The Origin of the Soul, Reincarnation, and the Collective Unconscience

THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL

Where does the soul originate? According to Swedenborg, the soul originates from the seed of the father, whereas the "covering" for the body originates from the mother. This thought has several consequences: one is, we only live once in this material world, and the other is that life begins at conception. Those who are considering abortion should think again. The fact that life begins at conception is a biological fact, as the cells begin dividing at that point. We die when our cells are unable to divide any longer. However I have heard some people argue that perhaps the soul enters the body at a later stage in fetal development. That this is not so, is shown in the following passage written by Swedenborg, long before anything was known about genetics:

"the soul which comes from the father is the person himself, and the body which comes from the mother, is not in itself the person, but a product of the person. This is merely its covering, woven of substances from the natural world, while the soul is of substances from the spiritual world. After death every person lays aside the natural which he got from his mother, and keeps the spiritual which he had from his father, together with a sort of fringe (limbus) around it composed of the purest natural substances. In the case of those who come into heaven this fringe is below with the spiritual side uppermost; with those who come into hell, the fringe is uppermost and the spiritual side is below. That is why a human angel receives what he says from heaven, so that it is good and true, but a human devil receives what he says from hell when he speaks from the heart, as he does in private, but as if from heaven when he speaks with the lips only, as he does in public.
[2] Since a person's soul is his very self, and by its origin the soul is spiritual, it is clear why the father's mind, attitude, character, inclination and affection of love live on in one descendant after another, and show up from one generation to the next. That is why many families, even whole nations, are recognisable likenesses of their ancestor; there is a shared type which shows up in the faces of each of his descendants, and this is only changed by the spirituality of the church. The type shared by Jacob and Judah still lives on in their descendants, allowing them to be distinguished from others, because down to the present day they have kept strictly to their religion. For in the seed from which each individual is conceived there is a shoot or cutting of the father's soul in all its completeness, wrapped in a covering of natural elements. These control the formation of the body in the mother's womb, where it may take on a resemblance to the father or the mother, though the father's type remains in it and constantly strives to come out. So if it is unable to do so in the first generation, it achieves this in subsequent ones.
[3] The reason why the father's type in all its completeness is in the seed is that, as already said, the soul is in origin spiritual, and the spiritual has nothing in common with space, so it can be reproduced in a small compass just as well as on a large scale. As for the Lord, when He was in the world, He put off by redeeming acts all the human He had from His mother, and put on the Human from the Father, that is, the Divine Human. That is why it is that in Him man is God and God is man." (True Christian Religion, 103)

The only caveat with the above passage, is that Swedenborg sometimes drew conclusions from his own experiences. The part that I still have questions about is that he states that the soul in its origin is spiritual, outside of space, yet contained in the seed of the father. So where did that originate? Is it possible that the soul has a pre-existent state before being born? According to Swedenborg, the answer is no. The purpose of the material world, all of creation, is to produce angels of heaven from the human race. And the only way to increase the number of angels of heaven is through the generations of the human race in the material world.

The other conclusion, is that the soul of Jesus was Divine, whereas his body was just like ours, which he received from his mother. On the resurrection, this body was put off, and transformed into a Divine Human. This was the one time in history, to all eternity, that God would become incarnate. Thus as far as we know, it never happened before, and will never happen again.

REINCARNATION

Concerning reincarnation, where the soul incarnates from one body to the next, many ancient cultures believed this, and this belief is still prevalant in eastern religions. However it is practically absent in the three religions founded on the Bible: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Still, even within these religions some people surmise we may have a chance to be born again. As Swedenborg had 27 years of visions from heaven, what did he have to say? The answer is quite interesting:

"An angel or spirit is not permitted to speak with a man from his own memory, but only from the man's memory; for angels and spirits have a memory as well as man. If a spirit were to speak from his own memory with a man the man would not know otherwise than that the thoughts then in his mind were his own, although they were the spirit's thoughts. This would be like the recollection of something which the man had never heard or seen. That this is so has been given me to know from experience. This is the source of the belief held by some of the ancients that after some thousands of years they were to return into their former life, and into everything they had done, and in fact, had returned. This they concluded because at times there came to them a sort of recollection of things that they had never seen or heard. This came from an influx from the memory of spirits into their ideas of thought." (Heaven and Hell, 256)

