Day: April 10, 2017

Salvation Gobbledygook

The understanding of how people are saved and go to heaven was turned into gobbledygook at the Council of Nicea, where God was first divided into three Persons.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with early Christian history, let give you some of the background that led the Church to make decisions that rendered the process of salvation unintelligible.

A man by the name of Arius was challenging the Church’s claim that Jesus was divine, and insisted that the Lord was inferior to the transcendent Father. To stop this new, heretical movement from growing, a synod of bishops got together in the year 325 in the town of Nicaea to mount a counter attack. These bishops were faced with the complicated task of explaining their affirmation of one God, but consisting of three distinct Persons.

The bishops invented new, high-sounding words (not found in Scripture) to explain their Trinitarian doctrine in a way that would preserve the Lord’s divinity, such as “hypostatic” union, which allowed the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be distinct, yet be of one personal divine substance.

According to theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, while the bishops endeavored to escape a wolf, they “ran into a Lion.” Now, the dynamics of salvation had to be described by giving each distinct God a special duty. If each divine Personage requires the help of the other in saving humankind, then they cannot – by any stretch of the imagination – represent the fullness and perfection of the Godhead individually. There is also a problem of logically explaining how the Son was begotten from the Father when each existed from eternity (begotten suggests a sequence in time). But don’t worry – we can simply say that such illogicality is a great and beautiful “mystery” of faith. Things do not get any better when the different duties belonging to each particular God are seriously explored.

First, God the Father is pissed-off with humans. So the Father sends the Son (who apparently had nothing of value to do up to this time) to be slaughtered on the cross and take upon himself the sins of the world.  The Lord defeats death and emerges in righteousness. But this victory over sin (through bloodletting) has no direct benefit to us. The Lord’s merit and righteousness is merely transferred to a divine “credit card.” The Father does not impute this merit and righteousness of His Son (the Redeemer?), until those who by grace, obtain faith. Then the Father sends the Holy Spirit to use His divine credit so as to actually implement salvation for those who have the proper faith.

This is redemption. It is given to only the elect.

There are two big problems here. First, God cannot be seen as having Infinite love and mercy for all people – only for a select few. He hates some and accepts others (the Son and Holy Ghost simply follow orders from the Father). Second, we have absolutely no say in the process.

As a result of this spiritual “limbo,” we are put in a schizophrenic state of panic in which we try to acquire the proper FAITH. We rush to church, take part in its rites, listen to sermons, then cross our fingers (because the final outcome is still up to the judgment of the Father).

The strength of one’s faith is in the strength of one’s belief that the Lord is our Savior and Redeemer through His vicarious death on the Cross. We must believe, believe, and believe – until our eyes pop out of our sockets. And, during all this believing, we should overlook our transgressions, since we wouldn’t dare take merit for becoming a better Christian and person.

This dismissal of personal responsibility in matters of salvation is why some church leaders believe that Christians are above the Law (God’s Commandments), since through the crucifixion we now need only approach Christ. Yet even Christ states that we should approach the Father when He taught us the LORD’S PRAYER. The whole thing is a mess!

But change is coming. The New Jerusalem will usher in a more adequate theology for today’s world. In fact, it is yours for the taking.

Posted on September 14, 2008by thegodguy

Posted in god, Life after death, Reality, religion, spirituality, unity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

PART II. Assumption and Glorification of the Human by the Lord

< Chapter XXV. The Wicked. ^ Discrete Degrees ^ Chapter XXVI. The Human of the LORD before the Incarnation. >

 

Previous: Chapter XXV. The Wicked. Up: Discrete Degrees Next: Chapter XXVI. The Human of the LORD before the Incarnation.

Chapter XXV. The Wicked.

< Chapter XXIV. The Third Degree of Regeneration. ^ Discrete Degrees ^ PART II. Assumption and Glorification of the Human by the Lord. >

 

THIS diagram illustrates the state of the wicked. Their spiritual mind is closed and almost inoperative, thus with them heaven is shut. Their natural mind being filled with evil and falsity is perverted. The natural mind in such case reacts against the spiritual mind and closes it, so that but little influx can enter the natural mind from above or through heaven.

