Why Does the Bible Have So Much Disturbing Stuff in It?

I recently read through Deuteronomy and was reminded of how confusingly harsh and disturbing certain parts of the Bible can seem at face value. It made me grateful again for the New Church teachings about how to understand scripture.

In the most recent issue of New Church Connection there's one of the best short explanations of these teachings that I've come across. Even if you're familiar with these teachings I recommend taking a look at Rev. Thane Glenn's article about this, "Real Challenges: Biblical Contradictions".

Good Articles About Grief and Suicide

Nothing works to totally make sense of death and suicide but sometimes words and ideas can help. Here are a couple of articles that I found helpful and useful.

Here's an article that Rev. John Odhner wrote about what we can learn from the Writings/Swedenborg about suicide: "Reflections on Suicide". (You can also download a Word doc version of it here.)

And here's an article that Rev. Brian Smith wrote about the wounds that come from losing a friend: "Tearing".

And here's a post that Rev. Mac Frazier wrote about despair.

Online Archive of Ornaments in Swedenborg's Theological Works

NewChurchHistory.org (read more about it here) has a blog called New Church History Fun Facts. Back in May they published a post titled "Ornaments in the Theological First Editions of Emanuel Swedenborg".

I finally got around to reading it and discovered that NewChurchHistory.org has an article by Jonathan Rose on it about the ornaments titled "The Ornaments in Swedenborg's Theological First Editions". He wrote the article in 1998 and, in addition to including lots of interesting original research, the article also includes good quality images of all of the ornaments used in Swedenborg's theological first editions. For example, here are all of the Title Page Ornaments. And don't be deceived by the display size of the images; if you click on them you can download nice big versions of them. (Note: the Fun Fact says that the images can be downloaded for educational purposes so don't go selling them for millions of dollars.)

I don't know, maybe this is only cool to me but I'm pretty excited about figuring out somewhere to use these cool images.

While we're on the topic of stuff from Swedenborg's first editions, I should mention that BaysideNewChurch.org, in addition to some other pretty cool resources, has scans of all of Swedenborg's first editions available for download. The files are mostly just dumped there so you have to hunt around to find a specific passage but it's a great resource to know about. (If you're lucky enough to have a copy of Kempton Project that's not too old and if you can get a copy of the first edition files on CD, then you might be able to use Kempton Project to jump directly to the relevant image for a specific passage.)

Listen to Bishop Louis King's Service Online

Bishop Louis Blair King passed into the Spiritual World on June 21st, shortly before 6am. There's going to be a resurrection service for him tomorrow, June 23rd at 7pm EST at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral.

If you want to listen to the service online, you can try going to the Listen Live page on BrynAthynChurch.org but, because they're anticipating a lot of people wanting to listen, they've also made it so that you can listen by using GoToMeeting. Click on this link to register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/795951673 and then after registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the online service.

In memory of Bishop King you might want to listen to one of the 758 recordings of him on NewChurchAudio.org. Or you might want to read the sweet, short article that Louis wrote for New Church Connection a while ago about marriage continuing after death.

Something New Church for Earth Day

Tomorrow is Earth Day. In celebration of that I wanted to point you to an article recently published on New Church Perspective on an Earth Day related topic—land ethic. In 6 parts Edmund Brown outlines what a land ethic is and various arguments for it, concluding with some New Church arguments. Here are links to the 6 parts: Introduction; Instrumental Arguments; Utilitarian Arguments; Intrinsic Value Arguments; Theological Arguments; New Church Arguments.

It's lengthy but very interesting. Edmund has evidently given careful thought to a topic that I haven't really put much thought into and I'm grateful to have his research and conclusions to draw on. If you're short on time, you could just jump to the section on New Church Arguments for a land ethic but, if you have the time, read the other sections because they give useful context and a brief history of the debate and help you understand what he's referring to in the New Church arguments section.

