Did Jesus get His message mixed-up?

This would present theologians with a big problem. Inconsistency is imperfection. Imperfection cannot therefore be attributed to God. Furthermore, inconsistencies in God’s message would dangerously threaten the authority, sanctity and inerrancy of Holy Scripture.

Yet we have the Lord God making the following two statements:

I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. (Matthew 10:35,36)

If any man cometh unto Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own soul also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)

So Jesus states in both passages that He wants domestic disharmony not peace, and warns people that without such family hatred they cannot become His followers.

What gives here? These statements are diametrically opposed to Jehovah’s Fourth Commandment of honoring father and mother (not to mention pooh-poohing spiritual love).

Thankfully, scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg offers us a rational explanation by which we can escape such doctrinal schizophrenia and even strengthen our faith in God’s Word.

Swedenborg claimed that God’s Holy Word was a multi-leveled document. Its stories were more than a literal account of human history. They contained higher levels of meanings that conveyed purely spiritual content (as opposed to merely worldly or materialist content).

So even worldly terms like “father,” “brother,” ”sister,” “mother” and “household” contained richer messages about various qualities of the human spirit. Therefore, the word “father,” understood spiritually, would represent the main values and choices we make in life. These values impregnate the human heart and mind (mother), thus fathering and giving birth to our ideas about reality. One’s household is his or her worldview (or faith-system). “Sons” and “brothers” and “sisters” and “mothers” represent the various feelings (loves) and ideas (knowledge) and their resulting activities that occupy one’s spiritual household.

Knowing this we can now begin to make sense of the Lord’s apparent bad advice illustrated in the biblical verses quoted above. First, if one does not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, then one’s inner household contains a “father” and “progeny” that is opposed to God’s teachings. A household operating under opposing principles to that of spiritual love (which unites) will be divided against itself. It is such a household, that the Lord has issues with, for everything in it represents a man or a woman’s true spiritual foe and enemy (our true spiritual enemy is a worldview that stands in the way of peace and eternal blessedness).

The passages which lead up to the verses quoted above make it more clear that Jesus is referring to individuals whose household is not based on God’s spiritual tenets (and therefore adopt a different family of qualities into their household—qualities unworthy of spiritual love). This difference in orientation is the reason for the seeming discrepancy between Jesus and Jehovah—a discrepancy that cannot be reconciled with a simple terrestrial understanding of the terms “father,” “mother,” “brother,” “sister” or “household” used in Scripture.

I have shown you just a glimpse of the deeper revelations that are contained within God’s revealed wisdom. The Lord God has promised to return and reveal His true glory. It is by means of the deeper teachings and levels of meaning contained within Scripture that the Lord God’s true glory will unveil itself. How else can a finite book like the Bible hold God’s Infinite Wisdom?

My upcoming book Proving God will not only discuss these deeper teachings, it will actually show that this scaffolding of the biblical architecture also provides the means by which religion can interface with modern science in a most rational and orderly way!

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Can dysfunctional families lead to cannibalism?

If you read God’s Holy Word, what other conclusion could you come to? In Mark 13:12,13 we read the Lord’s warning about awful families who will kill each other!

And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father his children; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death; for ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake.

Such family disputes and abominations can get even worse!

Therefore the fathers shall eat their sons, and the sons shall eat their fathers . . . (Ezekiel 5:9,10)

No wonder a growing group of “enlightened” individuals have properly reasoned that a God of Love could not wish such things upon humanity. But they also make the mistake that such biblical passages prove that there is no God, and therefore, they can reject the supposed inerrancy and authority of Scripture.

Scientist/theologian Emanuel Swedenborg would say that the problem here is not religious faith versus reasoning but human reasoning based on a materialistic philosophy. Such worldly ideologies judge Scripture from a mere literal interpretation of its narratives (so do those who defend Scripture from blind faith).

Materialistic and terrestrial ideologies do not engender true enlightenment, whether you are a believer or atheist.

Swedenborg claimed that the Lord’s Holy Word was a spiritual document because its stories contained spiritual meanings. What is a spiritual meaning? It is a symbolic language that uses physical things, events and historical characters to represent qualities of the human heart and mind (a person’s spiritual reality).

Brothers killing each other as well as fathers and their children killing each other represent what happens when we adopt false ideas from evil or hurtful motives. A “father” represents the heart of the matter (in this case an evil heart). So spiritually speaking, the quality of one’s chosen values (derivatives of love) “fathers” a certain kind of progeny (mental ideas). Ideas are the progeny (sons) of some love, which rules the heart (father) as head of the family.

