The reason why a man, "who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven" [Matthew 12:32], is because he denies the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word; for this man is devoid of religion.
The reason why one "who speaks a word against the Son of Man" is forgiven [Matthew 12:32] is because he denies that this or that is Divine truth from the Word in the Church, yet he believes that there are Divine truths in and from the Word. "The Son of Man" is Divine truth from the Word in the Church; and this Divine truth cannot be seen by everyone. (Canons of the New Church 37)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Does a person have to believe everything in the Word?
I had always thought that people had to believe everything in the Word. I knew that people didn't always believe certain things (in fact, if I'm honest, I don't always know what to make of certain things in the Word and how can I believe them if I don't understand them?) but, philosophically, I still thought that people still had to believe everything in the Word. However, this remarkable passage from the posthumous work, Canons for the New Church, says that people are forgiven for denying that certain things in the Word are Divine truth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That is one of my favorite posthumous quotes. I especially like its firm grounding in scripture.
Post a Comment