How the Chalcedonian Creed Corrupted Christianity

In the revelations of the New Church it was revealed that Jesus Christ has one Divine Nature, which He acquired when He rose from the dead. This Divine which manifested in human form is in fact the Son of God, it is not a separate person born from eternity. God the Father was known as the Father since Jesus was born of a virgin, there was no concept of a trinity of three persons. How Christianity was changed beginning in the 5th century is documented in the the following work:

Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years

This was the era of the Christological controversies, where they debated the nature of Christ due to various heresies that had arisen. It was mainly settled in the Chalcedonian Creed of 451 A.D. which divided Christ into two natures. Ironically, the original Christians, those of the Oriental Orthodox Church, dissented, as this disagreed with what was originally taught in the first three centuries of Christianity. Since they believed in one nature, they were classified as "monophysites" which was then declared a heresy.

So who is correct?  According to the revelations received by Swedenborg, the Monophysites held to the original doctrine that Jesus had one Divine nature, even as to his body when He rose from the dead. This can be easily proven - in the Eucharist of Communion, the body and blood of Jesus Christ is the center of worship. God had to become incarnate and make His human Divine, in order to restore the connection to humanity.

So why did they divide Christ into two natures? This, ironically, had already been declared a heresy just two decades earlier - it was known as the Nestorian heresy. The reason for dividing Christ into two natures was so that the Pope could declare himself as the "Vicar of Christ," and thus assert his authority over everyone else. The motivation was to rule over others by means of religious power. This was shown to Swedenborg in a vision:

"As further regards this truth [of the Divine Human], it should be known that the Ancient Church acknowledged it, and also the primitive Christian Church; but after the papal sway increased even to establishing dominion over all human souls, and exalted itself — as is said of the king of Babylon in Isaiah...
"How this was decreed in a certain council, has also been revealed to me. There appeared to me certain spirits in front to the left at the plane of the sole of the foot, at some distance from me, who were talking together, but about what I did not hear. It was told me that they were some of those who composed the council in which the decree was made regarding the Lord's two natures, the Divine and the human. Presently, I was permitted to converse with them. They said that those who had the greatest influence in the council, and who were superior to the rest in rank and authority, came together in a dark room and there concluded that both a Divine and a human nature should be attributed to the Lord; principally for the reason, that otherwise the papal sway could not be maintained. For if they had acknowledged the Lord to be one with the Father, as He Himself says, no one could have been recognized as His vicar on earth; and schisms were arising at that time, by which the papal power might have fallen and been dissipated, if they had not made this distinction. Then to give their decision strength, they sought out confirmations from the Word, and persuaded the rest.
"The spirits added that by this means they were able to rule in heaven and on earth, because they had it from the Word, that to the Lord was given all power in heaven and on earth; which power could not have been attributed to any vicar, if His Human also was acknowledged to be Divine; for they knew that no one was allowed to make himself equal to God, and that the Divine had that power of Itself, but not the Human, unless it was given to it, as it was afterward to Peter. They continued, that the schismatics of that day were men of acute discernment, whom in this way they were able to quiet, and by this means the papal power was also confirmed. From this statement it is evident that this distinction was invented only for the sake of dominion; and that for this reason they were not willing to know that the power given to the Lord's Human in heaven and on earth makes it manifest that it also is Divine. That Peter, to whom the Lord gave the keys of heaven, does not mean Peter, but the faith of charity, which, because it is from the Lord alone, is the power of the Lord alone, can be seen in the preface to the twenty-second chapter of Genesis." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4738)

So do we have to believe what was declared as true by men of the Dark Ages? No we do not, instead we can follow the truth of the Divine Human, and understand that this is the true meaning hidden behind the ritual of the Communion. It is the central truth of Christianity that has been lost in this modern age.

The Prophetic Time Periods of Daniel Revealed

The book of Daniel speaks of the end times of the church, and the Second Coming. Within the book of Daniel there are many prophecies that were fulfilled in the historical sense, including a 490 year prophecy that predicted the year in which Jesus came as the Messiah and was crucified (Dan. 9:24-27). In the latter prophecy it is quite clear that a "day" is used to signify a prophetic year. That a day signifies a year in prophecy is explicitly declared in scripture in Num. 14:34 and Ezek. 4:4-6.