Z represents the three hells as they appear below the world of spirits. No new degrees are here represented but only the degrees of the natural mind in a state of perversion as they appear when disrobed of every semblance of goodness and truth. The three degrees of the natural mind when in a state of order are in the world of spirits appearing there beneath the heavens, conjoined with the heavens and acting as one with them. They can appear elsewhere only by being brought into a state of inverted order,. which inversion is represented by their appearance at Z without the pale of true order.

Some of the wicked however are more deeply sunken in the evils of one degree and some in the evils of another. The predominant evils and falsities of some are in w, and with them this degree is more operative than the lower degrees. These constitute the first hell, thus

The evils and falsities of others are in x. These constitute the middle hell, thus

And still others are in y. These constitute the lowest hell, thus

The hells then consist of those who are in the perverted rational, scientific, sensual.

In The True Christian Religion we read, –

“If a man neither acknowledges God, nor worships Him with actual piety, he puts off the image of God and becomes like some animal except that he enjoys the faculty of understanding and thence of speech. If he then closes [against heaven] the highest natural degree [represented by w] he becomes with respect to love like a beast of the earth; but if he closes the middle natural degree [x] he becomes with respect to love like a fox and with respect to the sight of the understanding like a bird of the evening; but if he also closes the ultimate natural degree [y] as to its spiritual, he becomes with respect to love like a wild beast and with respect to the understanding of truth like a fish.” -TCR 34.

In the light of this diagram and of Diagram XI we can easily understand Arcana Coelestia AC 6564, 10492, 10429. In this light read The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 33, 36 to 46; True Christian Religion TCR 401, 402; Arcana Coelestia 9701 to 9709, 9128; Divine Love and Wisdom 162, 270; Apocalypse Explained 406 [a], 940, 939, 941, 1145 (Atli.Cr. 44). The internal man of the evil mentioned in Arcana 9128 is the interior of the natural mind. (Diagram XI.)

Inversion of order and therewith the existence of evil cannot occur in the spiritual mind B though this may be closed by the prevalence of evil in the natural mind C. The spiritual mind is formed for the exclusive occupancy of love to the LORD and love to the neighbor; but if those loves are not exercised, this mind shrinks and closes. The natural mind is the abode of self-love and the love of the world. These when submissive to the higher loves and animated by influx from them, are orderly and good, but when rebellious they are disorderly and evil. (Chapters VI and XVIII.)

END OF PART I.  

Previous: Chapter XXIV. The Third Degree of Regeneration. Up: Discrete Degrees Next: PART II. Assumption and Glorification of the Human by the Lord.

 

Does Faith Threaten Cosmology?

 

Not only does religion and science disagree about how the universe began, or how life emerged, but they also disagree on how it will all end.  Since most of the debate has focused on creation and evolution I would like to address the “end times.”

Currently, astrophysicists tell us that because the universe is expanding (with increased speed) and its stars will eventually burn up all their fuel, everything will run down and we will be left with a cold, dismal, and lonely universe.

Christian doctrine offers a more positive and hopeful view. The Christian concept of the end times (eschatology) is that the Lord God will return and create a “new heaven and new earth.”

Cosmology and eschatology are at odds. Is there any room for a rational dialog between the two?

I believe there is. However, we cannot expect that there will be any success in such a profound endeavor without institutions crumbling – both scientific and religious. In other words, success will require a major shake up and paradigm shift. Everyone’s ox may get gored in the process.

But be brave. History has shown us that both science and religion has already undergone many paradigm shifts. What is needed requires bold new information and insights into the true nature of the ultimate reality, offering a framework broad enough that will permit science and religion to adopt a similar and unified worldview.

There are signs that this is happening – even if both sides of the issue may be unaware of it. For instance, science is quickly coming to a dead end in trying to explain the richness of the universe, its order, and mathematical rationality from reductionism or by any physical principles. The singularity of Big Bang theory and the probability waves of quantum physics points to a non-physical beginning of the universe.

