The Hidden Christian Truth of Islam and Muhammed

Was Muhammed a prophet?  Many Christian churches say no, and consider Islam as something evil. This is because most people believe the religion they were born in is the "absolute truth", and every other religion is a false heresy. The reality is that throughout history God's revelations concerning Himself have been progressive, where the complete truth was not revealed, and adaptive, where the truth is adapted to the culture receiving it. Rather than regard Islam as something evil, the New Church view of Islam regards it as a necessary good, but with caveats. In his writings Emanuel Swedenborg revealed that Islam arose due to Divine Providence as a means to wipe out idolatry, and returning people to a monotheistic concept of God. However the revelation was not intended to be complete, as it was adapted for eastern cultures where polygamy was an accepted practice. Thus Islam is not a complete and final revelation, but rather a lower revelation:

That it may be fully known that that religion was raised up from the Lord's Divine Providence, to destroy the idolatries of many nations, it shall be told in some order. ...For the extirpating these idolatries, it was brought about from the Lord's Divine Providence, that a new religion accommodated to the genius of the people of the East should auspiciously begin; in which there should be something from the Word of both Testaments, and which should teach that the Lord came into the world, and that He was a very great prophet, the wisest of all, the Son of God. This was done through Mohammed, from whom that religion was named. It is manifest from this that that religion was raised up, from the Lord's Divine Providence, and accommodated to the genius of the people of the East, as already said, to the end that it might blot out the idolatries of so many nations, and give them some knowledge of the Lord before they should come into the spiritual world, which they do after death. And this religion would not have been received by so many kingdoms, and had such power to extirpate idolatries, if it had not been conformed to the ideas of their thoughts, and especially if polygamy had not been permitted, because the Orientals without that permission would have burned for filthy adulteries more than Europeans, and would have perished (True Christian Religion, n. 833)

The principle division between Christianity and Islam concerns the Trinity:

Mohammedans are hostile to Christians chiefly on account of the belief in three Divine Persons, and the consequent worship of three Gods, so many Creators; and to the Roman Catholics, still further, on account of their kneeling before images. Therefore they call these latter idolaters, and the others fanatics, saying that they make a three-headed God, also that they say one and mutter three (True Christian Religion, n. 831).

Although Swedenborg does not discuss this at length, this was the other purpose of Islam: to fight against the idea that God is a trinity of three persons who are somehow one. In this matter, the New Church and Islam are in perfect agreement, for in the New Church the trinity of three persons is known to be a great falsehood that corrupted much of the Christian church. It began with the Nicene Creed of the fourth century A.D., which invented a "Son of God born from eternity," whereas in the original apostolic church the Son of God was simply Jesus born in time to the virgin Mary. Endless disputes then arose as to the nature of the human body of Jesus. This was then settled in the 5th century A.D. by the Council of Chalcedon, which divided Jesus into a human nature and a Divine nature.

The original Christians of the Middle East opposed the Council of Chalcedon to the last, and were labeled as heretics and given the name "Monophysite" as they held to the original doctrine where Jesus had one nature, the Divine. The Monophysites were then persecuted by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. At this exact moment in history Islam arises under Muhammed. In that time, any idea that popped up within the Christian Church which declared God to be one person in Jesus Christ would automatically be declared as a heresy. So the purpose of Islam is twofold: not only to wipe out idolatry, but to fight against the false idea of a trinity of three persons.

The revelation of Islam is a lower revelation, or an incomplete revelation, from the fact that Muslims are not allowed to know the true identity of Jesus Christ. In higher spirituality, polygamy is not allowed and one should only have a monogamous relationship. In the same manner, in ancient Judaism polygamy was allowed and thus they were not given higher spiritual truths. In Christianity only monogamy is allowed, for the marriage of one man with one woman symbolically represents the marriage between Jesus and his church. The other reason why Muslims are only allowed to know Jesus as just a prophet, is it makes Islam more effective in fighting against a trinity of three persons which is ingrained in the false theology of modern Christian Churches.

IS THE QURAN (OR KORAN) DIVINELY INSPIRED?