Here's a bit from his introduction to get you started:

Faced with the huge, daunting ecological challenges our technological society has created, what is an appropriate Christian response? More specifically, do the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg justify developing an intimate relationship with the land that supports us a la “The Land Ethic” so eloquently envisioned by Aldo Leopold

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If you haven't heard of New Church Perspective you could read my post about New Church Perspective.

Why Did the Lord Have to Die?

Have you ever wondered why the Lord had to die? In this week's Bryn Athyn Post Rev. Jeremy Simons provided a good explanation of how the New Church addresses this question. (Here's a link to the full April 1, 2010 issue (PDF))

A persistent question that comes up at Easter is the question of why it was necessary for the Lord to be put to death. The New Church rejects the traditional Christian teaching that He died to pay for the sins of the human race. But the New Church does teach that His death and resurrection were necessary as part of His saving work. The central New Church teaching about this is:

"The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and the passion of the cross was the last combat by which He fully conquered the hells, and fully glorified His Human" (Doctrine of the Lord 12).

The Lord conquered hell and glorified His Human by choosing spiritual life over physical life, according to His words:

"He who loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it into eternal life" (John 12:25).

This is the same pattern that the process of regeneration follows:

"Regeneration takes place to the end that the life of the old man may die and a new, heavenly life may be instilled" (Arcana Coelestia 8403:2).

But whereas the "death" of the "old man" does not mean physical death in the regeneration process, in the Lord's case physical death was necessary.

"The Lord willed to undergo death and to rise again the third day to the end that He might put off everything human that He had from the mother and might put on the Divine Human" (Apocalypse Explained 899:14).

This "putting off" of what He had from Mary and "putting on" of the Divine Human was taken to the extreme of physical death because in His life everything was representative, so that spiritual processes were manifested tangibly - and recorded in the Word as events. Accordingly He rose again with His whole glorified body the third day.

We are also taught that this was a sign to the church about its rejection of God (True Christian Religion 130), which would result in understanding and new belief.

The passion of the cross should not be seen isolated from the Lord's whole life, teaching, and resurrection. In all of this He overcame the power of hell by making Himself visible, so that He can be known, loved, and obeyed, establishing the kingdom of heaven.

New Church Perspective on Clothing

I wrote an article titled "Clothing" for New Church Perspective about, you guessed it, New Church perspective on clothing.

If you haven't heard of New Church Perspective you might want to read my post about it.

A New Online New Church Magazine

I've been really meaning to tell you all about New Church Perspective (www.newchurchperspective.com) and now I'm finally getting around to it. It's a really exciting, New Church online magazine project.

Here's a bit from the About page:

New Church Perspective is an online magazine celebrating the understanding and application of New Church ideas with weekly essay publication.

More than a discussion forum, New Church Perspective is based on essays from a wide variety of writers on a wide variety of topics. However, this is a two-way conversation. Discussion and response to the weekly essays are warmly encouraged. We ask only that people are respectful of each other, the Bible, and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg referred to as the Heavenly Doctrines.

(For more about the idea behind New Church Perspective I recommend reading the launch day post from Brian Smith, the Editor-in-Chief.)

Every Friday morning a new essay is published with some perspective on the New Church or New Church perspective on some topic. It was launched on January 1st and so far 10 essays have been published. I'm now going to list them and give a summary of what they're about to give you the flavor of New Church Perspective so far.

