Day: May 15, 2017

Father Son and Holy Spirit – three essentials in one God

God is Love

Uniquely among the great monotheistic faiths Christianity proclaims a Holy or Divine Trinity in the one God. For theologians and ordinary believers alike this has proved to be a difficult and even divisive teaching. If God is clearly distinguished into the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit how does he remain at the same time one whole and undivided Being? Some simply cannot believe it, others try to accept it as a mystery beyond human understanding, and even among those who have understood it very few see it as a powerful message with which to win new converts. Yet in presenting himself to us as both one and three, God is surely trying to tell us something very important about how he works with us.

Many modern believers start from the first principle that God is love [1 John 4:16 NRSV]. A loving God will never stand apart and aloof from his people. God longs to draw close to his people and to enjoy a fruitful relationship with every single one of them. One of the best loved verses in the New Testament reminds us that, God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life [John 3:16 NRSV]. This longing on the part of God for loving relationships with ordinary mortals is the key to understanding the traditional Christian teaching concerning the Trinity.

For ordinary mortals such a loving relationship with God is full of difficulty and even danger. Finite human beings can scarcely comprehend what infinite love is, let alone draw close to it. The power of God’s love is so great that it is frequently described in the Scriptures as a ‘consuming fire’. The intensity of its flame and heat is greater even than that of the sun or indeed of many suns combined together. Small wonder that God told Moses, You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live [Exodus 33:20 NRSV]. If any meaningful relationship is to exist between the Divine Father and his people then his infinite love needs to be tempered and in some way accommodated to human states.

But how can God temper and accommodate his love in order that we might safely receive it? The biblical answer is to be found in the coming among us of the Son of God. Concerning the Son, Jehovah God said, For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst [Zechariah 2:10 NRSV]. Elsewhere it is Jehovah who says, I am the Lord and there is no Saviour besides me [Isaiah 43:11 NRSV] – The gospel also records, Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us [Matthew 1:23 NRSV]. These, and other similar verses perhaps suggest that the Son is not a separate God, nor even a separate person from the Father, but is simply the human form which Jehovah took upon himself in order that he might dwell among his people in the natural world.

To view the Deity in this way is to see the life or soul of Jesus Christ as nothing other than the infinite love which is Jehovah God.  This means that the Son of God is not another person but rather the humanity with which Jehovah wrapped himself in order that he could come safely among the human race. This humanity, born of Mary, was lacking in nothing.  Jesus was real flesh and blood and experienced the full range of human feelings and thoughts.  He had all the bodily cravings, felt pain, endured temptations, and suffered a grim death. When he rose again on Easter Day he did so victorious over all human evils and temptations. Now his human body was fully and permanently transfigured with the glory of the Divine. In the Risen Lord Jesus Christ the Father is the soul or Divine life, whilst the Son is the human form in which he exists and makes himself known to us.

Although we commonly speak of body and soul as being the elements that make up a human being, there is also a third essential without which there is little meaningful existence. Life is about being useful, forming relationships and having a good influence on other people. Such activity, whether of the mind or the body, is an integral part of the person we are. Each person’s activity and sphere of influence is unique to them and it can often be very powerful. The Lord also has his sphere of influence and he is continually touching people’s lives for good. This divine activity is the third essential of the Trinity, namely the Holy Spirit.

A very good illustration of what the Holy Spirit is and does is to be found in one of the Lord’s post resurrection appearances to the disciples. He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” [John 20:22 NRSV]. The Holy Spirit is here shown to be the Lord breathing his resurrection life into others so that they might live in a new and heavenly way.  Ever since then the Holy Spirit has been a powerful stream of life proceeding from the Divine Human God to aid and energise all who would live out his gospel in their daily lives.

No human being can live without three distinct aspects to their life. The soul is the very spark of life in them, the body is the outward form enabling them to live as part of the human race on earth, and activity is the expression and use of their life. Although we each have these three clear essentials to our life, still we remain distinctly one person. In this respect we are made in the very likeness of God. Emanuel Swedenborg expresses it well in the following words, Those three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of a single God, which make one as soul, body and activity do with a person [True Christian Religion 166].  

There is and can be only one God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one Divine Human who, because of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit within him can love all people, be as close to them as their own body, and be a powerful influence for good in their lives.  The great joy of the Trinity is that it means each one of us is able to have a full personal relationship with our God and Saviour.

http://www.god-is-love.org.uk/

For in (Christ) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. [Colossians 2:9 NRSV]

A scandal worth emulating!

