{"id":11365,"date":"2016-04-16T19:15:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T23:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordstudy.newchurch.org\/?page_id=11365"},"modified":"2016-04-16T19:15:15","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T23:15:15","slug":"christianity-and-swedenborg","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/spiritual-glossary\/christianity-and-swedenborg\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIs it Christian?\u201d That\u2019s one of the first questions many ask when <\/span><\/h4>\n

they first encounter the ideas offered by Emanuel Swedenborg<\/a>. The answer is simple: \u201cIt depends on what you mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster defines a Christian as \u201cone who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ<\/a>.\u201d Dictionary.com is similar: \u201ca person who believes in Jesus Christ\"<\/span>; and defines the adjective form as \u201cof, pertaining to, or derived from Jesus Christ\u00a0<\/span>or His teachings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Swedenborg teaches that Jesus was the actual embodiment of Jehovah<\/a> himself, the divine soul in a human body<\/a>. It also teaches that his words and acts are not only compelling as literal statements, but are also filled with the infinity of divine truth when understood on a spiritual level<\/a>. That would certainly make the ideas \u201cChristian\u201d according to the dictionary definitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In modern parlance, however, \u201cChristian\u201d is often used in a more narrow sense. Fundamental Protestants tend to define it as \u201ca person who believes that God the Father sent Jesus the Son<\/a> into the world to become the ultimate sacrifice, taking on himself all the sins of humanity and atoning for them on the cross; and that to go to heaven<\/a> people must accept the salvation<\/a> so offered.\u201d Swedenborg says that God is one; there was no separate Son from eternity. It says God took human form as Jesus for two reasons: first, so he could be tempted<\/a>, and could thus battle the hells<\/a> and put them in order<\/a>; and second, so that people, who had nearly lost their connection to the divine, could again see God as a human and be open to his teaching and leading. As for salvation, Swedenborg says it comes through believing in God and following his commandmants; it says we need to turn away from evil<\/a> and strive for good<\/a> out of a determination to follow the Lord, and that if we do the Lord will ultimately bring us into a state of loving<\/a> what is good.<\/span><\/p>\n

By those criteria, then, many would (and do) label the belief system non-Christian.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swedenborg\u2019s take on Christianity is also nuanced. On one hand it clearly regards Christianity \u2013 in its proper form \u2013 as the \u201ctrue\u201d religion, the one best able to bring people to conjunction with the Lord, the one that rightly regards Jesus as divine. In fact, the last work published by Swedenborg is titled \u201cTrue Christian Religion,\u201d or \u201cTrue Christianity\u201d in some translations. The intent seems to be one of putting Christianity on the right track, not one of destroying it and starting something new.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Swedenborg says Christianity was spiritually devastated by the idea of one God in three persons<\/a>, with further destruction brought by the idea of salvation by faith<\/a>. It says that the fall of the Christian Church was foretold in the Gospels and in Revelation, and that by the 18th century Christianity had became as spiritually empty as Judaism<\/a> was at the time of Jesus\u2019s birth. In fact, it says that Swedenborg was called by the Lord to write what he did so that a new version of Christianity could rise from the ashes of the old churches and finally be what the Lord intended it to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Predictably, these are not terribly welcome ideas among Christians. It\u2019s interesting, though, to look at what Christianity was at the time of Swedenborg (his theological works were published from 1748 to 1770) and what it is now. It's also interesting to look at the world as it was then and as it is now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though they still technically adhere to the ideas of the Trinity and blood atonement, many churches have put less and less emphasis on the fine points of doctrine<\/a> and more and more emphasis on developing a personal relationship with Jesus and with living \u201ca Christian life\u201d \u2013 getting ever closer to simply loving the Lord and keeping his commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the world, it has moved from a system dominated by monarchy and artistocracy to one of democracy, equality and freedom, a world in which people are judged by what they make of themselves rather than by the circumstances of their births.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Could it be that we are living in the New Christian Age, and have been for 250 years, without even knowing it?<\/p>\n

\n

Passages from Swedenborg<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 831<\/b><\/p>\n

831<\/span><\/p>\n

The main reason why Muslims are averse to Christians is that Christians believe in three divine Persons and therefore worship three gods, three creators. Muslims especially dislike Roman Catholics because they bow down before statues. Muslims call Catholics idolaters and call Protestants religious fanatics. They criticize Christians for creating a three-headed God and for saying \"one\" out loud but mumbling \"three\" under their breath. They accuse Christians of splitting omnipotence and making three powers out of and from the one power. Muslims compare Christians to animals with three horns, one for each god. Christians, they say, substitute three gods for one in their prayers, their liturgical music, and their sermons.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 536<\/b><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, all people who do what is good as a religious practice - not onlyChristians but also non-Christians - are accepted and adopted by the Lord after they die. The Lord says, \"'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to 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.' And he said, 'As much as you did this to one of the least of my people, you did it to me. Come, you who are blessed, and possess as your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'\" (Matthew 25:34-36, 40).<\/span><\/p>\n

