy heaven's bliss cannot enter heaven because they cannot stand the place.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 324)Swedenborg does describe about the suffering of evil spirits … when they attempt to enter heaven!“... after death no one is prevented from coming up into heaven. We are shown the way and given the resources, and we are let in. However, [if we enjoy evil] when we get to heaven and breathe in its pleasure, we begin to have such chest pains, heart pangs, and dizziness that we writhe like a snake next to a fire. Then with faces turned away from heaven and toward hell, we run away headlong, finding no rest until we are in the community of our own love.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 338)Hell is no more than the consequence of a life focused (or “delighting in”) selfishness or merely external concerns. And the choice is ours.The final question: What is heaven for you? Where do you find your greatest delight? That is either your heaven or your hell.Recorded on Sunday 19 November 2023
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic A question posted on YouTube, on the Centrality of Christ: “I think this is utter [sic] unnecessary in Swedenborg's theology, it can work all well without that. Jesus may be just a spiritual teacher who taught about the existence of heaven and hell and an afterlife. … Just a great human such as Aristotle. It would be so awkward to arrive in the spiritual world and learn that you have to adore Jesus.”“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)“With the Lord everything is Jehovah, not only His Internal Man and Interior Man, but also His External Man, including the body itself.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1729)“Throughout heaven they do not know any other Father than the Lord, for They are one” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 15)“But those who do not know anything about the Lord, …, if they believe in one God, and live in accordance with the commandments of their own religion, are saved by their faith and their life. Sin is imputed to those who know, not to those who are ignorant, just as blind people who knock into things are not blamed.” (True Christianity, paragraph 107, section 3)“the names contained in the Word … embody in a nutshell all the characteristics, thus the nature and state of that reality to which it refers.” (Heavenly Secrets, 6674)“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)What is more important - calling ourselves “Christian”, or becoming Christ-like? Paul meant the same when he wrote:“(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, …)” (Romans 2:14-15)“... when Jesus is mentioned by someone reading the Word [the angels] perceive Divine Good, and when Christ is mentioned, Divine Truth. And when both are mentioned together they perceive the Divine marriage of good to truth, and of truth to good.” (AC 3004)What is the essential thing? “believe in one God, and live in accordance with the commandments of their own religion” (TCR 107.3)
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Algorithm [noun]: a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer.On YouTube:I watch the Fully Charged Show [Electric Cars] - your own viewing habits becomes the INPUTOUTPUT is more material of a similar nature [More electric cars]THE AIM? To keep you watching, scrolling, engaged.SIDE EFFECT: [SLIDE] “Echo Chamber” - my own interests and opinions are constantly fed back to me, and thus confirmed.What’s Interesting - We ALL know this. We are all influenced by it. BUT I’M NOT. It becomes a means by which I explain your attitudes and beliefs, rather than alerting me to something I am susceptible to myself - REINFORCES THE EFFECT. Similarly, terms such as “Confirmation Bias”, “Cognitive Dissonance”.WHY IS THAT? Because we don’t need social media to be caught in an echo chamber. We all have our own personal model, BUILT IN!I don’t see the world as it is … I see the world as I am. THE QUESTION is, HOW DO I see the world AS IT IS, rather than as I am programmed to see it?Swedenborg makes comment about the spiritual nature of a number of nations and groups. FROM TRUE CHRISTIANITY:“The Dutch are more firmly attached than other peoples to their religious principles, and are not to be moved from them. Even if it is proved to them that this or that point is inconsistent, still they do not accept it, but turn back and remain unmoved.” (paragraph 802)“[British] minds exhibit such similarity that they form close friendships with their compatriots, but rarely with others. They also help one another, and like sincerity. They are patriotic and jealous of their country's honour.” (paragraph 808)“… any of them who had led a life of charity, and more so those who had loved truth because it is true, allow themselves to be taught in the spiritual world, and accept the teachings of the new church.” (paragraph 799)“None … can see whether a teaching of their Church is true except those who have an affection for truth for the sake of useful services in life. Those who have this end in view are enlightened by the Lord constantly, … [continues] not only while they live in the world but also afterwards. They alone are the ones who are able to receive truth, for the Lord leads them by means of good, and through that good He enables them to see truth and so believe it.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 8521, section 3)HOW DO you see the world AS IT IS, rather than as you are programmed to see it?3. Practise self examination, self awareness … rather than other awareness“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)2. Hold to your beliefs - they provide a grounding, an anchor - BUT HOLD THEM LIGHTLY.“… no truths with a person, nor even with an angel, are ever pure, that is, free of appearances. Every single one is an appearance of the truth, but appearances are nevertheless accepted by the Lord as truths if they hold good within them. To the Lord alone do pure truths, being Divine truths, belong - for as the Lord is Good itself, so is He Truth itself.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 3207, section 3)1. Operate - and view others - from good, assume the best rather than the worst“Because love to the Lord and mutual love resides with angels, so also does all truth and thus all wisdom and intelligence, not only in celestial and spiritual things but also in rational and natural. For by virtue of love, it being from the Lord, they are in touch with the very beginnings or sources of things, that is, with ends in view and causes.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 2572, section 3)Recorded on Sunday 15 October 2023
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On "The Holy Supper", Chapter 13 of True Christianity.“Where the Lord is fully present, his redemption is also fully present.” (paragraph 717)“I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:56)"Surely everyone can see that it is not the bread and wine that [bring about our partnership with the Lord], but rather the good we do from love, which is meant by the bread, and the truth we believe, which is meant by the wine. These qualities belong exclusively to the Lord; they emanate from and are distributed by him alone." (paragraph 727)“It is the spirit giving life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)"Where the Lord is fully present, his redemption is also fully present. … Being redeemed means being liberated from hell, forming a partnership with the Lord, and being saved. These then are the fruits that are given to us in the Holy Supper. They are not given us to the full extent that the Lord would like, however. Moved as he is by his divine love, he would prefer to give us all of these gifts. Instead we are given them in accordance with our own receptivity; however receptive we are, that is how far the process of redemption takes us." (paragraph 717)"The Lord's presence with people who go no further than understanding what is true and good is general and external in nature; but his presence with people who go further and actually will and do what is true and good is both general and personal, or both internal and external." (719, Section 2)"... one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 8:3)."… since the body dies and the soul lives on after death, it follows that spiritual nourishment exists to serve our eternal well-being. Surely everyone can see, then, that these two types of nourishment should not in any way be confused with each other." (paragraph 709)"The Lord does not [close heaven] to any people, even to the final hour of their lives in this world. We ourselves close heaven to ourselves [while we are in this world], by rejecting faith and living an evil life. But even if we do this, we are still constantly kept in a state that leaves open the possibility of repentance and turning our lives around. The Lord is always present and exerting pressure on us to accept him. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20). We ourselves are at fault if we do not open the door." (paragraph 720)Recorded on Sunday 3 September 2023
Letters to the Churches 6 (Philadelphia - Revelation 3:7-13)
Modern-day Aleşehir [ala-sh’-HERE]. Was well known for its vulnerability to earthquakes.
MEANING: "brotherly love", derived from φίλος phílos (beloved, dear) and ἀδελφός adelphós (brother, brotherly).
“An inscription found in the ruins suggests that Philadelphia was founded at least as early as the 2nd century BC during the reign of King Eumenes II of Pergamum, who named the city after his younger brother, Attalus II, who was called Philadelphus in honour of his love and loyalty to his brother the king.”
“For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35)
“the neighbour in the spiritual sense is not every man, but it is that which is with man. … everyone loves another, not for the sake of his person, but for the sake of what is with him; this is the ground of all friendship, all favour and all honour.” (Apocalypse Explained 204, section 2)
1 Peter 3:8-12 - Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
“to write is to commit to paper anything from the memory, thought, or mind, that is to be preserved; in the spiritual sense, therefore, it signifies that which is to endure in man's life, inscribed on it and implanted in it.” (222a)
“Two principle things of the church: the acknowledgement of the Lord’s divine in his human, and making the truths of the Word to be of one’s life; moreover, no one can be in the one unless he is at the same time in the other.” (209, Section 2)
“So far as the way from heaven is opened with man, so far he is affected by truth, and becomes rational, that is, sees truth from the light of truth.” (208a)
Recorded on Sunday 27 August 2023
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“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
What does this mean?
We'll look at Catholic teaching - the contrast helped me see the importance of what Swedenborg writes here. Begin with … confession!
DO YOU KNOW … what does Swedenborg agree with here? [closest to #3&4]
The three uses of Baptism (from True Chrisianity): 1. Bring People into the Christian Church and at the Same Time to Bring Them into the Company of Christians in the Spiritual World (paragraphs 677-680); [see 3&4, above] 2. Allow Christians to Know and Acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Savior, and to Follow Him (681-683); 3. Lead Us to Be Regenerated (684-687).
THE LAW OF “Influx”. The inner self flows into the outer self and produces the effects sought by the will and the intellect. The outer self does not flow into the inner self. A flow that goes inward is unnatural, because it goes against the divine design; a flow that goes outward is natural, because it follows the divine design. (672)
The Lord replaced circumcision with baptism: “… when the Lord came into the world, he abolished these symbolic acts [of the Old Testament], all of which were external in nature, and established a church with practices that were all internal in nature. The Lord dispelled the allegories and revealed the true forms themselves, …” (670)
“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1)
Baptism replaced circumcision, and represents essentially the same thing: “... rejecting the cravings of the flesh, and therefore being purified from evils.” (674)
Is that where the Catholics get the idea that baptism leaves a “indelible spiritual mark on the soul”? But both are still natural, earthly actions.
… no physical act of washing that can reach our spirit and cleanse it as well. [Section 2] All criminals, robbers, and thieves have the ability to wash themselves until they gleam; but that washing does not wipe away the characteristics that make them criminals, robbers, and thieves. (672)
… both of these rituals, circumcision and baptism, were intended only as a sign and a reminder to be purified from evils. This purification is what truly makes people "chosen." An outward change without an inward change is like a church building with no worship inside; it is useless to everyone, except perhaps as a stable for animals. (676)
“… He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:31-36)
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
The word, “Imputation” isn’t prominent in Swedenborg’s vocabulary (160 uses only, about half being in this chapter). However, this chapter is the climax of his book, True Christianity. Links with: * chapter 2 - The Lord the Redeemer, * chapter 8 - Freewill, * chapter 9 - Repentance, and * chapter 10 - Reformation and Regeneration
“Imputation” - means, In FINANCE - the assignment of a value to something by inference from the value of the products or processes to which it contributes. In THEOLOGY - the action or process of ascribing righteousness, guilt, etc. to someone by virtue of a similar quality in another.
Jonathan Rose translates Imputation as “The Assignment of Spiritual Credit or Blame”
Two different understandings: The Book of Concord: "… poor sinful man is justified before God, that is, absolved and declared free and exempt from all his sins, and from the sentence of well-deserved condemnation, and adopted into sonship and heirship of eternal life, without any merit or worth of our own, also without any preceding, present, or any subsequent works, out of pure grace, because of the sole merit, complete obedience, bitter suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Christ alone, whose obedience is reckoned to us for righteousness." (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/solid-declaration/righteousness-of-faith/#sd-iii-0009)
Swedenborg: II. Imputation as part of present-day faith is a double concept. There is imputation of Christ's merit and imputation of salvation as a result. (paragraph 628) V. It is impossible for Christ's merit and righteousness to be imputed. (640) VI. There is imputation but it is of good and evil, and at the same time of faith. (643)
Everything good flows in from the Lord and everything evil from hell: 904, 4151. Nowadays people believe that everything is in themselves and from themselves, when actually everything is flowing in, …: 4249, 6193, 6206. If our belief were in accord with doctrine, we would not claim evil as our own or make good our own: 6206, 6324-6325. (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 603.6)
… the Lord is not capable of doing anything evil to anyone. This means that he cannot ascribe evil to people, either. He is love itself, mercy itself, goodness itself. … Therefore for evil or anything like it to be an attribute of the Lord would go against his divine essence and would be inconsistent with himself. (True Christianity 651)
VII. The faith and concept of imputation in the new church cannot by any means be combined with the faith and concept of imputation current in the former church. If they are combined, there is such a clash and conflict that a person loses all trace of anything to do with the church. (647)
"Syncretism" - Means * the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought." (Google) * "reconciliation of different beliefs," (https://www.etymonline.com/word/syncretism)
HOW ARE WE TO DISCERN THE TRUTH? “Open your ears, my friend the reader, and read the Word, and you will clearly grasp a different faith and a different kind of imputation from the one of which you have so far been persuaded.” (644) “…the Word is from beginning to end full of evidences and proofs that everyone has his good or evil imputed to him …” (645)
Luke 6:32-36 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful."
Sardis was situated in the middle of Hermus River Valley (Gediz River), about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of the river. Its citadel was built on Mount Tmolus, a steep and lofty spur, while a lower town extended to the area of the Pactolus stream. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardis)
In the seventh century BC, Sardis became the capital city of Lydia. … Sardis was conquered by Cyrus the Great around 547 BC [book of Daniel]. … In 334 BC, Sardis was conquered by Alexander the Great. … In 219 BC, Sardis passed to the Romans
“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” (verse 1)
Sardis represents, those “who live a moral but not a spiritual life, because they have little regard for the knowledges of spiritual things and for intelligence and wisdom therefrom” (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 182)
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. (verse 2)
if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. (verse 3)
This idea is found throughout New Testament: “if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.” (Luke 12:39) Jesus TO the Pharisees: Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:3) Little Apocalypse: “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36) Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matthew 25:13) “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” (Revelation 16:15)
“... since a person's internal and external can thus go in opposite directions, …, it is clear that a murky spirit can live behind a shining face, and a fiery one behind a smooth tongue. Therefore, my friend, you must get to know a person not by his mouth but by his heart, that is, not by his conversation but by what he does.” (True Christianity 590)
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Recorded on Sunday 23 July 2023
Reformation and Regeneration, chapter 10 from True Christianity, by Emanuel Swedenborg
Reformation is: * the first state is one of thought on the part of the understanding * a person looks from his natural to his spiritual man and desires to be spiritual * … formed by means of the truths which must become part of faith, * … and these enable him to look towards charity.
Regeneration is: * the second is one of love on the part of the will * becomes spiritual-natural * … formed by the kinds of good which make up charity, … * … and from them he enters into the truths of faith.
SPIRITUAL-NATURAL 607. section 2. When I say that we become "spiritual" as a result of being regenerated, I do not mean that we [who are still in the physical world] become as fully spiritual as angels; I mean that we become both spiritual and earthly, meaning that within our earthly self there is a spiritual self, which is present in much the same way thought is present in speech or the will is present in action - if one stops, the other stops. Similarly, our spirit is present in the individual things our body does. The spirit is what drives the earthly component to do what it does. Viewed on its own, the earthly part of us is something passive; it is a dead force. The spiritual part of us is something active; it is a living force. Something passive, a dead force, cannot take action on its own. It must be driven by something active, a living force.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH: BY MEANS OF TRUTH IN THE UNDERSTANDING 589. … the first step in our being generated anew is to receive truths in our intellect. The second step is to intend to put those truths into practice; eventually it takes the form of actually putting them into practice.