There is another prophecy which speaks of the Second Coming, which will occur after a "time, times and half a time":

The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. (Dan. 7:23-27)

This prophecy is discussed in detail in The Prophecy of the Four Beasts and Little Horn of Daniel 7. In the literal sense the "fourth beast" refers to the Roman Empire, but in the spiritual sense it refers the final state of the Christian Church that had spread under the rule of the Roman Empire. Most interpreters agree that the "10 horns" in the literal sense refer to Europe, where Christianity had become the established religion. The prophecy of Daniel is speaking of the final end of the Christian church, where no truth remains within it.

That Christianity had become a superficial religion was revealed in visions to Emanuel Swedenborg. On the one hand we have the Catholic Church that used the religion to obtain religious authority and power, and its many traditions conflict with true Christianity. On the other hand you have the Protestant churches who in the positive sense read the Word as a source of authority. But their theology is corrupt as they make faith a matter of belief alone, without regard to how one lives their life. Both follow a trinity of three gods (but deny it in mouth) and believe in vicarious atonement, which is not true. Thus, there is no truth remaining in Christian churches that has not been corrupted by falsehoods. Moreover, they cannot rationally defend it. And this is death in the modern world of the post Enlightenment era.

Now, in the above prophecy of Daniel, it mentions the word "time." Swedenborg will simply say all time periods mentioned in the Bible are different states and will tend to not dwell on the literal sense. But there is an interesting literal meaning to the time period that corresponds to the time when Swedenborg received his heavenly revelations. The word "time" is Aramaic iddan which comes from Akkadian adannu which simply means a "fixed time period." However this can be extended to mean "year," and the same word is used to describe a period of 7 years for the insanity of Nebuchadnezzar (see Dan. 4:13, 4:20, 4:22, 4:29). For the historical evidence regarding the insanity of Nebuchadnezzar see The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar.

It is likely that a time is one year, times is two years, and half a time half a year, the same time period when Elijah did not allow it to rain (see Luke 4:25). This would be 42 months or 1260 days, as these time periods appear in the Apocalypse (Rev. 11:2, 11:3, 12:6, 13:5).

Using a day for a year principle, the prophecy of Daniel thus speaks of a period of 1260 years. This would be the time period when falsehood was dominant within the Christian church. The end was when no truth remained, which in effect was "the end of the world" or more accurately "the end of a world age."

The prophecy of Daniel speaks of a final judgment at the end of the time period, which in the literal sense is 1260 years. The revelations given to Swedenborg reveals that the final judgment takes place in the spiritual world, not the physical world. In his visions Swedenborg was shown that there is heaven, there is hell, and between heaven and hell there is a middle region where souls await judgment. Last judgments are when souls are judged in mass, where the good are separated from the evil. This allows heaven to flow into the minds of men, and a new revelation can be given to establish the church anew.

In one of Swedenborg's most important visions, he saw a last judgment take place in the spiritual world in the year 1757. This is described in detail in his work, The Final Judgment:


That Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled in the last judgment seen by Swedenborg in his visions can be seen in the following prophecy of Daniel:

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. ​And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." (Dan. 7:13-14)

Swedenborg was shown that the clouds of heaven do not literally refer to clouds, but clouds in the spiritual sense refer to the literal sense of the Word. The "Son of Man" was a title that the Lord chose to refer to Himself as the Divine Truth. The prophecy is thus a revelation of Divine Truth in the literal sense of the Word. It is proof that the Bible is Divinely Inspired. This was revealed in multiple visions which is covered in multiple volumes, especially Heavenly Arcana, otherwise known as Arcana Coelestia or Heavenly Secrets. It is a massive read. These and other works of his are collected in an anthology entitled The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition. It is all freely available online, one can search everything at Heavenly Doctrines.

That the Second Coming is a spiritual event, a spiritual revelation from heaven, is shown in the blog post Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?

So the obvious conclusion is that the period of 1260 years lasts from 497 A.D. to 1757 A.D. So what happened in 497 A.D.?  By that time, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed became firmly established in the west, even declaring in the creed itself that although there are three persons one should not verbally say "three gods" but "one God" even though the religion became one of tritheism in the mind. Since this could not be rationally defended, rational thought is then suspended. Europe then fell into the Dark Ages. With the year 1757 we have the Age of Enlightenment, in which rationality became primary over traditions and rule of authority.

