Day: May 16, 2017

Causes

HR90 The Science Of Correspondence

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                                                                                                           CAUSES
Ca784That natural things represent spiritual things, and that they correspond, may also be known from the fact that what is natural cannot possibly come forth except  from a  cause prior to itself. Its cause is from what is spiritual; and there is nothing natural which does not thence derive its cause. Natural forms are effects; nor can they appear as causes, still less as causes of causes, or beginnings; but they receive their forms according to the use in the place where they are; and yet the forms of the effects represent the things which are of the causes; and indeed these latter things represent those which are of the beginnings. Thus all natural things represent those which are of the spiritual things to which they correspond; and in fact the spiritual things also represent those which are of the celestial things from which they are. [AC2991]

The correspondence of the will and understanding with the heart and lungs cannot be abstractly proved, that is, by mere reasonings, but it may be proved by effects. It is much the same as it is with the causes of things which can be seen rationally, yet not clearly except by means of effects; for causes are in effects, and by means of effects make themselves visible; and until causes are thus made visible, the mind is not assured respecting them. In what follows, the effects of this correspondence will be described. But lest any one should fall into ideas of this correspondence imbibed from hypotheses about the soul, let him first read over carefully the propositions in the preceding chapter, as follows: Love and wisdom, and the will and understanding therefrom, make the very life of man (n. 363, 365). The life of man is in first principles in the brains, and in derivatives in the body (n. 365). Such as life is in first principles, such it is in the whole and in every part (n. 366).  By means of these first principles life is in the whole from every part, and in every part from the whole (n. 367). Such as the love is, such is the wisdom, consequently such is the man (n. 368). [DLW375]

Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third.

Ends   Who does not see that the end is not the cause, but that it produces the cause, and that the cause is not the effect, but that it produces the effect; consequently that they are three distinct things which follow in order? The end with man is the love of his will, for what a man loves, this he proposes to himself and intends; the cause with him is the reason of his understanding, for by means of it the end seeks for mediate or efficient causes; and the effect is the operation of the body from them and according to them. Thus there are three things in man, which follow each other in order, in like manner as the degrees of altitude follow each other. When these three things appear in act, then the end is inwardly in the cause, and the end through the cause is in the effect, wherefore the three coexist in the effect. On this account it is said in the Word, that everyone shall be judged according to his works; for the end, or the love of his will, and the cause, or the reason of his understanding, are together in the effects, which are the works of his body; thus the quality of the whole man is in them.

They who do not know these things, and do not thus distinguish the objects of reason, cannot avoid terminating the ideas of their thought in the atoms of Epicurus, the monads of Leibnitz, or in the simple substances of Wolff, and thus they close up their understandings as with a bolt, so that they cannot even think from reason concerning spiritual influx, because they cannot think concerning any progression; for the author says concerning his simple substance, that if it is divided it falls into nothing. Thus the understanding stands still in its first light, which is merely from the senses of the body, and does not advance a step further. Hence it is not known but that the spiritual is a subtile natural, and that beasts have a rational as well as men, and that the son is a breath of wind such as is breathed forth from the breast when a person dies; besides many things which are not of light but of thick darkness. Since all things in the spiritual world and all things in the natural world proceed according to these degrees, as was shown in the preceding article, it is evident that intelligence properly consists in knowing and extinguishing them, and seeing them in their order. By means of these degrees, also, every man is known as to his quality, when his love is known; for, as was said above, the end which is of the will, and the causes which are of the understanding, and the effects which are of the body, follow from his love, as a tree from its seed, and as fruit from the tree. There are three kinds of loves, the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self; the love of heaven is spiritual, the love of the world is material, and the love of self is corporeal. When the love is spiritual, all the things which follow from it, as forms from their essence, derive their spiritual nature; similarly if the principal love is the love of the world or of wealth, and thus is material, all the things which follow from it, as derivatives from their principle derive their material nature; likewise if the principal love is the love of self, or of eminence above all others, and thus is corporeal, all the things which follow from it derive their corporeal nature. The reason is, because the man who is in this love regards himself alone, and thus immerses the thoughts of his mind in his body. Wherefore, as was just now said, he who knows the ruling love of anyone, and at the same time the progression of ends to causes and of causes to effects, which three things follow in order according to the degrees of altitude, knows the whole man. Thus the angels of heaven know everyone with whom they speak; they perceive his love from the tone of his speech; and they see his image from his face, and his character from the gestures of his body. [ISB17]

