Letters to the Editors
Letters may be sent to the Editors of New Church Life at
Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA 19009
or e-mailed to [email protected].
A New Dispensation From The Lord
To The Editors:
This letter is in response to the article, “Surely we are not Swedenborgians,” by
the Rev. Gerald Waters in the May/June issue.
I agree strongly with what he said. I have used the term Swedenborgian
occasionally, but only when I can follow it up quickly with an explanation
of why I don’t really like the term. But I am as dismayed as you are by the
casual way references to the doctrines are sometimes written as coming from
Swedenborg rather than from the Lord
We are told that when there is a judgment on the Church a new dispensati on
is given by the Lord and from that is formed a new church. Thus, after the flood
the Ancient Word was given. When the Ancient Church had to be replaced by
a representative of a church, the Lord came to Mt. Sinai and presented the law
for Israel through Moses, and when that became void of all good and truth,
the Lord came down and gave us the gospels through Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. So the three elements go together in a package: judgment, a new
dispensation from the Lord, and a new church among men.
I would argue that if the new dispensation is not from the Lord, then there
really could not have been a judgment by Him, and any new church, not being
from Him, would be invalid. The General Church was founded on the belief
that what Swedenborg wrote was a new Divine dispensation, a new chapter
of the Sacred Scripture given by the Lord, unfolding and opening up all the
previous chapters sent down from Him.
So I am with Mr. Waters. I think we should be careful how we express the
origin of what we see from our teachings as coming from the Lord, so that
everything we present to people reflects that basic belief and doesn’t leave the
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