Here I will add something previously unknown: All people who do good things as a religious practice, after death reject the teaching of the church of today that there are three divine persons who have existed from eternity. They also reject the belief of today's church as it is applied to those three in sequence. Instead they turn themselves to the Lord God the Savior and drink in the teachings of the new church with great pleasure.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 206<\/b><\/p>\n

In the period of history that came next, the study of correspondences that yields the Word's spiritual meaning was not revealed, because at the time the Christian church began, Christians were so extremely simple that it was not possible to reveal this study to them. If it had been disclosed, it would have been of no use to them and they would not have understood it.<\/span><\/p>\n

After that time, darkness came over the whole Christian world, first because of scattered heresies on many people's part, and soon afterward because of the Nicene Council's decisions and decrees about three divine persons from eternity and the person of Christ being the Son of Mary rather than the Son of Jehovah God. This led [in turn] to the modern-day faith that by going to three gods, one after the other, we are justified. All aspects of the modern-day church depend on this faith the way our body parts depend on our head. Since people applied everything in the Word to this mistaken faith, its spiritual meaning could not be revealed. If it had been, they would have applied its meaning to their faith, and thereby desecrated the true holiness of the Word. By doing that they would have completely closed heaven to themselves and would have removed the Lord from the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 319<\/b><\/p>\n

People can realize that non-Christians as well as Christians are saved if they know what constitutes heaven in us; for heaven is within us, and people who have heaven within them come into heaven. The heaven within us is our acknowledgment of the Divine and our being led by the Divine. The beginning and foundation of every religion is its acknowledgment of the Divine Being; a religion that does not acknowledge the Divine Being is not a religion at all. The precepts of every religion focus on worship, that is, on how the Divine is to be honored so that we will be acceptable in its sight; and when this fully occupies the mind (or, to the extent that we intend this or love this) we are being led by the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is recognized that non-Christians live lives that are just as moral as the lives of Christians -many of them, in fact, live more moral lives. A moral life may be lived either to satisfy the Divine or to satisfy people in this world. A moral life that is lived to satisfy the Divine is a spiritual life. The two look alike in outward form, but inwardly they are totally different. One saves us, the other does not. This is because if we live a moral life to satisfy the Divine we are being led by the Divine; while if we live a moral life to satisfy people in this world, we are being led by ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 836<\/b><\/p>\n

All non-Christians who acknowledge and worship one God as the Creator of the universe think of God as a human being. They say that no one could have any other idea of God. When they are told that many people think of God as ether or a cloud, they ask, \"Where are there people like that?\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When they are told that some Christians are like that, they say, \"That can't be right!\"<\/span><\/p>\n

They are told that some Christians get this idea from the fact that the Word refers to God as a spirit [John 4:24], and the only concept they have of a spirit is that it is like the material that ether is made of, or like some sort of cloud. These Christians do not know that every spirit and every angel is a human being. They are examined, however, to see whether the spiritual idea they have of God is the same as their earthly idea of him; it has been discovered that people who inwardly acknowledge the Lord our Savior as the God of heaven and earth have a spiritual idea of God that differs from their earthly idea of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I once heard a Christian minister saying that no one was capable of having the idea of a divine human being. I saw him taken around to various groups of non-Christians, each one of a deeper nature than the last, until he reached their heavens, and then eventually came to the Christian heaven; at every stage he was allowed to sense their inner awareness of God. To his surprise, all of them shared the view that God is a divine human being, and that we could not have been created by any other kind of God, since we are in his image and likeness.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion 681<\/b><\/p>\n

Having the name of being Christian (that is, being a disciple of Christ) but not acknowledging him and following him (that is, living by his commandments) is as featureless as a deep shadow, or smoke, or a painting all in black. The Lord says, \"Why do you call me Lord but do not do what I say?\" (Luke 6:46; see also the rest of the chapter). \"Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord,' but I will then say to them, 'I do not know you.'\" (Matthew 7:22, 23).<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 760<\/b><\/p>\n

This, the Christian Church's Final Hour, Is the Same Kind of Night in Which the Former Churches Came to an End<\/span><\/p>\n