Author: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772)

http://www.scienceofcorrespondences.com/causes.htm

Copyright © 2007-2013 A. J. Coriat All rights reserved.

There Are Three Heavens

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HEAVEN >> Divine Order >> Divine Form >> Divine Human

THERE ARE THREE HEAVENS

There are three heavens, entirely distinct from each other, an inmost or third, a middle or second, and an outmost or first. These have a like order and relation to each other as the highest part of man, or his head, the middle part, or body, and the lowest, or feet; or as the upper, the middle, and the lower stories of a house. In the same order is the Divine that goes forth and descends from the Lord; consequently heaven, from the necessity of order, is threefold.[HH29]

The interiors of man, which belong to his mind and disposition, are also in like order. He has an inmost, a middle, and an outmost part; for when man was created all things of Divine order were brought together in him, so that he became Divine order in form, and consequently a heaven in miniature.{1} For this reason also man, as regards his interiors, has communication with the heavens and comes after death among the angels, either among those of the inmost, or of the middle, or of the outmost heaven, in accordance with his reception of Divine good and truth from the Lord during his life in the world. [HH30]

The Divine that flows in from the Lord and is received in the third or inmost heaven is called celestial, and in consequence the angels there are called celestial angels; the Divine that flows in from the Lord and is received in the second or middle heaven is called spiritual, and in consequence the angels there are called spiritual angels; while the Divine that flows in from the Lord and is received in the outmost or first heaven is called natural; but as the natural of that heaven is not like the natural of the world, but has the spiritual and the celestial within it, that heaven is called the spiritual-natural and the celestial-natural, and in consequence the angels there are called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural.{1} Those who receive influx from the middle or second heaven, which is the spiritual heaven, are called spiritual-natural; and those who receive influx from the third or inmost heaven, which is the celestial heaven, are called celestial-natural. The spiritual-natural angels and the celestial-natural angels are distinct from each other; nevertheless they constitute one heaven, because they are in one degree. [HH31]

In each heaven there is an internal and an external; those in the internal are called there internal angels, while those in the external are called external angels. The internal and the external in the heavens, or in each heaven, hold the same relation as the voluntary and intellectual in man-the internal corresponding to the voluntary, and the external to the intellectual. Everything voluntary has its intellectual; one cannot exist without the other. The voluntary may be compared to a flame and the intellectual to the light therefrom. [HH32]

Author: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG  (1688-1772)

http://www.scienceofcorrespondences.com/white-horse.htm

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What do you intend?

It is a simple question to ask. However, it is a difficult question to answer. It is the greatest “loaded” question that you can expose yourself to. It goes directly to the heart of all that matters—your life.

Your intention focuses conscious attention (through what is harmonious) and arranges the information in your memory into a coherent system of values. Scientifically speaking, your intention acts like a first principle, which orchestrates all mediate causes into your final worldly effects and deeds (one’s fruitfulness). Science is actually finding physical evidence that intention creates new pathways and connections among neurons (brain cells).

Theologically speaking, what we intend is the true life of our inner spirit. All true religion refers to your intention—this is what God is most interested in and seeks to modify, bend, or promote. Even ancient pagans like the Greek philosophers coined the phrase “know thyself.” Studying the world makes you knowledgeable but studying yourself can make you wise. Wisdom is the highest form of knowledge.