If the God of heaven created the world, then it certainly had its beginning in a non-physical realm. Unfortunately, religion offers no further rational insight into this process other than God “wished it” and “made it so.” Science needs more than faith to work with, it wants LAWS. This is especially important concerning the physics involved that would both improve the current cosmological model and back up the theological premise that God will eventually reconstitute the universe so that humans can escape the tyranny of time and live in eternal happiness.

After studying these issues for more then three decades I have come to the conclusion that science must change many of its assumptions about physics, and, religion must change many of its assumptions about theology. So I will seem heretical to the standard beliefs of both truth systems. But the Lord God will make all things “anew.”

Since science will always maintain that the burden of proof must fall on religion, then that is where I shall start. In John 1:1-3 of the New Testament, it is claimed that all things created in the universe were created from the “Word.” Theologically speaking, the Word of God is the same thing as Sacred Scripture. Therefore, for this biblical statement to make any scientific sense, the Holy Word must somehow contain similar dynamics, laws, and patterning principles of the universe within the very architecture of its narratives.

This is the position that scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg took in his systematic interpretation (exegesis) of Scripture. He believed that the Holy Word was a multidimensional document. This has immediate signification for scientists working on string theory, who propose that the universe consists of higher dimensions, called hyperspace.

The big difference between Swedenborg’s approach to the multidimensional nature of reality portrayed by Scripture and that of the current scientific models is that his model ascends from physical qualities to non-physical qualities. In current physics, everything stays physical – no matter how many new dimensions are added.

This is also of significance to scientists who are working with the idea that time and space has emerged from a pre-geometric condition, whereby dynamics and topological features are abstracted from their involvement with time and space.

Swedenborg claimed that through the science of correspondences, the narratives of Scripture could be transformed into their non-physical and psycho-spiritual equivalent.

Therefore, when you apply these rules of abstraction to Scripture, the biblical phrase that the Lord will “create a new heaven and a new earth” has nothing to do with cosmology. It represents our rebirth or spiritual re-creation. That is, the Lord’s return will not be a physical event but a spiritual one that will take place in our hearts and minds. A new heaven and new earth represents a profound change that will take place within one’s inner and outer realities (our spirit and its manifestations in the physical world).

So, will the physical universe still fizzle out despite humanity’s eventual success in becoming more spiritually focused? I would ask scientists to look into whether there is a way to determine if more stars are being born then are burning out. If more stars are being born than are dying, then this would suggest that the universe is growing, and that God is making more space and matter (from an Infinite prolific principle).

Of course, there is much, much more material that could be shared concerning this topic but it goes well beyond the scope of this humble post. This material includes how scientific laws can be found in the stories of Scripture, such as top-down causality, quantum discontinuity, spacetime structure, and what kind of dynamics are involved in our salvation and eternal life. If these ideas intrigue you, they will be flushed out in my next book, Proving God.

I will keep you posted concerning its completion on this blog.

Posted on September 13, 2008 by thegodguy

http://www.provinggod.com

Posted in god, Inner growth, Life after death, metaphysics, psychology, Reality, religion, science, spirituality, symbolism, unity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Son of God — How to make sense of Christ’s claim?

Son of GodA basic teaching of Christianity is that there is only one God but in three distinct divine persons, the Father, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit: each said to be God. Many Christian theologians themselves admit they have found it impossible to come up with a persuasive and rational explanation for three Gods in one. So they call this a mystery.

Any lack of understanding in what the churches teach, I suppose, is not necessarily a problem for those of faith. Having said that, I suspect this central dogma is a major obstacle for many other people who won’t believe in something they don’t understand.

Son of God unprovable in historical terms

Virtually all scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus Christ existed. They have offered various historical portraits of his life, which at times share a number of overlapping attributes, such as a charismatic healer and religious prophet, who preached about the “kingdom of God” as a means for personal and social transformation. The question of his divinity is more difficult for historians and his claim to be what he called the Son of God.

Christ’s birth was not strictly a ‘virgin birth’ or parthenogenesis, for this would necessarily have produced a female offspring. Because he was male, he had to have had a father to give him his male sex chromosomes. He came to see himself as the Son of God. One snag from a scientific perspective is that if his father were really God, rather than a human being, how did he get his male sex chromosomes?