Reincarnation only comes up in the context on his discussions concerning memory. Which is interesting, because now there are so many books out there which discusses past life regresstion through hypnosis. Through these past life regressions, despite the skepticism hypnotists have been able to retrieve facts about historical events that the subject had no knowledge about. Not only that, but subjects have been able to pick up accents, and even speak in foreign languages that they did not know before (xenoglossy). The hypnotic state is a natural state of mind we pass through every day - and apparently this is the state where the mind becomes aware of other levels of existence. According to Swedenborg, this has nothing to do with reincarnation, but rather communication has opened up with the spirits that are influencing the subject's life. Thus past-life regression is a useful tool in therapy - one can remove bad behaviours, phobias, and even sicknesses. It is also the simplist explanation. Hypnotists who believe in reincarnation become confused when they see one life time overlapping chronologically with another life time. Another indicator is that hypnotic past life regressions can have one past life be of a male, and then it can switch to a female. According to Swedenborg, once born one is always male or female, the sex will never change.

This view on reincarnation is also consistent with the view on the origin of the soul. Probably many people who are interested in New Age material will be disappointed with this answer. In consolation, Swedenborg declared the New Age long before they discovered it.

In addition to spirits who may pass on their memories to us, perhaps in a desire to communicate, there are also evil spirits - who seek not only to take over the memory, but the entire body. Swedenborg called this phenomenon "obsession", and it was much more common in ancient times. It is now known as "demoniac possession", and apparently it is happening more frequently. The Catholic Church still maintains a class of exorcists. Here is what Swedenborg stated:

"There are also spirits called natural and corporeal spirits. When these come to a man they do not conjoin themselves with his thought, like other spirits, but enter into his body, and occupy all his senses, and speak through his mouth, and act through his members, believing at the time that all things of the man are theirs. These are the spirits that obsess man. But such spirits have been cast into hell by the Lord, and thus wholly removed; and in consequence such obsessions are not possible at the present time." (Heaven and Hell, 257)

THE GROUP SOUL, OR THE "COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS" OF CARL JUNG

We have discussed the origin of the soul, and reincarnation. Now some people who have experienced past life memories, or deja vu, will state that the memories that came to them showed them things that were similar to their own life experience. Why the similarity? We now come to the topic of a "group soul", or what Swedenborg called "angelic societies", and what Carl Jung then called "the Collective Unconscious". Carl Jung's idea concerns the origin of archetypes, but he basically took his idea from Swedenborg (he called them "correspondences" but that is another topic). What Swedenborg discovered is that the mind of man is in constant communication with spirits and angels, who are similar to that person according to their love:

"With every individual there are good spirits and evil spirits. Through good spirits man has conjunction with heaven, and through evil spirits with hell. These spirits are in the world of spirits, which lies midway between heaven and hell. This world will be described particularly hereafter. When these spirits come to a man they enter into his entire memory, and thus into his entire thought, evil spirits into the evil things of his memory and thought, and good spirits into the good things of his memory and thought. These spirits have no knowledge whatever that they are with man; but when they are with him they believe that all things of his memory and thought are their own; neither do they see the man, because nothing that is in our solar world falls into their sight." (Heaven and Hell, 292)

For the most part, the spirits that are in communication with us communicate via affections and emotions, rather than by thought. In fact, this is the origin of all thought and emotion: it belongs to the spiritual world. Man, on his part, has the free will to choose what thoughts and affections he or she will appropriate to himself (or herself):