• "4 Reasons Most New Year's Resolutions and Other Habit Changes Fail and What You Can Do to Succeed" by Derrick Lumsden - The title pretty much says it. I particularly recommend the "Further Reading" at the end.
• "Growing Up in The Park: Reflections on My Sub-Culture" by Freya Henry - Using the theories of various developmental psychologists, Freya analyzes her development growing up in a New Church congregation.
• "Even as We are One" by Isaac Synnestvedt - This is my favorite article so far. If you only have the time to read one article, make this one it. It is an impassioned and humbling exploration of who is part of the New Church and an exhortation to try to see the Lord in all people.
• "Meaning-making and the Power of Writing" by Chelsea Rose Odhner - This is a chapter from Chelsea's undergraduate thesis and so it incorporates a number of scholarly sources. But don't let the word scholarly make you think it's boring; it's a fascinating, well written, careful exploration of the act of writing.
• "Are You Happy?" by Ronald Schnarr - Ronnie looks at what can keep us from being happy and encourages us to ask the Lord for real happiness.
• "Spiritual Body Image" by Pearse and Taryn Frazier - This article looks at the spiritual meaning of being human.
• "Buddhism and the New Church" by Ian Chapman - Ian's article is a short and interesting comparison of a couple of Buddhist teachings with New Church teachings.
• "Marketing the Writings" by Coleman Glenn - In this article Coleman imagines what could happen if someone launched a huge, year-long marketing campaign for the Writings.
• "Protecting Ideals and the Reality of the World in which We Live" by Stephanie King - In this heartfelt article Stephanie expresses both her strong ideals and her desire to understand and love people who don't. She raises a lot of good questions with no easy answers.
• "We, Distinct from Our Teachings" by Derek Rose - In this article Derek encourages us to think carefully about what we mean when talk about the New Church—the teachings, the organization, or the culture?

Hopefully this makes you want to read some of these articles and subscribe to receive updates every Friday and, most importantly, inspires you to submit an article yourself.

The Spirits Who Are With Us

I was researching what Swedenborg's Writings say about the spirits that are with us and was glad to find a great New Church Life article about it from 1906 (by searching on NewSearch4). In "Our Attendant Spirits" (PDF) Rev. C. Th. Odhner covers a lot of different topics. He talks about ancient ideas of attendant spirits; he makes sense of some seemingly contradictory statements in the Writings about how many spirits are with us and whether or not the spirits with us are angels and devils. He also talks about Deja Vu (or second memory) and guardian angels.

It's not a short article (19 pages at 1.5 spacing as I've formatted it) but it's definitely worth reading and I'm sure you'll learn something new if you do.

Evidence of the Need for Variety in Worship

I just watched a video of a talk that Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers, gave at TED. It was about lessons we can learn from the breakthroughs that a food consultant made while helping Prego come up with the best spaghetti sauce. Watch the video and we'll talk afterward.



Being a minister-in-training who thinks far too much about worship services, Gladwell's conclusions got me thinking about variety in worship. In the past I think people approached the Writings in much the same way that food companies used to approach picking their spaghetti sauce formula—"What's the perfect formula for a worship service that will serve all people the best?"—when, in fact, there are lots of passages that say that variety perfects (e.g. Heaven and Hell 56; Arcana Coelestia 2385:5).

That said, I was interested to read an article in an evangelical magazine about the drawbacks of having a different worship service for each age group and the need for finding ways of bringing them together.

What's the point of preaching?

I was just browsing around the Washington New Church's new web site (www.washingtonnewchurch.org) and found a great little article by their new pastor (Rev. Mike Gladish) about the point of preaching and coming to church. It's on the first couple of pages of their summer newsletter (PDF). Here's an excerpt:

I like preaching, and I hope you can enjoy listening to someone preach, especially when the message being delivered is from the Word. But really, what’s the point? Why would you come and listen to me or anyone else “preach” when you can go to the Word for yourselves and learn all that you need to know in order to live well and prepare for heaven?

One answer is painfully simple: I get paid to study the Word and you don’t. Therefore I have an advantage (one that YOU provide for me) in that I am specially trained and can take more time than you can, as needed, to consider the context of the teachings, their meaning, the implications, and so on. In that respect I’m no different than a plumber or an architect: I’m a specialist. And like most specialists I have no authority to tell you what to do, but I can tell you what the code requires. Besides, if you didn’t come to church would you really spend that time reading the Word instead?

Which brings me to the main point. ...

I also liked Rev. Mike Ferrell's article about the use of vacation (pp4-5 under "From the Assistant").

