SWEDENBORGIANISM

 
Swedenborgianism is based on divine revelations granted to the Swedish theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. He was born in 1688. In 1744, he contracted an illness that made him delusional and that may have been the cause of the divine revelations he began receiving in 1745. The visions included visions of Jesus and are spiritualistic and psychic in tone. It claims to be a new covenant and as separate from Christianity as Christianity is from Judaism. His Church which was set up after his death is the true Church. The visions promise a heaven that is very like this world and he once saw an outbreak of fighting and cursing in Heaven! He rejected the canonicity of most of the Old Testament books and his New Testament consisted of the four gospels and the Book of Revelation. He used a system for interpreting the Bible that he learned in his visions. But this system is bizarre to say the least. It can make the words of scripture mean anything. He once said that the number forty-two relating to the forty-two children who Elisha cursed to death stood for blasphemy. He was sensible enough to reject the doctrine that Jesus died to atone for sinners. He thought that the last judgement took place in 1757. His revelations contained scientific mistakes. He prophesied that a branch of the Church would be found in Africa and that Noah’s scriptures would turn up all soon. These prophecies were false. This information is derived from Heresies Exposed.

But why should we listen to Swedenborg, one man, instead of listening to the New Testament writers? They were closer to the earthly physical Jesus than he was. His own scripture said that one witness was not good enough.
 
And Swedenborg never wanted the formation of a new Church. He expected Lutherans and other Christian groups to believe in his word and stay in their Churches. But that wouldn’t have been right or fair for his theology is too different from Protestantism. His revelations had to be false when his Jesus could not explain that to him. Worse, he saw Martin Luther and the reformers in HELL!
 
The bodily resurrection of Christ and the Church is denied. There is no evidence that his doctrine that we survive death without bodies and will never get them back is in the Bible. The Bible teaches the opposite. When Christ spoke of the resurrection he meant people would get bodies. This was taught from the start of the Church and here is a man centuries later saying that the gospels are inspired and that Christ was infallible and contradicting them. The old records come first.

Swedenborg had revelations permitting concubinage and keeping mistresses. He wrote a book called Conjugal Love that allowed it under certain conditions. Yet he canonised a small number of Bible books and these books banned divorce absolutely and one allowed legal divorce for adultery but never permitted remarriage for the marriage still existed in the eyes of God so we see a disregard for his own scriptures. His visions told him there were people on the moon. There is absolutely no evidence for his doctrine that the resurrection is not bodily but spiritual anywhere in his scriptures.
 
Swedenborgianism is a relatively noble and optimistic and friendly religion that did take every chance it could get to get rid of the bad points in apostolic doctrine.

 
 
WORKS CONSULTED
 
 
A Piece Of Blue Sky, Jon Atack, Lyle Stuart, New York, 1990
Are the Mormon Scriptures Reliable? Harry L Ropp, Intervarsity Press, Illinois, 1987
Christendom Astray, Robert Roberts, The Dawn Book Supply, 1958
Christian Deviations, Horton Davies, SCM, London, 1955
“Christian Science,” Dean Lefroy, SPCK, London, 1903
Christianity in Crisis, Hank Hanegraaff, Nelson Word Ltd, Milton Keynes, 1995
Concise Guide to Today’s Religions, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Scripture Press, Bucks, 1983
Conjugal Love, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Swedenborg Foundation, 1979
Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come, Norman Cohn, Yale University Press, 1994
Crisis of Conscience, Raymond Franz, Commentary Press, Atlanta, 1992
Cults and Isms J. Oswald Sanders, Zondervan Publishers, Grand Rapids, MI, 1962
Dianetics, The Modern Science Of Mental Health L Ron Hubbard New Era Publications, Surrey 1986
Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties and Schools of Religious Thought, by Blunt, Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, undated
Health And Happiness, EG White, Inspiration Books, Phoenix, Arizona, 1974 Heresies Exposed, William C Irvine Loizeaux Brothers Inc, New York, 1973
His Eye, The Bookkeeping of God, Universelles Leben, Wurzburg, Germany, 2000
Jehovah of the Watchtower, Walter Martin and Norman Clann, Bethany House Publishers, Minnesota, 1974
Jehovah’s Witnesses, John Wijngaards, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1998
Joseph Smith and Money-Digging, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Salt Lake City, 1970
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, 1971
Some Modern Faiths, Maurice C Burrell and J Stafford Wright, Intervarsity Press, Leicestershire, 1988
Spying in Guru Land, William Shaw, Fourth Estate, London, 1994
Studies on Islam, Jack Budd, Red Sea Mission Team, Northants, 1994
The Bible, Medical Science and Alcohol, EG White, Inspiration Books, 1974 The Case Against Mormonism, Vol 2, Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1968
The Challenge of the Cults, Maurice C Burrell, IVP, Leicester, 1983
The Divine Principle, Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, Washington DC, 1973
The Four Major Cults, AA Hoekema, Paternoster Press, Carlisle, 1992
The Great Controversy, EG White, Inspiration Books, Phoenix, Arizona, 1986
The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy, Martin Gardner, Prometheus, New York, 1993
The Life of Mary Baker G Eddy and the History of Christian Science, Georgine Milmine, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1972
The Moon is not the Son, James Bjornstad, Dimension Books, Bethany Fellowship, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1976
The New Cults, Walter Martin, Vision House, Santa Ana, California, 1980
The Pope’s Armada, Gordon Urquhart, Bantam Press, London, 1995
The Religion of Ancient Persia, Professor A J Carnoy, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1959
The Secret World of Cults, Jean Ritchie, Angus and Robertson, London, 1991
The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Watchtower, New York, 1968
The World’s Religions, Lion, Herts, 1982
They Go About Two by Two, William E Paul, Religion Analysis Service Inc, USA
Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave William J Schnell, Marshall, Morgan and Scott Ltd, London, 1956
His Eye, The Bookkeeping of God, Universelles Leben, Wurzburg, Germany, 1991
What is a Jehovah’s Witness? Rev John Wimbish, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1956
William Branham – the Man and His Message, Carl Dyke, Western Tract Mission Inc, Saskatoon, Canada, 1984
 

THE WEB

www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/Ght-3-0-Tpc.htm
Guidance for Heavenly Tradition

www.kevinquick.com/kkministries/books/reasoning/nwt.html
Reveals the deceptive translation of the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses

http://alhafeez.org/rashid/beware.htm
Beware of the Evil of the Ahmadiyya Movement Against Islam, Syed Rashid Ali