"The spirits who are with man, both those conjoined with heaven and those conjoined with hell, never flow into man from their own memory and its thought, for if they should flow in from their own thought, whatever belonged to them would seem to man to be his (see above n. 256). Nevertheless there flows into man through them out of heaven an affection belonging to the love of good and truth, and out of hell an affection belonging to the love of evil and falsity. Therefore as far as man's affection agrees with the affection that flows in, so far that affection is received by him in his thought, since man's interior thought is wholly in accord with his affection or love; but so far as man's affection does not agree with that affection it is not received. Evidently, then, since thought is not introduced into man through spirits, but only an affection for good and an affection for evil, man has choice, because he has freedom; and is thus able by his thought to receive good and reject evil, since he knows from the Word what is good and what is evil. Moreover, whatever he receives by thought from affection is appropriated to him; but whatever he does not receive by thought from affection is not appropriated to him. All this makes evident the nature of the influx of good out of heaven with man, and the nature of the influx of evil out of hell. (Heaven and Hell, 298)

When we die, we shed our external body, and we become aware of the society we belong to, either in heaven and hell. In reality, no one goes to heaven or hell: we are already there. We just become aware of this internal reality after we die:

"Souls newly arrived from the world, when about to leave the company of the spiritual angels to go among spirits, and so at length to come into the society in which they had been while they lived in the body, are led about by angels to many mansions or abodes, that is, to societies which are distinct and yet conjoined with others; in some of which they are received, while in other cases they are led to still other societies, and this for an indefinite time, until they come to the society in which they had been while they lived in the body; and there they remain." (Heavenly Arcana, or Arcana Coelestia, 1273)

CONCLUSION

Despite the fact that the information Swedenborg gives makes common sense, he is completely ignored. Why? Because no one at this day believes people can receive heavenly visions, and even discount the existence of the spiritual world. So instead, the modern world has to flounder around guessing, depending on psychologists who view the mind as a black box. Naturalistic materialism only goes so far. When it comes to the soul, the afterlife, and the things that really matter, science is completely blind.

When it comes to many religions, the priests or spiritual leaders just love to call attention to themselves. They are often the worse, for their own pride is veiled with religion. Many of these false leaders will claim to have visions, in order to mislead people. Pride is the hardest evil to conquer, and Swedenborg had to go through many trials to conquer it before he was allowed to see what he saw, in a completely wakeful state for 27 years. All of his works were published anonymously, at his own expense. He only became known when at a dinner in Germany, he had a clairvoyant experience where he described a fire in Sweden, that it threatened to burn down his house and all his books. When asked why he was so worried, he was pressed and described the fire, and all the factual details became known several days later. It was then he became famous, and people finally guessed it was he who had been publishing these volumes of his visionary experiences. The incident was investigated by none other than the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

So, when it comes to religious matters, who would you choose? Someone writing about their own opinion or guess, or someone who was a witness to spiritual events in heaven and hell, whose experiences were later validated by factual evidence? I am going to pick the latter.

The Hidden Christianity within the Quran

In the fourth-fifth centuries A.D. Christianity had become corrupt by accepting newly man-made doctrine of a trinity of three beings, instead of one God in one person Jesus Christ. In original Christianity, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God since he was born of a virgin, not a "son born from eternity" as declared in the Nicene Creed.  Later an anonymous author wrote the Athanasian Creed, which commanded Christians to think of three persons and yet never utter the phrase "three gods." Thus to this day, there is a hidden tritheism within the thoughts of many Christians. In true Christianity, as revealed in revelations received by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century, it is revealed that Jesus is the One God of the universe, who had taken on human form to fight against the powers of hell. He kept His identity secret, and only revealed it when He had risen from the dead in a transformed glorified body that had become completely Divine.

