I see that my last post was on November 5th. As it happens, our son Samuel was born a week + several hours later on November 13th, and (surprise, surprise) blogging has been non-existent since then. In other big news – we’ll be moving to South Africa in June, to serve at the New Church Westville near Durban. With those major changes going on, we’ll see how much time I have to keep up with the blog… At the church... Read more
This blog post is a reflection on the book Our Life After Death, recently published by the Swedenborg Foundation and currently featured in the Patheos Book Club. The book is essentially a long excerpt from Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell, focusing primarily on what happens in the days, weeks, and months after we die, as we are prepared for and enter either heaven or hell, in an intermediate ground called “the world of spirits.” (The terminology here can be a... Read more
I haven’t been posting many updates as the congregation here in Dawson Creek works through the “Begin a New Life” program, but it’s been a very powerful experience for the people who are following through with it and learning to implement a regular practice of repentance in their lives. This week we’re talking about the fourth and final step of the “Begin a New Life” process: actually changing the way we live. (There are two weeks left in the program:... Read more
In my recent post on the “wrath of God” I suggested that almost every time human anger is mentioned in the New Testament, it’s presented as a negative thing. New Church theology affirms this, and in the Doctrines of the New Church, the words “anger” and “wrath” are almost always used as negative terms. But this does raise a question: isn’t there a good kind of anger? What about anger at the injustice in the world, or cruelty, or abuse?... Read more
In New Church theology, we hold to the idea that God is not wrathful or angry or vengeful – an idea that at first blush can come across as contrary to the clear teachings of the Bible and Christian tradition. I recently started reading the works of the early Christian fathers, though, and was surprised at a few statements there on God’s wrath. The classic collection The Ante-Nicene Fathers begins with the first epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians.... Read more
As you might have noticed if you’ve followed links to passages from Swedenborg’s theological works from this or other Swedenborgian blogs, there’s little consistency in terms of what site those links might send you to. I most often link to the Swedenborg collection on sacred-texts.com, since in my opinion it is the best site for seeing passages in their context. Unfortunately, that site doesn’t allow search, and it only provides one translation, and a fairly dated one at that. All... Read more
Back in April, I posted on “Begin a New Life,” the spiritual growth program developed by Rev. Mark Pendleton. As I mentioned in the post, Mark had agreed to come out to Dawson Creek and offer a workshop on the program. Mark made it out here a week and a half ago and gave an excellent presentation, followed the next day by a sermon on the gradual progress of spiritual reformation. Starting from the presentation last week, we’ve launched a... Read more
Yesterday I preached on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead as recorded in John 11. During the course of the research I was struck by how many times the gospel of John speaks of life. I’m sure it’s partly because I was looking for it, but it seems to be the central message of John: Because of His oneness with the Father, Jesus is life, and grants life to those who are in Him. Anyway, here’s the sermon; I... Read more
When I tell people that I’m Swedenborgian, I often get a blank look. Explaining that my church subscribes to the doctrines found in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg doesn’t help a whole lot. Fortunately, the Swedenborg Foundation has just released a video explaining who Swedenborg was and what books to start with if you’re interested in learning more (I made a similar list a couple years ago, but the visuals were significantly less impressive, in that they were non-existent). (Oh,... Read more
This past Sunday, I preached on the Lord’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the Gospel of Luke (sermon audio available here). At the end of the parable, Jesus describes the rich man in hell begging that Abraham send Lazarus to warn the rich man’s brothers that they need to repent if they are to avoid hell. When Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the prophets – let them hear them,” the rich man replies, “No, father Abraham;... Read more
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