“Your Kids are Not Special”

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Lee — 4 Comments

“Your kids are not special.”

That is the message of a TikTok that has gone viral:

@lisaconselatore

#tiredteacher #enough #raisingkids #timetolisten #supportteachers #culturetalk #culturecheck #teachersoftiktok #teachersontiktok #teaching2023belike

♬ original sound – Lisa Conselatore

In it, Lisa Conselatore, an experienced teacher, decries a present-day approach to parenting in which children are treated as the most special people in the room at all times. This, she says, results in children who have an unrealistic sense of their place in the world, causing all sorts of problems.

The reality, she says, is that no one is the most special person in any room. That’s because we live in community. We must learn to get along with each other and know our place. We must learn to recognize when we have something to add, and when it’s time to “open our ears.”

There are plenty of articles out there offering sound parenting advice to avoid raising children who hit adulthood thinking they’re the center of the universe. See, for example:

“Entitled Children: Strategies for Improving Behavior”

There’s no need to provide a parenting manual here. Instead, let’s take a spiritual look at where we’re ultimately headed, where we start out as infants, and what a parent’s job is in starting new human beings out on the journey.

For more on spiritual child-raising, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: child-raising, children, community, entitled children, heaven, Lisa Conselatore, parenting, raising children, spiritual child-raising, spoiled children
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships

Jesus Was Not White

Posted on March 3, 2024 by Lee — 10 Comments

Jesus was not White.

He wasn’t Black, either.

Jesus was Middle Eastern.

Biblically, he was descended, not from Japheth, nor from Ham, but from Shem.

Historically, he lived, not in Europe, nor in Africa (though he did spend some time in Egypt as an infant), but in the Middle East.

A Galilean man

Physically, he probably had olive skin, brown eyes, and brown to black hair, similar to this modern reconstruction of a Galilean man created by forensic anthropologist Richard Neave. (See: What did Jesus really look like? By Joan Taylor, BBC News, 24 December 2015. See also: Wikipedia: Race and appearance of Jesus.)

Does this mean it’s wrong to picture Jesus as White, or as Black? Do we all have to start picturing Jesus as a Middle Eastern man?

I don’t think so. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

For more on Jesus’ race, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Christianity, Historical Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Joseph, Mary, race relations, Shem Ham and Japeth, the birth of Jesus Christ
Posted in All About God

Are We All Just Bundles of Quantum Energy?

Posted on February 24, 2024 by Lee — 8 Comments

In a recent comment, a reader named Anton said:

Hi Lee,

I lately watched a documentary about quantum physics that just confused me so much, to the point where I began to think about the transition and distinction between the physical and spiritual worlds, and I couldn’t really make sense of it in my head. Or to say it better, I got the Swedenborgian message, but I got confused by the quantum physics explanations.

So, it’s common for New Agers to believe that the afterlife is basically the exact same world, but on a level where molecules and stuff vibrate with a much higher frequency. They back this up with the quantum physics understanding that no energy whatsoever ever goes lost or disappears, it just becomes less and less (or something like that😅). No power can ever become zero or infinity. I think that from a Swedenborgian perspective, the physical and spiritual world are completely distinct from one another, but then how would you explain this phenomenon that people describe?

Kind regards

This is a slightly edited version of Anton’s question. (You can see the original here.) Here is a slightly edited version of my response. (You can see the original here.)

Hi Anton,

three-level-pyramid What is lacking in these New Age ideas is a clear understanding of Swedenborg’s concept of distinct levels and gradual levels (“discrete degrees” and “continuous degrees” in traditional Swedenborgianese). This is the subject of Part 3 of Divine Love and Wisdom (#173–281), if you want to read up on it for yourself.

Gradual levels are when something moves smoothly from one end of a spectrum to the other, such as light to dark or cold to hot. Distinct levels are when there are sudden jumps from one state to another, such as liquid, solid, and gaseous or sound waves, electromagnetic waves, and gravitational waves.

For more on quantum reality, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: distinct levels, gradual levels, material reality, new age, physical reality, physics, quantum physics, science, science and religion, second law of thermodynamics, spiritual reality
Posted in Science Philosophy and History

The Ancestors in African Spirituality in Comparison with Swedenborg’s Experience of the Spiritual World

Posted on January 10, 2024 by Lee — 4 Comments

(Note: This post is a lightly edited version of a paper written in 2022 for an academic program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. References for some quotations have been left in condensed academic format. For full publication information, see the bibliography at the end.)

Introduction

Bakongo masks from the Kongo Central During the time my wife and I have been living in Soweto, Johannesburg, since we moved here from the United States in January of 2020, it has become clear to me how strong a role the ancestors play in African community and spiritual life. Funerals here are not perfunctory affairs as they often are in the U.S. They are ongoing cultural observances that extend over weeks, months, and even years, highlighted by specific ceremonies and rituals. Recently, I was honored to attend a traditional Xhosa ceremony in Eastern Cape that took place over two decades after the person remembered in the ceremony had passed on from this world.

