Search, Compare, and Copy New Century Edition Translations

Back in September I wrote a post about the new beta version of HeavenlyDoctrines.org. In that post I mentioned that one of the improvements was that the new version incorporates “Additional translations of some of Swedenborg's theological works.” I just realized recently that that means that you can now search the New Century Edition translations (excluding volume 1 of Secrets of Heaven), easily compare them with other translations, and easily copy and paste from them into papers, emails etc.

Also, remember that you can get New Century Edition Translations for Free Online in .txt or PDF format.

Coleman Glenn on What it Takes to Come to an Honest Belief in God

Theolog Coleman Glenn recently wrote a post on his blog that I really appreciated. The post is titled Being Honest With Myself because a teenage girl in a youth group he was leading said, “I guess I think the idea of a God is comforting, and it would be nice, but honestly, if I’m praying or whatever, do I think there’s actually someone there? No. Not if I’m really being honest with myself.” Here are a few excerpts from Coleman's reflections on this:

I think everyone comes to a point where they realize that “if they were honest with themselves” – that is, if they looked at their heart – they would realize they didn’t believe in God. This doesn’t mean that everyone lets go of their intellectual faith, or their willingness to “stick with” their religion. But the fact is, faith only exists where there’s charity, and we don’t start with charity. We can have enough faith to keep following the path that will lead to real faith, but we come to a point where we realize that our faith is basically just historical. ....

The thing is, though, that until we’re regenerate, there are going to be times in our lives when we feel like if we were honest with ourselves we couldn’t say we believed in the Lord. Even after knowing the Lord, there are times when I don’t feel His presence – when if I was “honest with myself” I wouldn’t see Him. The beauty of it, though, is that the Writings pinpoint these moments with perfect accuracy.

Scriptural Examples of Praying for Others

In Bryn Athyn College chapel today Rev. Stephen Cole discussed whether praying for other people can actually help them at all.

In his discussion he cited two examples from the Word where people pray for others. The first was from Genesis 20. This is the first time that prayer is mentioned in the Word. In the story Abimelech is told in a dream to give Sarai back to Abram and is told, “[Abram] will pray for you and you shall live” (20:7). Interestingly, Arcana Coelestia 2535 (discussed in the last 2 posts) is an explanation of what this verse means.

The other example of praying for others that he gave was Matthew 19:13-15 in which “little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray....”

Stephen Cole's conclusion was that praying for other people can help them. We cannot make people's choices for them or ever take away their spiritual freedom but, just as parents can certainly affect the natural lives of their children by nurturing or neglecting them, we can also have an effect on people's spiritual lives. Angels and associate spirits affect people's spiritual lives; why can't we through prayer?

Prayer is More Than Just "Speech with God"

At the Sunday Night Thing last night Rev. Grant Odhner pointed out an important detail of Arcana Coelestia 2535 that broadened my understanding of the essential elements of prayer. You may be familiar with the idea from this passage that prayer is speech with God, but take a look at what the passage says.

Prayer, regarded in itself, is speech with God, AND some internal view at the time of the matters of the prayer, to which there answers something like an influx into the perception or thought of the mind, so that there is a certain opening of the man's interiors toward God; but this with a difference according to the man's state, and according to the essence of the subject of the prayer.

So prayer isn't just speech with God: it's speech with God and an internal view of what you're praying about. Grant explained that we have an internal and external part of us and when we pray we should try to pay attention to the internal view of the things happening in our external lives that the Lord gives us. Isn't that cool?

For more posts on prayer search for pray in the upper left-hand corner (or, if you're lazy, you can just click that link.)

How to Pray

Rev. Mac Frazier gave a great sermon yesterday about how to pray. I particularly appreciated his discussion of what it means to “pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and his explanation of what we should pray for. Arcana Coelestia 2535 (which is probably the most often cited passage in the Heavenly Doctrines about prayer) says that if a person

prays from love and faith, and for only heavenly and spiritual things, there then comes forth in the prayer something like a revelation....

People who are familiar with this passage sometimes worry about not praying for “only heavenly and spiritual things” but Mac explained that when we pray about everyday things we are often still praying for spiritual and heavenly things.