One interesting revelation that came out of the visions is that Swedenborg was told that a lesser revelation had actually been given to Muhammed, and its purpose was to remove the idolatries of many nations to return them to the worship of one God. While it was given as a revelation, not everything was revealed - this is due to the fact that polygamy was allowed, as it was in Judaism. For that reason, states Swedenborg, since a monogamous relationship is most sacred in Christianity, as it represents the union between God and man, so Muslims were not allowed to know of the Divine union that took place in the God-Man, Jesus. Instead he was accepted as a prophet, despite the fact that Jesus declared that He is one with God and that we have to follow Him. In order to maintain this view this view with the Bible, Muslims either don't read the Bible, or more commonly they make the false claim that the passages they disagree with are corrupt. In addition to this, there are statements within the Quran that cannot be completely reconciled to their beliefs, and there is even evidence of a hidden Christianity within the passages of the Quran itself.

So lets take a look at what the Quran has to stay about Jesus and Christianity:

DENIAL OF A TRINITY OF THREE BEINGS

It is well known that Muslims deny a trinity of three persons, and on this point they are actually in agreement with the New Chruch which states that God is one personal Being. Jesus is declared to be a prophet, and that is indeed true, but He is more than a prophet, as Jesus Himself had said.  Here is Sura 5, where a trinity of three persons is properly denied:

[5.72] Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah, He is the Messiah, son of Marium; and the Messiah said: O Children of Israel! serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah, then Allah has forbidden to him the garden, and his abode is the fire; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust.
[5.73] Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah is the third (person) of the three; and there is no god but the one God, and if they desist not from what they say, a painful chastisement shall befall those among them who disbelieve.

[5.116] And when Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! did you say to men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah he will say: Glory be to Thee, it did not befit me that I should say what I had no right to (say); if I had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have known it; Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in Thy mind, surely Thou art the great Knower of the unseen things.
[5.117] I did not say to them aught save what Thou didst enjoin me with: That serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I was a witness of them so long as I was among them, but when Thou didst cause me to die, Thou wert the watcher over them, and Thou art witness of all things.

According to the visions shown to Swedenborg, there is no trinity of three beings, but rather, there is a trinity of soul, body and spirit in every man. When the Word of God made its descent and assumed a human form, a Holy Trinity was created in Jesus Christ.

The other statement Swedenborg made, and explained in detail in many pages, is that Divinity made its descent in degrees, gradually. As Mary (Miriam) was human, the human body from the mother had inherited a sinful nature. Thus Jesus endured incredible temptations, and was like every other human, except he never succumbed to temptation, and advanced more quickly and more perfectly than any other human born before or after him. He came in the role of a prophet, so before the ressurection, that is what he was - the human body served as a prophet. The Koran speaks of this state of being. It is after the crucifixion where the Divinity became united with the human - thus Jesus declared all power was given to Him on heaven and earth. It is this state of being that the Koran was not allowed to reveal.

A TRINITY OF BEING

There is a trinity of being in every man: soul, body and spirit. This became a Holy Trinity in Jesus Christ, as stated in the visions seen by Swedenborg. Remarkably, we find something similar in the Koran:

[4.171] O followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a son, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and Allah is sufficient for a Protector.

Jesus is: (1) an apostle, meaning sent one, and (2) is the Word of God, and (3) a spirit from God. That is very close to the concept of a Trinity of being in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John declares that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. To Swedenborg, He was Jehovah incarnate, to be "sent" into the world means His body was conceived by the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to speak directly to man.

In the following verses from Sura 2, Jesus is again said to have been endowed with the Holy Spirit:

[2.87] And most certainly We gave Musa the Book and We sent apostles after him one after another; and We gave Isa, the son of Marium, clear arguments and strengthened him with the holy spirit

[2.253] We have made some of these apostles to excel the others among them are they to whom Allah spoke, and some of them He exalted by (many degrees of) rank; and We gave clear miracles to Isa son of Marium, and strengthened him with the holy spirit.

The Holy Spirit, is the spirit of God which flows directly to man from the body of Jesus. It became available to mankind after the ressurection of Jesus Christ. Thus the gospel of John stated that the Holy Spirit was not yet, for Jesus was not glorified. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the reason why Jesus came.