The Largest New Church Organization You've Probably Never Heard of

Do you know what country has more New Church people than any other country in the world? It's not the United States. If the figures are correct, South Africa has over ten thousand more New Church people in it than the United States and Canada put together. Surprised? I was. I even lived in South Africa for 7 years and didn't have a clue there were so many other New Church people in the country. Here's the trick: I was only aware of General Church and Nova Hierosolyma societies but there's actually another whole New Church organization in South Africa.

That's the beginning of an article I wrote about the New Church of Southern Africa (NCSA) in the February 2007 issue (PDF) of BACON Bits (7-8).

I find the story of the NCSA fascinating. You can read a short version of it in my article or a longer version of it in Dr. Jane Williams-Hogan's article "Examples of Internationalization: The New Church in Africa" in Scribe of Heaven: Swedenborg's Life Work and Impact (317-335).

You can also read about the history of the NCSA in the August 2007 issue (PDF) of New Church Lifeline (9-11). The article also includes a description of what's happened in the organization in more recent years, a description of a number of events that took place while Rev. Ian Arnold (the author of the article) was there, and a number of photographs.

You can see a couple of photos and some wobbly footage of the headquarters of the NCSA from when I visited there in 2007 in the video below. The first part of the video shows footage of the Diepkloof New Church and preschool. The part about the NCSA starts at about 2:30.

Homosexuality from a New Church Perspective

I've noticed that it's hard to find New Church perspectives on homosexuality online so I've decided to provide links to the best articles on the topic that I'm aware of.

To be clear, I'm not interested in starting a debate on this topic. There are other venues for that. I want to provide resources to people who are looking for perspectives on homosexuality from people who believe, to differing degrees, in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

Different New Church organizations have different positions on homosexuality. The positions of 3 of the organizations are briefly described in a "List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality" on Wikipedia.

The majority of the articles here are by members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. There are also a few articles by members of the Swedenborgian Church of North America. You can find a statement of the position of the General Conference of the New Church in the June 2009 issue of New Church Lifeline. I found the PDF hard to read because it's formatted for printing so I copied the relevant portions into this extract.

I don't have any articles by members of the Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosalyma, the Church of Truth, the New Church of Southern Africa, or the New Church in Australia. Please let me know if you find any information about these other organizations' positions.

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"What do the Writings say about Homosexuality?" (PDF) by Rev. Jeremy Simons
Do the Writings talk about homosexuality? Simons, a pastor in the General Church, addresses this question, discusses the various passages that seem to be talking about it, and compares the phrases that Swedenborg seems to use for homosexuality with phrases used by his contemporaries.

"What the Word Says Directly on Homosexuality" by Rev. Grant Odhner
Odhner, a pastor in the General Church, has collected these notes on homosexuality. They include an overview of how the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Writings treat of homosexuality directly and they also include some thoughts about causes of homosexual feelings and behavior, differing degrees of the seriousness of homosexuality, and some principles from the Writings about how to deal with homosexuals.

"Notes on Homosexuality" by Rev. Mark Pendleton
In these 18 pages of notes, Pendleton, a General Church pastor, includes passages on love, marriage, adultery, and judging others. He also includes portions of Rev. Jeremy Simons' research and references to a study by Rev. Willard Heinrichs.

"The Worst Adultery" (PDF) by Rev. John Odhner (New Church Life 1993: 453-463.)
In the explanation of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) the phrase "worst form of adultery" is used (Arcana Coelestia 2220). Odhner, a pastor in the General Church, addresses the question of whether homosexuality is the worst form of adultery, in the light of other teachings about adultery.

"A Theology of Sexuality" by Rev. Alain Nicolier - Part 1 and Part 2 (New Church Life 2008: 318-328, 356-364.)
Nicolier, a pastor in the General Church, discusses theories, "myths," and negative influences (particularly from parents) that may cause people to identify themselves as homosexual.