We now come to the question: was the Quran Divinely Inspired? When it comes to the Divine Inspiration of the Bible, the writings of Swedenborg are very clear on this point: certain books of the Bible are "Divinely Inspired" by virtue of a symbolic correspondence that is hidden behind its literal sense of scripture, and word by word Swedenborg provides the proof for this. Explicit doctrinal writings, with no symbolism, do not have this correspondence and are not Divinely Inspired. Writings that fall into this category are the epistles of Paul and the apostles, plus the majority of the latter section of the Jewish Old Testament. These writings are historical or doctrinal in nature. Nevertheless, Swedenborg says the epistles were "Divinely influenced" - that is, Divine Providence guided the apostles on what to write in matters of doctrine for the public. If anything, on reading the contents of the Quran, one's first impression is that the contents of the Quran was Divinely influenced to guide people in matters of doctrine.

Opposed to this view of the Quran are literary critics, who will be quick to point out that the original Arabic in the Quran contains many grammatical errors and disjointed sentences. If English translations appear poor, it is because the original Arabic is often written that way. The Quran does contain some obvious historical errors and anachronisms. As Muhammed was illiterate, it is easy to see how these errors could have crept in. From a New Church point of view, an error in the literal sense of a text does not automatically mean the text is not Divinely Inspired. A so-called "error" in the literal sense may actually have a spiritual meaning behind it.

When looking at Swedenborg's statements of the Quran, he never exactly answers the question if its Divinely Inspired or not, but just merely says that "Muhammed wrote the Quran" (technically, orally transmitted until standardized in written form 20 years after his death). The mere statement from Swedenborg that "Muhammed wrote the Quran" implies it is just a Divinely influenced writing similar to the writings of the apostle Paul, but not Divinely Inspired in the same manner as true scripture. So the issue would seem settled, except for one statement concerning Islam that Swedenborg was shown in his visions but he never published it. It is a curious statement, found in his work Last Judgment Posthumous, in which he discussed his encounters with Muslim societies in the spiritual world. Swedenborg wrote this:

It was told me that there is a book among the Mohammedans which is common in their hands, in which some pages were written by correspondences, like the Word with us; from which pages there is some light in the heavens (Last Judgment Posthumous, n. 99).

What in the world is this book? This is the only information we are given. The information is probably valid - see The Confirmed Clairvoyance of Emanuel Swedenborg. Could it be a portion of the Quran? To be "written by correspondences" means it was written in a symbolic fashion, where each word has hidden behind it a spiritual meaning. So it is not likely the Quran, and if it were, he would have been told that. More likely it is some other book - "common in their hands" - known to them, but having no idea about the true spiritual value of the writing. So what could this be referring to? Other than the Quran, here are some of the more popular Islamic writings in the Muslim world (by no means complete):

1. The Masnavi, by Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi). The Masnavi is a "a six-volume poem regarded by some Sufis as the Persian-language Quran. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest works of mystical poetry. It contains approximately 27000 lines of Persian poetry." In recent times Rumi has become popular in the west.
2. The Conference of the Birds, by Farid ud-Din Attar, the mentor of Rumi. It is "is a tale of a journey of a group of thirty birds to the summit of the world mountain, Qaf. An allegory of the Sufi journey to realization of the nature of God, each bird has a particular signficance, a special fault, and a tale to tell."
3. The poems of Hafez, a Persian poet. "His collected works composed of series of Persian literature are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author."

Rumi's works are extensive, but Attar's poem is highly symbolic representing the union of the human with the Divine. The poems of Hafez are not only kept as a book in Iran, but they are also used in Iran in a form of divination known as "Bibliomancy" - a random page will be opened and it will be considered that passage relays some point regarding the future. Some of this poetry is similar to the Song of Solomon.

So which work does Swedenborg possibly refer to as containing some Divine inspiration in it? In the tradition of Sufi mysticism, I am not going to tell you. If you have a guess or suggestion drop me a comment.

STATEMENTS ON THE BIBLE BY THE QURAN

One problem in any dialogue with Muslims, is that they are taught from childhood that the Bible has been corrupted over time. This is repeated over and over to them so that they do not read it, and even if they do, they regard it with skepticism. Not only is this teaching false and not supported by Biblical manuscript evidence, but this teaching goes against the very Quran itself. For example, oddly enough, the Quran states that the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, but perhaps referring to the Old Testament in general) and the Gospels are Divinely Inspired:

It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book, confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the criterion (of judgment between right and wrong). (Sura 3:1-3)
And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (Sura 5:46)
If only they had stood fast by the Law, the gospel, and all the revelation that was sent to them from their Lord, they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There is from among them a party on the right course: but many of them follow a course that is evil. (Sura 5:66)
Say: "O People of the Book! ye have no ground to stand upon unless ye stand fast by the Law, the gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord." It is the revelation that cometh to thee from thy Lord, that increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. (Sura 5:68)

