n e w c h u r c h l i f e : m ay / j u n e 2 0 1 4
one more lesson to learn
One discordant note for New Church listeners in Dr. Alexander’s presentation
came at the end – a deflating and disappointing conviction that reincarnation
is the process of personal perfection.
This may be a default to his scientific instincts that all such development
occurs within the human brain – not the soul and spirit.
He has yet to discover that spiritual perfection is eternal and never ending
– within that spiritual life he has glimpsed but not fully grasped.
He told his appreciative audience – and many individually – that he
loved coming to Bryn Athyn and learning about the revelation that informs
our faith. But he only had a seven-day introduction to the spiritual world.
Swedenborg had 27 years of conscious experience, and from that we have a
whole new revelation from the Lord to guide us. So much as Dr. Alexander has
been enlightened, he still has a lot to learn: that our spiritual growth continues
to eternity, that it doesn’t require a near death experience – and that it certainly
doesn’t involve reincarnation.
(BMH)
proof of heaven
I enjoyed Dr. Eben Alexander’s recent talk in Bryn Athyn, and his book, Proof
of Heaven. And whose opinion could be more valuable than a brain surgeon’s
on whether or not near death experiences are only the result of brain activity?
I can see, though, why Swedenborg, in making his case for heaven, didn’t
make too much of his spiritual experiences (which lasted for almost 30 years!),
although he spoke freely of them. The testimony of someone else based on
his experience – as interesting and powerful as it may be – can never be as
convincing as the internal proofs we find in our own minds and life experience.
The truth so clearly presented in the Writings is the most important thing,
not Swedenborg’s experiences of the spiritual world that illustrate it (useful as
those are).
“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:31) If we hear Moses and the
prophets – in other words, pay attention to the teaching of the Word – other
evidence only serves to confirm what we already know.
For me, the logic (based on the truths of revelation) that supports belief
in heaven is very convincing. I look around and see that the whole world of
nature is a kingdom of uses, which illustrates and confirms what the Writings
say. It makes sense, then, that there is some overarching general use to which
all creation looks – which again is what the Writings say: the world was created
for the use of forming a heaven from the human race. And this follows from
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