The answer to the question “what do you intend” is the only way to monitor your life in a sincere way—because it can only be asked and answered in a sincere way!

If you answer the question I have posed above and honestly compare it with what you already know about wisdom, love, civility, morality and goodness you will find your true spiritual game plan for procuring a heavenly life.

Simply ask yourself—are you (and your intention) a blessing to the world?

Posted on March 7, 2010by

http://www.staircasepress.com

https://havau22.com/2017/05/12/starting-science-from-god/
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The Forgiveness of Sins

 

Lastchurch - The Eternal Purpose

 

The Forgiveness of Sins

Selection from
ARCANA COELESTIA
The Heavenly Arcana
CONTAINED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OR WORD OF THE LORD
UNFOLDED
TOGETHER WITH WONDERFUL THINGS SEEN IN THE WORLD OF
SPIRITS AND IN THE HEAVEN OF ANGELS

Translated from the Latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

    The sins done by a man are rooted in his very life, and make it; and therefore no one is liberated from them unless he receives new life from the Lord, which is effected by means of regeneration.

    That from himself a man cannot do what is good or think what is true; but only from the Lord, is evident in John:

  • A man can do nothing except it be given him from heaven  (John 3:27).
  • He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing  (John 15:5).

    From this it is evident that no one can withdraw anyone from sins, thus forgive them, save the Lord alone.

    The Lord continually flows into man with the good of love and the truths of faith; but these are variously received; being received in one way by one person, and in a different way by another; by those who have been regenerated they are received well; but by those who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated they are received ill.

    Those who have been regenerated are continually kept by the Lord in the good of faith and of love, and are then withheld from evils and falsities. And those who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated by the Lord are also withheld from evil and kept in good, for good and truth continually flow in from the Lord with every man; but the infernal loves in which they are, namely, the loves of self and of the world, stand in the way, and turn the influx of good into evil, and that of truth into falsity.

    From all this it is evident what the Forgiveness of Sins is. To be able to be kept by the Lord in the good of love, and the truths of faith, and to be withheld from evils and falsities, is the Forgiveness of Sins. And to shun evil and falsity, and to feel aversion for them, is then Repentance. But these are possible only with those who, through regeneration, have received new life from the Lord; because these things belong to the new life.

    The signs that sins have been forgiven are the following. Delight is felt in worshiping God for the sake of God; in being of service to the neighbor for the sake of the neighbor; thus in doing good for the sake of good, and in believing truth for the sake of truth. There is an unwillingness to merit by anything that belongs to charity and faith. Evils, such as enmities, hatreds, revenges, unmercifulness, adulteries, in a word, all things that are against God and against the neighbor, are shunned and are held in aversion.

    But the signs that sins have not been forgiven are the following. God is not worshiped for the sake of God; and the neighbor is not served for the sake of the neighbor; thus good is not done and truth is not spoken for the sake of good and truth, but for the sake of self and the world. There is a desire to merit by our deeds; others are despised in comparison with ourselves; delight is felt in evils, such as enmities, hatred, revenge, cruelty, adulteries; and the holy things of the church are held in contempt, and are at heart denied.

    When sins have been forgiven, they are believed to be wiped off, and washed away as dirt is with water. Nevertheless they remain in the man; and their being said to be “wiped off” is from the appearance when the man is withheld from them.

    The Lord regenerates a man from Divine Mercy. This is done from his infancy down to the last of his life in the world, and afterward to eternity. Thus it is from Divine Mercy that the Lord withdraws a man from evils and falsities, and leads him to the truths of faith and goods of love, and afterward keeps him in these. And after this, in Divine Mercy He raises him to Himself in heaven, and makes him happy. All this is what is meant by the Forgiveness of Sins from Mercy. They who believe that sins are forgiven in any other way, are quite mistaken; for it would be the absence of mercy to see a multitude of men in the hells, and not save them, if it could be done in any other way. And yet the Lord is mercy itself, and wills not the death of anyone, but that he may live.

