Why Muslims and Jews falsely reject Christianity, and the Divine Human

I was told by a Jewish person that he enjoyed the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, but he could not accept Jesus as Divine and had a problem with that.  This is also a problem for many Muslims who regard Jesus as just a prophet; moreover it is a problem for Christians in Muslim countries as it is viewed to worship something created as blasphemous against the Creator. So what is the answer?  It is quite a logical argument, something for which few Christians give a proper answer. So here is the summary of the problem I gave to the Jewish person:

SUMMARY PROBLEM AND ANSWER

Most Jews and Muslims have 2 problems with declaring Jesus as Divine:

1. Worshiping something created as Creator, and,
2. Multiple personal beings in the Godhood.

If you look deeply into what was revealed to Swedenborg, he was told this:

1. The human personality is composed of multiple levels, to simplify, the internal soul and the external body. Jesus' external human form was indeed something created. But his internal form is Jehovah Himself. What happened is that Jesus successfully put off this external human form from the mother, until it was transformed into a Divine Human. This is why, in the Gospels, Jesus kept his identity secret until He rose from the dead.
2. In New Church theology, Jehovah was born into a lower human state and had to progress back to a state of union with the Divine, as all humans must progress towards God by resisting sin and doing His will. What happened is that by becoming incarnate, Jehovah could do battle against all of hell by resisting sin and temptation through the human form that was inherited from Mary. This could not be done unless as a human He was born into a finite limited state of being. Jesus's prayers indicate the Divine can lower itself into a lower state of being, but it is a false appearance to regard Him as someone as distinct from the Divine.

So given that, the definition of a trinity of three persons is a definite falsehood. Many Muslims who see this teaching thus become attracted to the New Church, as the New Church also accepts that some sort of revelation was given to Muhammed.

As for Judaism, many of the rituals will not be understood until one understands the hidden spiritual sense, but much of it will remain hidden until one understands the doctrine of the Divine Human.

Before the incarnation, Jehovah could not reveal Himself except through an angelic being. What Swedenborg described was that angels would be invested with an influx from the Divine and speak as if they were Jehovah Himself. But as mankind become more sinful, this connection with the angelic realm became cut off. The only way to restore it was for Jehovah to become incarnate in human form.

Another point: the Divine, as an abstract concept, cannot be held in the thought without an external form. In New Church theology, the Divine itself is unreachable by human understanding, but is reachable in its external form, which is the Divine Human. The invisible Divine and the visible Divine is known as the Father and the Son. It is a mistake to assign separate distinct personal identities to different titles of the Divine.

SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS

Here is where the Christian revelations of the New Church can give answers to those who have real rational and intelligent doubts about Jesus Christ, whereas older Christian churches cannot give a rational answer. And since they have no answer, they avoid the topic altogether. This is because in most older Christian churches, people are just taught to believe on the basis of authority. The other issue is there are hidden falsehoods in the theology of the older Christian churches. So Muslims and Jews actually have point.  These falsehoods in doctrine prevent Christians in general from providing a rational argument for their faith, to wit:

1. There is no such thing as a trinity of three persons. In the New Church, this a complete non issue. There is one Divine being, One Personal Being who is Being itself. The True Trinity is that of the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine operation or Divine proceeding of God's spirit.
2. The theology of vicarious atonement was adopted in the Catholic Church in the 11th century, and from there the Protestants inherited it. This is not the true method of salvation. Jesus saved humanity by fighting against the power of hell in His Human, and when he overcame hell He made His human Divine. From this, His spirit can now flow into us to resist sin and temptation, and live a spiritual life. A spiritual moral life, not a religious sort of apathy of belief only. Protestant churches in this regard fail in this regard as they have made religion of belief only, which is in fact not taught by the Bible.
3. The Catholic Church further corrupts Christianity by encouraging prayer towards Mary, and an undue focus on the holiness of saints. In true Christianity, the focus is on Jesus, on the one God who alone is Holy. The more one worships the self or one's ego, the more one withdraws from God.

HOW JESUS GRADUALLY MADE HIS HUMAN DIVINE

So, there are several falsehoods that have grown within the Christian church that originated from the thoughts of man and not from Divine revelation, which have corrupted the Christian church. When these falsehoods are removed, a lot of the disagreements that Muslims and Jews have with Christianity in general sort of go away. The true reality of the situation is that as it is now, no traditional religion is completely true, nor is it completely false. But it is hard for those who grew up in a religion to see their own bias and the hidden falsehood of their religion.