- Regeneration Is Not Possible without the Truths That Shape Faith and Are Joined with Goodwill
IT BEGINS WITH TRUTHS … BUT … IT DOESN’T END THERE! 602. It is important to note, however, that our intellect can rise up almost into the light that the angels of heaven have, but if our will does not rise along with it, we are still the old self, not the new self.
THE REVERSAL 571. As the second state begins and progresses, a change takes place in our minds. There is a reversal, because then the love in our will flows into our intellect and leads and drives it to think in agreement and harmony with what we love. As good actions that come from love take on a primary role, and the truths related to faith are relegated to a secondary role, we become spiritual and are a new creation [2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15]. Then our actions come from goodwill and our words come from faith; we develop a sense of the goodness that comes from goodwill and a perception of the truth that is related to faith; and we are in the Lord and in a state of peace. In brief, we are reborn. [2] If we begin the first state while we are in this world, we can be brought into the second state after we die. If we do not begin the first state while we are in this world, we cannot be brought into the second state or be reborn after we die.
LEARNING A NEW SKILL: * Move from conscious doing, to easy, effortless, unconscious doing * From practice to habit. * The move from the cerebrum to the cerebellum. * Applies to all forms of skills - playing the piano, driving, riding a bicycle * THIS IS NOT REFORMATION / REGENERATION - BUT AN IMAGE OF IT.
IT IS CARRIED OUT BY THE LORD - WITH MAN’S COOPERATION 576. The Lord Alone Generates or Creates Us Anew, Provided We Cooperate; He Uses Both Goodwill and Faith as Means
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Repentance: from True Christianity, chapter 9
“... we are all regenerated when we abstain from things that are evil and sinful and run away from them as we would run if we saw hordes of hellish spirits pursuing us with flaming torches, intending to attack us and throw us onto a bonfire.” (paragraph 510)
What Repentance IS … “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13) “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:18,19,21)
“Real repentance is examining oneself, recognising and acknowledging one's sins, appealing to the Lord and beginning a new life.” (528)
Repentance must be MORE THAN an INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE: “for repentance to be genuine and effective in a person, it must come from the will, and from thought coming from the will, not from thought alone. In other words, it must be expressed in action, not merely on the lips.” (510 [516])
Repentance must be specific: “repentance is not possible unless we know not only in a general way but also in specific detail that we are sinners. This is something we cannot know unless we examine ourselves, see the sins that are within us, and condemn ourselves on their account.” (513 [also 525])
Repentance must consider intentions, as well as actions. “True repentance means not only examining what one does in one's life, but also what one intends in one's will to do.” (532)
“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)
Refraining from evils as sins is also repentance. (535)
In the Protestant Christian world, active repentance, which is examining ourselves, recognising and admitting to our sins, praying to the Lord, and starting a new life, is extremely difficult to practice, ... Therefore here is an easier kind of repentance: When we are considering doing something evil and are forming an intention to do it, we say to ourselves, "I am thinking about this and I am intending to do it, but because it is a sin, I am not going to do it. " This counteracts the enticement that hell is injecting into us and keeps it from making further inroads.
It is amazing but true that it is easy for any of us to rebuke someone else who is intending to do something evil and say, "Don't do that - that's a sin!" And yet it is difficult for us to say the same thing to ourselves. The reason is that saying it to ourselves requires a movement of the will, but saying it to someone else requires only a low level of thought based on things we have heard. (535)
The power of practice and habit: “It is well known that habits form a kind of second nature, and therefore what is easy for one person is difficult for another. This applies also to examining ourselves and confessing what we have found.” (563)
“It does no harm to confess before a minister, although this is earthly rather than spiritual.” (539)
To the reformed, repentance is difficult because it is not practised. (561)
Those Who Have Never Practised Repentance or Looked at or Studied Themselves Eventually Do Not Even Know What Damnable Evil or Saving Goodness Is (564)
Based upon Revelation, chapter 2, verses 18-29.
"… now the modern Turkish city of Akhisar ("white castle") … During the Roman era, (1st century AD), it was famous for its dyeing facilities and was a centre of the purple cloth trade. Among the ancient ruins of the city, inscriptions have been found relating to the guild of dyers in the city. Indeed, more guilds … are known in Thyatira than any other contemporary city in the Roman province of Asia (inscriptions mention the following: wool-workers, linen-workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, potters, bakers, slave-dealers, and bronze-smiths)." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyatira)
THE TRANSLATOR’S HEADINGS [NKJV] - I've resisted talking about this … until today! Ephesus - The Loveless Church Smyrna - The Persecuted Church Pergamos - The Compromising Church Thyatira - The Corrupt Church Sardis - The Dead Church Philadelphia - The Faithful Church Laodicea - The Lukewarm Church
- NOT part of the text!
- Are these headings useful? SOMETIMES … BUT BEWARE!! TREAT WITH SUSPICION!!
Compare with Swedenborg's Apocalypse Explained: Ephesus - “in knowledges of good and truth” (AE 95) Smyrna - “desire understanding” (AE 112) Pergamos - “in temptations” (AE 130) Thyatira - “internals and externals make one.” (AE 150)
Major feature of this letter - Jezebel “Calls herself a prophetess” [v. 20], teaching and seducing (misleading) - falsity that leads to evil, masquerading as truth
“I gave her time to repent” [v. 21] - how does this work, practically? There’s no suggestion that she’s been given a warning or been corrected in any way.
The judgement / punishment [v. 22,23] - interesting that the bed [“of suffering”?] into which she is thrown is the vehicle of her immorality
The Lord who searches the mind and heart, giving to each one according to our works [v. 23]
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” (Matthew 23:25,26)
“Without usefulness, love and wisdom are only fleeting abstract entities, and they do indeed fly away if they do not move in the direction of usefulness. … When useful service results, love and wisdom take on a real existence.” (True Christianity, paragraph 67)
Recorded on Sunday 25 June 2023
Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Find the Formula of Concord at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_of_Concord“... there are three [things] which make up the essence of His love - loving others than oneself, wishing to be one with them, and devoting oneself to their happiness.” (43)“God himself is the design. Because all things were created by God, they were created by the design, in the design, and for the design. There is also a design into which humankind was created, which is that whether we are blessed or cursed depends on our own exercise of free choice in spiritual matters.” (502)People who have become earthly because of false beliefs about the spiritual teachings of the church cannot help thinking that divine omnipotence is above and beyond the design [of the universe], and therefore that divine omnipotence exists outside that design. As a result they lapse into deranged thoughts such as the following: “Why did the Lord come into the world and why was this a redemption, when God's omnipotence could have allowed him to accomplish the same thing from heaven as he did on earth? Why wouldn't he, through his redemption, have saved the entire human race down to the last person?” (502)“the Lord protects our freedom the way we protect the pupil of our eye.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 97)“All the freedom that comes from the Lord is true freedom. The freedom in us that comes from hell is slavery.” (495)“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” [John 8:31,32]"Once someone has been regenerated he enters for the first time into a state of freedom. Previously he has been in a state of slavery. It is slavery when evil desires and falsities predominate, freedom when affections for good and truth do so. As long as he is in a state of slavery, a person never perceives what his situation is. Only when he enters a state of freedom does he start to do so. When he is in a state of slavery, that is, when evil desires and falsities predominate, the person who has become subject to them imagines that he is in a state of freedom. That however is sheer falsity, for he is at that time being carried away by the delight that accompanies desires and resulting pleasures, that is, by the delight accompanying the loves that are his own. And because he is being carried away by such delight it seems to him as though he were a free man." ([Secrets of Heaven, 892)On self-compulsion:“It is different for us if we absorb the spiritual teachings of the church and restrain our free choice accordingly. We are then led by the Lord away from cravings and evil pleasures and our native eagerness for them, and we strive for what is good and turn away from what is evil. The Lord then moves us closer to both the east and the south in the spiritual world, and we are brought into heavenly freedom, which is true freedom.” (478)Recorded on Sunday 4 June 2023
WHERE is Satan's Throne?!Letter to the church at Pergamos - Revelation 2:12-17We also read the story of Balak and Balaam, Numbers chapter 22.THE TWO-EDGED SWORD“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)“Truth combating falsity.” (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 131)BALAK and BALAAM, the NICOLAITANS“Nicolaitans” could have been derived from two Gr. words, nikan, which meant “to conquer” and laos, which meant “people.” Likewise Balaam could be derived from two Heb. words, bela which meant “to conquer” and ha’am, which meant “people.” Nicolaus and Balaam would then be the Gr. and Heb. forms of the same name, ... https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Nicolaitans[The Nicolaitans] “... those who separate good from truth, or charity from faith, which is against Divine order. Those who do this turn away from themselves all influx of heaven into the good they do, so their goods are not good.” (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 142)NAME“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)FINALLY ...“Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” (Revelation 2:16)“I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17)Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic Recorded on Sunday 28 May 2023.
On Charity, or Love to the Neighbour, and Good Deeds: chapter 7 of True Christian Religion.We are not saved by your good deeds, and Swedenborg does not teach that we are!“The current belief is that charity is no more than doing good, and that then a person does no evil.” [paragraph 437]“... a person can by no means act from spiritual justice and faithfulness of himself …” [423]Charity means: "‘Christian love of one's fellows’ (Middle English): from Old French charite, from Latin caritas, from carus ‘dear’."… charity, can be defined as doing good to the neighbour daily and constantly, not only to the neighbour as an individual but also collectively; and the only way of doing this is by good and fair dealing in the position, business or work in which one is engaged and with anyone with whom one comes into contact. … A person who exercises charity in this way becomes more and more a living form of charity; for justice and faithfulness develop his mind, and exercise does his body, and in process of time the formation of his mind prevents him from willing and thinking of anything but such things as have to do with charity. These people end up by becoming like those described in the Word as having the law engraved on their hearts. … [423]There is a difference between the obligations/duties versus the benefactions/kindnesses:"It is generally believed that charity consists only in giving to the poor, helping the needy, taking care of widows and orphans, making donations to the building of hospices and hospitals, hostels, orphanages, and above all churches, and to their decoration and their income. But the majority of these are not the proper work of charity, but are additional to it." [425]Charity is the internal, and good works the externals:"No one can draw any conclusions from the morality of the external [person] about that of the internal, since he may be facing the opposite direction, ... The so-called moral man of this sort is like a highwayman in town and in the woods; in town he adopts the role of a moral citizen, but in the woods he preys on travellers." [443]Who or what is the neighbour?“... good, leaving persons out of account, is the neighbour.” [422]Three important principles:1. Acting with Prudence / Discrimination - so that GOOD is the result.“... because these degrees exist in the internal man, who is rarely to be discerned in the world, it is sufficient for one to love the neighbour in terms of the degrees one does know.” [410]“... those kindnesses are in many ways beneficial, particularly giving to the poor and to beggars. They are a means by which boys and girls, servants and maids, and generally speaking all simple folk are introduced to charity; these are the external acts which lead people to absorb the functions of charity. They are its beginnings, and then like unripe fruit; and in the case of those who are later perfected by acquiring a proper knowledge of charity and faith, they become like ripe fruit.” [426]2. Shunning evils of sins - is the first part of charity“Reason itself can show anyone that in so far as the evil lodged in the will is not removed, so far is the good he does impregnated with that evil.” [435]“Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25)“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:10)3. “As it of oneself.”“... no one is able to purity himself from evils by his own power and abilities; yet neither can it be done without the power and abilities of man as if these were his own.” [438]Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Have you found us on other platforms? Go to: https://linktr.ee/swedenborgcommunityvic
Continuing our series on Swedenborg's True Christian Religion. Where we’ve been so far:1. God the Creator2. The Lord the Redeemer3. The Holy Spirit and the Way God Works4. The Sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord5. The Catechism or the Ten Commandments, explained in both the external and internal sensesThis chapter: FAITHThis chapter is NOT about defining what you should believe - that’s really what the whole book is about - it’s about the development of faith and its effect upon a person.This chapter and the next (on CHARITY) go together. Conceptually, we separate faith and charity, in reality they CANNOT be separated:“Charity can no more be separated from faith than the heart can from the lungs. For if the heartbeat ceases, the respiration of the lungs ceases at once; and if the respiration of the lungs ceases, total unconsciousness supervenes, and inability to move any muscle, so that shortly afterwards, the heart also stops and all trace of life vanishes.” (367. Section 4)“When people say that those are saved who have faith, they are saying something true; but in the Word nothing else is meant by faith than love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and so a life that is derived from those loves. Matters of doctrine and established beliefs do not constitute faith yet are part of faith, for these, each and every one, exist to the end that a person may become such as they teach.” (Arcana Coelestia, paragraph 2116)First in time vs. first in intention."Faith, which also means truth, is first in time, but charity, which also means good, is first in intention.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 336, section 2)The paragraph continues:“... the building of a church and a house, ... The first thing in time in building a church is laying the foundations, building the walls, putting the roof on, and then putting an altar inside and constructing a pulpit; but the first thing in intention is the worship of God in the church, which is the reason why the other things are done. The first thing in time in building a house is making its outer fabric, and equipping it with all the necessities of life; but the first thing in intention is a convenient dwelling for oneself and the others who are to live in the house.”IV The mass of truths, which cohere as it were in a bundle, raises the level of faith and brings it to perfection."There is only one true faith, because faith is truth, and truth cannot be shattered and carved up, so that one part verges to the left, and one part to the right, and still remain its own truth. Faith as generally understood is composed of countless truths, for it is a collection of truths. But all these countless truths make up, as it were, a single body, to which the truths as its parts belong. … This is why Paul calls the church the body of Christ." (paragraph 379)V Faith without charity is no faith, and charity without faith is no charity, and both are lifeless unless the Lord gives them life.“… a person can only acquire by his own efforts natural faith, which is a firm belief that a thing is so because an authoritative person so declared it. He can also acquire only natural charity, which is working in someone's favour for the sake of some reward. These two contain man's self, and there is no life as yet from the Lord. Still a person by either of these prepares himself to receive the Lord. In so far as he prepares himself, so far does the Lord come in and make his natural faith spiritual, and likewise his charity, and so make both living. These results follow when a person approaches the Lord as the God of heaven and earth. … in so far as a person prepares himself on the natural level to receive the Lord, so does the Lord come in and make everything within him spiritual, so giving everything life.” (paragraph 359)
Exploring the meaning of DEATH, in the letter to Smyrna, the second of the seven churches of Revelation, chapter 2, verses 8-11.“... there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28 [Mk 9:1, Lk 9:27])“Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” (John 8:51)How can Jesus say that? Either, He was wrong or meant something entirely different than the death of the physical body. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)Helps us look at the OT in a new light: those passages which we might have taken literally about death take on new significance.What do we mean, then, by “death”?Paul answers: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. … For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:6,13)When we talk about “Death” in the Bible, it is living a life directed by the piece of meat that is my physical body!And what about “I know your … poverty (but you are rich)”Materially, you can’t be poor AND rich at the same time. But what about spiritually, …?“A man who is in the affection of truth from a spiritual origin knows many more things than he knew before; for the general knowledges that he has are like vessels that can be filled with many things, and they are also actually filled when he comes into heaven.” (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 112, Section 5)Naturally focused people are concerned for the great number of knowledges they possess. But the spiritually focussed person is concerned for what can FILL those knowledges. He has a great many vessels, but sees that they stand empty.