I once had a strange encounter with a man who lived a scandalous life. As a young fellow going out into the world to seek his fortune he happened to fall in love with his uncle’s younger daughter. I have to admit she had a great body and was quite beautiful to look at.

His uncle, rather than being appalled by this, turned the situation to his own benefit. He convinced his nephew to do chores for him for seven years before he would allow such a marriage. Then, at the end of the seven years this despicable uncle managed to trick his nephew into sleeping with his not-so-beautiful older daughter.

The story gets worse. The uncle then makes a deal for the young man to finally let him have his younger daughter as well. The young man, while having being tricked, makes the most of it and marries both cousins. He also has hanky-panky with both cousins, but only succeeds in impregnating the older of the two sisters, who gives birth to six male children and one girl.

Then the unimaginable happens. Both sisters fight for the young man’s attention. Since these sisters came from a well-to-do family (owning lots of livestock) they each go out of their way to offer their female maidservants as additional sexual partners for him.

What is a young man to do? Well, he had sex with all of them! More babies resulted. In fact, he finally managed to impregnate the more beautiful younger sister and she bore him a son. What a mess!

I looked at this man’s life and began to make a character judgment about him. He knew what I was thinking then made an unexpected defense for all his actions. He communicated to me that if I wanted to become more spiritual and grow closer to God I had better follow his exact same steps in life!

He was so convincing that I am now trying to follow in his footsteps and emulate his lifestyle.

His name was Jacob. I encountered him and his unique life-story in the pages of the Old Testament. However, Jacob’s story was anything but scandalous when I encountered him again and he was able to convince me of his honorable intentions within the pages of Emanuel Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia (Secrets of Heaven). This is where I was able to view Jacob’s life and actions on a whole new and more profound level. His story is actually my story and your story!

All the characters of this biblical narrative actually represented different qualities of a person’s heart and mind who begins the process of spiritual salvation. In other words, Jacob’s life is a story of how the human mind and spirit advances through stages of spiritual development. Each of Jacob’s encounters with women represented a new advance of the heart and mind. Each advance gave birth to new children, which signified bringing a new quality of spiritual activity into the world (the offspring of spiritual development).

This is why Jacob was so intimate with his relatives—they all related to qualities and the pedigree of his spiritually evolving heart and mind. They represented the progressive changes (genealogy) taking place within his inner being and all things serviceable to it. So Holy Scripture is relevant and timely, even to modern human life and society—if we know how to distill higher meaning from its stories. And there is much more spiritual detail to be distilled from the biblical narratives.

Emanuel Swedenborg offers us intellectual access to these higher meanings, without which many of the stories of God’s Holy Word offer only wacky scenarios and offer us no real guidance. God is not wasteful or trivial when it comes to the salvation of the human race. God’s message goes deep and challenges us to go beyond our habitual and everyday minds.

Posted on March 5, 2010by

http://www.stairacasepress.com

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The Word has a Soul

Lastchurch - The Eternal PurposeFrom Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In heaven nothing at all is known about the names, countries, nations, and the like; the angels have no idea of such things, but of the actual things signified by them. The Word of the Lord is living by virtue of the internal sense. This is as the soul, of which the external sense is as the body. And just as with man when his body dies the soul lives, and when the soul lives he no longer knows the things that pertain to the body, so when he comes among angels he does not know what the Word is in the sense of the letter, but only what it is in its soul. Such was the man of the Most Ancient Church; who, if he were living and read the Word at the present day, would not cleave at all to the sense of the letter; but would be as if he did not see it, but only the internal sense abstractly from the letter; and indeed as if the letter had no existence. Thus he would be in the life or soul of the Word. It is the same everywhere in the Word, even in its historical parts, which were just such as are narrated, and yet there is not so much as one little word therein that does not, in the internal sense, enfold within it deep secrets which never appear to those who hold the mind in the historical connection.

(Arcana Coelestia 1143)
February 28, 2015

Enlightenment, Swedenborg-Style

Swedenborg Foundation

by Morgan Beard

When you hear the word enlightenment, you might picture exotic scenes of monks meditating on a mountaintop or a wise spiritual teacher offering gems of insight. Enlightenment isn’t something that we often associate with Christian spirituality, but Emanuel Swedenborg uses that very term throughout his writings to refer to receiving insight from God.