The above quotes are from Yusef Ali. There is another modern translation by Abad, who adds to the above verses "what remains" of the law and gospel. The words "what remains" are added because these statements are a bit problematic to the teaching that the Bible was corrupted. The Quran speaks of corruption of the former revelation, but this does not mean the manuscripts themselves were not preserved. The manner in which scripture is distorted is through the teachings of the Jews and the Catholic Church, where certain passages of scripture are just simply ignored or distorted. But that the Bible itself was preserved and not corrupted is explicitly stated by the Quran itself:

Say: "Shall I seek for judge other than Allah. - when He it is Who hath sent unto you the Book, explained in detail." They know full well, to whom We have given the Book, that it hath been sent down from thy Lord in truth. Never be then of those who doubt. The word of thy Lord doth find its fulfilment in truth and in justice: None can change His words: for He is the one who heareth and knoweth all (Sura 6:114-115).
And recite (and teach) what has been revealed to thee of the Book of thy Lord: none can change His words, and none wilt thou find as a refuge other than Him. (Sura 18:27).

There is no doubt in the New Church, and among Muslims, that the former Christian revelation was distorted. But unlike Islam, in the visions of Swedenborg he was shown that the Bible was preserved and the scripture remains intact, and has not been distorted in the text which is what most Muslims have been taught. Another interesting comparison between the New Church and Islam is that of the New Testament, the Quran only mentions the Gospels. This is quite significant, for it was shown in the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg that among the books of the New Testament, only the four Gospels and the book of Revelation are Divinely Inspired. The writings of Paul were added later, slightly changing the original gospel of Jesus in that Paul emphasizes faith over that of works, which ultimately got further distorted by Protestant theology. So in this sense, the other statements of the Quran which talk about the distortion of scripture are stating the truth.

STATEMENTS ON THE TRINITY BY THE QURAN

The statements by the Quran against the doctrine of a trinity of three persons held by modern Christian churches are correct and true, and this is one of the main reasons why Islam was brought about. The falsification and corruption of Christianity begins with the formulation of the Nicene Creed, which declared that the "Son of God" was "born from eternity" - which is utterly false. The Son of God is Jesus, born in time to the virgin Mary. This is what the original apostolic Church taught, and it is what is taught in the New Church and perhaps Pentecostal Churches as well. In Islam, the trinity of three persons is regarded as blasphemy:

They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them (Sura 5:73).

In the Bible in the book of Daniel and Revelation, there are prophecies which speak of a "false prophet" that arises and "utters blasphemy" against the Most High. Both speak of the "abomination of desolation." This has puzzled many Christian Churches, some falsely assuming this speaks of the desecration of a future Jewish temple. If one examines the time periods of Biblical prophecy, the abomination of desolation speaks of the desolation of truth in the Christian Church, which begins when the church made a trinity of three persons "orthodox" and any varying opinion as "heresy."

In the New Church, based on revelations received by Emanuel Swedenborg, the Trinity is not that of three persons or beings, but rather the unknowable Divine itself, the Divine in the human, and the Divine proceeding or the Holy Spirit. This emanation of the Divine became manifest in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, for in each human being there is a trinity of soul, body and spirit which makes one person. And surprisingly, this view of the trinity is supported by the Quran, although unknown to most Muslims:

O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles. Say not "trinity" : desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah. Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. (Sura 4:171)

Note the statement well: Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (1) an apostle of Allah, and (2) His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and (3) a spirit proceeding from Him. The phrase "no more than" is added by the translator. You have a hidden trinity within the person of Jesus Christ, which is exactly what was revealed in visions to Emanuel Swedenborg! For the Father - whom Muslims call Allah - resided in Jesus as the soul does the body. In the Christian revelation, Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. And after he was glorified and rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit proceeding from his body became available to all men.