Son of God as body of the one God

Christians believe Christ’s assertion that his father was God and understand this to mean that he was a distinct person from his father in the same way as you and I are not the same person as either of our parents. However, an alternative Christian view originating from Emanuel Swedenborg is expressed by Brian Kingslake:

“Your soul is a finite vessel containing God’s life; and, because it is finite, you will always be finite. You will never merge with God. But Jesus was different. God was his Father, so his soul was God. It was not a vessel containing God, it was God himself. Therefore Jesus had no finite limitations.”

He goes on to claim that Christ’s spiritual growth went on and on without halting, until his humanity was dissolved into the divinity of God, making one divine person only. So according to this view of the Son of God, Jesus Christ had a divine soul that was within him throughout his life on earth.

However, his maternal heredity was like that of any other child. Mary gave him his natural tendencies. He began life in complete ignorance and had to learn everything. He could grow weary and could become angry and weep. Because of the self-orientated tendencies, he inherited from his mother, he was to be vulnerable to corrupting influences, as we all are.

Ordinary life in Palestine meant experiencing daily events like others of his age group. The boy would have learned how to become aware of things around him and of the way his family saw them. Like the rest of us, his thinking would have been restricted much of the time by how things appear and seem to be. In other words his experiences would have been shrouded by human consciousness. At the same time, the argument goes, if his soul were divine, there would have been many ‘break-through’ moments of a higher perception. John’s Gospel suggests these quite vividly. For example he wept over the self-defeating, self-centered attitudes around him.

“I believe there is no one lovelier, deeper, more sympathetic and more perfect than Jesus — not only is there no one else like him, but there could never be anyone like him.” (Feodor Dostoevsky)

Son of God having Christ’s dual nature

Swedenborg suggests that because of what he claims is Christ’s dual nature, at times there would be states of temptation say for material gain or egoist fame and thus Christ, even though he always resisted such urges, would have felt distinct and apart from God. So when feeling tempted by ordinary selfish urges  he would have been conscious of himself as the son of Mary: but even in his most exalted states,  free from baser tendencies, he was only conscious of being what he called the Son of God rather than God himself.

I would ask whether, compared with the traditional view of the Holy Trinity, it is more rational to think of the Holy Trinity as three dimensions of one Divine Person? I would suggest that just as we each have a soul, a mind and a bodily activity so does God: only in God’s case it is a soul of love, a mind of wisdom and a bodily activity that has powerful effects.

Swedenborg maintained that before Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, God did not exist in an ultimate form of flesh and bones and natural mind although there was a potential for this to develop. And this did develop through Christ’s overcoming and purifying his natural side inherited from Mary.

If this theory is correct, by the ‘Son of God’ we can understand the natural degree of mind and body which God took upon himself when he came into the world as the ‘Word made flesh’. And if true, there would have been no Son of God before the birth of Jesus and thus no separate divine person.

I myself feel it is probably misleading to describe Christ, after his ascension, as the Son of God. Instead I would say that Christ is the natural degree of the divine — i.e. God’s body rather than a distinct person of a Godhead; the Lord God we all can relate to person to person in what might be said to be a visible form. As the Bible says

“In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9)

Copyright 2013 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Author of Heart, Head & Hands Swedenborg’s perspective on emotional problems

Jesus Christ – Who was he?

Jesus ChristHere are some different views about who Jesus Christ was. Which one(s) do you think are correct?

1. Jesus Christ was only a mythical figure

Although part of the Bible story, virtually all modern scholars studying antiquity say that Jesus did exist historically. Most of them agree that Jesus was a Galilean, Jewish rabbi who preached his message orally, and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.

2. Jesus Christ was founder of a world religious tradition

Most people think of him as an eminent religious leader pointing to the importance of spiritual rather than material things.

For example in relation to what Buddhism calls attachment, and what the Jewish tradition refers to as coveting, Jesus said:

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world but lose his soul?”

This is similar to the teachings of the leaders of other religions:

“You use all your vital energy on external things and wear out your spirit” (Chuang Tzu, a Taoist sage)

“It is difficult for a person laden with riches to climb the steep path that leads to bliss.” (The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam)

Actually, Jesus Christ was a founder of a restoration movement within Judaism. Only after his death, did the community his followers formed eventually became the Christian church.