Our Easter message. What did Easter achieve? Examining the fundamental difference between the doctrine of the Swedenborg and the mainstream Christian church, and why so many of those who believe salvation is a free gift of God still doubt God's love for them.“Redemption and the passion on the cross must be thought of as two distinct events; otherwise men's minds will ground like a ship on sandbanks or rocks and sink, steersman, captain, crew and all, that is to say, it will go astray in all matters which concern salvation from the Lord.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 127)Something I read on REDDIT a few days ago, which is typical of the many posts I see:"… I’ve been doubting my salvation and I just don’t feel right. I feel distant from God, maybe I’m not trying hard enough to get closer to him. I'm not sure maybe I’m overthinking and need more faith but I want to be hungry for God again not to be ashamed anymore so please pray for me."We examine Psalm 22. and especially the disparity between verses 1 and 24:"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?Why are You so far from helping Me,And from the words of My groaning?" (Psalm 22:1)"For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;Nor has He hidden His face from Him;But when He cried to Him, He heard." (Psalm 22:24)"God never turns away His face from man, and never rejects man from Himself; … He casts no one into hell and is angry with no one. … , God is Good Itself, Love Itself, and Mercy Itself; … [which] cannot do evil to anyone, and … cannot reject man from itself; because this is contrary to the very essence of mercy and love, thus contrary to the Divine Itself." (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 545)The Lord recommends that we become love, because the only way to enter into the presence of love is to become love ourselves.“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8)But BEWARE! FREEDOM FROM SIN does not mean we will never do anything wrong, it just means we are not BOUND to sin. We have been given power over it. But we still do things wrong. So, learn from it and determine to do better next time. Even so, we still have no need to fear God because of it.The Apostle Paul wrote:“O Death, where is your sting?O Hades, where is your victory?”56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:55-58)And Jesus said,But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! (Luke 12:5)WHO SHOULD YOU FEAR? Not God! Not the devil! Rather, fear yourself!
Knowing the truth ... ISN'T ENOUGH!Today, we look at the letter to the church at Ephesus, Revelation chapter 2, verses 1-7.IN THE DESCRIPTION of the Lord, we learn that HE WHO IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD is said to HOLD the light, and WALK in the midst of the light.IN THE COMMENDATION "… And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; …" (v.2,3).We learn the true nature of testing.To test anything: WE MUST RELY ON LIGHT THAT ONLY COMES FROM THE LORD! AND we must first actually listen to whatever is tested, hear what it says, understand it, consider it, weigh it up against the truth. * We are actually also testing our own understanding.Too often we simply REACT, on the basis of: The language used - without understanding the meaning of the speaker. Our perception of the person speaking. Our beliefs of what is good, true, right and acceptable, which is often based upon our cultural and societal norms, or even mere hearsay. Which side of the bed we got out of this morning.IN THE CRITICISM: "you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works,"We learn that the ability to test the truth of what others say is not in itself sufficient to claim spiritual life. TRUTH MUST BE APPLIED TO OURSELVES. IT MUST BE PRACTISED.AND IN THE PROMISE: "I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." (v. 7)We learn the value of holding the vision as we travel.We begin to climb the mountain with a view to reach the top. We may lose sight of that goal along the way, but the vision we receive at the start can sustain us if we remember it.Learning an instrument, learning to code, learning to draw or paint. We imagine ourselves mastering that new skill - very quickly we find just how far we have left to go! We may be tempted to give up, but if we persevere we know that the goal is still there, although we may have lost sight of it.When we are first married, those first few months and years give us a vision of what marriage is - as we begin to work on ourselves and each other, and in the busyness of everyday life, we can lose sight of that, but recalling that first state can sustain us.When we begin the spiritual journey, the conviction of Faith Alone can be so powerful: we look back at all our attempts to “be good”, and we see how miserably we have failed, and how we must continue to fail if we continue to rely upon self.We need one more thing - an inner conviction that we must take the journey. So, in that first state, we have a view of where we are, and a vision of where we wish to be - and we have no idea of the journey that will take us there.Recorded on Sunday 26 March 2023.
Based upon Swedenborg's fifth chapter of True Christian Religion, "The Catechism or The Ten Commandments explained in both the external and the internal senses"Catechism means, "to instruct, teach by word of mouth""a summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for religious instruction."Compare this with what Swedenborg writes:“The Ten Commandments, [is] in short compass a summary of the whole of religion, making a link between God and man and man and God …” (paragraph 283)“The Ten Commandments contain everything to do with love for God and everything to do with love towards the neighbour.” (paragraph 329)EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW!Demonstrates a very different perspective than that found in many Christian churches: it is not about your LEARNING, it is about your PRACTICE. Like the Catholic Catechism, these principles are to be memorised, but the point of them is not to have the answer ready when someone asks you the question, the point is that you do them."Eight of the Ten Commandments contain no mention of love for God and love towards the neighbour. They do not tell us that God is to be loved, nor that God‘s name is to be kept holy, nor that the neighbour is to be loved, nor that he should be treated honestly and uprightly; ... In general, they prescribe that evil is not to be willed, thought or done, either against God or against the neighbour. The reason why we are not commanded to do what is directly the work of love, and charity, but only to avoid doing their opposites, is that in so far as a person shuns evils as sins, so far does he will the good actions of love and charity." (paragraph 329)Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (301-304)Explains meaning for the Jews:“In the natural or literal sense this means that six days are for man and his work, and the seventh is for the Lord, and for Him to give man rest. Sabbath in the language of the original means rest. Among the Children of Israel the Sabbath was the holiest of observances, because it represented the Lord. The six days represented the Lord's toils and battles against the hells, the seventh His victory over them, and so rest. Since that day represented the completion of the Lord's whole act of redemption, it was for that reason the height of holiness.” (301)Looked towards the coming of the Lord. But it continues:“When, however, the Lord came into the world, so that representations of Him ceased, that day became a day for instruction in Divine matters, and also a day of rest from work, for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life, and a day for love towards the neighbour.” (301)See what Hebrews chapter 10 says about, “the law, having a shadow of the good things to come.”“In the spiritual sense this commandment means man's reformation and regeneration by the Lord.” (302)“In the celestial sense this commandment means being linked with the Lord, leading to peace as the result of protection from hell.” (303)It is time to recognise the BREADTH and SCOPE of the commandments.Like the rich young ruler, we tend towards a LIMITED, NARROW and very EXTERNAL application. But it’s not enough.The Ten Commandments are EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW.
On True Christian Religion, chapter 4: The Sacred Scripture or the Word of the LordToday, we consider Deism again: the idea that, having created the world, God then stood back and had no further involvement in it - a Divine watchmaker. There being no connection between the spiritual and natural - science [human intellect] is left to investigate the external, natural world unhindered.Swedenborg, although initially fascinated by the idea, came to disprove it in his own life experience:FIRSTLY, in Dreams - without a spiritual-natural connection, dreams are random, meaningless hallucinations: indeed all psychology would boil down to brain chemistry. But, Swedenborg finds a deep significance in dreams.SECONDLY in his spiritual experiences - to speak to the Lord, to interact with spirits and angels, and to do this at the same time as living in the natural world.“I am well aware of the fact that many people will say that nobody can possibly speak to spirits or angels as long as he is living in the body, and that many will call it delusion. Some will say that I have spread these ideas around so as to win people's trust, while others will say something different again. But none of this deters me; for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt.” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 68)And THIRDLY in witnessing the nature of the Word. He asserts that the Word is Divine Truth Itself, while acknowledging that there’s no external evidence that this is the case, and he points out that one must go to the spiritual meaning that shows this.“To think externally is to be blind to the holiness of the Word.” (paragraph 189)“Therefore to prevent people from doubting that the Word is Divine and most holy, the Lord has revealed to me its internal sense, which in its essence is spiritual. This lies within the external or natural sense like the soul within the body. That sense is the spirit which gives life to the literal form. Consequently that sense can bear witness to the divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the natural man, if he is willing to be convinced.” (paragraph 192)The Word is an important LINK between the Lord and the church, heaven and earth. “ … There is holiness in every sentence, every word, in some places even every letter. Thus the Word forms a link between man and the Lord, and opens the way to heaven.” (paragraph 191)AN IMPORTANT PARADOX - NOT A DIRECT TELEPHONE LINE! While yet we can demonstrate the holiness of the Word from a knowledge of correspondences, a true understanding of the Word requires more than just an understanding of correspondences.On the one hand:“Anyone who knows the spiritual sense from a knowledge of correspondences can understand these statements.” (paragraph 197)On the other: “A person who knows the science of correspondences, and wants to use his own intelligence to explore the spiritual sense of the Word, can do violence to this Divine Truth.” (paragraph 208)THEREFORE THERE ARE GUARDS inherent in the Word, meant by the cherubim:“... the literal sense is a protection to prevent the genuine truths within being harmed.” (paragraph260)“no admission or access to the Lord except through the good of love.” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 9509)Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Visit our website at: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://www.instagram.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria/ https://www.tiktok.com/@swedenborgcommunityvic https://www.youtube.com/@swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity
Falling down before the Lord. Today, we read Revelation chapter 1, John's Vision of the Lord, and particularly noted his "falling down as dead". What does it mean?Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Visit our website at: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://www.instagram.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria/ https://www.tiktok.com/@swedenborgcommunityvic https://www.youtube.com/@swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunityRecorded on Sunday 26 February 2023
“I must now also discuss the Divine Trinity, a subject familiar to Christian people, yet, actually one they know nothing about. … From (a correct idea of God) hangs the whole body of theology, like a chain from its anchor point.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 163)If you misunderstand God, the ramifications are enormous!“... the Holy Spirit is not God in His own right, but when mentioned in the Word means the Divine activity which proceeds from the one omnipresent God.” (138)On INFLUX:"All things done by man flow out from the interiors belonging to his mind, which is the all in everything a man does, … the body (being) a mere obedience through which is exhibited, in a form visible before the eye, that which the mind wills and thinks." (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 98)GET YOUR PICTURE OF GOD RIGHT!! Much of the traditional Christian message hangs on the notion of a God:Who is hostile towards his children - CONTRARY TO THE NATURE OF LOVE Who must in some way be placated in order for us to enter heaven,and COULD BE placated by an external, physical act - CONTRARY TO INFLUXThe traditional idea of the redemption taking place by means of the passion of the cross is based upon a corrupted idea of the sacrificial system! Nothing the Lord did on earth could have any influence upon God the Father, that would be contrary to order, contrary to the nature of God.AND YOU CAN BE ASSURED, His endeavour is our regeneration. What the Lord worked to achieve in his life on earth - AS AN EXPRESSION OF HIS LOVE - He also strives to fulfil in your life here and now, in the life of every one of his children. Having established the universal possibility of our rescue from hell, he works with each one of us individually to bring that about. "The Divine power and activity meant by the Holy Spirit are, generally speaking, reformation and regeneration, which lead to renewal, quickening, sanctification and justification; and these lead to purification from evils and the forgiveness of sins, and ultimately to salvation." (142)"Now since the Lord is Divine truth itself coming from the Divine good, and this is His essence, and since everyone acts as he does by reason of his essential nature, this proves that it is constantly the Lord's will to implant truth and good, that is, faith and charity, in every person, and His will could not be any different." (145)GOD HIMSELF IS NOT OUR ENEMY - NOR HAS HE EVER BEEN! We are OUR OWN worst enemies. While that may seem counter-intuitive, it is not unfamiliar - the resistance to exercise, to healthy eating, the propensity towards self-indulgence, to take the easy road - these are all familiar failings, we see in others around us and we see in ourselves. Why is it so hard to believe that the same principle applies in our spiritual lives too?!Recorded on Sunday 19 February 2023.Want exclusive content, advance notice of events, and news? Sign up here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/y6e8v6 Visit our website at: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://www.instagram.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria/ https://www.tiktok.com/@swedenborgcommunityvic https://www.youtube.com/@swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity
STUCK! ... between a rock and a hard place.Based upon The Lord the Redeemer, chapter 2 of Emanuel Swedenborg's True Christian Religion.“Redemption and the passion on the cross must be thought of as two distinct events; otherwise men's minds will ground like a ship on sandbanks or rocks and sink, steersman, captain, crew and all, that is to say, it will go astray in all matters which concern salvation from the Lord.” [paragraph 127]“It is a fundamental error to believe that the Passion on the cross was the real act of redemption. That error, together with the erroneous belief in three divine persons, existing from eternity, has so perverted the whole church, that there is no remainder of spirituality left in it.” [paragraph 132]“This idea of God and redemption has reduced the whole of theology from the spiritual to the lowest natural level, by attributing to God purely natural properties. Yet everything in the church depends upon the idea of God, and the idea of redemption, ... So long as it is spiritual, everything in the church becomes spiritual too, and as long as it is natural, everything in the church becomes natural too.” [paragraph 133]DO WE NEED TO BE REDEEMED? WHY IS REDEMPTION NECESSARY?“… it is a law of order that insofar as a person approaches, and comes near to God, which he should do entirely as if of himself, so far does God approach and come near to him, and link himself to the person in his midst.” [paragraph 89]AND HOW DOES REDEMPTION HAPPEN?“Divine order requires that a person should adjust himself to receive God, and prepare himself as a receiver and dwelling-place for God to enter into and live as in His temple. This a person must do of himself while still acknowledging that it is from God. … Every person must and will advance in accordance with this order, if he is to become spiritual instead of natural. The Lord advanced in the same way in order to make His natural human Divine; …” [paragraph 105]"Divine Truth is the order itself of His kingdom existing everywhere, all the laws of which are truths, or eternal verities. Divine Good is the very essential of order, every aspect of which is an expression of mercy. Both of these - Divine Good and Divine Truth - are attributed to the Lord. If solely Divine Truth were His, no mortal man could be saved, for truths condemn everyone to hell. But Divine Good, which is the essence of mercy, raises people up from hell towards heaven." (Arcana Coelestia, paragraph 1728)Visit our website at: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://www.instagram.com/swedenborgcommunityvictoria/ https://www.tiktok.com/@swedenborgcommunityvic https://www.youtube.com/@swedenborgcommunityvictoria https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity
Discover the meaning of Love. Discover Swedenborg.From True Christian Religion: “There are two things which make up the essence of God - love and wisdom; …, as I have shown above, love and wisdom are one in God. It is love which wills these things, wisdom that puts them into effect.” (43.)“Since the making of the world God is non-spatially in space and non-temporally in time, …” (30)“Every created object is finite, and the infinite is contained in finite objects as in receivers, and human beings as images of it.” (33)“There are two things which make up the essence of God - love and wisdom; but there are three which make up the essence of His love - loving others than oneself, wishing to be one with them, and devoting oneself to their happiness.” (43)“The properties of the Divine Love were the reason the universe was created, and are the reason it is preserved in existence.” (46)“… So far as a man lives under Divine guidance, that is, allows himself to be led by God, so far does he become, more and more inwardly, an image of God.” (20)“… a human being is an organ capable of receiving God, and … its capability as an organ depends upon its capacity to receive. ... The divine influence does not penetrate further than the extent to which a person clears the way or opens the door.” (34)Recorded on Sunday 15 January 2023.
