Was Jesus a Literalist?

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Lee — Leave a comment

Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. (Matthew 13:34)

With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. (Mark 4:33–34)

And yet, some Christians claim that Jesus was a literalist!

On his “Answers in Genesis” website, the famous or infamous Ken Ham writes:

What Jesus says about creation reminds us that, if we want to be faithful to his Word, we must take Genesis as literal history—just like he did! (quoted from Creation Basics: What Did Jesus Say About Creation? by Ken Ham)

So let me get this straight: Jesus, who always spoke to the crowds in parables, was a strict literalist in his reading of Scripture?

Well then, if we’re going to faithful to Jesus, maybe we should do the same for the whole Bible. Maybe we should read Jesus literally, too!

For more Jesus and literalism, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Biblical literalism, Christianity, Creation, Creationism, fundamentalism, Jesus, Jesus Christ, literalism, spiritual meaning, the Bible, typology, young Earth creationism
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed

Can I Ask God to Extinguish My Consciousness?

Posted on July 19, 2026 by Lee — 10 Comments

We are created so that our inner self cannot die. We can believe in God and love God, which means we can have a relationship with God through faith and love. And having a relationship with God is living to eternity. (The New Jerusalem #223)

Okay, that answers the latest Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life before a reader named Lucas even had a chance to ask it! Here’s the short version:

Similar to others in this blog, I too detest the idea of reincarnation. However, where I differ from others is that my ideal wish, so to speak, is not heaven or an afterlife, but permanent cessation of consciousness, annihilation of my being.

I’ll post Lucas’s full spiritual conundrum in a moment.

But the short, no-beating-around-the-bush answer is: I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to keep on living to eternity. Once a human consciousness is created, it can never be extinguished. That’s because, as Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) says, our human consciousness can form a relationship with God. And since God is eternal, any conscious relationship with God is also eternal.

What if we decide to reject God and reject any relationship with God. Then can our consciousness cease?

Sorry, but the answer is still “No.” Since we have the capability of having a relationship with God, that puts us in the “eternal” category even if we choose not to exercise that capability. Besides, even people who reject God still have a relationship with God. It’s just a bad relationship with God.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that eternity is a lot better than you think! It’s not “living forever” in an earthly, timebound sense. In fact, angels and spirits don’t even know what time is. Though we loosely say that we “live forever,” really, in the other world we live in an eternal now, just as animals do here on earth.

For more on asking God for oblivion, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, animal afterlife, animals, annihilationism, death, eternal now, eternity, heaven, hell, the afterlife, time and space
Posted in The Afterlife

How Did the People of Eden Live?

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Lee — Leave a comment

In a question posted on Christianity StackExchange a few years ago, a person named Ambrosia asked:

I’ve lately been interested in the life of the people in Eden. According to Emanuel Swedenborg, how separated is it from the life we are living today? How did husbands and wives interact? What were their daily routines or lifestyles?

You can see the original question on StackExchange here, and the StackExchange version of my answer here. The rest of this post is an edited and slightly expanded version of my answer.

In addition to providing a detailed verse-by-verse commentary on the two Creation stories in Genesis (not to mention the rest of the books of Genesis and Exodus), Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) wrote a fair amount about the people represented by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He even said that he was able to visit some of them in the part of heaven where they are still living today. Most of what he wrote is about their spiritual life. He didn’t say so much about their daily routines or lifestyles. However, what he did write about their lifestyles focuses on what their marriages were like, and on their social structures.

But first, we must clear up a common misconception: the idea that Adam and Eve were two literal people.

For more on the people of Eden, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Adam, Adam and Eve, Emanuel Swedenborg, Garden of Eden, humanity, innocence, love, marriage, peace, spiritual marriage, spiritual meaning, the Bible
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships, The Bible Re-Viewed

A Divine Rescue Mission

Posted on July 5, 2026 by Lee — 2 Comments

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. (Genesis 19:29)

Tales of brave rescue from the clutches of evil and from impending disaster have always been a staple of popular storytelling. Traditionally, a damsel in distress is rescued from death or dishonor, as in the ancient myth of Perseus and Andromeda, or in a more complicated plot, Helen of Troy. However, it is not always women who are saved from peril. For example, in the popular 1998 World War II movie Saving Private Ryan, the object of the rescue mission was a male soldier stationed behind enemy lines.

In Genesis 19, it is a whole family that needs rescuing. And the rescuers are not soldiers or heroes with winged feet, but angels acting for God.