Rather than thinking of their deceased loved-ones as “gone,” Africans more commonly think of them as continuing their journey in another realm, while maintaining their connection with their children who are still alive.

This fascinates me. Why? Because of its striking resemblance to the recorded experiences of my church’s key theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). Swedenborgians, also known as New Church people, look to Swedenborg’s writings for our understanding of the Bible and the Christian religion.

For more on the ancestors and Swedenborg, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Africa, African Traditional Religion, Ancestor veneration, Ancestors, contacting spirits, Credo Mutwa, David W. Mooki, Emanuel Swedenborg, South Africa, spirits, The New Church of Southern Africa
Posted in The Afterlife

If the Trinity of Persons is False, Why did God Allow it to Prevail in the Christian Church?

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Lee — 26 Comments

In a question on Christianity StackExchange here, a user asks:

According to non-Trinitarians, if God’s nature is not adequately portrayed by trinitarian theology, then why did God allow such an erroneous understanding of His nature to become so widespread among the members of the Church, the Bride of His Son? If God has the power and the prerogative to intervene in historical events, then why hasn’t God made use of His divine privileges to ensure that the correct doctrine about His nature achieves widespread acceptance?

What follows is the answer I posted, very slightly edited. You can see the original here.

This answer draws and expands upon key points made by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), an 18th century scientist, philosopher, and theologian. During his theological period, which covered the last three decades of his life, Swedenborg rejected the Nicene Trinity of Persons. Instead, he taught a Trinity of “essential components” in a single Person of the Lord God Jesus Christ. For a plain English explanation of Swedenborg’s Trinity, please see:

Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What about that Holy Spirit?

Summary

Icon from the Mégalo Metéoron Monastery in Greece, representing the First Ecumenical Council of Nikea 325 A.D., with the condemned Arius in the bottom of the icon.

The Council of Nicaea

Swedenborg believed that by the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, when the Trinity of Persons first began to be established as orthodox Christian doctrine, the Christian Church was fast becoming corrupted by a desire for power and wealth on the part of its leaders. This caused its leaders to adopt doctrines such as the Trinity of Persons that would allow them to arrogate the power of Christ to themselves.

The alternative to the Trinity of Persons was Arianism, which ultimately denied the divinity of the Son, and thus of Christ. The primary doctrinal reason the Council of Nicaea was called was to condemn and reject the teaching of Arius about the Godhead. If this had not been done, Christianity would have died altogether.

By adopting the Trinity of Persons, a corrupt Christian leadership would still preach that Jesus is divine. The common people, who listen in simplicity to what their clergy teach them, could still be saved by a Christian faith and life.

In short, the reason God allowed the Trinity of Persons to become the primary doctrine of the Christian Church even though it is unbiblical and false is that the alternative was to allow the Christian Church to be rapidly destroyed, leaving the sheep without a shepherd.

Now for a fuller version.

For more on the historical prevalence of the Trinity of Persons, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Arianism, Christianity, Constantine, Constantine the Great, Council of Nicaea, doctrine of the Trinity, Peter, the Trinity, Trinity, Trinity of Persons
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History

Is God a Spirit Being?

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Lee — 26 Comments

In a comment here, a reader named leeannemeredith wrote:

Do you think God is a Spirit Being? I get tied up in these questions regarding the nature of God. Where or how God came into being. Sometimes I think of the old movie Jason and the Argonauts and a group of godly figures standing around and discussing the human travails and laying bets on the fragile choices we make.

This post is an edited version of my reply, whose original you can see here. The question and answer in this post are a follow-up to the ones in the previous post: “If God Sees Everything, Is Everything that has Ever Happened Still Happening?” Here we go:

You don’t ask any small questions!

In a colloquial sense, God is a spirit being in that God is not a material being, but inhabits the spiritual realm. But in a strict sense, God is not a spirit being because God is a divine being, inhabiting and constituting a realm above the spirit realm.

This is why the Bible says that God is a spirit in John 4:24, but after his resurrection, Jesus—who is God with us (Matthew 1:23)—assured his disciples in Luke 24:39 that he is not a spirit. Yes, modern translations commonly use the word “ghost” instead of “spirit” in this verse, but it is the same Greek word. I am linking to the King James Version this time because its translation is closer to what the original Greek says. Jesus wanted us to know that he, God (John 20:28), is not a mere spirit being.

God is a spirit in the sense that God is not a material being. But God is not a spirit in the sense that God is a divine being, not a spiritual being.

For more on God and spirit, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: God, Jesus Christ, materialism, monotheism, pantheism, polytheism, the Divine Humanity, the material world, the spiritual world
Posted in All About God

If God Sees Everything, Is Everything that has Ever Happened Still Happening?

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Lee — 20 Comments

Here is a question that a reader named leeanemeredith recently asked in a comment here:

I’ve been thinking on your analogy of God surveying the entire scene of events. Does this somehow mean that everything that’s happened is still somehow happening? Nothing disappears or un-happens? If God sees the entire stage, then the events are still playing out?

This post is an edited and expanded version of my reply, whose original you can see here. It delves into some abstract and mind-bending concepts. If you want to expand your mind with some food for thought about the timeless nature of God, and how that relates to our time-bound human lives, read on!