Don’t we all love a happy ending?! IF YOU GO TO THE MOVIES - we expect all the troubles and conflicts that made the story interesting, get neatly tied up, the protagonists living a life of peace and harmony for the rest of their days.Is there a happy ending to the Old Testament?“The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.” (Malachi 1:1)Oh dear, it doesn’t look like it!Recorded on Sunday 18 December 2022
Why do I believe what Swedenborg wrote? Much of what Swedenborg has written has subsequently been verified by others, Near Death Experiences being one such example. But as I have thought about it further, the most compelling reason to believe Swedenborg is the God who reveals Himself through the pages of Swedenborg’s work. That God is a God I can believe in, the God in whom I can put my absolute, unwavering trust.Recorded in Sunday 4 December 2022/
Zechariah - means, lit. “Jehovah remembers”
Date of writing, see Zechariah 1:1 - “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet …”
Zechariah is one of the longest of the Minor Prophets - 14 chapters (same as Hosea) - and it is perhaps the most influential of the Minor Prophets.
Recorded in Roseville, Sydney, on Sunday 27 November 2022.
Persecution, Facing Opposition.
Recorded on Sunday 6 November 2022.
“New age rubbish. …” “You obviously don’t know the bible. I’d be questioning where your theology degree came from. …” “Just stop please” “These people are preparing the was [sic] for the Antichrist to united [sic] everyone.”
We should expect opposition: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! (Matthew 10:24,25) “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)
There are two oppositions: Evil and falsity oppose good and truth, and the External opposes the Internal. Good and truth do not oppose evil and falsity. Judgement is a bringing to awareness. There is - within us - an opposition to the truth, which needs to be overcome.
“But holy fear is not so much a fear of hell and of damnation, as a fear lest anything whatever be done or thought that is contrary to the Lord and contrary to the neighbour, thus anything whatever that is contrary to the good of love and to the truth of faith.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2826.13)
“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4)
Perhaps the most relevant of the minor prophets to us, here and now. Haggai speaks directly to our own experience today, we can easily see parallels between the circumstances Haggai addresses and our own.
We set Haggai in time with the help of the books of Daniel and Ezra, telling the story of the Babylonian exile and the immediate post-exile era.
Recorded on Sunday 16 October 2022.
The final part of our series: How to think spiritually, or thinking like an angel.
“For all Divine influx from heaven passes into the good that exists with a person, and through that good into the truths there. … the Word is the means by which heaven is joined to the Church, or the angels of heaven to members of the Church, yet only to those there in whom the good of love and charity is present.” (Heavenly Secrets, 10355.3,5)
Recorded on Sunday 2 October 2022
Part 4 of our series, Thinking Spiritually. About Matter.
Recorded on Sunday 5 September 2022
Habakkuk: The Minor Prophets.
Recorded on Sunday 28 August 2022
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“There are three things in general that perish from the literal sense of the Word when it becomes the internal sense, namely, what is of time, what is of space, and what is of person. … in the spiritual world nothing is regarded as determined to person … because directing the attention … to person narrows and limits the idea, instead of extending it and making it unlimited.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5253)
God is infinite and eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. However, we are finite - limited by definition - we cannot understand all those things that we say God is. So, how do we even approach the topic?
“… the angels in heaven know and acknowledge nothing else Divine than the Lord’s Divine Human; for this they can form a mental picture of and can love. But they cannot form any such picture of, nor therefore love, the Divine, called the Father, since this is incomprehensible. … What is incapable of being seen or heard is incapable also of passing into the mind to form a mental picture and is incapable of passing into any affection and love. That which is to be comprehended in faith and love must be given objective reality in a suitable image.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 10267)
“... think about God in terms of essence, and from this think about person. Thinking in terms of person about essence means thinking materially about essence too. But thinking about person in terms of essence means thinking spiritually also about person.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 623, section 5)
Examples of thinking BEYOND PERSON: Friendship The Neighbour Angels
Considering the problems of getting stuck in ideas of person, we looked at the Biblical stories of Naaman and John the Baptist, as well as issues such as taking credit (what Swedenborg calls "Merit"), flattery, blame and scapegoating.
And we looked at two useful applications of the principle.
Recorded on Sunday 7th August 2022.
Discovering the 12 books of the Minor Prophets. Today, Nahum.
Recorded on Sunday 24 July 2022.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/F0yuYFquPd4 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-63
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
What is the Sabbath?
“Sabbath”, from the word, “to rest”, or “to cease”, as the Lord said to Noah: “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)
I took my inspiration from Swedenborg's comment:
“When, however, the Lord came into the world, so that representations of Him ceased, [the Sabbath] became a day for instruction in Divine matters, and also a day of rest from work, for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life, and a day for love towards the neighbour.” (True Christian Religion, 301)
From Paul: “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1)
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16,17)
BOTH PAUL AND SWEDENBORG talk about a TIMELESS principle, celebrated IN TIME. Once the promise has been fulfilled, then what remains of the promise must take on a new role.
Swedenborg makes a similar comment elsewhere, but then goes on to look at the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda:
" … when [the Lord] was in the world and united His Human to the Divine itself, [He] did away with the sabbath as an occasion on which representative worship or the kind of worship established among the Israelite people took place, and made the sabbath day a day for instruction in teachings about faith and love. This is what the following words in John imply, 'Jesus healing a certain man on the sabbath day said to him, Take up your bed and walk. And he took up the bed and walked. The Jews said that he ought not to carry a bed on the sabbath day. And they sought to kill the Lord, because He broke the sabbath.' (John 5:8-11, 18) … Every healing from sickness carried out by the Lord implies purification from evils and falsities, or restoration of spiritual life, ... 'Walking' means life, ... The fact that 'bed' means religious teachings is clear from places in the Word where a bed is mentioned, and also from representatives in the next life. When a bed is seen there and someone is lying on it, the teachings on which that person relies are meant.” (Heavenly Secrets, 10360, sections 8 & 9)
Paragraphs: 597-603 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/KoFmaQIFlz8 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 63 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-63-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/qC7YTcC3C-U Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-62
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 589-596 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/kyridLu6ld8 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-62-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/uyyT__-LF7I Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-61
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
“… the thoughts of angels are not limited and confined by ideas from space and time, as human thoughts are, for spaces and times belong to nature, and the things that belong to nature withdraw the mind from spiritual things, and deprive intellectual sight of its range.” (Heaven and Hell, 266, section 3)
“... angels have no notion or idea of time and space, not even knowing at all what time and space are.” (Heaven and Hell, 162)
“A man thinks from time but an angel thinks from state.” (Heaven and Hell, 166)
We are all familiar with the “stretchiness” of time - Time drags, or races, when we either look forward to, or dread [something]. But it’s interesting to consider what happens to our state of mind in that circumstance: Anticipating that future event, we imagine our state of being at that future time and bring that state into our present. That can prolong the experience - for better or for worse! But then often the event itself doesn’t match the anticipation of it: We can be pleasantly surprised (“Oh, that wasn’t so bad”), and realise that we’ve suffered needlessly. We can also be deeply disappointed, which can ruin our enjoyment of what would have otherwise been a pleasant experience. (Family Christmases?)
Similarly, memory is not only a recollection of past events but also of the state experienced at the time, brought into the present, and that can be good or bad. E.g. Remembering something I have done wrong, I revisit the emotions of that event.
Recorded on Sunday 3 July 2022.
Paragraphs: 582-588 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/CeOBBoJ2wcQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 61 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-61-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ZvRLLSx1KQ0 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-60
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Micah. Continuing our series about the minor prophets.
Recorded on Sunday 26th June 2022.
Paragraphs: 576 to 581 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/m3jz6noeJpQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 60 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-60-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Passages quoted in this video for reflection: “... he is received at first in a friendly manner, which makes him believe that he has come among friends. … In the meanwhile, he is explored in respect of his astuteness and consequent ability; and when this has been done they begin to infest him, …, and with gradually greater severity and vehemence. … introducing him more interiorly and deeply ... they begin to treat him cruelly by punishments, and this goes on until he is reduced to the condition of a slave.” (paragraph 574)
“A person may know whom he is among, … from this: if he intends evil to his neighbour, thinks nothing but evil regarding him, and when possible actually does it, and takes delight in this, he is among spirits from hell and also becomes one himself in the next life. The person however who intends good to his neighbour, thinks nothing but good regarding him, and when possible actually does it, is among angelic spirits, and also becomes an angel in the next life.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1680.2)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/TucaiBki980 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-59
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The survivors of a great calamity. We first meet the concept of the Remnant all the way back in Genesis chapter 45, where it is translated in the NKJV as "posterity", but it takes on a special significance in the Old Testament prophets - preserving the people and the religion of Israel. Again, it crops up in Christian thinking, especially around the Apocalypse.
But what does "the Remnant" mean for me?
For more information go to: www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Recorded on Sunday 19 June 2022.
Paragraphs: 566 to 575 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/7vplbcFdFbE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 59 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-59-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/-UBnYBB3dwo Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-58
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 551-565 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/CYMpfPM2Nt8 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 58 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-58-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
You can download a copy of the book Heaven and Hell, free of charge, from: https://swedenborg.com/product/heaven-hell-nce/
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/NHY9Z_kcVDM Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-57
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 545-550 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/GD7aYi7x_2I Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 57 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-57-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The first in our new series on How to Think Spiritually, or, Thinking like an angel. Today, About Space.
"It is well known that the Word is spiritual, but this spirituality is not visible in the letter, for the content of the letter is worldly, especially in the historical sections. But when it is read by man the worldly content in it becomes spiritual in the spiritual world, that is, among the angels. For the angels are unable to think except in a spiritual way about anything whatever, and so cannot think of 'dwelling in the land' except in a spiritual way.” (Heavenly Secrets, 4480)
“... places and spaces in the Word (and everything that involves space) mean matters that involve state - distances, for instance, and nearness and remoteness, paths, journeys, emigrations, miles, stadia, plains, fields, gardens, cities, streets, motion, various kinds of measurement, length, breadth, height, and depth, and countless other things - for so many things that enter our thought from our world derive something from space and time.” (Heaven and Hell, 197)
“... space does not pertain to thoughts, for whatever is intently thought of is set before one as present.” (Heaven and Hell 196)
ON PLACE “It can in no case be said that heaven is outside anyone; it is within him. For it is in accordance with the heaven that is within him that every angel receives the heaven that is outside him. … This makes clear how greatly deceived is he who believes that to come into heaven is simply to be taken up among angels, whatever he may be as to his interior life, ..., when in fact, unless heaven is within anyone, nothing of the heaven that is outside inflows and is received.” (Heaven and Hell, 54)
ON DIRECTIONS “Angels turn their faces continually to the Lord as the sun, …, people also say of a person who is in a state of love and wisdom from the Lord that he sees God, that he looks to God, that he has God before his eyes, meaning that in his life he is like an angel. People say things like this in the world both because they actually occur in heaven and because they actually occur in a person's spirit. Who does not see God before him when he prays, in whatever direction his face is turned?” (Divine Love and Wisdom, 129)
ON DISTANCE “... those who are in like states are near to each other, and those in unlike states are at a distance, and spaces in heaven are simply the external conditions corresponding to the internals.” (Heaven and Hell 193) “... in the spiritual world one individual is present to another if only that presence is intensely desired. This is because one person sees another in thought in this way and identifies with that individual's state.” (Heaven and Hell 194)
From Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven: "... from my perspective, I would suggest that you couldn't look at anything in that world, for the word 'at' suggests a separation that did not exist there. Everything was distinct, yet everything was also a part of everything else, like the rich and intermingled designs on a Persian carpet ... Or a butterfly's wing."
And reading from Luke chapter 17, verses 20-37
Recorded on Sunday 5th June 2022
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/lbSUAOqbb9k Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-56
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/MkD2yqfTTOQ Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-55
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/HtTdvnjvRBE Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-54
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 536 to 544 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/GgzHl0Dq7PM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 56 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-56-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
What does the book of Obadiah tell us about our spiritual journey? How does all this history relate to my life now?
Connecting the prophecy of Obadiah, one of the shortest books in the Bible, to Matthew chapter 16, helps us to see the spiritual message: that natural faith and life must be connected to and ruled by spiritual faith. We explore what that means.
Recorded on Sunday 22nd May 2022
Paragraphs: 528-535 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/V6MbpV58hig Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 55 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-55-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 521-527 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/darDI-ZSBYI Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 54 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-54-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Is it possible to escape from hell? Find the video here: https://youtu.be/_cFvG04qoJY Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-53
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 512-520 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ywDb_EqNdNE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 53 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-53-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/o8eXnkc1ry4 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-52
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The last in our series, Christians Behaving Badly.
We explored what it means to be "holy" or "sacred".
The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. (Deuteronomy 28:9,10)
The idea that the children of Israel are SET APART has caused untold strife throughout history, as it is bound to whenever one group or individual raies themselves above others in any way.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)
Our Worship on the Sabbath (or Sunday, or whatever day we “set apart”) is not holy unless it is lived in every moment. In Isaiah, “Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:5,6)
“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23,24)
How many times have YOU come before the Lord in worship, at the same time nursing a grudge?
“A person is worshipping all the time if love and charity abide in him, external worship being only the outward expression of it. Such is the worship of angels, and therefore with them the sabbath never comes to an end …” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1618)
“... the essential divine worship in the heavens does not consist of going to church regularly and listening to sermons but of a life of love, thoughtfulness, and faith in keeping with doctrine. The sermons in church serve only as means of instruction in how to live.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 222)
Moreover, when man is in a life of charity he is constantly praying, if not with the mouth yet with the heart; for that which is of the love is constantly in the thought, even when man is unconscious of it. (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 325, section 12)
What is the solution? To recognise, and act from, the connection: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)
A final reading from Divine Providence, paragraph 9, section 1: “As for the way love and wisdom form a unity in things beneath or outside us … I may mention three things by way of preface. First, there was a marriage of goodness and truth in the universe and in absolutely everything in it that the Lord created. Second, this marriage was broken up in us after creation. Third, it is a goal of divine providence that what has been broken apart should become a whole and therefore that the marriage of goodness and truth should be restored.”
Recorded on Sunday 1 May 2022
Paragraphs: 499-511 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/H-dUVkdvpzo Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 52 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-52-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/aBMnPBX77GM Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-51
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
“The mind properly so called is spiritual, but the animus is purely natural, and can be said to be corporeal in that it is directly affected by the harmonies of the corporeal senses and flows directly into the countenance of the body and the forms of corporeal actions. … the animus is defined as “the form of the material ideas of our common sensory” (285), or as “the universal affection of the sensory, (so) that affections taken together constitute the animus” (ibid.), or as “the life of sensations” (289:e), … all the affections of the animus are essentially animal in nature, for they are all closely related to the body. … The following selection from Swedenborg's list will suggest the type of affections that the animus may experience: Gladness; sadness; venereal love; love of parents toward children; love of society and country; love towards companions, and friendship; love of self; ambition; humility in the sense of contempt of self; depression; hope; despair; love of the world and the body.” (Erik Sandstrom, https://swedenborg-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/1966-Vol-69-No-4-October-December_Part4.pdf) (Swedenborg Scientific Association)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Kl14m2hyg-c Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-50
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
An Easter Message ... an EASTER Message? Really!?
FOURTH in the series on the Minor Prophets, however, dealing with the FIFTH prophet. Skipped Obadiah … why? Jonah has a special significance for Easter, in “the sign of Jonah”.
Jonah is mentioned elsewhere, in 2 Kings 14 [vv23-27]: 23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 25 He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. 26 For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. 27 And the Lord did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
The “SIGN OF JONAH” is mentioned 3 times in the Gospels: Matthew 12:39-41 39 …“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.”