I have not, however, been able to find a falsehood in the Divine teachings as received in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Religious authorities have issues with Swedenborg because they are unable to let go of the falsehoods that they have received from their own tradition. And the problem here is ministers of a particular denomination do not exactly have freedom of thought or freedom of speech to publicly disagree.

So, for example, Catholics are taught that Mary was born perfect, and therefore Jesus was born perfect. Neither of these statements are actually true. Mary was a woman born in sin like us all, and Jehovah had to become incarnate from a human woman so that He could directly fight against the evil tendencies of that human form.  This is a concept most Christians are unfamiliar with, and thus they cannot give a rational explanation for Christianity. It is here that the Orthodox have a closer view of the truth, although they may not explicitly teach it well. 

As this is hidden from most Christians, I will here quote what was revealed to Swedenborg on the matter.

STATEMENTS ON THE HUMANITY OF JESUS AND HIS MOTHER MARY

"[the Lord] was born as another man and instructed as another man, but the interiors with Him were celestial, which adapted the vessels for the reception of knowledges, and so that the knowledges would afterwards become vessels to receive the Divine. The interiors with Him were Divine, from Jehovah His Father; the exteriors were human, from Mary His mother." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1460)

In the following passage, the "first rational" is one's rational mind which is in love of the self, the "second rational" is one that one receives from the Lord which desires love and truth:

"...it is to be known that though a man be regenerated, still each and every thing of the first rational remains with him, and is only separated from the second rational, and this in a most wonderful manner by the Lord. But the Lord wholly exterminated His first rational, so that nothing of it remained; for what is merely human cannot be together with the Divine. Hence He was no longer the son of Mary, but Jehovah as to each Essence." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2657.7)

"That He was born of the virgin Mary is known, yet as another man; but when He was born again, or became Divine, it was from Jehovah who was in Him, and Who was Himself as to the very Being of life. The unition of the Divine and the Human Essence was effected mutually and reciprocally, so that He united the Divine Essence to the Human and the Human to the Divine" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2798.2)

This is from a passage where it is explained that the Lord had to expel hereditary evil he inherited from Mary:

"...this was hereditary evil from the mother, against which the Lord combated... and from His expelling it, so that at length He was not the son of Mary" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4563.1)

"The Lord was indeed born as another man, and had an infirm human from the mother; but this human the Lord entirely cast out, so that He was no longer the son of Mary, and made the Human in Himself Divine, which is meant by His being glorified; and He also showed to Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured, that He was a Divine Man." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4692.5)

The following passage explains the difference between the regeneration of ordinary men and the glorification of the Lord's human:

"From this it may be evident that man is made altogether new when he is regenerated, for then all things and everything with him are so ordered as to receive heavenly loves. Nevertheless with man the prior forms are not destroyed, but only removed; but with the Lord the prior forms, which were from the maternal, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms received in their place. For the Divine love does not agree with any but a Divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord when glorified was no longer the son of Mary." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6872.4)

"It is to be known that with man who is being regenerated, purification from evils and their falsities goes on continually, for so far as man is purified from evils and falsities, so far are implanted the truths which are of faith, and these are conjoined to the good which is of charity, and so far man then acts from the good of charity. Purification from evils and falsities with man is not liberation from them, but is their removal (see n. 868, 887, 894, 929, 1581, 2269, 2406, 4564, 8206, 8393, 8988, 9014, 9333, 9446-9451, 9938). With the Lord however there was not removal, but casting out of those which He derived from the mother, thus full liberation from them, even so that He was no longer the son of Mary" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10057.6)

WHY A NEW REVELATION FOR CHRISTIANITY

This is why a new revelation for Christianity and Jesus Christ had to be made, for as it is now, there are so much falsehoods in the older traditional churches that many cannot make a rational argument to explain the truth of Christianity. So question what you have been taught, and as one removed the falsehoods from within, so many that are without will be willing to come closer to Jesus Christ, to live a spiritual life according to His commandments, where He dwells within each one of us through His spirit.

What did Jesus say about other Religions?