Therefore, an evil heart will produce thoughts that will engender destruction. Evil and its derivative false thinking bring its own punishment upon itself. The biblical passage above concerning the unlikely literal scenario of fathers and sons eating each other is another use of symbolic spiritual language to convey the more relevant lesson that evil and hatred breeds negative thoughts that will ultimately consume each other. This predicament is opposite to all true religion, which promotes mutual love, goodness and unity.

We instinctively understand this symbolism of the heart and mind when we say that a political ideology will eat its own children. Everyone can grasp the idea that if a political party “fathers” lots of different factions, its household will eventually turn on itself.

According to Swedenborg, all the stories in the Holy Word carry deeper meanings about the more important drama that takes place within the human heart and mind (and its relationship to God). We’ve all heard the expression that a divided house will fall. This notion has even greater spiritual relevance if applied it to the inner cacophony of ideas and feelings that inhabit the troubled mind (spiritual household).

God wants us to get our spiritual house in order.

The purpose of this blog is to express the richness of God’s Holy Word to those who take pride in their reasoning. The truly “enlightened” will embrace the profound and inexhaustible depth of Holy Scripture (God’s Infinite Wisdom).

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Happy New Year and a Happy New Jerusalem!

New Year’s Eve, the passing of one year and the ushering in of another, is celebrated all over the world. In New York’s Times Square, called the crossroads of the world, all eyes will be focused on a brightly lit ball that will mark the exact time of this new beginning.

There is obvious symbolism in this event.

New beginnings mean new hopes. The numerous lights which comprise the New Year’s Ball at Times Square represent our anticipation of a brighter future as it defies the darkness of the night and helps to dispel our darker thoughts.

An even deeper symbolic message can be teased out of this yearly celebration. The fact that the New Year’s Ball makes a descent from high above our heads symbolizes that true hope for positive change and a new beginning comes from above—from God.

The many lights that comprise the New Year’s Ball represent the numerous teachings, tenets and truths that descend to us from heaven and offer enlightenment for us to begin our lives anew.  We instinctively grasp this by our inclination to make New Year’s resolutions at this time every year.

Deeper still, this celebration has a strong parallelism with the descent of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, from heaven. Its light is spiritual and comes from God’s wisdom, and therefore, represents a new habitation for the human soul.

The crowds gathering at Times Square to watch the ball descend symbolize oneness—a unity of hearts and minds. For this to happen in a sustained and permanent way, all eyes must be open to, and focused on God’s heavenly message.

Happy New Year and Happy New YOU!

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Planting seeds in people’s heads

We have all either heard or used the expression of “planting an idea in someone’s head.” It is a wonderful metaphor that is rich in meaning.

Metaphors are a symbolic language used to explain the invisible world of human mental activity in terms of visible things found in the physical world. For instance, the expression stated above treats an “idea” as though it were a “seed.”

The symbolism is easy to follow and makes perfect sense. An idea can be planted into someone’s mind, take root, grow, blossom, and finally bear fruit. “Fruit” represents the goodness of an action produced from the original implanted idea. If other people benefit from this fruitfulness (good works) it will create new seeds in their minds as well.

A seed perfectly portrays how goodness is made fruitful and information is multiplied within the human heart and mind. Nature and human nature are equally prolific!

What I find miraculous in such metaphors is how Mother Nature lends herself so perfectly to helping humans express mental processes with terrestrial processes. The metaphors that can be made between the two distinct worlds are innumerable. To offer a few more simple examples, we can be described as having a “sunny” disposition, a “cloud” over our head, or as a “diamond in the rough.”

The second thing I find miraculous about this procedure is that humans instinctively grasp this transcendental relationship.

According to scientist/theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg, God created things to be that way. The natural world is a physical analog of all the things that can take place in the human mind and spirit.

Evidence for this Divine scheme is that Jesus used parables to communicate deeper messages during His ministry. The irony is that while metaphor is instinctive to humans, such language escapes our everyday habitual minds. This is why many of the fanciful Bible stories have led “reasoning” individuals to challenge the inerrancy and authority of God’s Holy Word.

Every story in Scripture, whether historical or prophetical, contains deeper messages about God’s relationship with each of us. In fact, the Second Coming commences as individuals open up to these deeper teachings and allow for greater understanding and intimacy with the Divine Creator.

The purpose of this blog is to help the Lord God plant new spiritual seeds.