    Consequently those who do not suffer themselves to be regenerated, thus who do not suffer themselves to be withheld from evils and falsities, remove and cast away from themselves these mercies of the Lord. Therefore it is the man who is in fault if he cannot be saved. This is what is meant in John:

  • As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be sons of God, to them that believe in His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God  (John 1:12, 13);

“of bloods” denotes those who are opposed to the goods of faith and of charity; “of the will of the flesh” denotes those who are in evils from the loves of self and of the world; “of the will of man” denotes those who are in falsities thence derived; to be “born of God” denotes to be regenerated. That no one can come into heaven unless he is regenerated, is taught in the same:

  • Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God  (John 3:3, 5);

“to be born of water” denotes through the truth of faith; and “to be born of the spirit” denotes through the good of love. From all this it can now be seen who they are whose sins have been forgiven; and who they are whose sins have not been forgiven.

(Arcana Coelestia 9443 – 9454)

Mike Cates   PO Box 292984   Lewisville, TX  75029  Article Site Map  Writing Site Map

http://lastchurch.blogspot.ca/

We have freedom to choose

God is Love

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. 
[Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ESV]

 

In the historical setting of the Old Testament this quotation from Deuteronomy comes just before Moses dies and his successor Joshua leads the Children of Israel across the Jordan into the Promised Land. It was a timely reminder to the people that they continued to have a choice – they could choose to follow the Lord and his way, holding fast to him, or to turn away from him – they had freedom to choose between life and death, blessing and curse.

Freedom to choose is something that we experience to varying degrees in every aspect of our lives – the freedom to choose where we live, what job we do, what food we eat, what clothes we wear and so much more. This freedom may seem an important aspect of our chosen life-style but what we choose as a result is really rather superficial compared to the fundamental and deeper spiritual freedom we have to make the choice between what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad – to essentially choose to move closer to God or to move further away from God. This is the type of freedom to choose that is described in Deuteronomy 30:19-20. It is God given and maintained equally to all as part of our essential human nature.

In his book Heaven and Hell, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote the following about this type of freedom:

Essentially, spiritual equilibrium is freedom, because it is a balance between what is good and what is bad, and between what is true and what is false. All these are spiritual realities. Therefore, to want to do something good or something bad, and to think something true or something false, and to choose one over the other, is freedom. This freedom is given by the Lord to every human being, and is in no way removed from anyone.
[Heaven and Hell 597]

But we might ask Why does God gives us this freedom?

We can perhaps find an answer by thinking about the way a wise and loving parent treats their children. One of the hardest things such a parent has to do is to let their child make mistakes despite realising the probable pain and suffering that will ensue. Children have to grow and develop and make their own way in the world and not feel they are being manipulated or directed by their parents. They will make the right decisions and the wrong decisions and yet the loving parent has to stand back and not intervene. They just offer advice to their child as to what they should do and then leave their child the freedom to make up their own mind. The loving relationship of parent and child is similar to other loving relationships in that, paradoxically, the more freedom we give to those whom we love the greater and stronger is the love that is ultimately returned. Force someone to love you and no real mutual love develops. However, offering to love someone and leaving them the freedom to respond or not is a high risk and potentially painful strategy as most people find out at some stage in their lives when love is not returned.

God gives us the freedom to choose his way or to reject it because he wants to develop a relationship with each one of us based on mutual love not the relationship of a master to a servant but of friends, as Jesus makes clear in John’s gospel.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
[John 15:14,15 ESV]

Jesus also talks about the mutual nature of the relationship he wishes us to enter into.

Remain in me and I in you. He who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit.
[John 15:4, 5 ESV]

And the mutual or reciprocal nature of this desired relationship is also mentioned in Revelation:

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I shall come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me.
[Revelation 3:20 ESV]

Freedom to choose allows everybody the possibility of forming a link with God, holding fast to him and coming closer and closer to him or we can go in the other direction and break the link with God and move further and further away from him it is our choice.