Matthew 16:4 “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
Luke 11:29,30 “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.”
Jonah’s journey away from the Lord IS OUR JOURNEY. “The narrative is keen to tell us that every step of the way was a step downward for Jonah. He went “down to Tarshish”. He went “down into the ship”. He went “down into the water”. He went “down into the fish”. Every step away from God was a step into oblivion.” (https://thetown.org/blog/2020/08/25/all-roads-lead-to-jesus-jonah)
Emanuel Swedenborg, in Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6726: in this prophetic utterance is described a state of temptations; “the waters which compassed even to the soul” denote falsities …; “the deep round about” is the evil of falsity; “the seaweed bound about the head” denotes false memory-knowledges besetting truth and good, as is the case in a state of desolation.
Recorded on Sunday 17th April 2022
Paragraphs 485-490 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ZYvufTPmLjE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 50 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-50-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/WTuxMXjyaII Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-49
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs 470-484 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/fbyWjYEPAiA Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 49 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-49-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/uymsHq2Ppdk Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-48
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Do we earn our salvation? Or do we do nothing at all? These are two positions we tend to fall into, yet the truth is somewhere in between.
Reading Exodus chapter 30, verses 11-16, the temple tax, or ransom money.
“Wherever a Church exists, heresies arise in it as a consequence of people basing their thinking on one particular article of faith to which they attach supreme importance.” (Arcana Caelestia, paragraph 362)
THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH There is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord God the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Saving faith is to believe in Him. Evil actions are not to be done, because they are of the hells and from the hells. Good actions are to be done, because they are of God and from God. And these are to be done by man as if from himself; but it ought to be believed that they are from the Lord working in man and by him.
Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 10225, on the four stages of life: … the first state (0 to 5 years) is a state of ignorance and also of innocence within ignorance. … only the most external levels, those of the senses, are open … … the second state (5 to 20 years) is one in which instruction is received and knowledge is acquired … The young person does not arrive at any conclusion by himself nor draw any distinction between one truth and another, nor even between truth and falsity, only with the help of others. The third state (20 to 60 years) is a state in which understanding exists because the person now thinks for himself, drawing distinctions and arriving at conclusions; and the conclusions are his, not another's. At this time belief begins; for belief is not a person's own until he has confirmed what he believes with ideas that are the product of his own thinking. The last state (60 years and above) however is one of wisdom and of innocence within wisdom which exists when a person is no longer concerned just to gain an understanding of truths and forms of good, but he's concerned to make them part of his will and life; for then the person has wisdom. And how far that person is able to make them part of his will and life depends on how much innocence he has, that is, on how far he believes that left to himself he has no wisdom at all, but that whatever wisdom he has is derived from the Lord, and also on how far he loves this to be so.
And from paragraph 10227, section 2: … everyone possesses the ability to understand and be wise; but the reason why one person may be wiser than another is that they are not alike in attributing to the Lord all that constitutes understanding and wisdom, ... all forms of truth and good constituting wisdom flow in from heaven, that is, from the Lord there. The attribution of them all to the Lord opens the inner levels of a person's mind towards heaven. For that attribution involves the acknowledgement that no truth or good at all come from self; and in the measure that this is acknowledged self-love departs, and along with it the thick darkness resulting from falsities and evils. In the same measure also the person attains innocence, love to the Lord, and faith in Him. As a result of this the person is linked to the Divine, who then flows in, bringing enlightenment. …
“My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30) - still a burden
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev 3:20)
The nature of love: "The essence of love is not to love self, but to love others and through love to be conjoined with them. It is also the essence of love to be loved by others, for thus is conjunction achieved." (Divine Love & Wisdom, paragraph 47)
Recorded on Sunday 3rd April 2022.
Paragraphs: Find the video here: https://youtu.be/jhMXVA3sAuE Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-47
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
What does Bruno have to do with the prophet Amos? Exploring the third of the minor prophets, and chapter seven in particular, who is disturbing the status quo in Israel.
Amaziah’s words to Amos: “Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, And there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king’s sanctuary, And it is the royal residence.” (Amos 7:12,13)
Amos' reply: “I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a prophet, But I was a sheepbreeder And a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, And the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ (Amos 7:14,15)
Recorded on Sunday 27 March 2022
Paragraphs: 453-460 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/i7jdUjddLzk Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 47 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-47-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/rtrqjQLmD6o Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-46
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/k731vkgxfcw Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 46 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/2Jgsvu_060Y Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-45
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 491-498 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/QVOsPnTuL4g Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 51 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-51-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/F1Y22NZBJog Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 45 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-44
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Wilful Blindness! The blindness that is incurable.
The will is the seat of our desires, our affections, what we love. It can receive what is good. The will is also capable of receiving the opposite, evil.
The understanding is the seat of our learning, our knowledge, our intellect. It can receive what is true (I think of truth as being an appreciation of reality AS IT IS). But the understanding can also receive falsity.
There is also a relationship between the will and understanding, between good and truth, between evil and falsity. And having a grasp of that relationship is key to understanding the problem that prevents our spiritual growth and development.
Recorded on Sunday 6th March 2022
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/imwtgrskCnM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 44 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/kDuExZr7A20 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-43
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Paragraphs: 461-469 Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0KPSGh4fOgU Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 48 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-48-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Joel, the second of the Minor Prophets, the last twelve books of the Old Testament. Joel's account of a plague of locusts, and the spiritual lesson he draws from it, show just how important these books are to the rest of Scripture.
Recorded on Monday 28th February 2022
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/y-0ZNRqw6FM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 43 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/z_wOvSjDjMo Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-42
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/UehysLV-ofg Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-40
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/r0Pet1CYcwM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 42 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/NYJXveGopL0 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-41
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Judgement, the second part in our series, Christians Behaving Badly: How we get religion wrong, and what we need to do about it.
Recorded on Sunday 6th February 2022
www. swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Gryj216m4Oo Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 41 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/hU8JZhIzkOQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 40 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/5_DZX77lB0k Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 39 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/fUwRtzh2ISI Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-38
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The first of the "Minor Prophets", or "the book of the Twelve"
References to the imminent invasion by Assyria, by which the nation of Israel was carried away, but the Southern nation of Judah is saved … for a time. [2 Kings 17-19]: For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, … (Hosea 1:6,7)
Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, And the house of Israel with deceit; But Judah still walks with God, Even with the Holy One who is faithful. (11:12)
Reference to the resurrection: After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. (6:2)
Familiar words: For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (6:6)
“A Silly Dove” Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense— They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria. Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;
Image of a [golden] calf is frequently referred to. [4:16, 8:5,6, 10:5]
Recorded on Sunday 23rd January 2022
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/fUwRtzh2ISI Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 38 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/fZwCuOrZn3M Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-41
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
“The meaning of 'a horse' as the understanding spread from the Ancient Church to the wise in surrounding regions, and even into Greece. As a consequence of this, when describing the sun, which meant love, …they placed the god of their wisdom and intelligence there in the sun, and gave him a chariot and four fiery horses. And when they described the god of the sea - the sea meaning knowledge in general - they gave horses to him also. And when they described the upsurge of knowledge from the understanding they portrayed it as a flying horse which with its hoof broke open a fountain where the virgins who were the branches of knowledge dwelt. And by the Trojan horse nothing else was meant than a device of their understanding for destroying city walls. Even today, when the understanding is being described, it is quite usual, drawing on the custom received from those people of old, to portray the understanding as a flying horse or Pegasus, and to portray learning as a fountain.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2762 - see more at https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/arcana-coelestia-elliott/gen-22/27620)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0tgprsaSvqc Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 37 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/MxL-tNmK-A0 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-36
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The first in our new series, Christians Behaving Badly: How we get religion wrong, and what we need to do about it.
What constitutes "true worship"? When is it OK to break religious and ceremonial law?
Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas [1 Sam 2, 3:11-14, 4:11] NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT! Samuel’s sons weren’t any better than Eli’s! - 1 Samuel 8 - Israel asks for a king Aaron’s sons, Nadab & Abihu [Lev 10:1]
But you can see the problem, when you compare that with Jesus’ words: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 6:5)
There are no inherently spiritual actions ... so, how do you do it?
Recorded on Sunday 9th January 2022 www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/PQpwFCpgBBk Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 36 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/HjFvGoLHhw0 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-35
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/qbRtyG-fXZg Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 35 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/sR0PJ5JyLj4 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-34
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/U6JF12lIjbI Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 34 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The world can seem to be a dark place. What right have we, then, to celebrate Christmas and the coming of the Light?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. (John 1:1-9, NKJV)
“My position was terrible. I knew that I could find nothing in the way of rational knowledge except a denial of life; and in faith I could find nothing except a denial of reason, and this was even more impossible than a denial of life. According to rational knowledge, it followed that life is evil, and people know it. They do not have to live, yet they have lived and they do live, just as I myself had lived, even though I had known for a long time that life is meaningless and evil.” (Tolstoy)
Recorded on Christmas Day, 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/PDmDpJtesRo Find the reading of the text here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
This track begins with parts of Genesis chapter 12 read in Cambodian, Isaiah 11 read in Chinese, and Luke 1 read in Hungarian.
At our multilingual Lessons and Carols service, I spoke about the universal application of truth: how the life and work of Jesus was for all people and not only those who call themselves Christians, for the lives of all of us, and for every moment of our lives. I have included a brief selection of the six languages we heard reading the prophecies of the Lord's life.
Recorded on Sunday 19th December 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/jIod_Jjwe-o Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 33 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/xhtzEHB0v-c Find the reading of the text here: www.soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-32
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/4U1Pvl6ovXE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 32 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/AufCIekRbG4 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-31
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Reading Malachi chapter 3. The final part in our series, "Things you can get wrong reading the Bible".
“... none can see whether the doctrine of their church is true, except those who are in the affection of truth for the sake of the uses of life. They who have this end are continually enlightened by the Lord.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 8521, section 3)
“... when doctrine is being collected from the Word, man must be in enlightenment, which he receives when he is in the love of truth for the sake of truth.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 9424.2)
“... in proportion as a man shuns evils as sins, he loves truths.” (Doctrine of Life, paragraph 32)
“It is apparent that someone who awaits influx is no different from a statue, for inevitably he must stand or sit motionless, his hands hanging down, his eyes either closed or open without blinking, not thinking or breathing. How much life does he have then? [2] It is also apparent that someone who believes that everything he thinks and does originates from himself is no different from an animal, for he thinks only with his natural mind, which the human being has in common with animals, and not with his rational, spiritual mind, which is the truly human mind.” (Divine Providence, paragraph 321)
Recorded on Sunday 5th December 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/lZ4uO_fKJwE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 31 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/bcMWvhRosvE Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-30
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Things you can get wrong reading the Bible: ORIGINAL SIN - Are we being punished for Adam and Eve's mistake?
THE LITERAL FALL has been one of the cornerstone doctrines of the Christian church for centuries.
What’s remarkable about Swedenborg’s commentary upon the Bible is not so much the idea that the early stories are clearly symbolic, but that the historical stories are also symbolic. We tend to have the idea that a story is EITHER literally true OR it is symbolic. But no such distinction exists in Swedenborg’s estimation. The Word is fully constructed of correspondences, that is his very definition of what the Word IS. Whether it is literally true is another matter entirely, and actually not all that important at the end of the day. If we’re busy debating whether this or that story literally took place, we’re actually missing the point of the text entirely.
We draw today upon Michael Stanley's book, Eve: The Bone of Contention, and dwell particularly upon the words, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
From New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, paragraph 279. The divine design: [2] To the extent that we live according to the design-that is, to the extent that we are devoted to doing what is good in response to the divine truths that are the laws of the design-to that extent we are human: 4839. The more we live this way, the more perfectly proportioned and beautiful we will look in the other life; the less we live this way, the more monstrous we will look: 4839, 6605, 6626. [3] We are born not with goodness and truth but with evil and falsity, so we are not born into the divine design but into something contrary to that design. That is why we are born in utter ignorance and why, in order to be brought into the divine design and thus become human, we must of necessity be born again-that is, regenerated-which is accomplished by means of divine truths from the Lord and by a life in accord with them: 1047, 2307, 2308, 3518, 3812, 8480, 8550, 10283, 10284, 10731. When the Lord is regenerating us, he arranges everything in us according to the divine design-that is, according to the form of heaven: 5700, 6690, 9931, 10303. The more we live according to the divine design, the more intelligence and wisdom we have: 2592.
Recorded on Sunday 28th November 2021.
Find the video here: Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 30 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/loq7H-ipu7Q Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-29
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Reading Psalm 90 (especially verse 12) and Revelation 7:9-17.
As a boy, I remember enjoying counting my pocket money. Of course, now, in my 50’s, I still count my “pocket money”. We forget it in our 20’s and 30’s, when we feel young, free, and indestructible, but then as you begin to think about retirement, the counting takes on a new urgency - will I have enough to live on after I finish working?
We are, in a natural sense, “numbering our days”.
But what does it have to do with a “heart of wisdom”?
Recorded on Sunday 7th November 2021.
Find the video here: Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 1 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here: Find the reading of the text here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ObAcctpHUMc Find the reading of the text here: here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-28
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/sYiqQ0zOYDQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 28 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Ld7rxwT5P9M Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-27
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/a-VnF2tMhUM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 27 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/uXx924Q59Xo Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-26
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/QFRyuDjtge0 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 26 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/u6RZzXyySPo Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-25
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Who doesn’t want to be powerful? Not necessarily holding positions of power, but in the sense of being heard, certainly in terms of having your opinions respected and honoured as valuable.
Aside from "Paradoxes of Group Life" by Smith and Berg, I delve into the book, "Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high"
A crucial conversation is found where there are ... Opposing opinions High stakes Strong emotions (P. 2)
“We asked people to identify who they thought were their most effective colleagues. … We wanted to find those who were not just influential, but who were far more influential than the rest.” (p. 19)
Powerful people refuse to make the Fool’s Choice: “The mistake most of us make is we believe we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.” (p. 22)
Powerful people are committed to finding the truth of the matter, far more than they are committed to their own opinions.
“Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:12-17)
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34,35)
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. … He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. ...” (John 14:15, 21)
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. … This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:10, 12)
“If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)
“... no other government than the government of mutual love can operate in the heavens, and the government of mutual love is heavenly government.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 213)
“Such governors do not domineer or dictate, but minister and serve, for to do good to others from the love of good is to serve, and to provide for its being done is to minister. Nor do they make themselves greater than others, but less.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 218)
It may be obvious, but it isn’t easy, is it?! What stands in our way? What prevents us from exercising true heavenly power? The same thing that prevents our entry into heaven:
“… to enter upon the way to heaven is not so difficult as many believe. The sole difficulty lies in being able to resist the love of self and the world, and to prevent their becoming dominant; for this is the source of all evils.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 359)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/wvl1EZh0MsQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 25 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0LOmq21iAyA Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-24
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Things you can get wrong reading the Bible: Pluck out the eye
Reading from Mark chapter 9, verses 33 to 50, and Leviticus chapter 21
Recorded on Sunday 17 October 2021
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/P96krZoq8EA Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 24 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Swedenborg began his spiritual quest with a search for the SOUL. But what is the SOUL? And WHERE is it?
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/KvlKCUbUxRA Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-23
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Weui3YkPLBQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 23 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0C_boG9rDVo Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-22
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Things you can get wrong reading the Bible: Life after death
Recorded on Sunday 3 October 2021.
Looking at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31.