More specifically, the year 497 A.D. fell within the period of time known as the Acacian Schism. To sum up a lot of theological gibberish: the west declared the original Christians of the east heretics because they believed Jesus Christ had one Divine nature. The western Popes declared he had a dual nature of Divine plus human, so that they could stand in his place and declare themselves as the Vicar of Christ. This, in Biblical prophecy, is known as the "abomination of desolation" standing in the "holy place." Don't look for a future Jewish temple, the falsehood and error resides within the traditional theology of Christian churches that many think is the foundation of truth.

So, the 1260 years is from 497 to 1757 A.D. And this leads us to another interesting set of time periods from Daniel in the following prophecy:

And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. (Dan. 12:11-12)

Using the day for year principal, we have the following literal fulfillment of the prophecy:

• 1260 years = 497 - 1757 A.D.
• 1290 years = 497 - 1787 A.D.
• 1335 years = 497 - 1832 A.D.

So what happened in 1787 A.D.?  The first New Church based on the theology of the revelations given to Swedenborg was established in England.

And what about 1832 A.D.?  This was the year that the New-England Anti-Slavery Society was established. Many Swedenborgians became involved in the Abolitionist movement, which resulted in the end of slavery in the United States after a huge Civil War. In the revelations given to Swedenborg, in the future the New Church will grow out of Africa and among the African peoples.

In a spiritual sense, one can make an argument that the three time periods fulfilled in the literal historical sense correspond to the feast days of Passover (liberation of souls from Limbo in the spiritual world), Pentecost (establishment of the Church) and finally the Feast of Tabernacles (when good is finally established - in this case - social activism, applying truth to one's life).

The prophecy is thus fulfilled, the Second Coming is here. Hopefully more will begin to notice and be brought into the light of the new revelation that restores true Christianity.

The Symbolism of the Psalms and a Review of the Psalms by Robert Alter

I recently purchased the book The Hebrew Bible by Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew at U.C. Berkeley. I compared Alter's translation of the Psalms with my own translation of the Psalms, which are published in a three volume work with a full commentary from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. I surprisingly found that while Alter has some rather good insights into the Hebrew language he makes some very basic fundamental mistakes, and many are quite unforgivable. Even in terms of dividing the verse into their proper poetic lines he makes mistakes. For my own work I had consulted the massive three volume work Cantos and Strophes in Biblical Hebrew Poetry by Pieter Van der Lugt. That latter work costs $1000 in itself, however the best of the research is embedded in the work of my translation, where one can see not only the poetic structure of each line but also the large stanzas in each Psalm.

Below are embedded links to my three volume work, where one can preview them in this blog. I compared Alter's translation with volumes 2 and 3 with Robert Alter and made some minor updates, which is now available on Amazon. Below the links I will leave readers with some initial findings after I looked over Alter's translation of Psalms 42-150.

AN INITIAL REVIEW OF ALTER'S TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS

For Alter's translation I focused on Psalms 42-150, which are the Psalms of volumes 2 and 3. First thing that became obvious: the second verse of Psalm 42 is divided into two bicolons (it is actually one bicolon). Alter is perhaps paying attention to the number of syllables in the original Hebrew, or perhaps wants to make it look good in English, but the odd thing about poetry in Hebrew is that each poetic line is not determined by syllable or word count. It is determined by parallelism: a poetic line will contain a parallel thought to the parallel line. Swedenborg discusses at length the spiritual reason behind this: one line will focus on love and the parallel line will focus on truth. Together they form a unified whole, as love and truth correspond to the will and thought of the mind.

In verse 4 of Psalm 42, we see a basic mistake: Alter mistranslates the word "soul" as "heart" - even though Hebrew has a different word for "heart." And this is an explicit decision Alter has made: throughout the entire Bible he has mistranslated the word for "soul" so that it no longer exists, perhaps due to a personal bias. Instead he has replaced with other words such as "being" or sometimes "life." He does make a good case where in certain contexts the word for "soul" has the meaning of "neck." Even so, it is a connotation that should be relegated to a footnote. The Hebrew language does have another word for neck, and if scripture uses the word "soul" there is a reason for it.