3. Jesus Christ was a very good man

He has been seen as a religious ascetic holy man and thus a symbol of perfect goodness and virtue. A role model we can aspire to copy. In washing the feet of others he revealed his humility, he showed care for the sick, and he asked for the forgiveness of those who were crucifying him.

“Jesus Christ. I mean, not only was He the greatest human being to ever walk the earth, He’s everything that I want to strive for. He’s everything that anyone should ever want to strive for.” (Sam Bradford, American football player)

4. Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher

The sayings attributed to Jesus, e.g. those known as Sermon on the Mount, are to do with forgiveness and compassion. They have been seen to have a healing quality directed not merely to some particular disease or misfortune but to the vital core of the individual, focusing as they on love and humility rather than demand and penalty.

“We should live our lives as though Christ was coming this afternoon.” (Jimmy Carter, ex-President USA)

5. Jesus Christ was God’s messenger and prophet

This is the idea that Jesus was Divinely inspired, differing from the wisdom of other men, not in kind, but only in degree. For example Muslims considered Jesus to be one of God’s important prophets chosen to spread God’s message.

If he indeed was a prophet some of his parables of judgment make uncomfortable reading about our destiny. The wheat was to be stored but the weeds were to be burned, the foolish virgins were to be excluded from the wedding banquet, the worthless servant who buried his talent was to be thrown outside into the darkness.

“Those who meet Jesus always experience either joy or its opposites, either foretastes of Heaven or foretastes of Hell. Not everyone who meets Jesus is pleased, and not everyone is happy, but everyone is shocked.” (Peter Kreeft, author of Jesus-Shock)

6. Jesus Christ was a miracle maker

The possibility of supernatural events is accepted by those who believe Jesus, like some other Bible figures such as Elisha and Peter, was able to use what they see as God’s omnipotent power. For example he is said to cause a huge number of fish to be caught, make a storm cease, and turn water into wine at a wedding. Whether seeing these stories as literally true or merely symbolic, Christian authors view them as works of love and mercy, performed to show compassion for sinful and suffering humanity.

7. Jesus Christ was a manifestation of God

Those following the Bahá’i faith see Jesus as serving as one of several manifestations of God reflecting God’s qualities and attributes and possessing simultaneous qualities of humanity and divinity.

Some Hindus consider Jesus to be an appearance or manifestation of the Supreme Being and point out similarities between Krishna and Jesus’ teachings. Some Buddhists, including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, regard Jesus as a bodhisattva (i.e. a being with enlightenment motivated by great compassion) who dedicated his life to the welfare of people.

8. Jesus Christ is the Son of God

In his time the religious authorities in Judea asked for his death because they didn’t believe in his claim to be the Son of God which they saw as a great blasphemy.

Likewise today Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God. Islamic texts emphasise a strict notion of monotheism forbidding the association of partners with God which would be idolatry.

However the cornerstone of the Christian faith has been a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. At the same time Christians ask how could a divine Jesus have been an ignorant baby who had to learn slowly by way of experience and instruction, as all children do? How could Jesus have prayed to his Father as if to another?

Today mainstream Christians respond by believing that Jesus was the Son of God. They point out that this was his own claim about himself. They think of him as a separate person of the divine trinity alongside God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Their idea of atonement by the sacrifice of the cross would be impossible apart from the concept of the Son as a person distinct from the Father.

9. Jesus Christ is God himself

This is the view that, although as to his body Jesus Christ was a person like other people, nevertheless his inner character was infinite and divine. According to this view, he was the one God himself, in human form, who came at a point in history as the infant child of Mary to grow and learn on earth, experience the natural side of life, overcome its allurements, and thus cause all evil influences in the world to be curtailed.

In other words he wasn’t the Son of God in the sense of a separate Divine person. He saw himself in this way because unless he felt apart from his own self as God, he couldn’t have experienced temptation. And so he wasn’t conscious of his full identity even when praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and trial, and when dying in agony nailed to the cross when he cried out to ask why God had forsaken him. For a fuller explanation

Copyright 2015 Stephen Russell-Lacy

Author Heart, Head & Hands

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