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When Swedenborg talks about being enlightened, in a sense he’s being very literal: he describes a spiritual world that exists in parallel to our own, where God is the sun that radiates love and wisdom the way that the sun in nature radiates heat and light. In the spiritual world, God’s light is pure wisdom, and anyone who receives it can “see” in a whole new way:

I have often been allowed to perceive that the light that illumines the mind is a true light, quite different from the light that we call natural light. I have also been allowed to see it. I have been gradually elevated into that light inwardly, and as I was raised up, my discernment was enlightened to the extent that I could grasp what I had been unable to grasp before, ultimately things that could in no way be comprehended by thought from a natural light. At times I have resented the fact that they were incomprehensible [in natural light] when they were so clearly and plainly perceived in the heavenly light. (Heaven and Hell #130)

As the above passage suggests, Swedenborg sees enlightenment not as an event (as some other traditions portray it) but rather as a state of perception that can come or go. For example, in the stories of his experiences in the spiritual world, he sometimes describes people who are confronted with a mystery praying for insight and being enlightened—sometimes actually having light sent to them from above—so they could understand the answer.

But he also describes enlightenment as something that people can experience here on earth, especially while reading scripture:

There is a spiritual perspective, of which few people know anything at all, a perspective that inflows in the case of people who have a longing for truth and tells them inwardly whether what they are hearing or reading is true or not. When we are reading the Word with enlightenment from the Lord, we have this perspective. Having enlightenment is nothing more nor less than having a perception and therefore an inner acknowledgement that this or that statement is true. Isaiah calls such people “taught by Jehovah” (Isaiah 54:13; see also John 6:45) . . .  (Faith #5)

In the above passage, Swedenborg gives the first prerequisite for enlightenment: The person has to have a “longing for truth.” They have to really want to understand the nature of spiritual reality. If God chooses to grant this, then a new perspective will flow into them, and they can use that perspective to gain a new understanding of what they’re reading—and ultimately, of life itself. Swedenborg adds that people who approach this process with genuine faith may not even realize that they’ve been enlightened.

Once a person gains this spiritual perspective, Swedenborg continues, it starts to snowball:

The first task [of those who seek enlightenment when they read the Word] is to put together a body of teaching for themselves from the literal meaning of the Word. That is how they light a lamp in order to go further. Once they have put together a body of teaching and lit the lamp, they see the Word in the light of that lamp.

However, people who have not put together a body of teaching for themselves first look to see whether the theological perspective offered by others and generally accepted does in fact agree with the Word; and they accept what agrees and dissent from what does not. That is how they form their body of teaching, and through their body of teaching, their faith.

This [enlightenment] happens, though, only for people who are able to contemplate things without being distracted by professional responsibilities in this world. If they love truths  because they are true and put them to use in their lives, they have enlightenment from the Lord, and other people whose lives are to any degree guided by truths can learn from them. (Sacred Scripture #59)

Behind this growing enlightenment are spiritual processes that Swedenborg describes at length in his writings.  All human beings, he says, have an inner self and an outer self. The outer self is the part of our mind that controls our everyday life: it thinks, it talks, it acts. The inner self is the part of us that connects to the spiritual world, and it is also the part that receives the light of wisdom. The more light flows into us, the more we can understand spiritual mysteries. (For a more technical explanation of how this works in Swedenborg’s own words, see this footnote.)

So while Swedenborg depicts enlightenment as something that can happen temporarily, as described above, he also describes a state that we can achieve permanently when we grow as spiritual people, a process he calls regeneration.

To sum up, Swedenborg describes three important elements in achieving spiritual growth and, ultimately, enlightenment:

First, enlightenment begins with the desire to understand spiritual truth and the faith that God can and will provide that understanding.

Second, enlightenment is most likely to happen when we not only love truth, but put it to work in our life. For example, if your inner enlightenment tells you that you should be more forgiving, and you make a conscious effort to let go of a grudge you’ve held for a long time, then you make that wisdom part of yourself, and open yourself up to greater light.

Third, our intentions are important. If we only want to achieve understanding to improve our social status, impress others, or make money, then ultimately, Swedenborg says, we will fail.

Remarkably, the kind of enlightenment we individually enjoy depends on the desire we have for truth, and the desire we have for truth depends on how good a life we live. That is why people who have no desire for truth on its own account, only as a means to achieve success, receive no light at all when they read the Word. They only confirm themselves in their theology, whatever its teachings are like, whether they merely distort the truth . . . or go so far as to oppose it. . . . Such people seek not the kingdom of God but the world, not faith but fame, not heavenly but only earthly riches [Matthew 6:33; Matthew 6:19–20]. If they happen to be struck with a lust for learning truth from the Word, they keep discovering falsity rather than truth, and eventually, grounds for denying all truth. (Secrets of Heaven #7012; see also Secrets of Heaven #10330:2-3).