Emanuel Swedenborg comments on this linking with God as follows:

The link between the Lord and a person is reciprocal; and it follows inevitably from this that a person ought to link himself with the Lord, so that the Lord may link himself with him. It also follows that the consequence would otherwise be not linking, but removal and separation, though this is not on the Lord’s part, but on a person’s. In order to make the link reciprocal, a person has been given freedom to choose, allowing him to set foot on the road to heaven, or the road to hell.
[True Christian Religion 371:2]

Swedenborg also refers to coming closer to God:

It is a law of the divine design that the closer and closer we come to God, which is something we have to do as if we were completely on our own, the closer and closer God comes to us.
[True Christian Religion 89]

In the gospels Jesus emphasises that He who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. Some of the spiritual fruit to which he refers are listed in Galatians 5:22,23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;

We have been given freedom to choose the Lord’s way or our own. But it is in choosing his way that we can begin to develop true spiritual fruits. Not only will this development bring us closer to the Lord and him to us but we will become truly spiritually free!

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You will become free?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
[John 8:31-36 ESV]

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

http://www.sacred-texts.com/swd/index.htm

http://www.smallcanonsearch.org/

Swedenborg on Social Inequality

Swedenborg Foundation

Pope Francis recently created a stir with a Latin tweet (yes, the pontiff has a Twitter account) that read “Iniquitas radix malorum,” or, in the English version, “Inequality is the root of social evil.” While fiscally conservative Catholics expressed discomfort with the economic implications of the statement, it’s firmly in line with Pope Francis’s emphasis on ministering to the poor. What would Swedenborg say?

Throughout his theological writings, Swedenborg emphasizes the importance of personal choice—of taking responsibility for one’s actions regardless of one’s circumstances. In Heaven and Hell section 364 he writes:

Poor people do not get into heaven because of their poverty but because of their lives. Our lives follow us whether we are rich or poor. There is no special mercy for the one any more than for the other. People who have lived well are accepted; people who have lived badly are rejected.

Poverty can actually seduce people and lead them away from heaven just as much as wealth can. There are many people among the poor who are not content with their lot, who covet much more, and who believe that wealth is a blessing; so when they do not get what they want, they are enraged and harbor evil thoughts about divine providence.

In a footnote to the phrase “. . . who believe that wealth is a blessing,” he adds that wealth and status can be either a curse or a blessing, and therefore both good and evil people might have what we tend to think of as a privileged life. He expands on that thought in Divine Providence section 216 and following, where he points out that love of money and social status for its own sake leads to the ultimate curse: hell. It’s only when wealth is combined with a love of service that it becomes a blessing—a sentiment Pope Francis would surely applaud.

So what, according to Swedenborg, is the root of evil? He describes it concisely in his short work Life, sections 92–93:

Everyone knows on the basis of the Word and teachings drawn from it that from the time we are born our self-centeredness is evil and that this is why we have an inborn compulsion to love evil behavior and to be drawn into it. We are deliberately vengeful, for example; we deliberately cheat, disparage others, and commit adultery; and if we do not think that these behaviors are sins and resist them for that reason, we do them whenever the opportunity presents itself, as long as our reputation or our wallet is not affected.

Then too, we really enjoy doing such things if we have no religion.

Since this self-centeredness is the taproot of the life we lead, we can see what kind of trees we would be if this root were not pulled up and a new root planted. We would be rotten trees that needed to be cut down and thrown into the fire (see Matthew 3:10; 7:19).

This root is not removed and a new one put in its place unless we see that the evils that constitute it are harmful to our souls, and therefore want to banish them. However, since they are part of our self-centeredness and therefore give us pleasure, we can do this only reluctantly and in the face of opposition, and therefore by doing battle.