STATEMENTS CONCERNING JESUS BY THE QURAN

Most Muslims regard Jesus as just a prophet. That he was a prophet is true, but not the complete truth. Even in his day Jesus was regarded as just a prophet, for he kept his identity secret. But there are some interesting statements regarding Jesus in the Quran. In this first statement, the word "raise" can mean raised to heaven, or in fact raised from the dead:

Behold! Allah said: "O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself and clear thee (of the falsehoods) of those who blaspheme; I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith, to the Day of Resurrection: Then shall ye all return unto me, and I will judge between you of the matters wherein ye dispute. (Sura 3:55)

In the Gospels, Jesus was crucified for blasphemy, for he made himself equal with God. So how could Jesus be cleared of blasphemy? If what he was saying was true. If Jesus rose from the dead, then the other statement of the Quran that says he was not killed by crucifixion is essentially true - he died, but rose from the dead. And now we have this odd statement:

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). (Sura 9:31)

Note, the words "they take as their Lord" is added by the translator. This verse essentially says:

in derogation of Allah and Christ the son of Mary

In this statement, the Quran has no problem with worshiping Jesus Christ as Lord. This is from Yusef Ali, here is another translation by Pickthal:

They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no god save Him. Be He glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)! (Sura 9:31)

The debate on this one will probably never be settled, considering the odd grammar in the original Arabic of the Quran. Is it possible there is a hidden truth of Christianity in the very Quran itself? Notice this statement, which compares Jesus to the first man Adam:

The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: "Be". And he was. (Sura 3:59)

Even the apostle Paul compares Jesus Christ to Adam:

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Cor. 15:45)

So what is the point here? Those who know the Quran know my point. In the second Sura of the Quran, Allah commands all angels to bow down and worship Adam:

And behold, We said to the angels: "Bow down to Adam" and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. (Sura 2:34)

Iblis here is Satan who refuses to bow down and worship Adam. Commanding angels to bow down before a created human being in the Quran? That is certainly contrary to its principles of worshiping any human being. The Quran commands that one should bow down before God only:

Those who are near to thy Lord, disdain not to do Him worship: They celebrate His praises, and bow down before Him. (Sura 7:206)

But what if this story concerning Adam in the Quran a symbolic parable? A parable that one should bow down before the new Adam, Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the Divine itself? For in the revelations given to Emanuel Swedenborg, he was shown that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he had eliminated the human created element he had inherited from Mary, and had been glorified in a Divine human body. So in essence, by worshiping Jesus Christ, whose body was made Divine in the resurrection, Christians do not worship something created, but the Creator, who has chosen to reveal Himself in human form. It explains why Jesus did not reveal his identity until then: up until that time they knew him as a prophet, who had been executed for committing blasphemy. But after that Jesus then said "all power on heaven and earth has been given to me." Not as another person, but now his human form had become united to his Divine. Thus the Quran confirms, in the form of a parable, the following statement of Paul:

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)

The Spiritual Symbolism of the 10 Commandments

...the angels have lamented before the Lord that when they look into the world they see nothing but darkness, and among men no knowledge of God, of heaven, and of the creation of nature, on which their angelic wisdom may rest. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 284)

So Swedenborg wrote in his work Divine Love and Wisdom, indicating a general lack of knowledge of spiritual matters in a materialistic world. The purpose of the work Divine Love and Wisdom is to described the true nature of God Himself. God is not only love and truth itself, but as He is love and truth, He is a personal supreme being. Swedenborg goes on to describe how the spiritual world is outside of time and space, and yet flows into natural forms in all their aspects. The objective of creation is to return back to the Creator from which it came. To do this, we have to subdue the desires of our selfish ego. Once the ego is subdued, and we start looking outside of our self towards others, God's spirit can flow into us. As spiritual beings, we become moral beings.  As these spiritual and moral laws are described in the 10 commandments, I thought I would discuss some of the symbolism contained within them. Most probably think these are just simple moral rules - which they are - but contained within them is a deeper spiritual symbolism.

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

If we examine the 10 commandments, the first are summed up as love towards God, and the latter are summed up as love towards the neighbor. And it was on these two commandments that Jesus said hang all the law and the prophets. The 10 commandments are as follows:

1. You shall have no other gods before Jehovah.
2. You shall not make any idols.
3. You shall not take God's name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not lie.
10. You shall not covet.