But for those who do succeed in cultivating inner wisdom, Swedenborg describes the end result as a state of “quiet” when all struggle ceases—remarkably similar to the way that Buddhists, for example, describe achieving enlightenment (Secrets of Heaven #5221; see also Secrets of Heaven #87 on the final stage of regeneration). Could there be more common ground than we think between different traditions of enlightenment? You decide!

Other Resources

For more on how light works in the spiritual world, check out the “Spiritual Light” episode of our weekly webcast Swedenborg and Life.

If you’d like to read more about Swedenborg’s concept of spiritual levels and how we interact with them, see his book Divine Love and Wisdom, especially part three (#173–281). For more on the Bible and how to access its inner meaning, read his short work Sacred Scripture.

Footnote: The Process of Enlightenment

Divine Love and Wisdom #256: While earthly-minded people cannot think about this wisdom the way angels do, they can still grasp it mentally if their minds are raised into the level of light that angels enjoy. Our minds can actually be raised that far and enlightened accordingly. However, this enlightenment of our earthly minds does not happen by distinct levels. There is instead a gradual increase, and in keeping with that increase, our minds are enlightened from within, with the light of the two higher levels.

We can understand how this happens by perceiving that for vertical levels, one is above the others, with the earthly level, the terminal one, acting like an inclusive membrane for the two higher levels. As the earthly level is raised toward a higher level, then, the higher activates that outer earthly level from within and enlightens it. The enlightenment is actually happening because of the light of the higher levels from within, but it is received gradually by the earthly level that envelops and surrounds them, with greater clarity and purity as it ascends. That is, the earthly level is enlightened from within, from the light of the higher, distinct levels; but on the earthly level itself, it happens gradually.

We can see from this that as long as we are in this world and are therefore focused on the earthly level, we cannot be raised into wisdom itself, the way it is for angels. We can be raised only into a higher light at the boundary of angels and receive enlightenment from their light, which flows into us from within and illumines us.

I cannot describe this any more clearly. It is better understood through its effects [described in the following section, #257].

Secrets of Heaven #5208:1–2 (commentary on a Bible passage that refers to someone awakening from sleep; Swedenborg says this refers to a person becoming enlightened): Enlightenment here means general enlightenment coming from spiritual heavenliness and therefore from inside. Enlightenment that originates or flows from inside is vague and general when shed on a lower level [of our inner self]. Yet it gradually becomes less general and eventually specific as truth based on goodness is instilled on the lower level. Every bit of truth based on goodness shines and illuminates. . . .

Our spiritual and natural levels, or our inner depths and outer surface, are brought into correspondence in just this way. First we acquire truth. Then that truth is apparently banished, so to speak, although it is not really banished but only hidden. Next our lower levels are enlightened in a general way by our higher levels, or our outer surface by our inner depths. Under that illumination, truth is restored in its proper pattern. As a result, all individual truths on that level become an image of their general truth and correspond to it.

http://www.swedenborg.com/

Living from love

Train up a child in the way he should go: even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

Train up a child in the way he should go: even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

Jesus exemplified love in action. He showed gentleness and humility, but also spoke up courageously for the poor, the oppressed, the lepers, the adulterers, the sinners, and the outcasts. He not only spoke up for them, but he touched them, sat with them, ate with them, loved them, was one of them and didn’t put himself above them. He said, “I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27)

This is a call to service; we need to treat others well because our actions (and inactions) have a big impact. What Would Love Do offers a curriculum for putting love into action. What kind of love are we talking about? The kind that is not blind, but wise. The kind of love that can survey a challenging circumstance, and offer what is needed. This kind of wise love can be gentle, leading us to admit our faults and ask for forgiveness, or it can be firm, calling us to resist injustice. It is about developing an open-hearted, open-minded attitude so that our actions naturally flow from our love for others.The foundation on which the latest seven-week Journey program, What Would Love Do? is built is a biblical parable told by Jesus found in Matthew 25: 31-45. In this parable, a mighty king appears on a throne. This king gathers all the nations together, and says, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” The people are surprised and ask when the king had needed help. Then the king replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

With this kind of attitude, we don’t have to work so hard to do good. Good things will certainly happen if we choose to act from love, and if we have a willingness to be loved by others along the way.