So, Swedenborg tells us, it’s not social inequality that leads to evil, but rather our own inherent selfishness. It’s the choices that we make and our response to difficult situations that determine whether we will ultimately end up in heaven or hell.

http://www.swedenborg.com/

 

 

A path to salvation that makes sense

“What drew me to the faith was the concept that all religions point to God”

Everyone eventually dies. Greg McCelvie faces this reality almost every day. With a father and mother who both passed away in the last three years, as well as many of the patients he cares for in the nursing home where he works, Greg has seen death come suddenly, carrying away the spirits of those that he knows and loves.

But Greg has also seen the beauty of life coming into being. At only 48 years old, Greg became a grandfather. As he held little Sam, softly bundled in his arms, Greg knew that this child deserved pure love. Over the past five years, the opportunity help raise a child, while also mourning the loss of parents and many patients, has launched Greg into a process of discovery about the meaning of life. He said, “Part of my journey is to find my purpose. Trying to discover who I am and where I am going.”

Greg had been raised with a Christian spiritual foundation, but over time, he and his wife found themselves becoming increasingly dissatisfied with certain religious concepts. Although he loved the teachings of Jesus, Greg didn’t resonate with the idea that Jesus was the ONLY way, or that salvation involved a statement of faith, rather than a way of life. After trying various churches, Greg and his wife eventually dropped out of church altogether. Still, Greg never gave up on his hope of finding some sort of teaching that would value the dignity in each person, honor the variety of spiritual paths, and shed light on what awaits us in the afterlife.

Then just last summer, while looking through the books at the Sasketoon Public Library in Canada, Greg found a book unlike any other that he’d read. It was called The Essential Swedenborg. Although he’d been reading other spiritual books, something about this one stood out to him, and he began taking it with him to the park to read and ponder in the sunshine. The words were dense, and he found the language challenging, but the concepts were beautiful.

He said, “What drew me to the faith was the concept that all religions point to God. That attracted me.” He added, “In the nursing home I work with a lot of evangelicals who have a certain idea about salvation. But I like how Swedenborg puts it – that salvation comes from just living a good, honest, upright life. That’s the way I see it.

I may make mistakes, but I try not to hurt anyone emotionally or mentally. That’s a path to salvation that makes sense to me.”

He began looking online for more connections to Swedenborg, and he came across the Journey programs. He did both “Pause” and “The Path of Integrity,” and found them very helpful both in his newly developing understanding of Swedenborg, as well as his personal spiritual growth. He said, “Through working on myself, I have been finding a lot of peace. I’m trying to mend relationships, make amends with family and learning to live in harmony.”

One of the life areas where Greg has found an opportunity to practice these spiritual concepts has been in his relationship with his brother and sister. After their parents died, Greg’s siblings split the inheritance, without involving Greg in the process or even letting him see the will. But Greg does not speak about this with resentment; he only mentions it as an example of how he views people. He said “I don’t see people as commodities, or as ways to make a profit, or as convenience for my personal gain. I see each person as a valuable gift, and worthy of love.” And his efforts have been paying off – his relationship with his siblings has become stronger, and he has learned to accept them and their choices.

One area where Greg practices peace is with his Alzheimer’s patients: “I’ve been there 6 years and it’s challenging. You have to show a lot of love and a lot of patience. That develops a lot of spiritual character. It’s not their fault – they didn’t ask to lose their mental faculties. Sometimes I think God put them in my life to help me learn to be kind, and not to judge.” Greg’s co-workers have noticed how much the patients seem to gravitate to Greg. They say, “We never see you mad!” Greg’s loving attitude also makes an impression on his patients: “They can see that they can trust me because I show love and dignity and respect.”

In addition to his siblings and patients, Greg finds meaning in his relationship with his grandchildren. “When our daughters were born I took a lot of overtime shifts and I wasn’t around much. But it seems like God sometimes gives us second opportunities. Now that my career and my wife’s career is established, and our parenting days are over, we can show a lot more love and really appreciate our grandchildren.”