NO SON OF GOD "BORN FROM ETERNITY"

The Koran is specifically opposed to the concept of a Son of God. This can be seen above in verse 171 in Sura 4, as well as Sura 9:

[9.30] And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!
[9.31] They have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah, and (also) the Messiah son of Marium and they were enjoined that they should serve one God only, there is no god but He; far from His glory be what they set up (with Him).

Despite these admonitions in the Koran, the Koran declares that Jesus was born by God through the virgin Mary:

[3.45] When the angels said: O Marium, surely Allah gives you good news with a Word from Him (of one) whose name is the '. Messiah, Isa son of Marium, worthy of regard in this world and the hereafter and of those who are made near (to Allah).
[3.46] And he shall speak to the people when in the cradle and when of old age, and (he shall be) one of the good ones.
[3.47] She said: My Lord! when shall there be a son (born) to I me, and man has not touched me? He said: Even so, Allah creates what He pleases; when He has decreed a matter, He only says to it, Be, and it is.

So, despite the fact that the Koran is opposed to the concept of a Son of God, when I have told Muslims that Jesus is the Son of God due to the fact he was born of the virgin Mary, they are not opposed to this concept. Jesus was the Son of God born in time, before that time there was no Son of God. In fact, ancient Christians knew of no other Son of God except the one born in time through the virgin Mary. A Son of God "born from eternity" before Jesus was born was a later doctrine that was invented to oppose the Arian heresy. This false doctrine is in fact the origin of a trinity of three beings. It was added in the First Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., which in fact was a modification of the older Apostle's Creed.

The original Apostle's Creed is quite simple:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.

In this Creed, Jesus is the Son simply because he was born through the virgin Mary. Now in 325 A.D. this original belief was modified in the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth];
who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man;

Notice the changes? The Nicene Creed changed the Apostle's Creed to make a Son born from eternity to later descend and be born as Jesus. The "begotten not made" statement was added to oppose the Arian heresy, which proposed that Jesus was some sort of secondary archon that was created before the world was created. But in opposing this heresy, the Nicene Creed adopted another false belief, one that does not make sense.

The Nicene Creed was further made clear in the First Council of Constantinople of 381 A.D.:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;

With these two Creeds, the belief in a Son of God born from eternity was invented. Such a belief was unknown in the original revelation of Christianity - Jesus was simply the Son of God, born in time, as we was born by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary. In the visions of Swedenborg, these doctrines which entered the Church corrupted Christianity, until now there is barely a remnant of the original revelation.

NO SUCH THING AS BLOOD ATONEMENT

The concept of vicarious atonement, where one could pay for the sins by dying in one's place, was also a later doctrine that was added into Christianity. In the visions of Swedenborg, this is another false doctrine which has utterly corrupted the Christian revelation. Jesus did indeed save the human race, but he did this by making his human body Divine, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to become available to all mankind. A Divine Human was created, once all temptations were overcome. After the crucifixion, Jehovah was able to reorder all of heaven and hell, by first making a descent into hell, and then later ascending into heaven. In both the Koran, and visions of Swedenborg, one must simply shun what is evil, and do what is good. This is the essential truth of most religions.

[4.31] If you shun the great sins which you are forbidden, We will do away with your small sins and cause you to enter an honorable place of entering.

THE HIDDEN CHRISTIANITY WITHIN THE QURAN

As stated before, Islam was not allowed to know the true identity of Jesus Christ due to the fact that the revelation was designed to remove idolatry from eastern nations where polygamy was accepted. Thus, he is regarded as a great prophet. However, for any Muslim who will read the Koran carefully, there are some statements given which can lead them to the truth of the original Christian revelation. Here is a collection of statements I had gathered:

First, only God (Allah) is Creator, and can raise the dead. This is declared in Suras 6:2, 38:71-72 and 16:17, 20-21, 25:3. Yet the Koran states that Jesus could do the same thing! Of Jesus it is said:
[3.49] And (make him) an apostle to the children of Israel: That I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I determine for you out of dust like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with Allah's permission and I heal the blind and the leprous, and bring the dead to life with Allah's permission

[5.110] When Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! Remember My favor on you and on your mother, when I strengthened you I with the holy Spirit, you spoke to the people in the cradle and I when of old age, and when I taught you the Book and the wisdom and the Taurat and the Injeel; and when you determined out of clay a thing like the form of a bird by My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission, and you healed the blind and the leprous by My permission; and when you brought forth the dead by My permission; and when I withheld the children of Israel from you when you came to them with clear arguments, but those who disbelieved among them said: This is nothing but clear enchantment.