This seven-week program explores each of the ways the king in Matthew 25 tells us to.

Love Serves: “I was hungry and you gave me food.” In a loving environment where we know that our presence makes a positive impact, we gain emotional nourishment. We are surrounded by goodness; this is spiritual food. Feeding the hungry can mean anything from handing a bowl of soup to a homeless person on the street, to helping a friend use her talents.

Love Brings Truth: “I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” Water is essential for life. Just as hunger and thirst are closely related, so are the desire for goodness (hunger) and the desire to know what is true (thirst). The deepest, most urgent questions we ask represent our thirst on an emotional level. Getting good “water” is essential for our mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Love Welcomes: “I was a stranger and you took me in.” We are social beings. We thrive on touch, communication, friendship. Without enough genuine connection we may find ourselves feeling lonely, anxious or depressed. Just as our bodies move from place to place, we are also on an inner journey. This week we have an opportunity to welcome the stranger, both physically and spiritually, by offering the kind of instruction that helps them feel included, known and loved.

Love Comforts: “I was naked and you clothed me.” Clothes keep us dry and warm, and protect us from harsh environments. Beyond that, they represent a freedom of expression, a sense of pride, confidence and identity. Nakedness can represent feelings of self-doubt or shame. Offering spiritual clothing is reaffirming the truth about the person.

Love Visits: “I was sick and you visited me.” Being sick feels awful. Nothing helps us appreciate health more than having to lie in bed with fever and chills. Some people may not have any outward signs of illness, yet they are struggling internally and could use some kindness and compassion in their lives. Maybe we know someone who cheats. Maybe we know someone who treats others like dirt. Can we visit those who are sick in this way?

Love is Present: “I was in prison and you came to me.” Someone who sits behind bars often ranks high on the list of people to shun. Being present for someone who is stuck is yet another way to be a force of love in the world. Jesus tells us to find ways to be there for others who are in prison, either spiritually or physically, and to recognize our own internal messages that keep us trapped.

Love Rejoices: “As you have done it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done it to me.” We reflect on how it is a blessing to be able to be there for each other, comfort each other, and meet each others’ needs. When it comes from love, we’re doing it with joy. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, the choice is ours. When deciding what step to take, we can simply ask, what would love do?

Join us as we explore serving the neighbor in concrete ways! Two world-wide launches, October 5th, 2014 and February 1st, 2015.

https://newchurch.org/

Full issue

DAILY INSPIRATION

“The ultimate purpose of creation is a heaven from the human race.”

Divine Providence 323

Permissions

New Christian Bible StudyNew Christian Bible Study

Spiritual Topics/

By Mr. Joseph S. David

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God’s purpose in creating the universe was to end up with a heaven populated by angels – people – from the human race. All His laws, which collectively may be called the Divine Providence, are dedicated to that end. One of those laws is that people must be in freedom to choose to follow those laws or not, because only those things chosen in freedom from a love for them is lasting. This means that people may choose to do evil without obvious, external restraint from the Lord. No hand will come down out of the sky, and no terrible voice will call, “stop!”. The Lord can only work internally in each person using what the person has in his or her understanding or conscience. His overarching law that requires human freedom prevents anything else.

The evils that occur in such circumstances are called permissions. They can serve a purpose. In someone who has a conscience, and wants to do what is right, the doing of some evil or even the thought of doing some evil will bring to the person’s attention that a love for that evil exists in them, and a resistance to both the thought and deed must be developed so that shunning the evil can become less difficult. When a person who doesn’t have a conscience does evil, and that evil breaks out into external acts, then others can see that open evil. If dismayed by it, they can see that they should avoid it, or if they see an incipient love for it in themselves, they can work to shun any thought of dwelling on it in their imagination, or, worse, doing it themselves. In this way the Lord can make use of evils that arise in hell. In the work entitled “Divine Providence” we are taught that the Lord never allows evils that cannot serve a useful warning purpose that may lead toward salvation.

http://newchristianbiblestudy.org/

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 687; Arcana Coelestia 1299, 6489; Arcana Coelestia 2447 [2]; Arcana Coelestia 6574 [2-3]; Arcana Coelestia 8227 [2]; Divine Providence 16, 234; Divine Providence 251 [1-2])

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Euthanasia – good or bad?