Heaven and Hell, paragraph 311 refers to the erroneous belief that there are angels and devils who were created a separate race from humanity.
Paragraph 312 continues, "The man of the Church also derives this belief from his believing that no man comes into heaven or into hell until the time of the last judgment; and about that, he has accepted the opinion that all visible things will perish at that time and new things will come into existence, and that the soul will then return into its body, and from that union man will again live as a man. This belief involves the other-that angels were created such in the beginning; for it is impossible to believe that heaven and hell are from the human race when it is believed that no man can go there before the end of the world."
Reading from Secrets of Heaven: “… The truth ... which belongs to faith leads the way to good, and afterwards is brought forth from it. ... a person is not in heaven until good is present within him. If merely the knowledge of truths, called the truths of faith, is present in a person he does no more than stand in front of the door; or if, knowing those truths, he is looking towards good he goes through into the porch. But if, in knowing those truths, he is not looking towards good he cannot see heaven, not even from a long way off. The reason for saying that a person is not in heaven until good is present within him is that a person must have heaven within him while in the world if he is to enter it after death. For heaven exists within people; and it is granted in mercy to those who during their life in the world allow themselves to be led by means of the truths of faith into charity towards the neighbour and into love to the Lord, that is, into good. People are not in heaven until they have come into that state in which the Lord leads them by means of good, .... By good is meant the good of life; and the good of life consists in the performance of what is good because there is a will for what is good, and a will for what is good springs from love; for what a person loves, he wills.” (from paragraph 9832)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/L8bh-2N_dTI Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 22 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-22-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/86n3b8Hm0Rg Find the reading of the text here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Continuing our series, Things you can get wrong reading the Bible. Today, Creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1,2)
There is very little detail as to the creation of the heavens. Sun, Moon and Stars, but what of Planets? Asteroids? Black Holes? WHY?! It is the earth we are aware of, and only those few details in the heavens that can be viewed from the earth.
Yet, in all cases throughout the Bible, “heaven” is mentioned first.
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17, mirrored in Revelation 21:1)
The Bible is a spiritual book, and a belief in this or that method of creation is of no spiritual consequence nor benefit. The purpose of the Word is not to tell us about the natural world, but to tell us about that spiritual world.
Although we know very little about them, the heavens are present by virtue of their being the means through which the natural world is both created and maintained. What we see in the natural world is the manifestation of the creation of the spirit.
And the MEANS of that creation and re-creation is SPIRITUAL. “... the natural world... comes into existence and continues in existence from the spiritual world, and both worlds from the Divine. ... not a thing can continue in existence from itself, but from something prior to itself, thus from the First. Therefore, if separated from that it would utterly perish and vanish.” (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 106)
The challenge for today is this: Change your attitudes and beliefs to change the world.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ZPNbqr7hafc Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-20
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
In this video we think about the idea of heaven.
I refer to Swedenborg's account of groups who get to experience first hand their own ideas of heaven - and find out how wrong they were! You can read it beginning here: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/conjugial-love-chadwick/contents/10
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Ryt9dVv9lw0 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-19
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/OCT6VtXWZ7s Find the reading of the text here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
The claim that the Bible predicts the future - and that future is ALWAYS IMMANENT - is shouted most STRONGLY when we’re facing difficult times, debates and contentions. BUT DOES IT HOLD UP?
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16,17)
“To prophesy signifies to teach the Word, because a prophet, in the highest sense, means the Lord as to the Word, and in the respective sense one who teaches the Word, but in the abstract sense the Word itself, and also doctrine from the Word ...” (Emanuel Swedenborg, Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 624, section 4)
What spiritual benefit is there in knowing future events?
AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE - Prophecy speaks to our spiritual condition, not to future events. It speaks about our inner worlds in terms of correspondence. If the Bible were merely to warn us of external circumstances - be they blessings or disasters - it would FAIL to fulfil its purpose which is preparation for heaven through our regeneration, as accords with Paul’s words in 2 Timothy.
We consider words from the prophecy of Amos: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11)
Recorded on Sunday 5th September 2021
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/rmBbAC-yCCQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 18 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
What are your greatest limitations? And how do your beliefs shape the world in which you live?
https://swedenborg.com/past-swedenborg-foundation-board-president-and-new-century-edition-translator-george-f-dole-has-transitioned-to-the-spiritual-world/
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/first-sub-four-minute-mile
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/nPfxNpzRIBg Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-17 Find an alternative translation (by George Dole) here: https://youtu.be/4IzSIBOBsAE
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/402XXb3_BUU Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 17 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/S0M8vr_P_xk Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-16
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Based on the books: Paradoxes of Group Life, by Kenwyn and Berg, and The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge
From Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 9723, by Emanuel Swedenborg, on Exodus 27: 'And you shall make [its] pans to take away [its] ashes' [verse 3] ... 'ashes' means the kinds of things which remain in a person's natural or external memory after they have served their purpose and which must be removed lest they get in the way of other things which come later to serve further purposes. ... From early childhood right through to the end of his life in the world a person is being perfected in intelligence and wisdom, and if all is to go well for him, in faith and love. Items of factual knowledge contribute primarily to this end and purpose. These items of knowledge are absorbed through hearing, seeing, and reading, and are deposited in the external or natural memory; they serve inward sight or that of the understanding as a whole field of objects from which to choose and draw forth such as will help to make the person wiser. ... From the many different items there it chooses and draws forth such as are suited to its own love; it summons them from there and deposits them in its own memory, which is the internal memory, ...This is how the life of the internal man develops, along with its intelligence and wisdom. ... After the items of knowledge or the cognitions of good and truth in the external man's memory have served that purpose they disappear so to speak from that memory. They are like the things taught to a person which have served since early childhood as the means to perfect his private life and his public life. After those things have served that informative purpose and the person has begun to live as they direct, they fade from view in the memory; only the practice of them remains. In this way a person learns to speak, learns to think, learns to discriminate and form opinions, learns to be honourable in dealings with others and to behave politely. In short, he acquires languages, good manners, intelligence, and wisdom. ...
Recorded on Sunday 22 August 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/aA08K9SRJ08 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 16 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/c1bjDRBRnO4 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-15
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ZhKoq9nfuL0 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 15 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/UokZ_tr_xyg Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-14
On the nebular hypothesis: https://www.britannica.com/science/solar-nebula https://www.universetoday.com/38118/how-was-the-solar-system-formed/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebular_hypothesis
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Xz0WLVpohTk Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 14 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/cxVMVeVfc68 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-13
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
From PARADOXES OF GROUP LIFE: The paradox of Regression
“When individuals join a group ..., they are approaching experiences that are unfamiliar. They attempt to create some structure for thinking and acting that will enable them to manage the joining process. The available structures that an individual can draw upon come from his or her personal history. Each person will bring into this new joining process an approach (or set of approaches) from past encounters with groups and will use this as a guide for managing the unfamiliarity of the new setting. At a surface level, the ease with which this joining takes place will depend in large part on how similar the present situation is to past experiences and how accurately the individual delineates what overlaps with the past and what is unique.” (p. 125,126)
“The paradox of regression is that in order not to be in a regressed state, one has to be willing to regress.” (p. 127)
Richard Rohr: Falling Upward: those who have fallen down are the only ones who understand “up": “We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right.” “I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you.” (quoted by Howard, 21/6/21)
INDEED, you are UNABLE to get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you.
“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.” (Matthew 18:12,13)
“Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.” Deuteronomy 31:16
Divine Providence, 278. (2) Evils cannot be removed unless they appear. We do not mean that a person has to commit evils in order for them to appear, but that he must examine himself, not only his deeds, but also his thoughts, and what he would do if he did not fear the laws and disgrace - especially what evils he makes in his spirit allowable and does not regard as sins, for these he continues to do.
To enable a person to examine himself, he has been given an intellect, and this separate from his will, in order that he may know, understand and acknowledge what is good and what is evil, and may also see the character of his will, or what he loves and what he desires. For a person to see this, his intellect has been endowed with a higher and lower thought, or an inner and outer thought, that from the higher or inner thought he may see what his will is doing in the lower or outer thought. He sees this as someone sees his face in a mirror, and when he does, and knows what sin is, he can, if he implores the Lord's aid, stop willing it, refrain from it, and subsequently behave contrary to it. If he cannot do this readily, still he can overcome it through struggle, and at last become averse to it and abhor it. Moreover, for the first time then he perceives and also feels that evil is evil and good good, and not before.
This, now, is what it is to examine oneself, to see one's evils and acknowledge them, to confess them, and afterward to desist from them.
Recorded on Sunday 4th July 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/hbST5g10jB4 Find the reading of the text here:https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-12
Correspondence links: In & Out: Smile (for children) - https://youtu.be/enwHy6sakQs In & Out: Faces (for children) - https://youtu.be/aGP24lNPAPU Website explaining and exploring correspondences - http://www.scienceofcorrespondences.com Video on correspondences from the Swedenborg Association of Australia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGu9KpLBs-s
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/G2crgqfV8FE Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 13 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find video here: https://youtu.be/shiiAneNmWc Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 21 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-21-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Klsc1GVEv94 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 19 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-19-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/mqQWgRdh5b0 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 20 here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-20-notes
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/zwEDDV8qkvI Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 12 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/n4aPhtF1C8E Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-11
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Is it true that, “... a perfect and omnipotent God could, should, and would see to it that such problems did not exist in a book which s/he had inspired.” (https://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradictions.html)? And what is the contradiction inherent in adhering to the theory of evolution?
We explore five ways to understand and reconcile Biblical Contradictions in our latest video, https://youtu.be/1LdW61KS4G0, recorded on Sunday 18th July 2021: Literary genre Context Appearance and Accommodation Development of Ideas A Deeper Meaning
Don’t throw the Bible out because of its perceived contradictions - allow yourself to be challenged by it!
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/m7J2yLERjN8 Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 11 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS FROM?
From paragraph 74: “Those who first form their thoughts from others, make that thought their belief, and afterwards view it with their understanding, cannot easily recede from it and so, for the most part, acquiesce in confirmation of it.”
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/9EBqJpg1oZs Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-10
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/CTLpVMF7c6Q Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 10 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/ySrshBp59vQ Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-9
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/G8ngG3S3GdM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 9 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here: Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-9/s-3gZDwtNrYvT
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/Ct7TrBaFRWg Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-8
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
1893 First World Parliament of Religions, Chicago - http://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2012/6/15/charles-bonney-and-the-idea-for-a-world-parliament-of-religi.html
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/H8oXh-_WgzM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 8 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here: Find the reading of the text here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
I referred to Michael Syed's book, Bounce: the myth of talent and the power of practice. It's well worth a read.
I also mentioned a video from Richard Rohr - Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps. Find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8o6_IqKdy8
Today's reading: 2 Kings chapter 6
And from Emanuel Swedenborg: “Thinking from the eye closes understanding, but thinking from understanding opens the eye.” (Divine Love and Wisdom, 46)
“... an angel of one heaven cannot go among the angels of another heaven, that is, no one can ascend from a lower heaven, ... One ascending from a lower heaven is seized with a distress amounting to anguish and is unable to see those who are there, still less can he talk with them, ... There were some from the outermost heaven, who had not yet been taught that heaven is established in the interiors of an angel, and who believed that they might come into a higher heavenly happiness simply by access to a heaven where higher angels are. They were even permitted to enter among such angels, but when they were there, they saw no one however much they searched, although there was a great multitude present. For the interiors of the newcomers had not been opened in the same degree as the interiors of the angels there, consequently neither was their sight opened. ... It happens otherwise when, as is often done, the Lord raises some angels out of a lower into a higher heaven that they may behold its glory. Then they are prepared beforehand, and are encompassed by intermediate angels through whom there is communication. From all this it is evident that the three heavens are entirely distinct one from another.” (Heaven and Hell, 35, see also 54)
Recorded on Sunday 20th June 2021.
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/jZMOKc6jaEI Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-7
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
On Berlio and Swedenborg: https://www.filharmonikusok.hu/en/muvek/faust-elkarhozasa-op-24/
On Schoenberg and Swedenborg: http://www.ibiblio.org/johncovach/sources_of_schoenberg.htm
COMMON ONE - Van Morrison "I was sitting down in a mystic church In the mystic church at the Nottinghill Gate At the Westbourne Grove bus station At the Swedenborg church at the Nottinghill Gate"
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0qvIXdickXM Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 1 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/eNZ9ikBjlW8 Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-6
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Download Divine Providence from https://swedenborg.com/product/divine-providence-nce/
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/FPmEWbeKzgQ Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 6 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/NIslPx0L12k Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-5
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
How to recognise High Functioning Anxiety, published 9 June 2021, https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mental-health/how-to-recognise-high-functioning-anxiety/news-story/427954758e356ea4223a679fdaffb543
The Brain, https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/product/the-brain/
Readers of Swedenborg are often accused of a reliance upon another source of truth than the Word. But what we see in Swedenborg is not a replacement of the Word, but an understanding of WHY the Word is regarded as holy, quite different from the one found in the mainstream churches.
“That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outer-mosts is not evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the Lord leads. For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the Word, and judges from its style; but the man whom the Lord leads judges of the external of the Word from the holiness that is in it. The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in which are dainties and delightful things of every kind, dainties from the fruits, and delightful things from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of the forest, and near them rivers. The man who leads himself judges of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference, where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads judges of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are. The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the circumference, and looks away from it to the world.” (Apocalypse Explained, paragraph 1072, section 2)
“... although people have said that every jot is divinely inspired they have not meant by that anything more than this, that those narratives serve to disclose certain historical facts from which some specific point may be deduced that can be included in the doctrine of faith - of use to those who instruct and to those who learn - and that because they are divinely inspired they have a Divine impact on human minds and do more good than any other kind of historical narration. But regarded in themselves historical narrations can do little to lead to a person’s change for the better and nothing whatever to bring him to eternal life; for in the next life the things that belong to history cease to be remembered. ... To enter heaven and experience its joy, that is eternal life, souls have no need of anything except that which is the Lord’s and which derives from Him. It is for the sake of these things that the Word exists, and those are the things which it contains interiorly.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1886, section 4)
“… the Church resides where the Word is and owes its existence to the Word, and worship consists of those things that are contained in the Word. Consequently whatever the quality of a person's understanding of the Word is, so is the quality of the Church in him and the quality of his worship.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 10707, end)
“... The term 'Church' is not used because it is the place where the Word is and teachings drawn from it, or because it is where the Lord is known and the sacraments are celebrated. Rather it is the Church because it lives in accordance with the Word or with teachings drawn from the Word, and seeks to make those teachings its rule of life.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6637, section 2)
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/gk2oM95CBVg Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 5 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 5 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Are there any women in heaven?
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/YLeFQlP9uRc Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-4
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/U3IJVFR3A1Y Find David Moffat's notes on chapter 1 here: Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Read the little work “Charity” here: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/charity-coulson/
Perhaps you don’t believe in the old guy upstairs … but is there another way to think about God?
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/545wK14Jies Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-3 Find Rohan Pereira's notes on chapter 1 here: http://swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au/2021/05/23/heaven-and-hell-chapter-1-summary-notes/
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Download and read Divine Love and Wisdom here: https://swedenborg.com/product/divine-love-wisdom-nce/
Influences … the poets [American] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edwin Markham, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, Anna Collier Lee, [British] William Blake, William Butler Yeats. and many others … especially mention the poem entitled “Correspondences”, by Charles Baudelaire
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/tWDOS0NPQq8 Find the notes here: watch this space!
