“Get Out of My Country”? Whose Country Is It, Anyway?

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Lee — 14 Comments

Srinivas Kuchibhotla (1984-2017) and his wife (now widow) Sunayana Dumala

“Get out of my country!”

That’s what a distraught and rather drunk man shouted just before he shot three people in a bar in Olathe, Kansas on February 22, 2017. Two of the men he shot were skilled engineers from India who worked for technology giant Garmin at its Olathe headquarters. The third was an American man, a regular at the bar, who tried to intervene. One of the Indian men was killed in the attack.

You can read the whole story in this news article that ran two days after the shooting: “‘Get out of my country,’ Kansan reportedly yelled before shooting 2 men from India, killing one.” For more background and details, see “2017 Olathe, Kansas shooting” on Wikipedia.

Of course, this was a terrible crime, and the perpetrator will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. But the wrongfulness of the crime has already been heavily covered in the regular news media.

Beyond that, what really struck me was the words that the perpetrator yelled.

“Get out of my country”?

Whose country is it, anyway?

Psalm 24:1 says:

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it.

And last I checked, the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag still ended:

One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.

Where does this guy get off thinking it’s his country? I thought it was supposed to be God’s country!

For more on whose country it is, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: 2017 Olathe Kansas shooting, Alok Madasani, foreigners, Ian Grillot, ownership, property ownership, racism, resident aliens, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, violence
Posted in Current Events

Facing our Demons of Darkness, Depression, and Mental Illness – Part 2

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Lee — 50 Comments

In Part 1 we looked at the issue of mental illness through the lens of the story of Jesus healing a demon-possessed man in Mark 5:1–20. One of the points made in that article was that mental illness is not some separate category of human experience. Rather it is part of a continuum of inner struggles that all of us face against the darker and more difficult parts of our character and circumstances here on earth, whether or not a psychiatrist has diagnosed us as mentally ill.

The Bible, understood on a deeper level, tells the story of the spiritual life of each one of us (see “Can We Really Believe the Bible?”). The story of Jesus’ healing of that demon-possessed man applies spiritually to every one of us. We each face our own inner demons, and we each need God’s help in casting those demons out. At the end of Part 1, I left you with the thought that in the same way the demon-possessed man had to approach and kneel down in front of Jesus in order to be restored to health and sanity, our mental, emotional, and spiritual healing begins when we approach God and place our life in God’s care and keeping.

Shortly after the events of the Gospel story covered in Part 1, Jesus returned to his home town of Nazareth. There, unlike in the foreign territory across the Jordan River where he healed the demon-possessed man, the people did not accept him. In fact, they took offense at this local boy presuming to teach them in their synagogue. Because of their lack of faith, the Bible narrative tells us, “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them” (Mark 6:5).

Jesus then sent his twelve disciples out two-by-two. And:

They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. (Mark 6:12–13)

You can read the whole story in Mark 6:1–13.

Who are the people of Jesus’ home town today? They are the people who call themselves Christians.

For more on facing our inner demons, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Christianity, demon possession, Jesus Christ, mental health, mental illness, pain, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, Swedenborg, the Bible
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

Facing our Demons of Darkness, Depression, and Mental Illness – Part 1

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Lee — 28 Comments

These days we don’t talk much about demon possession.

The Exorcist movie poster

Yes, popular horror films such as The Exorcist, with their graphic portrayals of demonic possession, do make the rounds in our culture. But most respected health professionals think that a belief in possession by demons is an irrational throwback to earlier, more superstitious times. Today we have a much more scientific view of life than they did in Biblical times. What they called demon possession, we call mental illness.

This is based on a secular worldview that does not accept the reality of the spiritual world—or at least holds that if there is a spiritual realm, it has no noticeable effect on the material world in which we live. Today, the educated leaders of Western society think more in terms of science than in terms of spirit. Even most Christians in the West consider an insane person to be “mentally ill” rather than “demon-possessed.”

And that’s not all bad. There certainly is less social stigma attached to being mentally ill than to being demon-possessed.

