SpiritualSon
Member
First of all Swedenborg didn't start his own church or change the Word to fit his needs. His writings is to help people understand the Word.
The unity of God is inmostly inscribed on the mind of every man, since it lies at the center of all that flows from God into the soul of man,and yet it has not descended into the human understanding, for the reason that the knowledges by which man must ascend to meet God have been lacking.
For everyone must prepare the way for God, that is, must prepare himself for reception.This is done by means of knowledges. The knowledges that have been lacking, and that enable the understanding to penetrate far enough to see that God is one,not three,and that more than one Divine Esse is impossible,which means there were no trinity before creation. There is a Divine Trinity,but of one Person,not of three.
It is said that the man rises,but the truth is that he is raised up by God,not himself. For in acquiring knowledges for himself man exercises his freedom of choice.But as he acquires for himself knowledges from the Word by means of his understanding he prepares the way by which God comes down and raises him up.
God raise up the man's understanding.The knowledges by means of which the human understanding rises, God holding it in His hand and leading it.
May be likened to the steps of the ladder seen in a dream by Jacob, which was set upon the earth with the top of it reaching to heaven, by which the angels ascended while Jehovah God stood above it (Gen.28:12,13).
This ladder is our understanding of God.Our understanding of Him depends on what kind of knowledge we have of Him. I am sorry to post this,many Christian Churches have the wrong knowledge.
Repentance is the first stage in the development of the church in a person.
The communion known as a church is composed of as many people as have the church in them; and the church enters into a person when he is being regenerated.
Everyone is regenerated by abstaining from sinful evils, and shunning them as anyone would on seeing the hordes of hell seeking with torches in their hands to attack him and to throw him upon a pyre.
As a person advances into early manhood there are many ways in which he is prepared for the church and brought into it; but it is acts of repentance which really bring this about in him.
By acts of repentance are meant all that prevent him from willing and so from doing the evil actions which are sins against God. For until this happens, he stands outside the process of regeneration. If at that time any thought about everlasting salvation occurs to him, he may incline towards it, but very soon he turns his back on it.
It does not reach further into him than the ideas he is thinking about, though from these it may emerge as spoken words, possibly also as gestures in keeping with what he says.
On the other hand, when it enters the will, it becomes a part of the person, for the will is the real person, because it is where his love resides.
Thought lies outside him, unless it comes out of his will. If so, will and thought act as one and together make up the person. The consequence of this is that for repentance to be genuine and effective in a person, it must come from the will, and from thought coming from the will, not from thought alone. In other words, it must be expressed in action, not merely on the lips.
The Word establishes plainly that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church. John the Baptist, who was sent beforehand to prepare people for the church the Lord was to found, preached repentance at the same time as he was baptising.
His baptism was therefore called a baptism of repentance, because baptism means spiritual washing, or being cleansed from sins.
He did this in the Jordan, because the Jordan meant being brought into the church, since it was the first boundary of the land of Canaan, which was where the church was.
The Lord Himself too preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By this He taught that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church, and that to the extent that a person repents, his sins are distanced from him; and to the extent they are distanced, they are forgiven. Moreover, the Lord laid upon the twelve Apostles,as well as the seventy He sent out, the duty of preaching repentance.
These facts clearly show that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church.
http://newearth.org/frontier/
Harry
The unity of God is inmostly inscribed on the mind of every man, since it lies at the center of all that flows from God into the soul of man,and yet it has not descended into the human understanding, for the reason that the knowledges by which man must ascend to meet God have been lacking.
For everyone must prepare the way for God, that is, must prepare himself for reception.This is done by means of knowledges. The knowledges that have been lacking, and that enable the understanding to penetrate far enough to see that God is one,not three,and that more than one Divine Esse is impossible,which means there were no trinity before creation. There is a Divine Trinity,but of one Person,not of three.
It is said that the man rises,but the truth is that he is raised up by God,not himself. For in acquiring knowledges for himself man exercises his freedom of choice.But as he acquires for himself knowledges from the Word by means of his understanding he prepares the way by which God comes down and raises him up.
God raise up the man's understanding.The knowledges by means of which the human understanding rises, God holding it in His hand and leading it.
May be likened to the steps of the ladder seen in a dream by Jacob, which was set upon the earth with the top of it reaching to heaven, by which the angels ascended while Jehovah God stood above it (Gen.28:12,13).
This ladder is our understanding of God.Our understanding of Him depends on what kind of knowledge we have of Him. I am sorry to post this,many Christian Churches have the wrong knowledge.
Repentance is the first stage in the development of the church in a person.
The communion known as a church is composed of as many people as have the church in them; and the church enters into a person when he is being regenerated.
Everyone is regenerated by abstaining from sinful evils, and shunning them as anyone would on seeing the hordes of hell seeking with torches in their hands to attack him and to throw him upon a pyre.
As a person advances into early manhood there are many ways in which he is prepared for the church and brought into it; but it is acts of repentance which really bring this about in him.
By acts of repentance are meant all that prevent him from willing and so from doing the evil actions which are sins against God. For until this happens, he stands outside the process of regeneration. If at that time any thought about everlasting salvation occurs to him, he may incline towards it, but very soon he turns his back on it.
It does not reach further into him than the ideas he is thinking about, though from these it may emerge as spoken words, possibly also as gestures in keeping with what he says.
On the other hand, when it enters the will, it becomes a part of the person, for the will is the real person, because it is where his love resides.
Thought lies outside him, unless it comes out of his will. If so, will and thought act as one and together make up the person. The consequence of this is that for repentance to be genuine and effective in a person, it must come from the will, and from thought coming from the will, not from thought alone. In other words, it must be expressed in action, not merely on the lips.
The Word establishes plainly that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church. John the Baptist, who was sent beforehand to prepare people for the church the Lord was to found, preached repentance at the same time as he was baptising.
His baptism was therefore called a baptism of repentance, because baptism means spiritual washing, or being cleansed from sins.
He did this in the Jordan, because the Jordan meant being brought into the church, since it was the first boundary of the land of Canaan, which was where the church was.
The Lord Himself too preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By this He taught that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church, and that to the extent that a person repents, his sins are distanced from him; and to the extent they are distanced, they are forgiven. Moreover, the Lord laid upon the twelve Apostles,as well as the seventy He sent out, the duty of preaching repentance.
These facts clearly show that repentance is the first stage in the development of the church.
http://newearth.org/frontier/
Harry