God Bless You, Part 2

Here, in part two, Karl looks specifically at the word 'marriage.' He focuses on its ultimate purpose as a reflection of the Lord's union within himself and the mercy this embodies. He feels that a renewed focus on the true meaning of words would offer more to people than if the church were to bow to secular interpretations of spiritual concepts and thereby attract more people by mirroring the culture's own decline. -Editor

Unfortunately, because we are steeped so long in our own traditions, lost meanings have an unfortunate side effect. For instance, there is a sense in which a certain word immediately springs to mind on hearing the phrase, "joined together" with respect to the Bible, and that is "marriage." We think of this phrase in particular: "What God has put together, let no man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6, Mark 10:9). Consequently, whether thinking from a secular perspective, or a spiritual one, most people tend to think that this refers to nothing more than a union between a man and a woman. There is a certain coincidence, and hence a similarity, on a literal level, but it comes at great cost. This sense of mere commitment is unable to represent what is meant by that joining together at the deepest level, except in this superficial manner. After all, what are we to understand when we find this word "marriage" used in reference to land as in this passage from Isaiah 62:4:

"You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and you shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight is in Her, and your land married; for the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married."

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God Bless You, Part 1

Karl writes about the true import and meaning of words and how they have been obfuscated and dulled over time by progressively literal interpretations. If we have lost sight of the deeper connotations of the words within the Bible, how can we access what is available to us therein? -Editor

It may seem trite to make this statement, but most people, secular and non-secular, recognise that the Bible is purported to be a spiritual document. Atheism may reject that spirituality is an integral part of reality, but nonetheless the Bible is held in that regard. By assuming that it is a spiritual document, it follows that its concerns are spiritual.

But even such a simple statement poses problems, for what exactly is it that is meant by the word "spiritual"? What is it that makes what are, after all, only words on a page written long ago significant in terms of spirituality? Is it enough to think this because the word "God" is used so much?

Most people do not ask such questions, and it is enough for them that it is called spiritual, "the utterances of Almighty God," to accept it as such at face value, and like the advert for varnish, declare that it means "exactly what it says on the tin." 

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Swedenborg: A Man For Our Times

Karl posits that Kant's concept of inertia, at the heart of scientific thought, is a mistaken premise, one that is preventing truly new ideas from entering the stage. He argues that the time for Swedenborg's philosophy has come. -Editor.

There is something about Swedenborg’s high IQ, however artificial one might consider this retrogressive calculation to have been, which still remains of great interest to us. Given that he is cited as number two in the top ten list, most people will recognize most of the names in it, but all should be forgiven for exclaiming: “Swedenborg? Who is he, and what is it that puts him virtually at the top of the list, and we have never heard of him?” (See these websites for information about the top geniuses: Myth of Genius; Geniuses; Highest IQ; Estimated IQs.)

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