Jesus here is allowed to create a bird from clay, and cause it to live and fly away. The story actually comes from an apocryphal Infancy Gospel. To make it more clear, a clue is dropped in Sura 22:

[22.73] O people! a parable is set forth, therefore listen to it: surely those whom you call upon besides Allah cannot create a fly, though they should all gather for it, and should the fly snatch away anything from them, they could not take it back from i weak are the invoker and the invoked.

Why is this declared a parable? Only God can create something and cause it to live, yet elsewhere the Koran states Jesus was given the capability to do the same thing. He does not simply create a little fly, he creates an entire bird.

Here is an odd statement, where those who will have followed Jesus will be honored in the day of the ressurection:

[3.55] And when Allah said: O Isa, I am going to terminate the period of your stay (on earth) and cause you to ascend unto Me and purify you of those who disbelieve and make those who follow you above those who disbelieve to the day of resurrection; then to Me shall be your return, so I will decide between you concerning that in which you differed.

One thing I have noticed, is that English translations of the Koran tend to be poorly done. Here is a verse from Sura 9, that may have been mistranslated intentionally:

[9.31] They have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah, and (also) the Messiah son of Marium and they were enjoined that they should serve one God only, there is no god but He; far from His glory be what they set up (with Him).

In this translation, it states that other men, including the Messiah, have been worshipped in place of Allah. But that is not what the original says. In the above verse, the word "also" has been added by the translator. This is apparent in another translation of verse 31 of Sura 9 by Yusef Ali:

31. They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah. there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).

Again, words have been added by the translator. The original verse actually says this:

They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah and Christ the son of Mary

As translated, no one should be worshipped except Allah and His Messiah, Jesus Christ. This, of course, is a problematic statement for translators of the Koran, to the point they feel compelled to add words to the translation.

Next, the Koran itself states that Christians worship the same God as the Muslims do:

[29.46] And do not dispute with the followers of the Book except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly, and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit.

Finally, the Koran states that all should bow down to Allah in the following Suras: 2:43, 125, 131, 133, 136, 3:43, 84, 5:58, 111, 114, 7:126, 206, 9:112, 16:81, 21:108, 22:77, 27:81, 91, 39:12, 54, 41:33, 46:15, 48:29, 96:19.

And, the Koran states that all should bow down to Allah only: 6:14, 163, 22:18, 26, 29:46, 40:66, 68:41-43

That is straightforward. But in the Koran, there is a very odd story: when Adam was created, he commanded that all the angels should bow down before Adam. One angel did not, this angel was Satan. This story is not found in the Bible, and is referred to in the following Suras: 2:30-34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50. Ultimately the question should arise for any Muslim: if the Koran states that one should bow down to Allah, and to Allah only, why in the world is there a story in the Koran that states Allah commanded his angels to bow down before Adam?

I am not sure how Muslims have answered this question, but here is an interesting reference to Adam:
[3.59] Surely the likeness of Isa is with Allah as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, Be, and he was.
[3.60] (This is) the truth from your Lord, so be not of the disputers.
[3.61] But whoever disputes with you in this matter after what has come to you of knowledge, then say: Come let us call our sons and your sons and our women and your women and our near people and your near people, then let us be earnest in prayer, and pray for the curse of Allah on the liars.
[3.62] Most surely this is the true explanation, and there is no god but Allah; and most surely Allah-- He is the Mighty, the Wise.

