Peace be with all of you this Christian Sabbath on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month(CST). I come in peace an apologize if any of your faiths felt threatened by anything I said last night. I don't claim to know what anyone believes at any time. Everyone is on their own spiritual path and has in freedom come to realize their own truths regarding God in their lifetimes.
Before I start, I'd like all of you to look over Resist Not Evil. Please do so before piling on again like last night. I consider myself in the service of the Lord as a lay online minister for my Church and really avoid arguments and try to respect the beliefs all God's children. Again, sorry if anyone felt attacked but please have an open mind to what I have to say - it may challenge something near and dear but there are INFINITE understandings of the Lord and we all are in complete freedom to read, worship, teach, think, pray and most of all LOVE as we wish. Jesus and Paul stressed we are to be kind with each other. Swedenborg teaches that there are infinite varieties of worship in heaven and therein lies its perfection.
Now to the quote, yes we believe Joseph Smith was influenced by Swedenborgian missionaries in New York. William Blake in England was also influenced then rejected and started making his own prophecies about America - I have a book on that - Blake and Swedenborg. Swedenborg was also subscribed to True Christian Religion. It is said Lincoln also read him. Carl Jung. Walt Whitman, etc. Lois Wilson and Dr Oz's wife was raised in the New Church. The parallels in AA are profound.
Back to Smith... Now his intentions may have been questionable at the time but I consider him a good salesman. There is a project underway at BYU to track what exactly Smith used and publish it. All I can say here is the New Church regards Swedenborg's Writings as the Third Testament. Luke 24:44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. We believe he also did this with Swedenborg, directly. The Lord also opened Swedenborg's eyes to the spiritual world to witness the Last Judgement there in 1757. When his published works were complete on June 19, 1771 the Lord sent out His disciples that followed him in the world. His largest volume, Heavenly Secrets (12 English volumes) provide the spiritual meaning of the books of Genesis and Exodus. I challenge anyone - believer or non believer to open their mind and read it - they will come away knowing the Bible is true, holy and reading it puts us in conjunction with heaven, angels and the Lord - everyone whether they believe Swedenborg or not.
In the New Church, we are free to follow our own spiritual paths and can accept or reject anything we want to. We don't have 'prophets' who can modify the Writings - they are preserved as written because we believe it was the establishment of the New Jerusalem on earth in preparation. But time must pass. We believe Swedenborg to be a scientist, seer and revealator. After him, I personally believe many people of God appeared with concrete approaches to mysticism and spirituality. For myself, I've had such experiences countless times over the years - even at one point believing I was THE messiah and writing about it on FR. I was mistaken then - the effect I felt was so profound I had to share it... but I've learned to pace myself more and realize the inflowing of heaven and the Lord into my internal mind has boundaries and correspondences - things I didn't know at the time. Like the baker who had a dream Joseph interpreted when he was in prison in Genesis (the baskets of bread with holes representing levels of the mind and heaven flowing straight through without processing by a regenerated will - the baker was killed by pharaoh).
Back to freedom - in the New Church, pastors are free to determine their own formats for services, music, Sunday school programs for children and pretty much run things at a local level, often renting space. All Swedenborg's Writings are available online for free. Many congregations are into online streaming video with archives so if you don't have a local congregation, you can worship at home. Bible Study is available online and this year, we're getting into online small groups via Google+ for many programs that hook folks up from all over the world. We are exploiting Facebook and Youtube/Vimeo to the hilt. Go with the format YOU feel spiritually enriched with. Our Cathedral is quite amazing and one of a kind - everything is based on the Writings. It will never be duplicated so, we don't have temple ordinances or anything like that.
Matthew 18:20 NKJV For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
James 2:12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
It took WORK to resist temptation and walk away from the posts last night but again, I had to pray and meditate on it. It was devolving quickly. I hope this post is illuminating. Free Republic is my workplace - what I post here, under my real name, is serious.
Blessings,
Everyone is on their own spiritual path and has in freedom come to realize their own truths regarding God in their lifetimes.
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They better not...
there is only ONE Path or Way to God...
and only ONE Truth..
THe LORD Jesus Christ said to Dave “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man or woman comes to the Father except by Me.” John 14:6
Mine wasn't; how 'bout the rest of you guys?
Yeah; of the "Wanna buy a toothbrush?" variety!
Methinks you misunderstood the reaction last night. I've posted with these various FReepers for years and don't see any of them as being of such fragile character as being easily offended or threatened.
We defend the truth here at FR, the truth as found in the Word of God, the Bible. We're WARNING you that you are not in agreement or alignment with that truth.
Everyone is on their own spiritual path and has in freedom come to realize their own truths regarding God in their lifetimes.
That SOUNDS all nice and tolerant but is general and vague enough as to be meaningless.
There is only one way, and that is Jesus, and there is only one source of truth and that is Scripture, which is the same truth for ALL because it comes from God who IS truth, and He doesn't change.
In the New Church, we are free to follow our own spiritual paths and can accept or reject anything we want to.
Spiritually dangerous ground to be on. You cannot reject the truth of Scripture, which, BTW, I see virtually NO mention of. It's all about Swedenborg's teachings and visions and *the New Church*.
You are following a false teaching. If it doesn't line up with Scripture, it's from the devil. You are on very dangerous ground spiritually and that is not because I *feel threatened*, but it's a warning to you to take heed, for your own good. The fact that this teaching led you to the point of thinking yourself to be the messiah attests to that.
Interesting, indeed. Where as most people understand Joseph Smith to be a con man, a thief, a liar, a pedophile, an adulator, a charlatan, a traitor, destroyer, murderer.......(need I go on?)
I am intrigued that you are quoting from the Bible when mormonISM teaches the Bible is not translated correctly.
Now why would you do that?
What "New Church" would this be?
To be quite blunt that is what can happen if one aims to throw out the existing religious foundation each time. It's just like Maths -- one does not start by debating why 2+2=4 to get to calculus and numbers theory.
We are based on Judaism and through that to Christianity. Tearing down the foundations can lead any and all to believe they are THE Messiah and that gets no-one, no-where fast...