But it is also a symptom of the reluctance of educated people today to accept the idea that there are spiritual forces—let alone spiritual personalities—influencing us all the time. Science aims to explain everything through purely physical and biological processes, without resorting to unseen entities from another realm. And just as most people today no longer believe that evil spirits cause physical illness, we are also trained to think of mental illness as the result of malfunctions of the brain rather than of evil influences from spiritual realms.

This certainly does take away much of the fear and social stigma associated with the idea of demon possession. But from a spiritual perspective, it also takes away some of the most powerful ways to approach what we now call mental illness.

Yes, the medical and psychiatric world has some impressive tools at its command for controlling mental illness. But their methods commonly come at the expense of not dealing with the deeper causes. They tend to control, but not cure, the mental and emotional instability that plagues those who struggle and suffer with conditions that could aptly be called a personal hell.

A Beautiful Mind movie poster

And the drugs prescribed by psychiatrists commonly have their own side-effects, which can include a numbing of the thoughts and emotions of the people who use them. That’s one of the reasons mathematician John Nash (1928–2015) ultimately chose not to take the psychiatric drugs prescribed by his doctors, as dramatized in the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind.

What can we say about mental illness from a spiritual perspective?

For more on facing our inner demons, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: demon possession, demonic possession, exorcism, Jesus Christ, mental health, mental illness, spiritual meaning, spirituality, Swedenborg, the Bible
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Spiritual Growth, The Bible Re-Viewed

Is There a Common Theme in All Religions?

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Lee — 26 Comments

Here is a Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by a reader named Mike:

Religions of the World

I believe in God. But I don’t really know why. How can this be reconciled? I was saved as a Christian but I feel a connection for other faiths even Hinduism and Buddhism. I see truth in many areas of religion and spirituality. What is the most important message that God has for us according to each of the major (and minor) religions of the world? Is there a common theme?

Great question, Mike!

Of course, it would be impossible to say what’s the most important message according to each and every major and minor religion of the world. There are thousands, if not millions of ’em! However, there are some common themes that run through most of the religions of the world:

Believe in, love, and honor God.
Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things.
Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for your neighbor instead.

Jesus summed it all up in the two Great Commandments:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

(See Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–37.)

What? The two lists aren’t the same? Yes they are! Let’s take a closer look.

For more on the common themes of religion, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Buddhism, Christianity, God, Hinduism, interfaith, love, neighbor, religion, spirituality, world religions
Posted in All About God, Spiritual Growth

Will Sick or Disabled People Return to Good Health in the Spiritual World?

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Lee — 24 Comments

Here is a Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by a reader named A. Watson:

My father suffered a stroke before he died and was left unable to speak and paralysed. I would like to know if he, and others, are healed in the spiritual world and return to good health. I have been waiting for a sign from him since he passed and have been worried that he is stuck in the same state and unable to contact me. This is contrary to what I have always believed and I know he would be unhappy in that state which bothers me as I hope he is at peace.

Thanks for the good question, A. Watson. I’m sorry to hear about the stroke your father suffered before his death. I hope I will be able to put your mind at ease.

Here is the short answer:

A stroke victim

When we die and move on to the spiritual world, we leave our physical body behind, and live in our spiritual body instead. We therefore also leave behind any handicaps or sicknesses that have purely physical causes. In other words, since your father has now left his physical body behind, the stroke that affected his physical body is no longer a factor in the spiritual world where he now lives.

Ordinarily, when we leave our physical body behind, we also leave behind all of its handicaps and illnesses.

However, for people who strongly identify with their handicap or sickness, there may be some time period in the spiritual world when it still persists. That’s because our spiritual body responds directly and immediately to our thoughts and feelings. So if being sick or handicapped is a strong part of our identity as a person, our spiritual body may reflect that for a shorter or longer time.

Some people who have been sick or handicapped for a long time may also need some time to adjust to having a healthy, fully functional body. So there may be a transition period for them as well when they enter the spiritual world.

But for people who hate their physical sicknesses and handicaps, long for full health and fitness, and are fit and healthy in their minds, their physical limitations and maladies will be immediately removed upon death, and they will enjoy full physical and mental health right away.