Lately, there has been a lot of intolerance expressed in the name of religion.  There are many, who grow up in a particular religion, and assume a prideful intolerance of others who are different.  Others will use people's ignorance to create a false fear of others. There are many, who assume that their religion is the one true religion, and if one does not believe the way they believe, you will be condemned to hell.  And unfortunately this turns a lot of people off to the truths contained in Divine revelations. The general public ends up avoiding religion altogether.

This is what happens when people focus on belief, and not on how one lives their life.

So what did Jesus say about other religions? Actually quite a bit, It so upset the religious leaders, it was the religious leaders who had Jesus killed.  Because if salvation is from how one lives their life, and not on head knowledge or belief, this lessens the strict exclusiveness of a religion. So lets take a look at what Jesus had to say on this matter.

RELIGION VERSUS HOW ONE LIVES ONE'S LIFE

Jesus, as it turns out, cares more about how you live your life over what you believe in terms of religion. This will come as a surprise to many, but it is true. It is more important how one lives one's life according to the Lord's will:

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matt. 5:23-24)

Jesus also makes it clear that he does not care for people who use religion to get attention from others:

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matt. 6:5-6)

And Jesus is quite against religious people who do not life a life of charity and love towards others:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matt. 7:21-23)

He then follows the above quote that He does not care for those who just believe, but rather those who hear what He says and actually does it (Matt. 7:24-27)

WHAT OF OTHER RELIGIONS?

Religious differences are not new, and there were different religions in the day of Jesus. Here is one episode that is only recorded in the gospel of Mark:

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name,  and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:38-40)

Which means, one should tolerate other religions that have similar beliefs.  Do not be focused on "who follows what" or if others do not recognize your belief as an authority. If the religion has a positive view of Jesus, all the better. For Jesus said He is the Truth, and if there is any truth in other religions, He is there present, but hidden.

Now, in Jesus' day there were multiple groups, but the Jews had a general dislike of another religious group known as the Samaritans. Not only did the Samaritans had different religious practices, but they only believed in the first five books of Moses.  All the other books they rejected. Sound familiar? Since they tended to hate each other, this is why Jesus selects a Samaritan in the parable of the good Samaritan:

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.And the next day he took out two denarii  and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30-37)

Again, this shows that Jesus cares more about how you live your life, not your religious beliefs.

WHAT OF THOSE WHO NEVER KNEW JESUS CHRIST

There are many Christians who do believe that if one is not a Christian, who do not know Jesus Christ, will be condemned. But this is really short sighted, and actually goes against what the Bible teaches. God is love, and all are judged according to their works (Matt. 16:27), not according to one's belief system. The New Testament makes clear that even those who did not know Jesus Christ had made it to heaven:

1. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are listed as among those in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11, Luke 13:28).
2. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are listed as currently alive in heaven (Matt. 22:32).
3. Abraham is shown to be in heaven (Luke 16:22-30)

The reason why Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are mentioned, is that in a higher sense these patriarchs refer to the three levels of heaven. Paul mentions the third heaven in one of his personal experiences (see 2 Cor. 12:2). So these patriarchs refer to those who were righteous.

So what about those who did not necessarily live such a good life, because they were unaware? This is actually mentioned in a parable in the gospel of Luke, where a master of a household entrusts his possessions to his servants, who then abuse the responsibility they have been given, beating other servants, and living a slothful life. Note the end, where punishment is different between those who know and those who do not know:

 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. (Luke 12:47-48)

In other words, religious knowledge and religious belief do not help if you choose to live an evil life. In fact, those who know and live an evil life will be judged more severely than those who lived an evil life and did not know.

Moreover, one other point here, after the crucifixion Jesus made a descent into the netherworld, and released souls from spiritual captivity:

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah (2 Pet. 3:18-20)

This goes a bit beyond the scope of this blog post, but this refers to an intermediate spiritual world between heaven and hell, where periodic judgments are made to separate the good from the evil. These are typically those who lived a good life but in external appearance only, or those who were good but followed some false ideas. The point is here, that even if one does not know the truth, they will have a chance to learn more in the other life. Lack of knowledge does not mean condemnation. However if one does evil intentionally, and enjoys it, that does mean condemnation.