Catholic and Lutheran churches do not enumerate the 10 commandments properly: they consolidate commandments #1 and #2 into one, and artificially split the command not to covet into two separate commandments, and unfortunately Swedenborg followed this tradition. Once enumerated properly, one can discover that there is a correspondence between the first and second tablet, where we discover that in the highest spiritual sense, God is our neighbor, we love Him by loving others (see Matt. 25):

Love towards God	Love towards Neighbor
1. No gods before Jehovah	5. Honor father and mother 6. Do not murder
2. No idols	7. Do not commit adultery 8. Do not steal
3. Do not take God's name in vain	9. Do not lie
4. Remember the Sabbath	10. Do not covet

Also see some old blog posts on this subject: if one counts the Hebrew letters, this is the most likely division between the two tablets. Also, the 10 commandments in themselves may explain the origin of the Hebrew alphabet.  See The Divine Symbolism of the Hebrew Alphabet and The Divine Symbolism of the Hebrew Alphabet (part 2).

1. ONE GOD <---> 5. HONORING FATHER AND MOTHER

In a spiritual sense God Himself is our Father, is shown in the Lord's prayer, how we are to pray to Him calling him our Father. It is through obedience to Him that we become children of God, rather than mere natural children to our parents. That the spiritual meaning of honoring the father and mother means to honor God and the church, is shown by the promise in the commandment:

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you. (Ex. 20:12)

In the literal sense, the commandment states if one honors their parents they will live long in the land of Canaan. But in the spiritual sense, it means if we honor God and his church, we will have eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, which is symbolized by the land of Canaan. That this commandment corresponds to worshiping one God, is shown by the first commandment:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. (Ex. 20:2-3)

Egypt here, in the spiritual sense, represents slavery to sin. The Israelites were brought out of Egypt into the land of Canaan - this shows that commandment #5 corresponds to the first commandment.

1. ONE GOD <---> 6. DO NOT MURDER

The correspondence between the first commandment and commandment #6, do not murder, is easy to see, when we know that God is the origin of all life, and is life itself. That God is life, and life forms are mere recipients of that life, is shown in the following passages:

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

And note that Jesus said he is not a recipient of life, as other life forms, but is the originator of all life:

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26)

2. NO IDOLS <----> 7. DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

In scripture idolatrous worship is referred to as acting like a harlot or behaving as an adulterer towards God:

"Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the LORD." (Hos. 1:2)

In the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as the groom and the church is the bride. Thus to depart from worshiping Jesus, to turn away towards a false god, is adultery.

2. NO IDOLS <----> 8. DO NOT STEAL

In the spiritual sense, to steal means to steal what belongs to God and treat it as belonging to one's self.  Thus, those who teach a false religion and lead others astray are stealing from God. Those who place any Divinity in themselves are also stealing from God. And those who are self-righteous, and regard any good that they do as originating from their self, also steal from God. We should act from our self, but acknowledge that all love and truth originate from God. We are mere recipients and vessels of what we receive from the Divine.

3. DO NOT TAKE GOD'S NAME IN VAIN <---> 9. DO NOT LIE

To not take God's name in vain in general means not to profane what is holy.  It also means to first belong to the church, acknowledging the truth, and then to turn back and deny it. This is taking God's name in vain, and the act of departure or denial after first acknowledging the spiritual matters of faith is one of the worst things one can do. Thus the correspondence between the third commandment, and the ninth is obvious, for the ninth commandment tells us not to lie or bear false witness. In the spiritual sense, the ninth commandment means we should be true witnesses to our faith by acknowledging it in our life. To say one thing, and do another, is bearing false witness.

4. REMEMBER THE SABBATH <----> 10. DO NOT COVET

The parallel between the fourth commandment, remembering the Sabbath, and the tenth, do not covet, is not obvious and requires a bit of explanation.

The command of not to covet is usually taken as meaning as to not be greedy, or desire what other's have. In a more spiritual sense, it covers all the commandments, and teaches that not only should we not disobey the commandments, but should not desire to disobey them. Thus one who hates another is guilty of killing that person. One who desires another person's wife has committed adultery with her in his heart. If you withhold something that would be of use to others, or help them in some way, you have stolen from them. So in a general spiritual sense, do not covet means we should put our internal desires under submission. Every act will first begin with the thought to do it.

In the spiritual sense, the day of the Sabbath represents a state of spiritual rest, which is preceded by six days of work which represents a state of combat against temptation to do sin. This is discussed in extensive detail by Emanuel Swedenborg in his work, Heavenly Arcana, and I have discussed some other symbolism in the seven days of creation in previous blog posts under the label "Universal Order of Design" which one can see in the left column of this blog. The Sabbath represents a spiritual state where one is led by the Lord in everything, rather than by the self. This interpretation is not so apparent in the literal sense of the Bible, but notice how the spiritual interpretation of the Sabbath as revealed to Swedenborg corresponds perfectly with the tenth commandment, which teaches us that we should subdue our selfish desires.