I see no reason why this wouldn’t be the case for your father.

Let’s take a closer look.

(Image credit: WalesOnline)

For more on sickness and health in the spiritual world, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: disabled people, disease, handicapped people, health, heaven, illness, mental illness, physical health, sickness, spiritual health, strokes
Posted in Pain and Suffering, The Afterlife

Did Jesus ever actually say, “If you don’t believe in me you will go to hell”?

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Lee — 37 Comments

The question is:

Did Jesus ever actually say, “If you don’t believe in me you will go to hell”?

Short answer: No, Jesus never actually said that.

He did say some things that seem to imply it, and that are often interpreted that way. But in those instances, the context shows it is never mere lack of belief in Jesus (as that is usually understood today) that he said would cause a person to go to hell.

Let’s look at:

What Jesus said in the Gospels specifically about hell.
Two of the passages most commonly interpreted to mean that Jesus says that those who don’t believe in him will go to hell.
Jesus’ clearest and most direct teaching about who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.

For more on what Jesus said about hell, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: belief, faith, Gehenna, Hades, hell, Jesus Christ, religion, salvation, the Bible
Posted in The Afterlife, The Bible Re-Viewed

Will Happily Married Couples be Together in Heaven?

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Lee — 261 Comments

The first article in this series, “Didn’t Jesus Say There’s No Marriage in Heaven?” responded to a Spiritual Conundrum from a reader named Nita, in which she wrote:

Wedding Rings

I am widow and a believer in Jesus Christ. . . . I am so lonely without my husband of 38 years, we did everything together, even in the ministry. Will we be together in heaven? Jesus told the religious leaders that there will be no marriage in heaven. I miss my husband so much, my life without him has been turned upside down. Many tell me move on with my life and find someone else. He was my soulmate. Please help me understand! Thank you. I still trust God and love him.

Sincerely,

Very Sad Widow

As I said in that first article, contrary to popular belief Jesus did not say that there’s no marriage in heaven!

The second article, “Marriage in the Resurrection: The Deeper Meaning,” goes into much greater depth on Jesus’ teaching about marriage in the afterlife. If you want all the nitty-gritty details, or you’ve been told by your minister or priest that there’s no marriage in heaven and you’re skeptical of anyone who says otherwise, I invite you to read those two articles.

In this third and final article in the series, I’ll simply deliver the good and comforting news to this Very Sad Widow, and to every other widow and widower who dearly loved a partner in marriage—not to mention everyone who is happily married and is deeply troubled by the words in the traditional Christian wedding vows, “till death do us part.” That news is:

Your marriage will continue after death. You will live with your beloved husband or wife forever in heaven. The two of you will continue to grow together in love, understanding, happiness, and joy to all eternity. Death has no power over what God has joined together.

In his book Marriage Love, originally published in 1768, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) provides a detailed description of what happens for married couples after death. In the rest of this article we’ll quote and expand upon a few key passages from that book about man, woman, and the afterlife, and what happens there for happily married couples.

For more on eternal marriage, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Emanuel Swedenborg, eternal marriage, heaven, love, marriage, marriage in heaven, relationships, sex, spiritual marriage, spirituality, Swedenborg
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships, The Afterlife

Marriage in the Resurrection: The Deeper Meaning

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Lee — 108 Comments

Are you in a happy marriage that you hope will continue forever in heaven? Has your beloved husband or wife died, and you hope and pray that you will be able to rejoin him or her when it comes your time to die? Do you long for a loving and eternally growing marriage even if you haven’t yet experienced it yourself?

If so, you are certainly not alone. And the news is better than you’ve been told!