SWEDENBORG'S VISIONS OF GENTILES IN HEAVEN

Swedenborg spent a full 27 years having waking visions of heaven and hell, and recording the spiritual sense of scripture. He confirmed that just because one was not born into Christianity and had no knowledge of Jesus Christ, it does not mean one is condemned. One is judged according to how one lived their life.  Here is the passage in particular, which may come as a surprise to many Christians, who would falsely reject it if they were not aware of scripture:

"It is a common opinion that those born out of the Church, who are called heathen or gentiles, cannot be saved, because they have not the Word and thus do not know the Lord, and without the Lord there is no salvation. But still it may be known that they also are saved, from this alone, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, that is, toward every one; that they are born men as well as those within the Church, who are respectively few; and that it is not their fault that they do not know the Lord. Every one who thinks from any enlightened reason, may see that no man is born for hell, for the Lord is love itself, and His love is to will to save all. Therefore He has provided that all may have religion, and by it acknowledgment of the Divine, and interior life; for to live according to one's religious belief is to live interiorly, as he then looks to the Divine; and as far as he looks to This, so far he does not look to the world, but removes himself from the world, thus from the life of the world, which is exterior life.
"That gentiles are saved as well as Christians, may be known by those who know what it is that makes heaven with man; for heaven is in man, and those who have heaven in themselves come into heaven. Heaven in man is to acknowledge the Divine and to be led by the Divine. The first and primary thing of every religion is to acknowledge the Divine. A religion which does not acknowledge the Divine, is not religion; and the precepts of every religion look to worship; thus they teach how the Divine is to be worshipped, so that the worship may be acceptable to Him; and when this is fixed in one's mind, thus as far as he wills it, or as far as he loves it, he is led by the Lord. It is known that gentiles live a moral life as well as Christians, and many of them a better life than Christians. Moral life is lived either for the sake of the Divine, or for the sake of men in the world; the moral life which is lived for the sake of the Divine is spiritual life. Moral life and spiritual life appear alike in outward form, but in inward form they are altogether different; the one saves man, the other does not save him. For he who lives a moral life for the sake of the Divine, is led by the Divine, but he who lives a moral life for the sake of men in the world, is led by himself." (Heaven and Hell, n. 318-319)

I emphasize the latter part, because one's actions are judged by one's purpose or intent.  Doing good for the sake of self, for selfish gain, is not good, that is just being done for self gain.  All is judged according to how one loved others, for in loving others one is loving God, for God is love.  Love is the answer to all things. Just as "all roads lead to Rome," so all truths lead to One God, who is love itself.

To make it clear, I am not saying that religion is completely irrelevant, but rather, truth becomes one's guide as to how one lives one's life. I would say the advantage that Christianity has is that it reveals God is a personal being, who became incarnate in human form, to show that He loves us. More accurately, God is Being, God is Man, we are His image. There is a closer and deeper connection, more so than thinking of God as something abstract. And when one understands He became incarnate to fight directly against the hells, so He can fight for you to overcome sin and temptation, and to live a better spiritual life.

The Symbolism of the Psalms: A Comprehensive Spiritual Commentary

I am very happy to announce the (final) publication of a massive spiritual commentary on the Psalms, entitled The Symbolism of the Psalms:

It is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and as paperback.  It is published by Apocryphile Press, here is a link to the publisher's web site: The Symbolism of the Psalms, Vol. 1: A Spiritual Commentary.  They publish a number of books on spiritual topics related to Christianity, and they have a free book available on their website.

So what is here is a massive amount of research, on everything (and more) that one would want to know on the spiritual symbolism of the Psalms.  To summarize:

• It is a complete commentary on each Psalm, which gathers and collates relevant passages from Emanuel Swedenborg on the spiritual sense of the Psalms. These are scattered across over 39 volumes (available here: The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition (Hyperlinked Works of Emanuel Swedenborg), so its now presented here for ease of study. If Swedenborg didn't quote the passage, a similar passage was included that had the same Hebrew word (e.g., the spiritual meaning of the word "happy").
• It is a new translation closer to the literal sense of the original Hebrew, but still in the same style as the KJV to retain familiarity with general readers. A long time ago someone had a clairvoyant dream about this work, you can read about it here (from 2014): A Clairvoyant Dream of a New Translation of the Psalms
• Each Psalm is restored to its original poetic structure. The verse structure is corrected to show the parallelism in Hebrew poetry, which was first noted by Emanuel Swedenborg in advance of Robert Lowth. However this goes beyond the parallelism in each verse, it shows the stanza and substanza structure for each Psalm.