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When armies attack nudists

It seems that God gives some people good advice for escaping an attack by an enemy army and other people bad advice. For instance, in Matthew 24:15-18, Scripture states:

When therefore ye shall see the abomination of desolation which was told of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let him that readeth understand, then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains; let him that is upon the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him that is in the field not return back to take his garment.

It makes perfect sense to warn people to run for the hills to find safety. But God’s advice for others to stay on their rooftops and even for nudists to keep their clothes off at the approach of an attacking army seems a bit risky.

Those who stay on their roofs can at least delay their inevitable capture. But God’s counsel for those running around in the field nude to simply keep their clothes off during an attack only adds a sense of awkwardness to a bad situation.

Since God is All Wise, this advice should not be questioned, even if you are a nudist (nor should anyone suddenly put their clothes back on and claim to be an atheist).

Jokes aside, what are we to learn from God’s revealed wisdom?

The lesson here is spiritual—not worldly. The biblical passage quoted above is meant to symbolize a higher spiritual meaning. The attack God is warning people against is an attack from evil and false influences—all the things that attack and destroy the human soul. This symbolic interpretation is what is meant by the words “let him that readeth understand.”

In any community, you will have people representing different levels of spiritual growth. God’s different advice represents lessons for various people on these different levels when they are coming under spiritual attack (temptations). Those on the highest level (Judea—who love the Lord God) must keep their mind elevated towards heavenly things (flee into the mountains). The symbolism here is simple but it gets more challenging.

Those below this level (who love the neighbor) must also keep their mind elevated (stay on the housetop) without going down and taking belongings out of the house. Things “down in the house” represent the “lower” things of our character, which will not help us against temptation.

The final level represents the average good person who respects God’s truth and therefore lives a moral and ethical life. This last group are described as wandering in the field naked because they are more “earthly” (field) yet living in relative innocence (nakedness). If they were to go back to their houses and put their garments back on, this would symbolize returning to former hurtful ideas that they had already stripped themselves of.

So God’s advice and strategy was focused on protecting people on these three distinct levels of spirituality from attacks on their souls. Aren’t you relieved that God would never ask you to do something silly?

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Merry Jehovahmas!

While it is nice and theologically acceptable to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone this time of the year, the actual phrase can lead otherwise innocent holiday celebrators into doctrinal heresy.

The problem with the phrase “Merry Christmas” is that it can lead people into believing that Jesus (the “Son”) was a different person than Jehovah (the “Father”). Or worse, people can make the mistake that Jesus was just a “man.”

The Prophets made no other prophecy than that it would be Jehovah Himself who would come into the world for humanity’s sake.

“Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous offshoot, and He shall reign as king, and prosper, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5,6; 33:15,16).

In other words, Jesus is Jehovah in the flesh!

I am aware that some Bible translations use “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,” which may lead some to doubt my premise, however, in the next verse (Jeremiah 23:7) Scripture makes it clear that the LORD refers to the God whom brought the Israelites out of Egypt.

Many Christian authorities would argue that there was some kind of mystical (hypostatic) union between the Son and the Father to tip-toe around the irksome and non-rational belief that Jesus and Jehovah are two different people but still ONE God. This divine dynamic is called a “mystery of faith” and Christians ought not give it any further thought other than to believe it, hook, line and sinker. But the purpose of all my blog posts is to make people think!

Further biblical evidence that it was Jehovah Himself who came into the world can be found in Malachi 3:1.

“Behold I send Mine angel who shall prepare the way before Me . . . “

This passage refers to the same angel who informed Mary that she would experience a miraculous birth. “Me” can only mean Jehovah God.

Salvation was not a matter of the Son suffering and dying on the Cross in order to appease an otherwise dejected Father. That’s doctrinal nonsense. The Lord’s great suffering, included more than making Himself the target of human hatred on planet earth. The LORD also suffered a full-blown attack from all hell’s power and fury coming out from the spiritual world.

God needed to acquire a human body (with all its inclinations to be tempted by the vanities and allurements of the world, as everyone else). This provided a medium allowing finite beings and evil spirits to effectively attack an Infinite Being. By resisting worldly temptations and values, and humbling Himself on the Cross (instead of hopping off and providing a show of force to get even with his torturers) the LORD made his “flesh” fully compliant with His Divine Essence of Infinite Love in heaven (the Father). This humility of taking his human nature to task is how the Son glorified the Father (His Divine nature) and the Father glorified the Son (His human nature). Flesh and the Holy became ONE—the Alpha and Omega. This is why there was an empty tomb.