Isa (Jesus) is declared to be in the likeness of Adam. Could it be, that the Koran is referencing a story where God commanded the angels to bow down before Jesus? It could be that this story was taken from the epistle to the Philippians (2:5-10), found in the New Testament:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

THE QURAN REAFFIRMS THE EARLIER BIBLICAL REVELATION

Up until the last quote I have tried to avoid quoting the Bible, because a common belief among Muslims is that the Bible became corrupt, and does not represent the original message given to Jesus. But ironically the Koran says the opposite. In the following Suras, it affirms the revelation given in the Torah (the first five books of Moses, or the OT) and the Gospel (the four gospels of the NT): 3:3, 47-50, 5:46, 49, 66, 68, 110, 10:37, 94, 12:111, 17:101-103, 28:48-49, 46:10, 12, 61:6.

Further, not only does the Koran reaffirm the revelation of the Torah and the Gospel, but it states that Allah would never allow his words to be changed or altered: 6:34,115, 10:64, 18:27, 48:23, 50:29.

Given that, why do Muslims maintain the Bible was altered? It is the only way that they can maintain the belief that they were taught.

The Prophecy of Mount Rainier

I found another Native American prophecy - concerning Mt. Rainier, a dormant volcano near here in Seattle.

Sun Bear, Chippewa Medicine Man

(1929-1992)

These changes might not be convenient for humans, but the earth will make them anyway. As a dog shakes itself to get rid of fleas, the earth will generate earthquakes, volcanoes and climactic changes to rid itself of surplus and troublesome humans. If it is necessary that a lot of people die off during the major changes, and that the people that survive are conscious people that are responsible for the earth and are living on it in harmony and love and respect, then that is what is supposed to happen...

The people who will survive will be those who love life and affirm life in every way they can. They will be people who are willing to make a conscious change in the way they view life and in their actions toward all creation. They will not be those sitting with their rifles over a can of beans. The survivors will be people reaching out for another level of consciousness and seeking communication with the Creator and the Earth. They will be people living close to the earth far from large cities who are able to grow and harvest or gather their own food from the wild.

I'm trying to reach out and create a larger group of people who are in harmony with the earth. These people won't get wiped out in the process of the earth changes. If you know where to be and how to prepare, this can be a very comfortable, interesting and exciting time.

The 1989 San Francisco quake and the 1993 Northridge one were just warnings of much larger ones that will rock California. Sun Bear, who was part Chippewa Indian, medicine chief of the Bear Tribe, and a teacher and visionary said, in 1987, "The earth is an intelligent living being! Before any major changes ever happen upon the Earth Mother, it has warned people. . . . You're going to see major changes here. When I asked the Spirit about the earthquakes, and whether these things could be changed, and what would happen? Spirit said it's already sealed. It's already happening...

A volcano that will devastate the Seattle area is foretold is an ancient prophecy from Washington State's Puyallup tribe, which says, "The time will come when Little Sister will speak, and Grandfather will answer. And the land will be swept clean to the ocean." Sun Bear explained that Donald Matheson, a leader of the Puyallup tribe, moved his people to Idaho in 1979 because he believed it was time for this prophecy to be fulfilled. In March 1980, the mountain that we call little sister began to whisper. May 18th of 1980, the Little Sister spoke with a cubic mile of mountain that was spread over the northwest area, and many other parts of the world... "The Little Sister is called Mount St. Helens. Soon, the Grandfather is going to answer so much bigger. That one is called Mt. Rainier." Indian prophecies also foretold worldwide environmental catastrophes such as the greenhouse effect, "changes in the seasons and in the weather, disappearance of wildlife, famine," and the ozone hole, which was referred to as a "hole in our lodging."

Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, and had a couple of minor eruptions in 1990. It has shown increasing activity since 2004. Mt. Rainier has shown no activity for over a 100 years. In an earlier blog I discussed the vision of David Booth where he saw a large body collide with the south pole of the earth, causing massive volcanic eruptions in North America. I recently met with a friend of mine in Berkeley California to discuss a few of these things, to compare it with my own experience which dictated that there should be a massive volcanic eruption in the near future.