Finding the writings of Swedenborg has been a solid part of Greg’s process of finding peace within himself and with others, and in discovering the true meaning of life. He now has a few more books of the Writings, and hopes to join an online Journey group to connect with more members of the New Church faith.

When the time comes for Greg to die, he wants to feel that he has lived a good, honest life. Although he still has more to learn, what he’s discovered so far is this: “If you’re genuinely trying to show love and reach out to others, and you try to live with pure intentions and motives, others will come around and either see the way you’re living and want to do the same, or choose differently. Either way, you’ve done your best, and you can be at peace.”

https://newchurch.org/

Full issue

DAILY INSPIRATION

“Unless we DO what we intend, there is a lack of real intention inside that eventually becomes unwillingness.”

Divine Providence 151

Order and Disorder

New Christian Bible StudyNew Christian Bible Study

By Mr. Joseph S. David

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If you look at the universe, containing so many stars and galaxies, extending so far, and containing so much sustaining energy, you can sense the overwhelming order that enables it to provide for solar systems and planets that surely provide other places for life to thrive.

If you learn a little about the physics of matter, where scientists are continuing to postulate building blocks of larger particles and the various forces that bind them at close distances or operate over astronomic distances, you can see not only a mind-boggling complexity, but also a serene order that keeps everything operating as it should and has been doing so for billions of years.

This order comes from God, the creator. His infinite Divine love, as it gets finited and sublimated, is the only real thing, the only thing that exists in itself. Everything else, time and space, elements and physical matter, living creatures and human consciousness, all natural and spiritual entities come from Him. This flowing down, so to speak, is the order that exists, and it is dominant.

The Lord’s order is not only concerned with natural creation but with mankind’s spiritual welfare as well. Mankind is different from all other living creatures because all other living creatures can live only in the order in which they are created, whereas people can deviate from their order because they are free.

The short form of the order for mankind is to “love the Lord with all the heart… and thy neighbor as thyself”. Spiritually speaking, people did so until, as told in the parable of the garden of Eden, we ate of the forbidden tree. From that time we took upon ourselves the decisions for what is good and what is evil, and forgot what the Lord said. As these decisions multiplied, we turned more and more to ourselves and away from the Lord, and our heredity was passed on generation after generation, slowly getting worse. Order was replaced by disorder.

Eventually our heredity was turned upside down so that the order of our lives in our heredity was completely backwards, and we are now born with the will to love ourselves rather than the Lord and our neighbor. However, because we have rational minds, we can be taught and trained to turn our minds right side up again, putting a love to the Lord and the neighbor ahead of loves of self and the world.

A written Word or Sacred Scripture was, in time, given to guide us. The Lord is also always sending love and wisdom into all of us, to influence and help us, but we are all free to reject that help if we choose. People who read the Word, listen to its teaching, and accept the Lord’s help, are trying to live according to Divine order.

http://newchristianbiblestudy.org/

(References: Arcana Coelestia 1055, 1475, 8513, 9736; Arcana Coelestia 10659 [4]; Arcana Coelestia 4839 [2]; Brief Exposition of Doctrine 52; Divine Providence 279 [5]; Heaven and Hell 315, 523; True Christian Religion 53, 54)

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Prolonging life — How far should we go?

Spiritual Questions & Answers

Discovering inner health and transformation

Prolonging lifeWhen you are young prolonging life seems a great idea. But when you get old things seem a bit different.

Emily aged 85 went into hospital. Her home is a nursing care home. She cannot support her own weight and needs a hoist and wheelchair to get her to the toilet and dining room. She is able to sit in an armchair and watches television. She has several diseases necessitating a good deal of staff time and medication. These are Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Her mood is okay and she is able to converse in a limited way with staff and her visitors.