That the LORD was victorious is our hope of peace on earth and eternal salvation. But we must also ask for God’s help in overcoming our own negative traits (no one can take on hell’s influence alone).

These biblical details about the LORD’S life can only be obtained by those who are willing to accept that God’s Holy Word contains deeper levels of meaning. It is these deeper levels that offer proof of the Bible’s inerrancy and authority.

This blog post may have put a dent in your current belief-system. Sorry about that! I am just trying to share with you the true meaning of the LORD’S Advent and life in the world.

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The similarities between the Christmas tree and the Tree of Life

For one thing, both trees have a definite reference to God. Although people may have an image of a fruit tree (like apple) rather than an evergreen tree when they think of the Tree of Life in the Genesis story, a Christmas tree actually contains more symbolic spiritual richness.

So let’s explore the symbolism.

An evergreen represents God’s eternal activity better than a deciduous “apple” tree. However, you may still be inclined to point out that a balsam fir or other evergreen tree bears no fruit, and therefore, offers humans no real sustenance. The whole point of God’s Tree of Life in the garden is that it contained what was “good to eat” and therefore could sustain a healthy life.

If we contemplate for a moment that Christmas time enlivens the human spirit during the dead of winter, then we can assume that it is our inner spirit that is being fed and nourished. A Christmas tree feeds our heart and soul more effectively than any apple tree could!

What many Bible interpreters fail to grasp is that the true purpose of the Tree of Life was to feed the human soul (which doesn’t eat apples). What else would grow and take the center position in God’s special garden than that which could sustain and nourish human goodness and spiritual love?

The fact that we usually place an angel or star (of Bethlehem) at the top of the Christmas tree symbolizes that everything below it is aligned to and supportive of spiritual qualities at the top (from heaven). The beautiful ornaments and lights of a Christmas tree symbolize the wonderful variation, complexity and beauty of God’s Truth and Love. This spiritual symbolism is further supported by the gifts, which are placed under the Christmas tree. Christmas is a time for giving and sharing. And although Christmas shopping can involve a kind of mindless consumerism, the symbolism of gift giving still offers a deeper message of spiritual love for those of us way down here on earth.

A Christmas tree warms the heart. Love and sharing is felt in the human heart and soul as the very essence of spiritual warmth. The Lord God came into the world to spread this spiritual message of love. God’s intent is that the Tree of Life as well as the Tree of Christmas should be internalized within human experience and come to symbolize the quality of one’s heart.

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I believe in Santa Claus!

Yes, I am all grown up. But the more I look into the spiritual symbolism represented by Santa Claus the more I believe He is fundamentally real!

Let us start with Santa’s characteristics. He has a long white beard. This symbolizes wisdom (an aged and experienced mind) expressed in outward acts of goodness from purity. All true wisdom is acting from love. Santa’s jolly laugh, rosy cheeks and ample girth (fat symbolizes goodness) are all further outward signs of the inner qualities of his big heart.

Santa’s outfit is red and white. Red symbolizes love and white symbolizes purity, which are spiritual features.

Santa lives at the North Pole. Scientifically speaking, the North Pole represents a singularity. You can’t go further north than the North Pole. A singularity represents a boundary where spacetime ends and physical laws break down. Hence, Santa lives in a realm beyond space and time (like heaven) so his actions are not constrained by the laws of physics. Thus, Santa can perform miraculous things—like deliver toys to every child in the world in a single night and from a single bag! So Santa not only portrays a kind of omniscience (wisdom), but omnipresence (can be in many places at one time) and omnipotence (his bag of gifts never runs out).

Santa’s love is spiritual because it is angelic and inclusive!

Santa’s mode of transportation is a big sleigh driven by reindeer that can fly above the earth. These magical creatures symbolize higher ideals that can soar above the lower and common values of the everyday world. A sleigh symbolizes doctrine or belief system—the mental vehicle that transports us in life.

If you count “eight” reindeer, then the symbol of Santa and his sled represents the approach of a new beginning (an eighth day corresponds to the beginning of a new week or cycle). If you add Rudolph and his shiny red nose to the pack, the symbolism goes further to represent a holistic (nine) perception (nose) of reality from the principle of love (red) and truth (shining light).