Since creation first took place, there have been four churches on this planet, one after the other. Both the historical and the prophetic Word make this clear. It is especially clear in Daniel, where these four churches are described in the form of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream (Daniel 2); later on they are portrayed as the four beasts that rose up from the sea (Daniel 7).<\/span><\/p>\n

The first church, which should be called the earliest church, existed before the Flood; the Flood itself symbolically depicts the end and demise of that church. The second church, which should be called the early church, existed in the Middle East and also in parts of North Africa; it came to a close and perished as the result of various forms of idolatry. The third church was the Israelite church. It began with the issuing of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and was further established through the Word that was written by Moses and the prophets. It came to a close and was brought to an end by people's desecration of the Word, which desecration reached a peak at the time that the Lord came into the world. Because of it, the people crucified the One who was the Word.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fourth church is the Christian church that was established by the Lord through the Gospel writers and the apostles. There were two phases of this church: the first lasted from the time of the Lord until the Council of Nicaea; the second lasted from then until the present day. Along the way, however, the church split into three main parts: the Greek, the Roman Catholic, and the Protestant; nevertheless, all three are referred to as Christian. Within each of these parts, there were also many individual movements that broke away and yet retained the name of the parent body; they became heresies within the Christian church.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 183<\/b><\/p>\n

Many absurd, alien, imaginary, and misshapen ideas of God have come into existence from the Athanasian Creed's assertion of a trinity of persons, each of whom is individually God. The teaching that there have been three divine persons from eternity - the chief of all teachings in Christian churches - has produced many unseemly ideas about God that are unsuitable for the Christianworld, especially since that world could be and ought to be a light revealing God and his unity to all the peoples and nations in the four quarters of the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

All who live outside the Christian church, both Muslims and Jews, as well as other non-Christians with whatever kind of worship, have rejected Christianity solely because of its belief in three gods. Christian missionaries know this. They are extremely careful not to publicize the trinity of persons taught in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, because people would go away laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] The teaching that there have been three divine persons from eternity has produced absurd, ludicrous, and silly mental images. In fact, these mental images keep coming up in any of us who continue to believe the words of this teaching. They rise up through our ears and eyes into the visualization in our thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The images are that God the Father sits high above our heads. The Son sits by his right hand. The Holy Spirit sits in front of them both, listening to them and then immediately running around the planet dispensing the gifts of justification according to their decision. The Holy Spirit instills those gifts, turning children of anger into children of grace and the damned into the chosen.<\/span><\/p>\n

I challenge learned clergy and educated laity to check and see whether they harbor any other picture besides this one in their minds. This picture, you see, flows in spontaneously from this teaching (see the memorable occurrence above at 16).<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] This teaching also leads people to conjecture what the three talked about before the world was created. Did they talk about creating the world? Did they talk about predestining people and justifying them, as the Supralapsarians would have us believe? Did they talk about redemption? For that matter, what have they been saying to each other since the world was created? What is the Father saying, with his power and authority of assigning spiritual credit and blame? What is the Son saying, with his power of mediating? This teaching also leads some to conjecture that it belongs to the Son's mercy to assign people spiritual credit or blame, which is the same as choosing them for hell or heaven, since the Son generally intercedes for all people and specifically intercedes for some individuals. Toward these individuals the Father has an attitude of grace because he is moved with love for the Son, having seen the Son's anguish on the wood of the cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone can see that these conjectures are a form of irrationality about God. Yet in the Christian churches they are sacred objects that we have to kiss with our lips. Nevertheless, we must not give them close mental attention, because they transcend rationality and will make us insane if they are raised from our memory into our intellect. This precaution, though, does not do away with our mental picture of three gods - it just gives us a stupid belief. Thoughts about God that are based on this faith resemble the footsteps of someone sleepwalking and dreaming in the dead of night, or the footsteps of someone born blind who is walking in the light of day.<\/span><\/p>\n

True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 761<\/b><\/p>\n

As for the Christian church's final hour being the same kind of night in which the former churches came to an end, this is made clear by what the Lord foretold about the Christian church in the Gospels and in Daniel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Gospels it is clear from this statement:<\/span><\/p>\n

They will see the abomination of desolation. Then there will be a great affliction such as has never existed since the world began until now and will never exist again. In fact, unless those days were cut short no flesh would be saved. At the end, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven. (Matthew 24:15, 21, 22, 29)<\/span><\/p>\n