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Here’s your challenge for the week: Go find the person you disagree with, the person who holds an opinion different from your own, the person who lives in a way that is different from you and has a different expression of life, and show them love. Are you able to show love to “other”? Realise that their need for love from you is just as strong as your need of love from them.
Love REQUIRES OTHER, that which is what is NOT me.
“... only as the infant builds a sense of self that is distinct from mother can it develop a relationship with mother.” (p. 103)
"In regard to God, loving and being loved in return are not possible in the case of others who have some share of infinity or anything of the essence and life of intrinsic love or of Divinity. If there were within them any share of infinity or anything of the essence and life of intrinsic love--of Divinity, that is--it would not be others who would be loving God. He would be loving himself." (Divine Love & Wisdom 49)
“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:46-48)
Just as any real love and relationship requires other, so group requires individuality:
"The group gains its solidarity as individuality is legitimated, and individuality is established when the primacy of the group is affirmed." (Paradoxes of Group Life, p. 100)
And yet there are those we call, "enemies", and those we call "friends":
“On one side, we find expressions of the collective good, the call for a commitment to a common goal, the need for self-sacrifice, social conformity, and the compromises of the social contract. On the other side, we find the virtues of individuality, creativity, freedom of expression, and the stimulation and growth from which all human progress is sculpted.” (Paradoxes of Group Life, p. 101)
Jesus taught, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17)
Elijah trouble maker - Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17)
“a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:36, Micah 6)
The tendency is to attribute the problems of the group to one person or another, and to attribute particular good and evil motivations based upon whether they happen to agree with ourselves or not. But Swedenborg’s work - in particular on charity - reminds us: * my greatest expression of love will be towards those who are different from me, * everyone can have the group’s best interests at heart and AS A RESULT OF THAT, have opposing and contradictory views. * to step beyond the external: the enemy is evil and falsity, wherever it occurs, but most especially as it occurs within me.
Unity requires acceptance of diversity
The problem will always be a tension between group-ness and individuality. To be part of a group is to share a certain commonality with others. Yet there are things I do not share with other members of that group, which make me an individual. I don’t want to lose them, any more than anyone does, but the potential is real that my individuality - or that of others - might be rejected, or event come to be seen as the enemy in the group. I fear that, and so protect that which makes me individual, holding it out of sight of others, withdrawing a part of myself from the group. This undermines my full participation in the group. And there is no end to this division, because we are all uniquely individual. There is not even one single other person in all of creation with whom I am identical. And this variety is an expression of the infinite Divine - yet so often we see it as weakness, as evil.
You pick up a book about spirits and angels, you’re interested to hear about spiritual and paranormal experiences. SO WHY ALL THIS TALK ABOUT GOD?
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/0ktlc-3jr8U Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-2
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
PROPRIUM “it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven, and not the angels from anything of their proprium.” (paragraph 8)
[from Latin, “proprium”, “proprio”] “appropriate” = to make one’s own, or claim as one’s own having self identity, analogous to the “ego” “... the Lord dwells with the angels of heaven in what is His own, …” (paragraph 12)
INFLUX “The angels of the inmost heaven also clearly perceive and feel the influx, and the more of it they receive, the more they seem to themselves to be in heaven,” (earlier in paragraph 8)
“it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord which inflows with the angels and is received by them, that makes heaven in general and in part.” (paragraph 7)
“there is but one fountain of life and that man's life is a stream therefrom, which, if it did not unceasingly come into existence from its fountain, would immediately flow away.” (paragraph 9)
Everything that flows in from the Divine is good and truth, and is life … it is by rejecting and blocking that flow that it is turned into evil. “... from that one fountain of life, which is the Lord, nothing proceeds except Divine Good and Divine Truth which affect each one in accordance with the reception. … those who reject and suffocate them turn them into hell, for they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, thus life into death.” (paragraph 9, section 2)
“... doing good for the sake of good, they call good from the Divine, and they say it is this good that makes heaven because this Good is the Lord.” (Paragraph 9, section 3)
“Good from the Lord is the Lord with the angels” (paragraph 12)
HIS OTHER BOOKS Interaction of the Soul and Body, published in 1769. Find a copy at: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/interaction-of-the-soul-and-body-vickers/ https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/swedenborg_foundation_interaction_of_soul_and_body.pdf https://www.booktopia.com.au/interaction-of-the-soul-and-body-emanuel-swedenborg/ebook/9781465573506.html?source=pla&gclid=CjwKCAjwy42FBhB2EiwAJY0yQtSJZh-OU8WuHVHMhsHFywQOr1Zf9sKGg9KW-bnTQrF3ePYPtpFtQxoCYIAQAvD_BwE https://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Soul-Body-Forgotten-Books/dp/1606201344
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/xQvdOW-LWck Find the notes here:
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/4GT4el6UWG8 Find the reading of the text (available for download)here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-chapter-1
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
On the Socinians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socinianism)
HIS OTHER BOOKS Download a copy of “The Lord” here: https://swedenborg.com/product/lord-nce/
INFLUENCES - Novelists: Things Heard and Seen, based on the novel All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
The 19th century Irish novelist, Sheridan Le Fanu: "Uncle Silas", “Green Tea” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheridan_Le_Fanu) Honoré de Balzac's Seraphita, and Louis Lambert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honoré_de_Balzac) Richard Matheson (raised Christian Scientist, What dreams may come, I am Legend, Other Kingdoms) August Strindberg: “Charles XII”, Inferno, and Jacob Struggles, and his Religious Renaissance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Strindberg) Vilhelm Ekelund: On the Seashore. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhelm_Ekelund) Fyodor Dostoyevski
Find the video here: https://youtu.be/WwtGY3vWoFg Find the notes here: [watch this space!]
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
Find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADLVwsdoXNU Find the reading of the text here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-authors-preface
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
I’d like to welcome you on this journey, reading Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell. Many people encountering Swedenborg’s work for the first time begin here, with his most well known book. It certainly captures the popular imagination, as illustrated by the recent Netflix movie, “Things Heard and Seen”
But as you open the book, there may be ideas you find difficult to understand, and that is what this podcast is all about: setting Swedenborg in context and helping you understand what he is saying.
Feel free to read along with us - you’ll find the accompanying video and audio in the same place as these notes - or you're welcome to read ahead and post questions for us to answer.
So let's dive in!
CONCEPTS IN SWEDENBORG: Swedenborg was born in 1688 and died in 1772. He was the son of a Swedish Bishop of the Lutheran Church, Jesper Swedberg. He is therefore steeped in a thoroughly Christian heritage. But it’s worth understanding from the outset that much of his commentary upon the Christianity of his day is highly critical. Still, we have to begin there to understand what he writes, and you will notice him writing for a Christian audience.
The Bible - which he frequently refers to as “The Word” In Swedenborg’s understanding there is a deeper meaning to the Bible, “the sense of the letter” being what is obvious to the reader without any sense of something deeper. This can be appreciated by grasping what Swedenborg calls the “Science of Correspondences”: where physical objects, events, speech, or people can be understood as referring to or representing spiritual realities. A simple example in everyday use is sight: we often “I see” to mean “I understand” That is set out in great detail in his first published spiritual work, ARCANA CAELESTIA, which translates as “Heavenly Secrets”, 12 volumes in English, and contains a word by word exposition of the spiritual meaning found within the first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus.
He jumps right in with a concept held by many fundamentalist Christians even today, what he terms the “Consummation of the Age”, by which he means the end of the world, or the second coming of Jesus Christ. And you might pick up that his idea is not as dramatic as some beliefs (physical return of Christ, dead raised from graves). As he writes towards the end of his Preface: “the end of the Church [is] when there is no longer any love and consequently no faith, [at which time] the Lord will open the Word in its internal sense and reveal arcana of heaven.” … “Such immediate revelation is now made because that is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord.”
So for Swedenborg, when we die, we are not laying asleep waiting until the time of the return of Jesus Christ to experience new life. The renewal of life begins immediately after death.
INFLUENCES Other Movies What Dreams may Come (1998, Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jnr, from novel by Richard Matheson), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Dreams_May_Come Bardot Blues (2017, by Marcia Kimpton), http://geewhizlabs.com/swedenborg/Sermons/LaySermons/20081005-MK-FindingForgiveness.pdf Brazillian movie, Nosso Lar (Astral City: A spiritual journey 2010), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_City:_A_Spiritual_Journey We know Charles Dickens had a copy of Heaven and Hell at the time when he wrote, A Christmas Carol, https://swedenborg-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Lutze_christmas-charol.pdf
Reading Emanuel Swedenborg's popular work, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell, from Things Heard and Seen.
Find the notes here: https://soundcloud.com/swedenborgcommunity/hh-authors-preface-notes Find the video reading of the text here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka8DMHhAjKQ
With thanks to the Swedenborg Society, London, for permission to use the Harley Translation (1958) of Swedenborg's original Latin text, Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen. Visit www.swedenborg.org.uk
This is a project of the Swedenborg Community Victoria. Visit www.swedenborgcommunityvictoria.net.au
Recorded on Sunday 2nd May 2021.
“The Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the initials "S. D. G." at the end of all his church compositions and also applied it to some, but not all, his secular works.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soli_Deo_gloria)
"Soli Deo gloria emphasizes the glory of God as the goal of life. Rather than striving to please church leaders, keep a list of rules, or guard our own interests, our goal is to glorify the Lord. The idea of soli Deo gloria is found in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”" (https://www.gotquestions.org/five-solas.html)
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)
“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly." (Matthew 6:1-4)
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9) - How do we “make” the name of the Lord holy?
We are like the man born blind: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:3)
Paul writes: For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
He continues … "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1-2)
"With anyone who is to be regenerated his initial affection for truth is largely impure, for it holds within it the desire to satisfy a purpose and an end that have himself in view, the world, glory in heaven, and similar things which regard himself and not the common good, the Lord's kingdom, still less the Lord Himself. Such affection inevitably comes first. Nevertheless the Lord purifies it gradually so that at length falsities and evils are removed and banished so to speak to the circumference. But they have nevertheless served as means." (Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Caelestia 3089)
"... Forms of good and truths are either the Lord's or not the Lord's. The Lord's are those which a person puts into practice for the sake of his neighbour, his country, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, thus for the sake of truth and goodness themselves, and above all for the Lord's sake. These forms of good and truths are the ones that are the Lord's. But those that are not the Lord's are the ones which a person puts into practice for the sake of himself as his end in view, and for the sake of the world as his end in view." (Emanuel Swedenborg, Arcana Caelestia 7564)
Why would you get involved in a group such as a church? There are many reasons: the theology, the style of worship, they’re nice people, to meet like-minded others, social connection, for what you can get out of it, for personal or spiritual support, or perhaps it becomes a means to contribute to a broader community …
How do I know I will get any of my needs met? After all, I know that others will join the same community for different reasons. Will I be expected to give up my needs for the sake of others? Will I be expected to conform to certain values, beliefs, or behaviours I may not share?
"How does one avoid becoming lost in a group? And if one does get lost, how does one take action to become more or less involved? Likewise, what happens to the group when it loses itself in one of its members or in some subgroup? How does the group take action to determine whether it is investing too much of itself, for little or no benefit, in some activity or concern of an individual part?" (Paradoxes of Group Life, p. 95)
The third in our series on the Five Solas of Protestant Christianity.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25,26)
"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11)
"Redemption and the suffering on the cross must be seen as separate. Otherwise the human mind gets wrecked as a ship does on sandbars or rocks, causing the loss of the ship, the helmsman, the captain, and the sailors. It goes astray in everything having to do with salvation by the Lord." (True Christian Religion, paragraph 127)
“... Surely, though, everyone with decent reasoning enlightened by the Word can see that God is compassion and mercy itself. He is absolute love and absolute goodness … It is a contradiction to say that compassion itself or absolute goodness could look at the human race with anger and lock us all into damnation, and still keep its divine essence. Attitudes and actions of that kind belong to a wicked person, not a virtuous one. They belong to a spirit from hell, not an angel of heaven. It is horrendous to attribute them to God.” (True Christian Religion, paragraph 132, section 2)
[Commenting upon] “I tell you, You Are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, ...” Matthew 16:18-19. “… It is ... evident to anyone who thinks properly that the power to open heaven and close hell ..., is the Lord's alone, ... One who thinks properly may also conclude that the Lord's Church has not been built on some person, thus not on Peter, but on the Lord Himself, that is, on faith in Him. [4] ... One can see why leaders of the Church are all too ready to seize on the idea that such power was given to Peter and consequently to those who call themselves his successors, for that idea lends support to what is in their heart.” (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 8581, from sections 3 & 4)
"When that internal good and truth are present in a person he has the Lord's kingdom within him and he is consequently the Church; and together with those who are very similar to him he constitutes the Church at large." (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5826, section 2)
"If the individual person in particular were not the Church, no Church in general could exist. The expression Church is used in everyday language to describe a congregation in general; but each member of the congregation must be a Church if that greater Church is to exist. Every general whole incorporates parts that are like that whole." (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 4292)
Self Identity. What is it? What is it for? Does it even really exist?
Answering these questions from the point of view of David Hume, Soren Kierkegaard, Emanuel Swedenborg, and inspired by the book, "Paradoxes of Group Life", by Smith and Berg.
"In regard to God, loving and being loved in return are not possible in the case of others who have some share of infinity or anything of the essence and life of intrinsic love or of Divinity. If there were within them any share of infinity or anything of the essence and life of intrinsic love--of Divinity, that is--it would not be others who would be loving God. He would be loving himself." (Divine Love and Wisdom, paragraph 49)
“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, [h]hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” (Luke 6:32-35)
"Spirits who wish to govern themselves imagine that that state [being governed by good from the Lord] would amount to a loss of their own will, thus of their freedom, consequently of all delight, thus of all life and its sweetness. They say and imagine this because they do not know the real truth of the matter, which is that one who is led by the Lord enjoys true freedom, and so true delight and bliss." (AC 6325)
"Man's proprium [sense of self identity] when viewed from heaven looks just like something bony, lifeless, and utterly misshapen, and so in itself something dead. But once it has received life from the Lord it appears as something having flesh. For man's proprium is something altogether dead, though it has the appearance to him of being something; indeed it appears to be everything. Whatever is living within him comes from the Lord's life; and if this were to leave him, he would fall down dead as a stone. For he is purely an organ of life, though the nature of the organ determines that of the life-affection. The Lord alone possesses Proprium. By His Proprium He has redeemed man and by His Proprium saves him. The Lord's Proprium is Life, and from His Proprium man's proprium, which in itself is dead, is given life." (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 149)
Recorded on Sunday 21st March 2021
The first in a series on The Five Solas of Protestant Christianity: Sola Gratia (Grace Alone).
Readings: John 12:1-7, and Exodus 33.
The Five Solas (Latin, solae) are: Sola Gratia (Grace Alone) Sola Fide (Faith Alone) Sola Christus (Christ Alone) Sola Deo Gloria (Glory of God Alone) Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)
Recorded on Sunday 7th February 2021.
The second in our series on the FIVE SOLAS of Protestant Christianity: Faith Alone.