That Santa cares about children being “good” is the same message that God gives to the world. And Jesus while on earth urged everyone to be like little children (which symbolizes innocence). Even the tradition of children sitting on Santa’s knee symbolizes that in order to receive our proper gifts we must be willing to be in obedience (sitting) to living a life according to the higher ideals of goodness. A knee, which connects the higher part of a leg to the lower part, represents the connection between higher spiritual ideals to the lower worldly mind so that we can walk in righteousness.

That Santa slides down chimneys is also a symbol with great spiritual significance. The hearth represents the human heart. Therefore, Santa delivers his gifts if we let him into our hearts. We let him into our hearts by being good. Gifts symbolize an increase in the goodness of the heart because they represent sharing.

That is why Santa places the gifts under the Christmas tree. A Christmas tree is representative of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden that God planted for the human race, which symbolizes our heart’s harvest of the fruitfulness of God’s love and wisdom.

I believe in Santa Claus because I believe in God. The evolution of the Santa Claus character within the human psyche over the years was a process directed by God’s providence and the angels of heaven, whose job it is to lift our minds to wonderful and miraculous things.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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The symbolism of the Christmas colors Red and Green

In the same way that Christmas contains a deeper spiritual message within the various external traditions of gift giving, festive meals, eggnog, roasting chestnuts and decorations, so do the colors “green” and “red.”

The color green represents the sprouting of new spiritual thoughts in our mind. Green is the color of the plant kingdom, which emerges from the dead of winter, as the light of the spring sun gets stronger. Similarly, new thoughts arise in our minds as we celebrate the Lord’s Advent of new “light” coming into the world.

Red symbolizes love. New spiritual thoughts need love’s warmth to continue to grow (just like plants also need the sun’s vernal heat). So the colors green and red symbolize the birth of new spiritual activity in our minds and hearts, as we worship the birth of the baby Jesus in the world.

Indeed, this miraculous birth gains deeper meaning if we allow the Lord to be born within our hearts and minds. This is what we do when we follow the Lord’s teachings. Christmas is a game-changer.

The Lord’s birth represents our rebirth.

That fact that we use “red” and “green” for the colors of Christmas is no accident. It is the result of angelic and heavenly influences that flow down into the instinctive operations of the human mind.

So have a very merry (and deeper) Christmas!

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The Christmas Miracle is a can of worms

Many Christian ministers find the Christmas season particularly challenging. Not only is Christmas under attack by a secular movement that is gaining a more politically powerful voice, just as bad, church congregations are caught up in the commercialism of the “Christmas spirit” as pressured mindless consumerism.

I read an interesting article today on the internet that addressed the problem ministers have with getting their parishioners to think of the Christmas Advent as a transformative opportunity rather than a spending opportunity. Ministers have to tread lightly here or they will incur the wrath of their parishioners (and a slew of retailers). The mindset of the post-modern world is to reject any idea that makes them feel uncomfortable in any way.

Hell hath no fury like a scorned Christmas shopper!

So ministers have to settle with telling their parishioners what they want to hear—that the Lord’s coming into the world is “good” news because HE is going to save us in spite of ourselves—because He loves us. Christmas is a time for cheerfulness.

This reminds me how the Lord was praised and cheered when HE first entered triumphantly into Jerusalem but only days later the crowds had turned against Him. Why? Because the Lord did not bring the oppressed citizens the gifts they were expecting. In fact, Jesus said things that made everyone feel uncomfortable.

Church ministers are always careful not to become a doctrinal “Grinch” and stress only the positive on Christmas. When they deliver their sermons they emphasize that Christmas is a time to rejoice and remind us how we can all take part in this miraculous birth if we accept the Lord into our hearts. Parishioners find comfort in such a benign message. However, people are left with the oversimplified belief that good things will happen to them by some miraculous form of spiritual osmosis.

To offer deeper insights into the transformative Christmas message only opens a new can of ugly, squirming worms. I have visited churches in which the ministers knew well that by telling their congregation to take the baby Jesus into their hearts, they would be including the ongoing process by which the Lord’s message should grow and mature in a way that was symbolic of the Lord’s life and challenges on earth. In other words, the Lord struggled with the world in the same way that we must each struggle with our compulsions and negative behavior. But this is a pastoral no-no at Christmas.

The Lord came into the world to open up a can of worms—all the slimy, writhing things that interfere with our proper relationship with God. Sure, we are to rejoice that the Lord came into the world for our salvation. But the way most people now perceive the Christmas experience, any deeper message would only cause it to “rain on the parade” and the jubilation (jubilee once represented the celebration of spiritual restoration through works of repentance and piety).

Any thoughts? Any reactions?

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