This question and my answer is a follow up to the article, “If God Already Knows What We’re Going to Do, How Can We Have Free Will?” You might understand this post better if you read that article first. And if you understand all of this perfectly, please let me know and I’ll let you take over from here! 😉

For more on God, time, and eternity, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: choices, determinism, free will, God, the future, the material world, the past, the spiritual world, time, time and space
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History

Dethroning the Imperial god of Constantine and Calvin

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Lee — 42 Comments

(Note: This post is an edited version of a paper written for an academic program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. It was originally written for a professor who adheres to Liberation Theology. It is therefore addressed to people of that perspective. However, others may also find its challenge to Liberation Theologians thought-provoking. References for some quotations have been left in condensed academic format. For full publication information, see the bibliography at the end.)

Christianity as we know it today began in empire.

Yes, Christianity began with the birth of Jesus Christ within the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. But the Christianity that Jesus founded is not the Christianity that exists in the world today. Today’s Christianity began in the year 325 AD, in a city of the Roman Empire named Nicaea, under the tutelage of the Roman emperor Constantine I. This was when the God of the Bible began to be replaced by the imperial god—or rather, by an imperial Roman triumvirate of gods—that is worshiped by the vast bulk of Christians today.

Until that imperial god has been dethroned, all efforts to “decolonize” the minds of oppressed people in the Christian world, not to mention the minds of their oppressors, will be in vain. It is not possible to decolonize the minds of people who worship a god that was fashioned under the auspices of a brutal emperor for the purpose of justifying his campaign of conquest and the pacification of the conquered under his imperial rule.

For more on the imperial god of Constantine and Calvin, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Allan Boesak, Black Liberation Theology, Christianity, Constantine the Great, Council of Nicaea, Emanuel Swedenborg, imperialism, John Calvin, Liberation Theology, Michael Servetus, the Bible, Trinity of Persons
Posted in All About God, Science Philosophy and History, The Bible Re-Viewed

Does “Us” in Genesis 1:26, 3:22, and 11:7 Refer to the Trinity of Persons?

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Lee — 19 Comments

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)

Then the Lord God said, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever” . . . . (Genesis 3:22)

Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)

And there’s one more, in the Prophets:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

Why the “us” in these verses?

Is this a leftover from the pagan polytheism out of which the Hebrew people originally came? Is it a surviving reference to multiple gods? So some have argued. But by the time the Hebrew Bible was put into its final form, its editors and authors were firmly monotheistic. They would not have allowed their most sacred text to espouse a belief in polytheism.

Is this a reference to a Trinity of Persons, as Nicene Christians strenuously argue? In a word: No. The idea of the Trinity of Persons did not exist when these passages were written. It didn’t come into being until the third and fourth centuries AD, hundreds or even thousands of years after these stories were originally composed. The writers of the Old and New Testament could not possibly have had a Trinity of Persons in mind in anything they wrote, because that idea hadn’t been developed yet.

Then why the “us”?

There are two basic explanations that can be supported from the text of the Bible itself:

These are examples of a plural of majesty.
These are references to God working in company with heavenly beings.

Let’s take a closer look.

For more on the majesty and company of God, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Abraham, angels, Christianity, Jacob wrestles with the angel, Plural of Majesty, polytheism, Royal We, Satan, the Bible, The book of Job, Trinity of Persons, wrestling with angels
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

Did Swedenborg See Himself as a Prophet?

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Lee — 31 Comments

A recent question on Christianity StackExchange asked:

Emanuel Swedenborg

The Wikipedia article on Emanuel Swedenborg mentions his revelations, but doesn’t use the term “prophet” even once. Did Swedenborg not see himself as a prophet? What is a prophet, according to Swedenborg, other than someone receiving divine revelation and preaching it?

What follows just below is a slightly edited version of my response.

I should mention first that biblical scholarship over the past couple of centuries has made sense of many passages in the prophetical books of the Bible that were considered incomprehensible in Swedenborg’s day. My own view is that the biblical prophets were more aware of the meaning of their message for their own times than Swedenborg gave them credit for.

What remains true, I believe, is that their messages also had deeper “correspondential” meanings that they themselves were unaware of. Swedenborg explains many of these spiritual meanings in his theological writings. See: “Can We Really Believe the Bible?“

Meanwhile, since the question asked whether Swedenborg saw himself as a prophet, Swedenborg’s own view of the prophets of the Bible is the most relevant one in answering the question. That’s why I have quoted heavily from Swedenborg’s own writings in answering the question.

Introduction

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) did not refer to himself as a prophet, nor did he see himself as a prophet. Indeed, he saw a clear distinction between himself and the biblical prophets, based on at least three significant factors:

Manner of inspiration
Style of writing
Purpose of the message

In general, Swedenborg saw prophets as biblical figures. He did not recognize prophets outside the narrative of the Bible.

For more on Swedenborg and prophets, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: correspondences, doctrine, Emanuel Swedenborg, exegesis, inspiration, prophecy, prophets, the Bible
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

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