"More on Understanding Homosexuality" by Rev. Grant Odhner (New Church Canadian Fall 1992.)
This is a letter that Odhner wrote in response to an article by Rev. Glenn Alden, "Understanding Homosexuals," in the February 1992 issue of New Church Canadian. He discusses the theological origins of homosexuality, compares homosexuality with polygamy and concubinage, and ends by discussing human responsibility and repentance. He writes, "in summary, I think we need to see homosexuality as an evil, as something people are ultimately responsible for, as something that can change through sensitive education and repentance."

"Risking on the Side of Compassion" by Rev. James Lawrence (The Messenger Nov. 1996.)
In this article, Lawrence, a pastor in the Swedenborgian Church, explains why he decided to bless homosexual unions.

"What is True Conjugial Union?" by Duane V. Beougher (The Messenger Nov. 1996.)
In this response to Lawrence's article, Beougher, a member of the Swedenborgian Church, argues that the Writings are clear that homosexual relations cannot constitute a true conjugial union and that the term marriage should only be applied where that possibility exists.

"Letter to the Editor" by Dr. Reuben P. Bell (The Messenger Jan. 1997.)
In this letter to the editor in response to Lawrence's article, Bell, a former pastor of the Swedenborgian Church and then the General Church, explains why he sees Lawrence's position to be a profane, dangerous, and harmful abuse of the truth.

"Further Thoughts in Response to Gay Marriage Commentary" by Rev. James Lawrence (The Messenger June 1997.)
Here Lawrence responds to people's reactions to his article by saying that he does not look to the Writings as the ultimate determinant for his theological position on the nature of homosexuality but instead seeks "a new theological framework" and that he believes that "gay love... is profaned or made sacred by the integrity of the individuals involved."

"Homosexuality" by Rev. Coleman Glenn
In this blog post, Glenn, a recently ordained pastor in the General Church, explains how it’s possible for someone to think that homosexuality is a disorder and still approach homosexuals with love, and why he thinks of homosexuality in the same way that he think of brother-sister incest. I recommend reading the comments that follow the post.

"Homosexuality" by Brian Smith (The blog that this was originally posted on, Create Cognitive Dissonance, is no longer active so this link takes you to a snapshot of this blog post on the Internet Archive.)
In this blog post, Smith, a theological school student in the General Church, explains why he believes that a person can oppose the practice of homosexuality from love, why he thinks the practice of homosexuality is harmful, and why he seeks to help people who have that struggle see that there is a path out. There is a lot of discussion in the comments that follow the post, mostly between members of the General Church and people who grew up in the General Church but no longer associate themselves with it.

Discussion on BeliefNet
This is a long discussion on BeliefNet of homosexuality from the perspective of Swedenborg's theological works. I read and skimmed the first fifth of the entries. I would guess that the contributors include members of the Swedenborgian Church and General Church and people not affiliated with any organization. (This discussion no longer exists on the internet and I couldn't find old archives of it. Let me know if you do find it.)

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I know that there are other articles and posts that have been written on this topic. (For example, a number of articles come up if you search for homosexuality in New Church Life on HeavenlyDoctrines.org.) If you find an article or post that you think should be included here, leave a comment with a link and a short description of the content of the piece.

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UPDATE: Since I first posted this on June 4th 2009 I have received a number of additional articles. I have added a link to an article expressing the position of the General Conference of the New Church, a study and an article by Rev. Grant Odhner, and some notes by Rev. Mark Pendleton.

I have also changed the link for the discussion on BeliefNet. Rev. Jeremy Simons pointed out that only half of the discussion was available at the old link. He recommends the end of the full discussion.

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2017 UPDATE

I'm adding some new resources that I've received more recently. I'm putting them at the end of the post here to make it easier to find them.

"Responding to Homosexuality" (audio sermon) by Rev. Derrick Lumsden
Here's the blurb that Lumsden wrote about this sermon he preached in 2013: "One of the hot topics in our culture today are issues around homosexuality. There are issues of prejudice, justice, sexual morality, spirituality, compassion, desire, and Biblical interpretation all rolled up in this issue. In this sermon we talk about how we as the New Church can respond to homosexuality."

