The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. (Matthew 18:23)
Debits and Credits
A Fish Story To End All Fish Stories
The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into baskets, but threw the bad away. (Matthew 13:47–48)
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Finders, Keepers
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When someone found it, he hid it again. Then in his joy he went and sold all he had, and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:44–46)
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Trials and Fermentations
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. (Matthew 13:33)
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Tagged with: Emanuel Swedenborg, heaven, Heaven and Hell, hell, Parable of the Yeast, parables, Parables of the Kingdom, spiritual meaning, spiritual rebirth, Swedenborg, the Bible
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed
Littlest to Biggest
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds; yet when it has grown it is the largest of the plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and roost in its branches. (Matthew 13:31–32)
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Wheat? Or Weeds?
The kingdom of heaven is like someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. (Matthew 13:24–25)
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The Kingdom of Heaven is Near!
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” (Matthew 4:17)
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Introduction: On Earth as it is In Heaven
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
For the Introduction to On Earth is it is In Heaven, please click here.
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Tagged with: Christian sermons, Emanuel Swedenborg, heaven, Heaven and Hell, Jesus Christ, Sermons, spirituality, Swedenborg, Swedenborgian sermons, the Bible, the Lord's Prayer
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed
Posted in Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed
On Earth as it is In Heaven, by Lee Woofenden – Online Edition
Dear Readers,
In 2005 I published a book containing a series of sermons that I had preached a couple of years earlier. Here is the description from the back cover (links added):
On Earth as it is In Heaven
Reflections on Jesus’ Parables of the Kingdom
and Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell has always been Emanuel Swedenborg’s most popular book—and for good reason. Yet here we all are, living on earth, not in heaven. What good is talking about heaven if it doesn’t make a difference for our lives here on earth?
Jesus responds with: “On earth as it is in heaven.” You can think of this book as a commentary on that one line from the Lord’s Prayer. What does it mean for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven? What is God’s will, anyway? And how do we do it here on earth?
Another way of asking these questions is: How do we make earth more like heaven?
In eleven reflections originally preached as sermons in the fall of 2003 at the New Jerusalem Church in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the Rev. Lee Woofenden explores this question, drawing on Jesus’ Parables of the Kingdom from the Gospel of Matthew for inspiration, and using Swedenborg’s spiritual classic Heaven and Hell as a guide.
You are invited to delve into these pages and seek out many pearls of wisdom about the kingdom of heaven, and its practical meaning for our everyday lives on earth.
Since this little book is currently out of print, I have decided to post it chapter-by-chapter here on Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life. I hope you will find it enjoyable and enlightening.
Update: As of December 31, 2018, On Earth as it is In Heaven is back in print! To review or purchase it in paperback on Amazon, click either of the title links above. To review or purchase the Kindle version, click here.
For the Table of Contents, please click here.
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Response to a Calvinist Critique of my article “Faith Alone Does Not Save”
In a recent comment, a reader named Robert B. asked for my response to an article by a Calvinist teacher named John Calahan. That article, which I’ll link for you in a moment, is a critique of my article, “Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does.”
Why am I responding to Mr. Calahan’s critique?
Because one of my readers asked me to.
Why am I responding at length?
Because the terribly false, unbiblical, and unloving beliefs that “Christian” leaders such as Mr. Calahan and his Calvinist comrades teach are destroying Christianity and driving millions of thoughtful, good-hearted people away from Jesus Christ and the Bible.
John Calvin
John Calvin (1509–1564) took Martin Luther’s newly invented doctrine of justification by faith alone and made it even worse by adding doctrines such as total depravity and predestination to create a highly toxic mix. The most insidious and blasphemous element of Calvin’s doctrine is the assertion that God had already chosen before Creation who would go to heaven and who would go to hell.
Calvinists say that God created most people specifically for eternal torture in hell, regardless of how good and loving they may be. Mahatma Gandhi, they say, is now roasting in the eternal flames of hell because God had already decided that Gandhi was going to hell long before he was born.
When thoughtful, good-hearted people today hear these unjust, bigoted, and hateful beliefs being preached in the name of Christianity, they run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.
It’s bad enough for the Lutheran branch of Protestantism to say that only people who believe in Jesus are saved, and most of the world’s population is going to hell. But the Calvinists say you don’t even have a choice. God sends most people to hell just because that’s what God wants to do. And we humans have no right to question God’s outrageous actions.
This is nothing like what Jesus teaches in the Bible. It blasphemes the name of God. It misrepresents and slanders Jesus Christ and every other teacher in the Bible.
That’s why young people today are fleeing Christianity in droves. They are either becoming “spiritual but not religious” or are moving all the way over to agnosticism and atheism.
And that’s why I am responding at length to Mr. Calahan’s article.
For more on the toxicity of Calvinism, please click here to read on.
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Tagged with: Calvinism, Christianity, faith alone, fundamentalism, John Calvin, Martin Luther, predestination, Protestantism, salvation, the Bible
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed
Posted in The Bible Re-Viewed
Lee & Annette Woofenden
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Great Truths on Great Subjects
By Jonathan Bayley
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Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 