Spiritual Questions & Answers

Discovering inner health and transformation

euthanasiaRecently one mother, Frances Inglis, has been jailed for life for murdering a son who was in a persistent vegetative state, and another mother, Kay Gilderdale was acquitted of the attempted murder of her daughter, whose suicide she assisted. What should we do about euthanasia done to relieve suffering? When the patient brings about his or her own death with the assistance of a physician, the term assisted suicide is often used instead.

Passive euthanasia entails the withholding of common treatments, such as antibiotics, necessary for the continuance of life. It can be misleading to use the term ‘euthanasia’ for the withholding of life-sustaining treatment or for the use of pain-relieving drugs which may also shorten life, because these may be both life choices if one seeks to enable a person to live as fully as possible even while dying. But active euthanasia is to choose death as an end, and that is a very different thing. It entails the use of lethal substances or forces to kill and is the most controversial means.

Some religious people condemn euthanasia as wrong. However, many reach no final conclusion although seeing several relevant spiritual perspectives.

Should the individual choice of euthanasia be respected?

We each have a human faculty of freedom and rationality. We expect people to exercise these in applying their values to the circumstances they find themselves in. Defending the innocent is justified when we risk our life taking responsibility for others safety. And so it is argued perhaps we should likewise take responsibility for ending our own suffering.

But having a responsibility to choose between what is good and bad doesn’t make our wrong choices right. We may have the freedom to think as we please, but this does not mean we should do so if our desires are against ethics and spiritual values.

Swedenborg pointed out that our rational good sense is reduced when we are ill and in pain. We may think we are making our own free choices but actually these may be subtly influenced by unconscious factors. Some terminally ill people, some deeply depressed, do believe that their choice of death is for the good of others. ‘They will be better off without me; I am such a burden to them.’ There may be many reasons behind such statements. They are most often the words of someone with misjudged feelings of low self-worth.

It might be asked did not Captain Oates ‘choose death’ when he walked from Scott’s tent into the Antarctic blizzard. Yes, in a sense he did, but not as an end. He chose to act in the way he did knowing that it involved death, and accepting his death as a means when there was no alternative – to help the safety of his fellow human beings. ‘Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). The distinction here is between intention and foresight. Oates foresaw his  death: death was not his choice.

Should one be allowed euthanasia to escape intolerable pain and loss of independence?

We can imagine a rare situation of extreme suffering, such as the soldier in the burning gun turret who cannot be rescued, and whose agonizing death is unavoidable, for whom it may be judged that a merciful bullet is a gesture of care.

Those who are aware of their ethical responsibilities may be sympathetic to the idea that to prolong life uselessly is to undermine the independent moral status of a person. This is where it seems that personal qualities of rationality, freedom, self-possession and responsibility have become inactive and not given any dignity.

On the other hand when rationality has been taken away by pain or brain damage, the patient’s competence to volunteer their informed consent for euthanasia can be difficult to determine or even define. Mercy killing without the patient’s volunteering for this is even more controversial a step. The public’s trust in doctors’ and nurses’ duty to preserve life would be undermined if they were allowed to assist in mercy killing.

It goes against all human love to allow unnecessary suffering and this is an important factor for those who believe in Love and Light. On the other hand only such a Light  can know what is unnecessary suffering. Cannot we trust that intolerable pain will not be allowed by nature? Does it not provide the unconsciousness of concussion rather than our experience of something beyond which we can bear?

Is there any point in keeping someone alive past the point he or she can contribute to society?

For many being useful is the purpose of their lives. But how can one be sure anyone is no longer serving a useful role? For all we know in any given situation, a need for nursing care is a stimulus for others to learn better how to act in a selfless way and for the sufferer to see the affection and concern of close family members as they do what they can to help.

Euthanasia implies a right to die

One consideration for religious people is they did not create their life — it is from God their Creator. The life within them is not theirs to own and dispose of as they wish. It is God’s life in them. But more than a gift, life is a trust. Their life is on trust and they see themselves as stewards of this gift. To choose death, for the person of faith, therefore, is a denial that God is trusting that person with life. If life is a gift then we have no right to a life and so have no right to a death.

The question of euthanasia raises many spiritual issues.

Copyright 2011 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Author of  Heart, Head & Hands  Swedenborg’s perspective on emotional problems

 

http://www.spiritualquestions.org.uk/

Posted on14th February 2011Authoreditor18CategoriesEthics, Ethics & LifeTags,, , , , , , , , , , , , ,, , , , ,  Leave a comment