"Homosexuality, the Bible, and Christianity" by Rev. Lee Woofenden
This is one of two posts that Woofenden wrote about homosexuality in 2015. He says that this first one is "aimed at a general Christian audience. It goes into detail on the Biblical basis of the homosexuality debate."

"What does Emanuel Swedenborg Say about Homosexuality?" by Rev. Lee Woofenden
Woofenden says that this post "takes up many of the issues about Swedenborg and homosexuality that are discussed in articles [on this page]."

"Four Myths: How well do we understand the impact of same-sex marriage?" (PDF) by Rev. Jeremy Simons
This paper was written by Simons for the 2017 General Church Council of the Clergy meetings. The four myths that Simons critiques are (1) "Homosexuality springs from the fact that some people experience same-sex attraction, this being the opposite of heterosexual attraction." (2) "Homosexuality is genetically determined." (3) "Homosexuality is an orientation that is common to a relatively fixed proportion of the population, so it is not contagious and therefore does not threaten heterosexual relationships." (4) "A homosexual lifestyle can be stable, happy and fulfilling."

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2022 UPDATE

Here is an incomplete list of more articles that have been written or I have become aware of since the last time I updated this post. Please let me know if there are more that you think should be added. I have also tried to fix all the links that have broken over the years in the post above.

"The Marriage of Love and Wisdom: A Response to the Same-Sex Marriage Ruling in the United States" (PDF) by Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss Jr. (New Church Life, Sept/Oct 2015: 460-468.)

A response to the United States Supreme Court decision on the 26th of June 2015 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide.

"What the Heavenly Doctrines Say About Sex and Gender" (PDF) by Rev. Christopher A. Barber (New Church Life, Sept/Oct 2021: 372-383.)

Barber is a teacher of religion at the Academy of the New Church high schools with Master's degrees in theology and Human Sexuality and he was asked to lead a professional development training seminar for the other faculty at the schools about what the teachings of the New Church say about sex, gender, and sexuality. This article is reworking of the presentation that he gave.

"Standing for Marriage in Today’s World: A Church Perspective" (PDF) by Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss Jr. (New Church Life, Jan/Feb 2022:15-24.)

As Buss puts it, the purpose of this article is "...to lay before the Church some of the relevant teachings and perspectives that bear on the goal of 'standing for marriage in today’s world'" and in doing that "...to invite reasoning from the Word on states of life that are around us, and on a debate that is causing polarization within the Church." 

New Church Connection Available for Free

New Church Connection magazine is now available for free. It's always been available for free online but you can now subscribe to have it mailed to you for free. On the subscription page they say,

At the New Church we are passionate about people living their faith, that is why we provide this magazine to you at no cost.

New Church Connection has recently been revamped as to look and feel and somewhat as to content. I thought that the most recent issue (PDF) was great and my sources tell me that the next issue promises to be even better. Bronwen Henry, who used to be in charge of a lot of things at the General Church Office of Outreach, is now focusing on New Church Connection and I think you can see the result.

If you enjoy the magazine or are glad that subscription is now free, I'm sure the people who produce the magazine would love to have you fill out their Reader Survey.

The Church of Truth Has a Web Site

Last fall I first heard about the Church of Truth, an independent New Church group based in Louisville, Kentucky, led by brother Edward Miller. Chara Odhner gave a brief description of brother Miller in the April 2008 issue (PDF) of BACON Bits (4-5). Here's an excerpt:

Up until four years ago he was a Baptist minister, but he recently came strongly to see things from a New Church point of view. He has a radio show on Saturday evenings at 6:30pm in Louisville Kentucky (on what could be called the northern edge of the Bible Belt), and reaches thousands with Swedenborg’s message. He is being given a Johnny Appleseed award by the Swedenborg Foundation because he has made many aware of Swedenborg and has built up a core reading group of some thirty interested people....