Prolonging life of patients like Emily

However the quality of life changes when she gets a chest or urinary tract infection to which she is vulnerable. At these times she has breathing problems and becomes uncommunicative. These problems have resulted in several hospital admissions in recent months.  Only in hospital can adequate treatment be provided eg monitoring machines, scans, medical expertise on hand, adequate amounts of needed oxygen and so on. When in hospital at first she becomes agitated and more confused and then later fed up not being in her own room at the care home where she sees familiar faces.

The question arises: how many times should a very ill and infirm person near the end of life be given repeated inpatient episodes of hospital treatment. When is prolonging life inappropriate?

It used to be said that pneumonia was the old person’s friend because, although it resulted in death, it took away suffering caused by other serious ailments such as from advanced dementia, cancer, or kidney disease.

Even if physician assisted suicide and euthanasia are rejected, end-of-life care for elderly people with chronic diseases involves difficult clinical and ethical judgments. Such conditions won’t easily go away despite the best that medicine can offer. Palliative care means doctors and nurses do their best to reduce discomfort and pain and improve the quality of the patient’s life whether or not there is hope of a cure by other means.

Prolonging life within the context of professional ethics

Doctors and nurses practice within a framework of professional ethics for example principles of informed patient choice, maximising good, not causing harm, and providing what is thought the patient has a right to receive. All medical treatments involve risks and benefits. Health staff try to get the best balance between interventionist treatment that directly tackles disease and palliative care. These however have different goals and sometimes suggest opposing clinical plans.

Good end of life care means neither hastening death nor unnecessarily prolonging life. Unfortunately it seems that sometimes inevitably one of these consequences will result.

Should one decline to give emergency resuscitation to someone where no improvement in their suffering is likely to result from further living? Should hydration and nutrition not be forced via tubes into the body when the patient is unwilling to drink or eat? Should more effective higher levels of sedative be given to patients in pain although this increases the risk of death? This seems suspiciously like inappropriately prolonging life.

To my way of thinking, the trouble is health professionals are expected to try to cure us. Those health care staff practicing palliative care do not always receive support from family members, other healthcare professionals, or their social peers for their work to reduce suffering and follow patients’ wishes for end-of-life care.

Negative attitudes towards palliative care

N.E. Goldstein and colleagues did a survey and found that more than half of doctors who practice palliative care report that a patient’s family members, or another health care professional had characterized their work as being “euthanasia”, “murder”, or “killing” during the previous five years. And so I do wonder if inadvertently doctors err on the side of prolonging life unnecessarily for fear of being criticised for harming patients by not being interventionist.

They practice in a world where anxiety about death is common and where medicine cannot sanitize dying. Fear of death is pretty widespread and so no wonder it exerts a powerful effect on attitudes to end of life care. Does acceptance of death mean one is able to lean towards palliative care rather than towards interventionist treatment?

Psychological research has found that the fear of death is made up of a number of different fears. For example a study by James Diggory and Doreen Rothman found that the following are common fears about death in descending order of importance:

  • My death would cause grief to my relatives and friends
  • All my plans and projects would come to an end
  • The process of dying might be painful
  • I could no longer have any experiences
  • I would no longer be able to care for my dependents
  • I am afraid of what might happen to me if there is a life after death
  • I am afraid of what might happen to my body after death.

Understanding death

Emanuel Swedenborg has given a vivid account of life after death from his personal experiences in the eighteenth century. What he says is often echoed since in the accounts of mediums, those having near death experiences (NDE’s), and those receiving brief communications from the other side (ADC’s). All show a continuation of life similar to what we are familiar in the physical world, albeit in a world of spirit where one’s inner life of experience and character are more apparent.

There is plenty of information that can greatly reassure people if they would take the trouble to find out more. For example for ADC’s click here and for NDE’s click here.

Is difficulty in confronting attitudes to death in Western culture affecting the way hospitals actively treat elderly people with serious illness at the end of their useful life in the world?

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

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

Posted on29th November 2012AuthorEditorCategoriesEthics, Ethics & LifeTags,, , , , , , , ,  Leave a comment