"… unless the understanding could be separately perfected, and the will by means of it, a man would not be a man but a beast. For without that separation, and without the ascent of the understanding above the will, he would not be able to think, and from thought to speak, but only to express his affection by sounds; neither would he be able to act from reason, but only from instinct" (Interaction of the Soul and Body, paragraph 14, section 4)
"This is how the judgment works: the light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. Those who do evil things hate the light and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds to be shown up. But those who do what is true come to the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in obedience to God." (John 3:19-21 GNB)
“The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11)
“When people say that those are saved who have faith, they are saying something true; but in the Word nothing else is meant by faith than love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and so a life that is derived from those loves. Matters of doctrine and established beliefs do not constitute faith yet are part of faith, for these, each and every one, exist to the end that a person may become such as they teach.” (Secrets of Heaven, paragraph 2116)
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: … But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand" (Matthew 7:24,26)
“But knowing, understanding, acknowledging, and believing belong to the understanding; yet they do not have any being with the person until they become part of his will, and there is no manifestation of them with him until they become part of an understanding rooted in the will. For having being consists in willing, and manifestation in acknowledging and believing as a result of willing. Things that have no such being or manifestation with a person are not properly his own.” (Secrets of Heaven, paragraph 9282)
Do you live the faith you say you believe?
Recorded in Sunday 7th March 2021
Can you experience and understand paradox?
Paradox is defined as, ‘A statement or proposition seemingly self-contradictory or absurd, and yet explicable as expressing a truth.’ (Webster’s Dictionary)
Examples include: "Less is more" "The most corrected copies are commonly the least correct" (Francis Bacon)
In the book, Paradoxes of Group Life, Smith & Berg write: “Circles. One cannot escape the feeling that an exploration of paradox is like walking in circles. It is hard to know where you have come from and where you are going. But the more one lives with a paradoxical perspective, the more one develops a tolerance for circles and for the places where two apparently contradictory paths join.” (p. 151)
Many religious concepts are expressed in paradox ... WHY? It is an expression of the inner and outer realities of our lives. * We have a tendency to think in external and literal terms. * We take exclusivist positions: “either / or”, rather than “both / and” * We forget that we live in a world of appearances.
We are going to take a paradoxical journey over the next few months.
TASK FOR THE WEEK: Notice that which is paradoxical about your life. For example: Notice your reaction to other’s words. Notice how it can change from day to day. Notice how your mood colours your reactions to the situations and people you meet.
Recorded on Sunday 24 January 2021.
Isaiah chapter 40 begins with familiar words, used by Handel in his oratorio, Messiah, and often associated with the Christmas story: “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" But if anything, the words that end the chapter, in verse 31, are even more well-known: "But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." As we step into the new year together, we will consider what it means to "wait upon the Lord."
Recorded on Sunday 10th January 2021.
Is religion, like sports psychology, an irrational optimism which seeks to banish the skepticism that is so useful to science?
“This chapter is about the psychology of performance. We will dig down into the minds of top sportsmen and explore the relationship between mind and body under pressure. And we will arrive at the paradoxical conclusion that the thing that often separates the best from the rest is a capacity to believe things that are not true but which are incredibly effective.” (Michael Syed, Bounce, p. 144)
“It's a disturbing idea, that depressed people see reality correctly while non-depressed people distort reality in a self-serving way. As a therapist I was trained to believe that it was my job to help depressed patients both to feel happier and to see the world more clearly. I was supposed to be the agent of happiness AND of truth. But maybe truth and happiness antagonise each other.” (Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism, p. 108)
“When people say that those are saved who have faith, they are saying something true; but in the Word nothing else is meant by faith than love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, and so a life that is derived from those loves. ... Matters of doctrine and established beliefs do not constitute faith yet are part of faith, for these, each and every one, exist to the end that a person may become such as they teach.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2116)
“... acting in accord with the Lord's commandments constitutes true worship of Him, indeed constitutes true love and true faith, as may also become clear to anyone who stops to consider the matter. For there is nothing that a person who loves another, and who believes in another, would rather do than to will and to do what that other wills and thinks; his only desire is to know his will and thought, and so what is pleasing to him. ... ..., as the Lord also teaches in John, He who has My commandments and does them, he it is who loves Me. But he who does not love Me does not keep My words. John 14:21, 24.” (Heavenly Secrets, 10143, 5)
“In many arenas of life, optimism is unwarranted. In some situations - the cockpit of an airliner, for example - what's needed is not an upbeat view but a mercilessly realistic one.” (Seligman, p. 107-108)
“Think about a successful large business. It has a diverse set of personalities serving different roles. There are optimists ... [but] the company also needs its pessimists. A CEO must balance the two.” (Seligman, p. 111-112)
“Like the successful company, we each have in us an executive who balances the counsels of daring against the counsels of doom. When optimism prompts us to change and pessimism bids us to cower, a part of us heeds both. ... We can learn to choose optimism for the most part, but also to heed pessimism when it is warranted.” (Seligman, p. 115)
"Eternal rest, ... is not idleness, for idleness produces languor, sluggishness, numbness and drowsiness of the mind, and consequently of the whole body; and these are death, not life, much less the eternal life which the angels of heaven enjoy. Eternal rest, therefore, is a rest that dispels these states and enables a man to live; and it is only this that elevates the mind. It consists therefore in some pursuit or occupation by which the mind is aroused, quickened and delighted; and this follows according to the use from which, in which and for which the work is performed. Thus the whole heaven is viewed by the Lord as a sphere of uses, and every angel is an angel according to his use. The delight of use bears him along as a favorable current does a ship, causing him to be in eternal peace, and in the rest of peace. This is the meaning of eternal rest from labors. ..." (True Christian Religion, paragraph 694)
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ... was a famous critic of Christianity, and thought that it needed to be transcended by modern men and women. But at the same time, he granted that there were some "advantages" to the Christian understanding of morality - advantages that were no longer operative in a more relativistic, nihilist, post-Enlightenment world.
... it's worth asking, as did Nietzsche, what is the ultimate ("metaphysical") foundation of those moral standards, then? How does one justify holding on to them and recommending them to others? How do we know what is "good" and what is "bad," and who determines it? (https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/nietzsche-thought-chri stianity-had-these-4-advantages/?fbclid)
Glen Scrivener & Matt Dillahunty • Morality: Can atheism deliver a better world? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3-sjyDYO2I
The existence of God would provide a solid foundation for morality. But if God does not exist - or indeed where there is doubt - morality becomes somewhat more changeable and less certain. (e.g. the intrinsic value of human life)
Do ethics exist by Divine Command? Or by agreement?
Recorded on Sunday 1 November 2020
Following on from our series no the commands of Jesus. Recorded on Sunday 18th October 2020.
Music by Steve Farmer. Used with permission. Please subscribe to his channel if you enjoy his music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0tAvrifStV0CWDM62W69EA
Our last in the series, The Commands of Jesus, exploring what it means to "believe". Recorded on Sunday 4th October 2020.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:9-13)
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:18)
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” 28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:27-29)
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ... 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. (John 6:35,36, 46-47)
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37-39)
37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. (John 10:37-39)
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. (John 11:25,26)
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” (John 12:35,36)
Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. (John 12:44-46)
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:8-14)
The Commands of Jesus: Do not Judge. Recorded on Sunday 20th September 2020.
12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.”
14 Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. 17 It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. 18 I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”
19 Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”
20 These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come. (John 8:12-20)
Other readings:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7:15,16)
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)
24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (Mark 4:24,25)
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:37,38)
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:41,42)
Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.” (John 7:21-24)
"Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”
Reading from Mark chapter 10:13-31. You can read it here: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/bible/king-james-version/mark/10/
Recorded on Sunday 6th September 2020.
The Commands of Jesus: Forgive. Continuing the journey, we look at Matthew 18:15-35, and John 8:1-11. Recorded on Sunday 16th August 2020.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/JRibhIPP5yE
An article from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-blame-game/201510/forgive-me-forgive-me-not
Martin Luther King’s sermon on Forgiveness: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/draft-chapter-iv-love-action
Swedenborg’s discussion of forgiveness, reading from here and continuing to paragraph 9454: https://newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/arcana-coelestia-elliott/ex-25/94430?translation=arcana-coelestia-elliott&fromSection=0§ion=9443
Rev Howard Thompson’s series on Forgiveness, episode 1: https://youtu.be/1_zShZrDMk8
Is it more important to make a public confession of faith and to take a firm stand for the truth, or to live a private religion? Continuing our series on the Commands of Jesus. Recorded on Sunday 2 August 2020.
The principle that those who wish to be greatest must serve is found in each of the four gospels, but each time it is expressed in different ways and in different contexts. What can we learn from military leadership, and the young teacher? Recorded on Sunday 19th July 2020.
Loving your enemies is one of the most challenging of commands ever given. But this has hidden benefits. Today, we read from Matthew chapter 5 and unpack everything that Jesus means when he teaches the true nature of love. Recorded on Sunday 5th July 2020.
When did Jesus teach about the church? What is the purpose of its existence? And what can we learn from cars and the recipe for pickles? Recorded on Sunday 21st June 2020.
What should you do when you meet a bear? Will worry help you? In Mark chapter 13, Jesus relates some alarming circumstances, and gives his own advice as to the best way to act. Recorded on Sunday 7th June 2020.
Luke 6:6-11 Pain is the pathway to peace.
Learning to be watchful of our states is key to victory for the Soul Warrior. When you are watchful and obedient you will experience new power and healing.
Luke 6:1-5 Enter the Sabbath.
Finding peace and rest from the 'lower ego through being led by LOVE.
Luke 5:36-39 Why do I struggle so much to bring new habits and insights into my life?
To experience new spiritual realities requires a willingness to let go of the past and embrace what Is coming - The New JERUSALEM.
Luke 5:33-35 When it's time to party - then party...
Spiritual life has ups and downs. When things are up, the Lord wants you to rejoice and when things are down, He wants you to get busy with spiritual work.
Luke 5:27-32 What are you doing Lord? That's not what I need!
Sometimes we wonder what God is up to... His focus is on lasting transformation and it is only through the power of the Inner Sense can we be shown how to really love people and do good to them.
Luke 5:17-26 The Lord has a way to make the impossible possible.
The Lord wants to challenge our false beliefs and self-talk so that we may be healed and go forth glorifying God and sharing hope with a broken world.
"Do unto others as you would have done to you" known as "The Golden Rule", is found in most religions around the world in one form or another. But there's a problem, can you spot it?
Recorded on Sunday 17th May 2020
Luke 5:12-16 The Lord's promises for you are always 'Yes and Amen'
Our ongoing experience is up and down, challenge to victory and a mixture of 'you win some and you lose some'. However, God is for us and always wants our best.
You will not find abundance and success until you let the power of the Logos lead you forward
Too often we try to make things work in our own strength. Knowledge alone is not enough. We need a consistent conviction coming from fruit and successes only achievable when we are guided by the Lord
Luke 4:38-44 The Inner Sense of the Logos heals our mind.
The Lord's healing and restorative work upon our mind is a gradual and cyclic process. When we reach a new level however, the healing is complete and thorough.
Luke 4:33-37 Your beginning to truly believe...
The Logos is constantly working with our unstable states ensuring that we make real and lasting progress.
Four mums tell their stories: of coping with young children, of parenting a teenager, of guiding through trauma, of enjoying time spent with grandchildren.
Recorded for Mother's Day, 10 May 2020.
Luke 4:22-32 Where are you Lord? Times of spiritual famine...
It would be wrong of the Lord to not warn us and instruct us that we will react, object and even fight against the Lord from hellish wrathful states buried deep within us.
Lessons from the playground.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, …; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
We fairly naturally recognise that owning great wealth may not be all that it’s cracked up to be, but how do we react to that? Should we disavow all worldly possessions?
Recorded on Sunday 3 May 2020.
Luke 4:16-21 The Baptism of Fire comes with great promises.
Each time we move through a cycle of spiritual battles, there comes the spoils of war - increased peace, healing, enlightenment, enrichment and greater freedom.
Luke 4:9-15 Fighting evil spirits - part 3 - The Power of the Inner Sense of the Logos will defeat all enemies
The literal or written sense of the Word contains all power. But it can be misused and misquoted. The revelation of the Inner Sense keeps us safe from all attacks.
Luke 4:5-8 Fighting evil spirits - part 2 - being in the world not a product of the world
The Soul Warrior understands the real source of power comes through the virtue of Innocence. When we learn to surrender to the Logos we can be trusted with more and more power.
Luke 4:1-4 Fighting and defeating evil spirits - part one
The baptism of fire empowers us to fight and defeat the hordes of hell. We begin with the first of three archetypal attacks to make ourselves the supreme authority for our lives instead of submitting to the highest power - The Logos.
Luke 3:21-22 The Lord is willing... the initiation process begins.
When we submit our life to the Word to be washed, a new initiation can begin. Heaven will open for us and our adventure into the baptism of fire can begin.
Luke 3:15-20 Feeling good verses 'being' good. The baptism of fire.
It's a mistake to think that I have cleaned up my life so therefore I have arrived. After the washing of the water of the Word must come the baptism of fire or we will stop growing.
Luke 3:7-14 Laying the foundations for deeper spiritual guidance through self-examination.
We must dive deep if we wish to discover the hidden treasures of spiritual regeneration. We need to move through general examination to particular examination and right down to the core or our being through specific self-examination.
Luke 3:1-6 Cycles within cycles. We need to be ready for challenges if we wish to know and grow in the Lord
The Soul Warrior understands the need to keep receiving a 'now/new' word from the Lord if we are to succeed on the spiritual path.
Love is the Answer. Are we saved by faith or good works? An old controversy. We look at the Two Great Commandments, and Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Recorded on Sunday 19 April 2020.
Luke 2:41-52 Easter/Passover calls out to us in our cycles helping us to reconnect so that we don't get lost.
Published on: April 13, 2020 at 11:59 AM Our natural mind and lower ego have a tendency to take a wrong kind of ownership over divine realities. Find out how to work through this process in episode 14 of The Next Level.
Luke 2:36-40 We are at a moment of refreshing and first love being reawakened inside us. Published on: April 12, 2020 at 1:31 PM In this episode we meet Anna the prophetess. She represents the inner confirmation or quickening of our SPIRIT that the Lord Jesus Christ is who He says He is... God come in the flesh.
The next in our series, The Commands of Jesus: Take up your cross and follow me. In a time of hope for the future, we explore the challenge of bringing our hopes and dreams into reality - what is our greatest obstacle? Recorded on Easter Day, 12 April, 2020.
Luke 2:25-35 Working with Divine Providence to receive spiritual guidance.
The Holy Spirit is upon Simeon leading him and guiding him to that very moment where his eyes can 'see' the manifestation of salvation and regeneration.
Luke 2 from verse 21. Baby Jesus is presented before the temple on day eight. What secret promise does this hold?
We may know that"nobody's perfect", but actually admitting my own failings is another matter entirely. Rethinking Repentance looks at why that is, and asks whether we can apply the principle of repentance to more than just what we call sin. Recorded on Sunday 5th April 2020.
Many people find Biblical culture primitive and barbaric, but in one way it is far in advance of our own: treatment of the poor. Recorded on Sunday 16th March 2020
Jesus appears inconsistent in his demands for us to follow the commandments and his breaking the Sabbath laws of his time. Will a closer examination of the issues involved reconcile this dilemma and offer us greater clarity on the commandments? Recorded on Sunday 1st March 2020.
How do you create a community? Does the Bible say anything useful? Recorded on Sunday 16th February 2020.