This group now has a basic web site (www.truechurchoftruth.com) which includes their mission statement and vision statement:

Our mission statement is to Love the Lord thy God Savior Redeemer Jesus Christ with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul, thy strength and thy neighbor as thyself and to be of use and of service.

We hold these truths to be self evident with the end in view that every man be born again according to the scripture for it is written... "Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God" (John 3:3,5).

They also have a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/truechurchoftruth) where I think you can listen to and buy messages from Brother Miller.

What to do when the New Church is accused of being a cult

Rev. Derrick Lumsden sent me this short article from Church Marketing Sucks about what an Islamic mosque did when it was accused of being a recruitment center for terrorists. He said “I thought it might be a good way to respond when the NC is accused of being a cult.” It reminds me of Philip's response when Nathanael asked him if anything good could come out of Nazareth.

What's the point of belonging to a church organization?

You can be both happy and spiritual without being a part of a religious organization, but why would you want to? You can become a martial artist or a musician by studying books and movies, but it will take you much longer to master these arts without guidance and community support to facilitate learning and creativity. Similarly, why not find companionship in your route to a happier life? (Rev. Derrick Lumsden, New Church Connection - Issue 1, 2009 (PDF)

Reflections on Miracles and Swedenborg's Birthday

For the Pastors' Box in last week's Bryn Athyn Post (PDF) Rev. John Odhner wrote a cool short piece on miracles and Swedenborg. Here are the first two paragraphs. The whole thing is only 5 paragraphs long.

Every birth is a miracle, so every birthday party is a celebration of something wonderful that the Lord has accomplished. We celebrate Emanuel Swedenborg’s birthday, January 29. Swedenborg himself worked no miracles, wanted no attention, published anonymously. Yet the Lord used him to accomplish wonderful things.

When the Lord opened the eyes of a blind man or brought back to life people who had died, His disciples were amazed. “It never was heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born blind!” (John 9:32) Yet Jesus said to His disciples, “You will see greater things than these” (John 1:50). And, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).

A Letter by Grant Schnarr in the New York Times

Rev. Grant Schnarr wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times that was published today. It's his reflections on the significance of President Obama's inauguration and seeing the Lord in these difficult times. Here's one paragraph from it:

There is much to be learned, much to be improved, there is hardship ahead as there was years ago and always will be. And in this struggle the Lord continues to work to bring us opportunities to strive for Him and do the right thing, to grow, to reach for a better life not just without, but a spiritual life within, which honors God, one another and strives to bring good will, respect and honor to all human beings, because they are human beings.

What do Christians Today Believe?

When reading statements in the Heavenly Doctrines about what people in the Christian Church believe, I often wonder whether things have changed at all. With that question in mind it's interesting to read “An Evangelical Manifesto” (www.anevangelicalmanifesto.com). Here's what it is:

An Evangelical Manifesto is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for. It has been drafted and published by a representative group of Evangelical leaders who do not claim to speak for all Evangelicals, but who invite all other Evangelicals to stand with them and help clarify what Evangelical means in light of “confusions within and the consternation without” the movement.

On the site there are PDFs of an executive summary of the manifesto (6 pages) and the manifesto itself (20 pages). The executive summary lists these as the beliefs that they place their emphasis on:

1. Jesus, fully divine and fully human, as the only full and complete revelation of God and therefore the only Savior.
2. The death of Jesus on the cross, in which he took the penalty for our sins and reconciled us to God.
3. Salvation as God’s gift grasped through faith. We contribute nothing to our salvation.
4. New life in the Holy Spirit, who brings us spiritual rebirth and power to live as Jesus did, reaching out to the poor, sick, and oppressed.
5. The Bible as God’s Word written, fully trustworthy as our final guide to faith and practice.
6. The future personal return of Jesus to establish the reign of God.
7. The importance of sharing these beliefs so that others may experience God’s salvation and may walk in Jesus’ way.

What do you think—have things changed or are they about the same as always?