This time is also called night elsewhere in the Gospels; for example, in Luke: \"During that night, two will be upon one bed. One will be taken; the other will be left\" (Luke 17:34). Also in John, \"I have to do the work of the one who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work\" (John 9:4).<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Since all light departs in the middle of the night, and the Lord is the true light (John 1:4 and following; 8:12; 12:35, 36, 46), he said to his disciples as he rose up into heaven, \"I am with you even until the close of the age\" (Matthew 28:20). After that he leaves them and goes to the new church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel, too, shows that the Christian church's final hour is the same kind of night in which the former churches came to an end:<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end desolation [will fly in] on a bird of abominations; even to the close and the cutting down, it will drip steadily upon the devastation. (Daniel 9:27)<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that this was a prediction of the end of the Christian church is made clear by the Lord's words in Matthew 24:15. It is also clear from Daniel's words about the fourth kingdom or the fourth church as depicted in Nebuchadnezzar's statue:<\/span><\/p>\n

As you saw iron mixed with muddy clay, they will mingle with the seed of humankind, but the two will not stick together, just as iron and clay do not stick together. (Daniel 2:43)<\/span><\/p>\n

The seed of humankind means truth from the Word. [3] The same thing is also clear from the fourth church that was represented as the fourth beast to rise up from the sea:<\/span><\/p>\n

I saw visions in the night; behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, will devour the entire earth, trample it, and break it to pieces. (Daniel 7:7, 23)<\/span><\/p>\n

These expressions mean that all the truth in the church is going to come to an end. Then there will be night, because truth is what provides daylight to the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many similar prophecies regarding the Christian church occur in the Book of Revelation, especially in chapter 16, where we read about the bowls of God's anger that are poured out on the earth; these symbolize false teachings that will then flood the church and destroy it.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many similar passages in the prophets. For example, \"Isn't the day of Jehovah a day of darkness and not light, a day of thick darkness and no brightness?\" (Amos 5:18, 20; Zephaniah 1:15). \"In that day, Jehovah will look down on the land, and behold, darkness; and the light will grow dark over its ruins\" (Isaiah 5:30; 8:22). The day of Jehovah means the day of the Coming of the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doctrine of Faith (Potts) n. 34<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN ITS UNIVERSAL IDEA OR FORM.*<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Christian Faith in its universal idea or form is this: The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subdue the hells, and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and they are saved who believe in Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Heaven and Hell (Dole) n. 318<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Non-Christians, or People outside the Church, in Heaven<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The general opinion is that people who have been born outside the church, the people called \"the nations\" or \"non-Christians,\" cannot be saved because they do not have the Word and therefore do not know the Lord; and without the Lord there is no salvation. They could know, however, that these people too are saved simply from the fact that the Lord's mercy is universal, that is, it is extended to all individuals. Non-Christians are born just as human as people within the church, who are in fact few by comparison. It is not their fault that they do not know the Lord. So anyone who thinks from any enlightened reason at all can see that no one is born for hell. The Lord is actually love itself, and his love is an intent to save everyone. So he provides that everyone shall have some religion, an acknowledgment of the Divine Being through that religion, and an inner life. That is, living according to one's religious principles is an inner life, for then we focus on the Divine; and to the extent that we do focus on the Divine, we do not focus on the world but move away from the world and therefore from a worldly life, which is an outward life.<\/span><\/p>\n

      True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 180<\/b><\/p>\n

      The Gospel writers described the stages of decline and corruption that the Christian church would undergo (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). Their reference to \"a great affliction such as has never existed since the world began and will never exist again\" [Matthew 24:21] means an attack by falsities against the truth until there is no truth left that has not been falsified and finished off. (\"Affliction\" has the same meaning in other passages in the Word as well.)<\/span><\/p>\n

      Their reference to \"the abomination of desolation\" means the same thing, as does \"the desolation [flying] on a bird of abominations\" and \"the close and the cutting down in Daniel\" [9:27]. The events in the Book of Revelation listed in the previous section [179] also describe the same attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

      This attack came because the church saw God's unity in the Trinity and his Trinity in the unity in three persons instead of one. The church has been mentally based on picturing three gods and vocally based on confessing one God. People in the church have separated themselves from the Lord, even to the point where they no longer have any concept of divinity in relation to his human nature. Yet he is in fact God the Father in human form, which is why he is called \"Father of Eternity\" (Isaiah 9:6) and why he says to Philip, \"Those who have seen me have seen the Father\" (John 14:7, 9).<\/span><\/p>\n

      True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 636<\/b><\/p>\n

      The Concept of a Faith That Assigns the Merit of Christ Was Completely Unknown in the Apostolic Church That Existed before the Council of Nicaea; and Nothing in the Word Conveys That Concept Either<\/span><\/p>\n