Traditional Christian churches teach that there is no marriage in heaven. In the previous article, “Didn’t Jesus Say There’s No Marriage in Heaven?” we looked closely at Jesus’ words to the Sadducees, which is where they got that idea:

The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. (Luke 20:34–36)

That article made these three points, focusing mostly on the first one:

Marriage in Jesus’ day, and throughout most of human history, was not what many people today think of as marriage: a relationship based on love and a union of mind and heart. Rather, it was a legal and social arrangement that granted certain rights and privileges to married people and their children. These legal rights and privileges are unnecessary in the afterlife. The marriage that doesn’t exist in heaven is legal marriage, not spiritual marriage.
Jesus simply didn’t say that there is no marriage in heaven. He said people don’t get married in heaven. In other words, his statement was about the act of getting married, not the state of being married. And spiritually, we get married here on earth, not in heaven.
Jesus says elsewhere that marriage was created by God from the beginning. And what God does is not temporary, but eternal. The human institution of legal marriage that exists on earth is temporary, and does not exist in heaven. But true spiritual marriage is made by God, and is therefore eternal.

In this second article in a series of three, we will expand on the second and third points, which were covered only briefly in the first article. In looking at the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words we will draw on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).

Whether or not you have already experienced a close and loving marriage relationship, here is the good news: true spiritual marriage does last forever. And people who long for it will experience it in heaven even if they don’t find it here on earth.

That is, we will experience it if we do the work of spiritual rebirth that is our primary task during our lifetime here on earth. In fact, that is the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words about marriage in the resurrection.

This is a huge topic! But if you truly want a deeper understanding of Jesus’ words, I invite you to settle in for a brain-bending and spiritually challenging read.

For more eternal marriage and spiritual rebirth, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, Emanuel Swedenborg, eternal marriage, heaven, love, marriage, marriage in heaven, relationships, spiritual marriage, spirituality, the Bible
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships, Spiritual Growth, The Afterlife

Didn’t Jesus Say There’s No Marriage in Heaven?

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Lee — 152 Comments

Contrary to popular belief, Jesus did not say that there’s no marriage in heaven. What he did say is that people who achieve eternal life don’t get married in the afterlife. There’s a big difference!

Elderly lovers

Further, marriage in Jesus’ day was very different from what many people think of as marriage today. It had nothing to do with “true love,” “soulmates,” or any inner connection at all. Believe it or not, the concept of marriage as a relationship based on love developed in human society only within the last two or three centuries, and it has become widespread only within the last half century or so.

For Jesus’ listeners, and throughout most of human history, marriage was what we today would call a contractual and business relationship. Its purpose was to provide financial advantages and social recognition to married couples and their clans, and to perpetuate the family’s lineage, property, and inheritance. And as Jesus said, that sort of marriage does not exist in heaven. There is no need for it there.

And yet, there is more to Jesus’ words than meets the eye. Jesus was a master of metaphor and parable. If we look at his words more deeply, we can learn a great deal about what kind of marriage does and doesn’t exist in heaven. And more importantly, we can learn a great deal about how to live here on earth so that we can experience real, eternal marriage in heaven.

Yes, there is marriage in heaven. We’ll get to that, and to the deeper message of Jesus’ words, in the next two articles.

In this article, we’ll look at exactly what Jesus did and didn’t say about marriage and the afterlife. Though it may get a little detailed and technical at times, that is necessary in order to dispel the myths and misunderstandings about marriage and the afterlife that have been rampant in Christianity for nearly two thousand years now.

If you don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty, but just want the basics about spiritual marriage and the afterlife, please read this article instead: “How does Marriage Fit In with a Spiritual Life? Is There Marriage in Heaven?”

However, if your minister or priest has told you there’s no marriage in heaven because Jesus said so, and you need something more solid and comprehensive to put your mind (and your heart) at rest, then this is the article for you.

For more on marriage and the afterlife, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: angels, eternal marriage, heaven, Jesus Christ, love, marriage, marriage in heaven, relationships, spiritual marriage, the Bible
Posted in Sex Marriage Relationships, The Afterlife, The Bible Re-Viewed

A Star in the East

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Lee — 10 Comments

For a video reading of this article on YouTube, click here.

Matthew 2:1–12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. He called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, and asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written, ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

Herod called the wise men secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go, make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another way.

A star in the east

For more on a star in the east, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Bethlehem, Christianity, Christmas, east, Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, spiritual meaning, star, the Bible, the sun, wise men
Posted in All About God, The Bible Re-Viewed

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Matthew 2:1–12

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