Every reader will gain new insight into the interpretation of each of the Psalms. Every single Psalm has a mistranslation in it, and in many cases it affects the interpretation. For example, from Psalm 8, here is what we have in the King James Version:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. (Ps. 8:4-5) 

There is a mistranslation: angels, highlighted in bold. Here is the correct translation:

What is man, that You remember him? (4)
And the son of Man, that You visit him?
But You have made him a little lower than God, (5)
And have crowned him with glory and grandeur.

The word translated as "angels" is Elohim, which is "God" in most other instances in scripture. This is the only occasion where it is translated as "angels," because translators don't know what to make of it. When one understands the spiritual sense of Psalm 8, in the highest sense it is not speaking of man in general, but rather the Son of Man, the Messiah in human form, God in the flesh, who lowered himself in our human form. And once lowered, the human form was "crowned" - that is was made into a Divine Human, the God-Man, upon the resurrection.

The other point one can see here is that verses 4-5 of Psalm 8 is actually 4 lines in the Hebrew poetic structure. Lines 1 and 2 of verse 4 repeat each other, and lines 3 and 4 of verse 5 repeat each other. This is significant: this is known as parallelism, where one line will have reference to love and the other repeating line will have reference to truth. Different Hebrew words are used to reference our will and thought, which receive God's love and God's truth, two aspects of the Divine. Love and Truth are pervasive in the creation of the universe, and it is the hidden reason why there is female and male versions of the human form. Thus the secondary spiritual interpretation of Psalm 8 is it speaks of man in general who spiritually grow to receive a Divine influx of love and truth in how each person lives and thinks in their life. This is the hidden meaning of man being created in the "image of God."

Another point: verses 1-4 form one stanza of Psalm 8, and verses 5-8 form the second stanza. The first stanza speaks of the spiritual heavens, and the second stanza speaks of the "lowering" of the Divine into human form.

Volume 1 covers Psalms 1-41. Subsequent volumes (vols 2 and 3) will cover the rest of the Psalms - it is all ready, we just had to split it because this work is so massive.  Once this is done we will have a complete spiritual commentary of the Psalms, just as we do for Genesis and Exodus in the work, Heavenly Arcana (Hyperlinked Works of Emanuel Swedenborg).

Some of you blog readers have seen draft copies of earlier versions, and you are the lucky ones as those versions included footnotes on the translation, and research on the numerical analysis of the Psalms.  The book got so big, we had to take out those footnotes plus the research on the numerical symbolism of each Psalm. That I will have to publish separately in the future, so stay tuned.

A CLAIRVOYANT DREAM OF THE BOOK

As I was preparing the cover of the book, a person I know had a clairvoyant dream about preparing a book cover for a book project.  The cover was first painted blue, then red, then a bit of orange, and then she decided to put a big splash of yellow in the center (see the book cover above, which this person had not seen before). Moreover, she said this book project was divided into 5 sections. And the Psalms happens to have a five-fold division:

• Book 1 - Psalms 1-41 (this is covered by volume 1 of the spiritual commentary)
• Book 2 - Psalms 42-72
• Book 3 - Psalms 73-89
• Book 4 - Psalms 90-106
• Book 5 - Psalms 107-150

The odd feature about the dream is that she thought the yellow was a circle of fire, and on the front cover there was one dog and on the back cover there were two dogs. That has been the puzzling part of the dream, however it is perhaps related to the dog star Sirius (one can see one bright star in the upper right corner). And it just so happens, there are TWO dog constellations, Canis Major (Sirius) and Canis Minor (Procyon):

Which is interesting, as the star Sirius played a major role in the ancient religion of Egypt. Not only that, but the cycle of Sirius determined the time of the flooding of the Nile. And notice the woman in the book cover is standing in water. I also have a few books on ancient Egypt which mention how the arrangement of the Pyramids and the nile river was designed to "reflect" the above constellations, especially the belt of Orion (e.g., The Orion Mystery: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids, by Robert Bauval). And this person has no knowledge of this. This may be related to the symbolism of one of the Psalms discussed in this work, at least that is my speculation. If true it is interesting indeed.

The Psalms were meant to be sung to music, and music elevates the soul to higher states.  One can see this in the following song, Fear not this Night:


Here is an image of the back cover of the book:

If you have the book, please drop me a note or leave a comment and let me know what you think.  My hope here is that it will be a useful study tool in opening up the spiritual sense of the Psalms.