In the previous article in this series we looked at the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we passed over the parts about the rescue of Lot and his wife and two daughters. As I said in that article, the destruction of those cities is all about the inevitable destruction that we bring upon ourselves when we persist in evil ways of living. It is also about the destruction of evil motives and false ideas within us when we are willing to be led by God. And in the case of Jesus, it is about his battling and overcoming all the influences of evil and hell that tried to destroy him.

In overcoming hell and evil, Jesus took for himself the power to rescue us from the grip of evil, too. That is what the sections of Genesis 19 we are covering this time (which I recommend that you read using this link) are all about.

For more on God rescuing Lot, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, Jesus Christ, Lot, mercy, rescue, Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

How Can We Believe What the Gospels Say about Jesus?

Posted on June 29, 2026 by Lee — Leave a comment

Recently a reader named Gary submitted a Spiritual Conundrum to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life in which he asked, among other things:

The Angel appearing to the Three Marys at the Sepulchre, by William Blake, 1803

I want to understand how you, from a Swedenborgian perspective, conclude that Jesus’ stories are true. How do we know Jesus actually rose from the dead when we don’t have any clear written documentation outside of these Gospels?

I’ll give Gary’s full spiritual conundrum in a moment. First, here are the basic points I’ll cover in response to his questions:

The Gospels were written when people who knew Jesus were still alive.
The four Gospels are each written with a different audience in mind.
The Gospels agree about the most important parts of Jesus’ life.
The Gospels are more focused on delivering a spiritual message than on historical accuracy.
The spiritual meaning of the Gospels is what’s most important.
Spiritual knowledge comes from revelation, not from science and history.

Let’s dig into it.

For more on the believability of the Gospels, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: God, Jerusalem, Jesus, material reality, resurrection, Revelation, spiritual meaning, spiritual reality, Swedenborg, the Bible, the empty tomb
Posted in All About God, The Bible Re-Viewed

Swedenborgian Thoughts on Vedic Philosophy

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Lee — Leave a comment

Recently a reader from Germany named Michelle submitted a Spiritual Conundrum to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life asking for my thoughts on some Vedic (Hindu) ideas quoted from an article by Swiss poet and thinker Armin Risi. Michelle began by saying:

I find the teachings of Swedenborg and your in-depth and insightful articles here on your blog really helpful. And I have read (among others) your article, “If God is Love, Why all the Pain and Suffering?” Here’s what I’m struggling with: Swedenborg said that we are kept in the balance of good and evil forces. That implies that good and evil are equivalent—but are they? It is usually portrayed that way. (link added)

Her conundrum goes on to quote long sections of the article, adding some of her own comments along the way.

First, thank you for your kind words, Michelle! I am very glad you are finding the articles here helpful. That’s what this bog is all about.

I would be happy to provide some thoughts from a Swedenborgian perspective in response to Mr. Risi’s presentation of Vedic ideas. Full disclosure: I am only lightly acquainted with Vedic philosophy. I make no claim to any expertise in that area. I can’t even say how closely Mr. Rishi’s statements match core Vedic philosophy. Here, I will simply respond to his statements as they stand, from my own Swedenborgian Christian perspective.

Short answer to your initial question: Good and evil are opposites. Evil is a distorted mirror image of good.

During our lifetime on earth, God keeps us in a balance between good and evil forces so that we can be free to choose which one we want for ourselves. The good comes from God through heaven. The evil comes from hell. God, who rules both heaven and hell, makes sure neither one gets too much stronger than the other and takes away our freedom. But once we move on to the spiritual world, we go either to heaven, where we live in good, or to hell, where we live in evil.

For more on Swedenborg and Vedic philosophy, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Armin Risi, dualism, duality, Emanuel Swedenborg, God, good and evil, Hinduism, peace, polarity, Vedic Philosophy, war
Posted in Science Philosophy and History

Can We Trust Anything Near-Death Experiencers Say?

Posted on May 17, 2026 by Lee — 4 Comments

Not long ago a reader named David submitted a Spiritual Conundrum to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life asking about near-death experiences (NDEs), why they’re so contradictory, and whether we can trust anything near-death experiencers (NDEers) say. He is also struggling with hellish NDEs. Is hell really the horrible, hopeless place described in some NDEs and in traditional Christian literature? Doesn’t this contradict how Swedenborg describes hell? David is so distressed about all the conflicting claims that he’s struggling with fear, and with his faith.

I’ll post David’s full spiritual conundrum in a moment. But here are a few basic points to get you started. I’ll cover them one by one after presenting David’s full question:

People’s experiences in their NDEs and their beliefs are two different things.
Angels use our existing beliefs to motivate us toward love and understanding.
NDEs are only a brief taste of the spiritual world, not a comprehensive tour.
NDEs take place in “the world of spirits,” not in heaven or hell.
The world of spirits is customized to our current beliefs and state of mind.
NDEs, including hellish NDEs, are more like movies than real life.
God and the angels know who will die permanently and who will return to earth.
NDEs give people the experience and message they need for their continued life on earth.

About Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) vs. NDEs, keep in mind that Swedenborg spent almost three decades regularly visiting the spiritual world and traveling throughout heaven, hell, and the world of spirits, where we first arrive after death. Unlike NDEers, who spend anywhere from a few minutes to a few days in the spiritual world, Swedenborg had ongoing experience of the spiritual world that continued for many years. Based on that extensive experience, was able to gain a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of its workings and the lay of the land.

In short, NDEs are a valuable source of varied first-hand experience about the afterlife. But if you’re looking for a solid understanding of the afterlife, Swedenborg is your guy.

For more on Swedenborg and near-death experiences, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, Christian beliefs, Emanuel Swedenborg, hell, hellfire, near-death experiences, reincarnation, spiritualism, the afterlife, the spiritual world, the world of spirits
Posted in The Afterlife

The Christian Church is in its End Times. What Comes Next?

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Lee — 6 Comments

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:1–2)

Even when the Christian Church was first beginning, the Bible predicted that its end would come. People have been waiting for those end times for two thousand years now, expecting great cataclysms before the epochal Second Coming of Christ.

But according to Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), we are in those end times right now. In fact today, two or three centuries after Swedenborg said this, the New Jerusalem is already coming down out of heaven from God.

How can this be? Where are all the great wars and cataclysms that are supposed to come before the end?

These, according to Swedenborg, are not earthly, material wars and cataclysms, but spiritual ones. And they are already happening all around us as the old, traditional Christian Church dies out, and a new spiritual paradigm replaces it.

What will this “new church” look like? I’ve been scratching my head over that question for many years. And I finally have the beginnings of an answer!

For more on the end and the new beginning, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: ancient Judaism, Christianity, end times, faith, Israel, Jesus Christ, love, new Jerusalem, obedience, service, the Bible, The New Jerusalem
Posted in Science Philosophy and History

Sodom and Gomorrah

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Lee — 2 Comments

Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities, and also the vegetation in the land. (Genesis 19:24–25)

Genesis 19 is one of the most difficult stories in the Bible.

In the previous article in this series we covered a much nicer story—but it was leading up to the destruction that happens in this chapter. In the previous article, we talked about Abraham pleading for Sodom: how he went through the fifty, the forty-five, the forty, the thirty, the twenty, and the ten, pleading with God to see if there was any way the city could be saved. We talked about how this speaks of the great mercy of God: that if there is anything good and true left in us that God can reach out to, God will reach out to us, and will bring us out of the evil, meaning out of the destruction.

In this article we will look at the question: What if we completely reject goodness and truth, and choose evil instead? How does God deal with us when we entirely reject everything good? When we entirely reject God? When there is nothing good and true left in us because we refuse to let it be there, or we corrupt anything good and true in us for our own selfish purposes?

For more on Sodom and Gomorrah, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: bible, Christianity, Consider the Consequences, evil, Genesis, God, homosexuality, salvation, selfishness, sin of Sodom, Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Bible
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

Why did God take 14 Billion Years to Create the Physical World?

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Lee — 10 Comments

Recently in the comments section of one of the articles here, a reader named World Questioner asked:

Why did God take 15 billion years to create the physical world? Couldn’t he have done it in just six days? What is a good reason for God to have all species descended from a common single-celled ancestor? Couldn’t he make all species distinct and create each creature to reproduce after its kind? Why did God decide humans should be descended from apes? Couldn’t the first humans have just been created separately, distinct from all animals?

You can see the comment here, and my original response here. This article is an edited and expanded version of my original reply.

Hi World Questioner,

All these questions zero in on a single aspect of how God creates things:

God creates things, not instantaneously, but by using step-by-step processes. Nothing just pops into existence. Everything develops over time.

Why?

It’s a very good question. I’m still thinking about it.

One answer is that God is working with material reality, which is pliable, but also resistant to change. Compared to divine reality, which operates outside of time altogether, and is present in all time and space simultaneously, and compared to spiritual reality, which also has no time and space as we know it, but which does have distance and nearness and a sequence of events, material reality exists within space and time. In material reality, things must unfold over spatial distances and on temporal time scales. This means that doing things instantaneously is contrary to the very nature of physical reality.

Why did God create material reality in this way?

For more on the design of the material universe, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: cosmology, Creation, evolution, God, life in the universe, material reality, process, science and religion, the universe, time, time and space
Posted in Science Philosophy and History

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