This translation choice by Alter has bad consequences. For example, Ps. 66:9 should literally be translated something like this:

Who puts our soul in life

But wait, Alter sometimes uses the word "life" for "soul." So what does he do? He completely omits the word soul:

Who has kept us in life

This was a intentional choice by Alter. In Hebrew the soul is represented by breath and the afterlife is represented by a grave (Heb. sheol), so some Jews believed there was no afterlife, thus there is no soul apart from the physical body. So perhaps he is reflecting that kind of Jewish thought. This way of thinking pervades the modern scientific world and has invaded even the churches, and this was the purpose of the revelations given to Swedenborg: to let people know that indeed there is a life after death, that our souls are eternal.

So, lets move on. There are some basic editorial mistakes where Alter could have used a second pair of eyes. For example, Psalm 53 is a near duplicate of Psalm 14, except that the name Jehovah has been replaced by the word "God" (Heb. Elohim). But in Ps. 53:2 Alter still retained the name Jehovah when in fact it should be God. In Psalm 57, lines in verses 3 and 4 are omitted. There is another online review which also found that Alter had skipped a verse.

Now, beyond that, I can continue with some other mistranslations, but the real advantage of Alter's translation is that the original Hebrew word order shines through. So I found it useful to compare with my own translation. In most cases it leads to an awkward sentence in English so those cases I ignored - I would still prefer good English in the final translation (if its awkward people wont read it). In other cases, the word order is important as it determines what goes in the first and second parallel lines in a verse, so in two or three cases I took note and made a correction to the word order.

There is one interesting case where Alter's knowledge of Hebrew led him to amend the text. The first half of Ps. 55:19 should read something like this:

God shall hear and afflict them,
Even He who dwells of old.

Alter makes a slight emendation to the original text and does this:

Ishmael and Jalam and the dweller in the east,

Which is completely different. The NET Bible is notoriously bad at this: it almost prefers translations that make clever emendations to the original text.

Now, despite the negative feedback here I would like to point out some gems where Alter's knowledge of Hebrew shines through in the text. These are cases of poetic ellipsis, where the original Hebrew implies a word that is not present in the text and are thus easy to miss. One is in Ps. 60:3, which is typically translated like this:

You have made Your people to see hard things,
You have made us drink the wine of reeling.

The Hebrew word for "hard" (Heb. qasheh) is similar to a word for "cup" (Heb. qasah). There is a hidden word in the first line, omitted through poetic ellipsis:

You have made Your people to see a hard cup,
You have made us drink the wine of reeling.

The word is omitted in the original text, but it is implied. Poetic ellipsis is used here because it talks of something God gives but we do not want to ever see: hard punishment for sin. This is a poetic method in the original Hebrew and it took me a while to notice it. I used it for Ps. 20:7, which literally reads like this:

Some in the chariot and some in horses

There is literally a missing verb. Most Bibles supply the word "trust." But the missing word can be restored by poetic ellipsis, where the word is similar to the previous word:

Some swear in the chariot and some swear in horses

This references to the enemies of Israel taking an oath of alliance, to supply horses or chariots in battle. It is viewed as a false oath, an oath against Jehovah, thus it is omitted by poetic ellipsis for stronger effect - words have power, by omitting it that would give the power of breaking the alliance. This is the translation used in volume 1, it is fully documented in another work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms.

There is one other clever use of poetic ellipsis in Ps. 110:6 which literally reads like this:

He shall fill with dead bodies

From poetic ellipsis, we can find the missing word:

He shall fill valleys with dead bodies

The word "valleys" is hidden by poetic ellipsis. Why? For a better effect: once one has filled a valley with dead bodies the valley will disappear.

Now, most corrections from Alter were minor, such as an additional pronoun such as "I" or "as for me" or "You" that was missed. But the most beautiful correction was in Ps. 78:39. I originally had this:

And He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes away and returns not.

From Alter, I changed it to this:

And He remembered that they were but flesh,
A spirit that passes away and returns not.

The Hebrew word can be translated as both "wind" or "spirit." Both are correct, but spirit is a better parallel word to the word flesh. It also speaks to our temporary nature here on earth, how we depend on our eternity from the Lord alone.