      The church that existed before the Council of Nicaea was called the apostolic church. The fact that this was an extensive church that had developed on three of the world's continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe) is clear from the empire of Constantine the Great, which included many countries in Europe (though they later separated from the empire), as well as nearby countries outside of Europe. Constantine was a Christian and a vigorous champion of his religion. Therefore, as mentioned above, he called together bishops from Asia, Africa, and Europe to his palace in the city of Nicaea in Bithynia in order to throw Arius's offences out of his empire.<\/span><\/p>\n

      This happened as a result of the Lord's divine providence, because a denial of the Lord's divinity would have killed the Christian church and made it like a tomb engraved with the epitaph \"Here lies . . .\"<\/span><\/p>\n

      [2] The church that existed before that time was called the apostolic church; its noteworthy writers were called the apostolic fathers, and other true Christians were called brothers and sisters. It is clear from the creed known as the Apostles' Creed (so named for the church at the time) that that church did not acknowledge three divine persons, and that it did acknowledge a Son of God born in time but not a Son of God from eternity:<\/span><\/p>\n

      I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, and the communion of saints.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Clearly, then, they acknowledged no other Son of God than the one who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, which completely rules out any Son of God born from eternity. This creed, like the other two, has been accepted as a true and universal creed by the entire Christian church right up to our time.<\/span><\/p>\n

      True Christian Religion (Rose) n. 632<\/b><\/p>\n

      The Concept of a Faith That Assigns Us the Merit and Justice of Christ the Redeemer First Surfaced in the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea Concerning Three Divine Persons from Eternity; from That Time to the Present This Faith Has Been Accepted by the Entire Christian World<\/span><\/p>\n

      The Council of Nicaea was hosted by the emperor Constantine the Great in his palace in Nicaea, a city in Bithynia. He had been persuaded to call the council by Alexander, bishop of Alexandria. All the bishops of Asia, Africa, and Europe were invited. Their charge was to challenge and condemn, using Sacred Scripture, the heresy of Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria who was denying that Jesus Christ was divine. The council occurred in the year of our Lord 325.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The participants in the council came to the conclusion that three divine persons had existed from eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is particularly easy to see from the two statements called the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.<\/span><\/p>\n

      In the Nicene Creed we read the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

      I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, born before all the ages, God from God, who has the same substance as the Father, and who came down from the heavens and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit through the Virgin Mary. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life-giver, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who along with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.<\/span><\/p>\n

      [2] The following statement appears in the Athanasian Creed.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The catholic faith is this, that we venerate one God in a trinity, and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. Just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually as God and Lord, so the catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or three lords.<\/span><\/p>\n

      That is, it is allowable to confess three gods and lords but not to say three gods and lords. We do not say three gods and lords because religion forbids it, but we confess three gods and lords because that is what the truth dictates.<\/span><\/p>\n

      The Athanasian Creed was composed immediately after the Council of Nicaea by one or more of the people who had attended that council. It was accepted as an ecumenical or catholic creed.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Clearly, then, that was when it was decreed that the church should acknowledge three divine persons from eternity, each of whom is individually God, although there should be no mention of three gods or lords but only of one.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

      \"\"<\/p><\/div>

      Who (or What) is Swedenborg?<\/span><\/h4>\n

      The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg<\/a>, an 18th<\/sup>-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord<\/a> himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian<\/a> Church.<\/p>\n

      In keeping with Swedenborg\u2019s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg\u2019s theological works as \u201cthe Writings,\u201d and some resist the label \u201cSwedenborgian\u201d as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.<\/p>\n

      Since \u201cthe Writings\u201d would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name \u201cSwedenborg\u201d as a label for those theological works, much as we might use \u201cIsaiah\u201d or \u201cMatthew\u201d to refer to books of the Bible<\/a>. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.<\/p>\n

      So when you read \u201caccording to Swedenborg\u201d on this site, it\u2019s really shorthand for \u201caccording to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.\u201d When you read \u201cSwedenborg says,\u201d it\u2019s really shorthand for \u201cthe theological works of Swedenborg say.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u201cIs it Christian?\u201d That\u2019s one of the first questions many ask when they first encounter the ideas offered by Emanuel Swedenborg. The answer is simple: \u201cIt depends on what you mean.\u201d Merriam-Webster defines a Christian as \u201cone who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.\u201d Dictionary.com is similar: \u201ca person who believes in Jesus […]<\/p>\n

      Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"parent":10647,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-article.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-spiritual-glossary","blog-style1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11365\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}