THE TRINITY AS FOUND IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Most Christian churches have been corrupted by a false definition dividing God into three persons, a definition that is explicitly forbidden and not supported by scripture.  It is a false conclusion that Christian theologians attempt to support by the vision of John the Baptist at the time of the baptism of Jesus, and they will also always point to the fact that Jesus prayed to the Father as to another person. But the hidden reason for that is Jehovah had descended into a human vessel that had inherited sinful tendencies from the human mother Mary, and in such a state had entered a state of being where He could be tempted as any other human. Such a state of temptation could not be possible unless he had entered a state of being where he appeared as separate from the Divine itself. He had to grow towards union with the Divine as any other human would, except with the Lord, he achieved a perfect union with the Divine. In the New Church, the Trinity is defined as an emanation of the Divine: the Divine itself, the Divine in the human, and the proceeding Divine in the form of the Holy Spirit. Or to say it in a different way, the Trinity is the soul, body and spirit of Jesus Christ.

Those who search for a Trinity of three persons in scripture will not find that definition anywhere. But, for those who have thought on the ten commandments, one can find a definition of the Trinity in the first three commandments. Here are the first three commandments again:

1. I am Jehovah your God...you shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not worship idols.
3. You shall not take the name of God in vain.

Note from above, that the first commandment corresponds to the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother. The first commandment, beginning with "I am Jehovah" is a reference to the Divine itself, the invisible Divine that no one has seen, which is known in the New Testament as the Father. The Father is not a separate person from the Son, but rather is the Divine itself which resides as the soul of the body of Jesus. Thus in the gospel of John Jesus told Philip that the Father resides inside of him, and he should not view the Father as a separate being or person. As the first commandment is in reference to the Father, the second commandment is in reference to the Son. How so?  Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God:

...Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15)
...who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3)

He is the image of the invisible God, as Jehovah resided in Jesus as the soul resides in the body. Thus Jesus calls his body a temple. What about the third commandment, how is that related to the Holy Spirit?  To not take God's name in vain means not to blaspheme or profane that which is holy.  Compare it with this statement concerning the Holy Spirit:

"Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matt. 12:31-32)

So what does this passage mean, why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? It is when one turns against the spiritual truth after having first acknowledged it. Not only does Swedenborg explains this, but also relates it to the third commandment:

By these words is described the profanation of truth from the Lord ...These are the things which are signified by taking the name of God in vain. That such a state with man cannot be cured, thus cannot be remitted, is signified also by the words which immediately follow, namely, Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain, by which is meant that it cannot be remitted. ...By taking the name of God in vain is also signified blaspheming, which is done when those things which are of the Word or of the doctrine of faith, thus which are holy, are regarded with derision and are brought down to what is unclean and earthly, and thus defiled  (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8882).

Thus the third commandment corresponds to the Holy Spirit. The 10 commandments generally describe what not to do first, rather than what to do, for the first step in spiritual development is to remove what is evil and what is false.  Inasmuch what is evil and false is removed, one prepares oneself to receive the Divine from within.

Future Prophecies concerning Russia and Turkey

Due to recent events concerning Russia, there is now increased interest in prophecies concerning a future war with Russia.  These come from reliable sources who have already demonstrated their ability to predict future events.  For a summary, see A Prophecy of World War III by Stormberger and Prophecies of a Future War with Russia by Anton Johansson. Anton Johansson had encounters with Jesus Christ, and among other prophecies predicted the sinking of the Titanic, the outbreak of World War I, and the North Sea Flood of 1953. Anton Johansson was a devout Christian, and would often pray for fisherman who were about to be lost at sea and would pray for their soul. Like Emanuel Swedenborg he comes from Sweden. In the future, he saw there would be a great departure from Christianity, with no one spending time in prayer.  And this we see now.  Anton Johansson and others were under the impression that all his prophecies would have be fulfilled in 1953, so when no war broke out in 1953, many lost interest. It is perhaps through prayer and repentance that these events have been mitigated or delayed. But in fact, he did successfully predict this storm of 1953, and since most have no idea about this storm, here is an old newsreel of the event:



More severe disasters - massive powerful hurricanes - he foresaw for America. The hurricane of 2013 is just but a small foretaste. One other interesting vision that I just discovered is that he foresaw the eruption of Mount Pelee on Martinique in 1902, which the author J.W. Dunne also foresaw in his dream (J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, had a personal copy of Dunne's book - see The Hidden Prophecy of the Lord of the Rings (part 2)). In 1907 Johansson was shown a great vision, and it began in this manner:

"In the middle of night I was awakened by a voice which said: Thou will be given to know the secrets of heaven. My room was filled with so bright a light that it dazzled me. I wanted to look up towards from where I had heard the voice, but felt myself unworthy and bowed down in prayer. My soul was filled with overwhelming heavenly bliss, and I understood that my Saviour himself had awakened me."

Again, a dazzling bright white light manifests before his eyes. Perhaps skeptics would think this to be a hallucination of the mind, as they are caught up in a materialistic world view, but now in the modern age where everyone has a video camera this kind of spiritual manifestation has been caught on video tape.  See Angel Appears before thousands on top of a Coptic Church and Marian Apparitions of Egypt, the Orthodox Church and Emanuel Swedenborg and Spiritual Miracles of Egypt, the Arab Spring, and Repentance. How is this happening? There are other higher dimensions where space and time do not exist. Although this is the domain of current research in physics and mathematics, long before Einstein in the 18th century Emanuel Swedenborg was basically told that the realm of the spirit exists where space and time are non-existent. It is the realm we all enter after our physical bodies die, and if we spiritually progress, we are all destined to become angelic beings.

Like Anton Johansson, Emanuel Swedenborg was from Sweden and also had an encounter with Jesus Christ.  But you have here two men from completely opposite ends of the spectrum: Anton Johansson was a simple fisherman, uneducated, and could hardly read and write, which has caused confusion on the sequence of the visions he was shown. Emanuel Swedenborg was a highly respected scientist, a noble, and served the King of Sweden directly. Similar to Anton Johansson he also saw a dazzling white light before his eyes, but most of his visions were internal with no visible manifestation. Also another similarity is he too was given the "secrets of heaven."  These secrets of heaven were of a higher spiritual sort, eternal in nature, and there were so many he created multiple volumes of these revelations in a book entitled Heavenly Arcana (or Arcana Coelestia) meaning "secrets of heaven." None of them are prophecies, but for particular insights Swedenborg would mention that what he was about to reveal was an "arcana" or "arcanum" or a secret of heaven. I shall just mention a couple:

Though in this world a very deep arcanum, nothing is better known in the next life, known even to every spirit, than the truth that all things in the human body have a correspondence with things in heaven. So true is this that not even the smallest part in the human body fails to have something spiritual and celestial, or what amounts to the same, the heavenly communities, corresponding to it. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2996).

More important, is this secret describing the true nature of the Trinity, for the few who will accept it:

The truth that the Trinity - that is to say, the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine Proceeding - exists within the Lord is an arcanum received from heaven, and is intended for those who will be in the Holy Jerusalem (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10831).

What I just said above is most important. If you are interested in prophecy, yes it exists, there is a higher Supreme Being who knows future events, which can change according to free will. But the future everyone should be concerned with is their eternal destiny after they die. We should try to die to our sinful natural self before our death, so we can have eternal spiritual life, not just physical life. Thus, "the man who dies before he dies, does not die when he dies."

EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND RUSSIA

We are now seeing the new Russia flex its muscle. This is upsetting the direction certain powers in the U.S. want to take. The first example is the civil war in Syria - events were not "supposed" to happen this way. In the planning, long ago, were plans to topple Syria, along with Iraq and Libya:



The military objective is control of the oil resources, on which the world economy runs. But because of Russian support for the government Syria, the plans have stalled, now leading to a very extreme refugee crisis spilling over the borders. And the worst part? The reason why the civil war is becoming prolonged is because of support of the rebels by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two U.S. allies. Right now, Turkey allows free access of rebels, some affiliated with Al Qaeda, to cross into the Syrian border. Turkey is turning a "blind eye" by not enforcing its own border, but it goes deeper than that: arms shipments to the rebels through Turkey was planned a while ago under the direction of the CIA. Some of this got foiled with the attack on Benghazi in Libya. For this see A Love Triangle between the CIA, Turkey and Syria. To speed up the end of this war, a "false flag" operation was done when a certain party launched a chemical attack in Syria, against many women and children. Militant rebels have said that the intelligence agency of Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, was behind the operation. Unfortunately they did not know what they were handling, and it accidentally exploded. See Saudi Prince Bandar behind chemical attack in Syria. And here is the odd part: the U.S. reporter who helped translate the original story for MintPress News was threatened by a third party perhaps on behalf of Saudi Arabia, and was suspended by the Associated Press. From US reporter threatened by Saudi Arabia over Syria chemical weapons attack:

The Mint Press News article said interviews with doctors, residents, anti-government forces and their families in Ghouta suggest the terrorists in question received chemical weapons via Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud. 
Gavlak, who has been suspended by the Associated Press as a result of the article, said Mint Press News wrongly put her byline on a story in the article. 
Her lawyer says she simply helped Ababneh translate the article into English. The lawyer says Ababneh is the sole reporter of the story, Politico reported. 
In a statement released over the weekend, Mint Press said they understand Gavlak is under “mounting pressure” that her career would end because of the article but that she researched and wrote the article, along with Ababneh.

If there is any good news out of this, this event led to Syria ultimately declaring its chemical weapons and agreeing to disarm. So much for the so-called war on terrorism.... notice the silence on any investigation as to who was responsible for the chemical attack.

The other event, is that Russia has annexed Crimea:

And the western media talks about how "awful" this is, and slapped sanctions on Russia for upsetting "international law."  Point in fact here, no law was broken.  Crimea was a former part of Russia, Crimea was autonomous, the majority of the population is Russia, the majority voted to join Russia, and the parliament of Crimea endorsed it as well.  In addition to ensuring the integrity of the borders of each nation, international law also supports the right of all people towards self determination. What happened here is Russia outmaneuvered the U.S. - while the U.S. was supporting a democratic revolution in Ukraine, Russia took the situation and put it in its own advantage. Russia points out that in fact international law was broken when the west invaded Iraq and supported the independence of Kosovo. What happened is something similar if the state of Florida broke off from the United States, and the United States reclaimed it with the support of Florida voters.

So why is Crimea strategic? It allows Russia to have better control of the Black Sea, and, its now one step closer to not only Turkey, but also shortens its supply line path to Syria with the naval base at Sevastopol:

So how does this all tie in with the future prophecies concerning Russia? Anton Johansson saw that in the future, Russia would expand into Scandinavia and Europe, and in this war, Turkey will be affected:

The Balkan states will be in a deplorable situation at that time, especially Romania and Serbia. Even Greece will then be helpless. As for Turkey, I want to warn its citizens not to persecute Christians, but to become devoted to Jesus lest they get effaced from among the number of independent countries. The Jews will at that time have returned in great crowds to Jerusalem.

The above was written in the early 20th century, long before Israel became a nation. Now the Jews have returned. Under Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey is shifting towards a more fundamentalist Islamic state, away from the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. As such, their intelligence agency is supporting groups with associations to Al-Qaeda. And Turkey is supporting these rebel groups against Syria, an ally of Russia. And what is happening as a result? Christians from Syria have been suffering, and Al-Qaeda groups will not tolerate them: see Syria's Christians face new threat -- "convert, submit to Islam or face sword". Ironically, as TWO UPDATES ON SYRIA’S CHRISTIANS points out, this is in contradiction with Islamic law:

“ISIL contradicts itself,” Shehata said. “On the one hand they say they are implementing the provisions of Islamic sharia, including the ‘jizya’, however the Islamic state must be a full-fledged state and recognised by its citizens and subjects, which is not the case in the areas where ISIL is imposing its control by force and bloodshed.”

And, here is another instance in how Turkey's support for these rebels is having an adverse affect on ancient Christian communities:

"...over the weekend, fighters with a different al-Qaeda offshoot in the opposition, a rival of ISIL known as the Nusra Front, captured the Armenian Christian town of Kessab. The fighters crossed the border from Turkey, where their bases are located, and attacked the town on Friday. By Sunday, it had fallen. Thousands of Kessab’s Christians–some of whom had sought refuge from Raqqa–have fled to the nearby city of Latakia, where they receiving assistance from the local community, the Red Cross, and Red Crescent. Eyewitnesses report that the Nusra Front has looted Christian homes and stores and desecrated churches in Kessab."

So what is the future for Turkey? Not good, if it continues on these policies supported by its current government. Turkey itself has a long history of religious toleration, and this behavior is unacceptable to most Turkish citizens.