The Bible Doesn’t Say It!

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Lee — 6 Comments

The Bible

I’ve written a new article on “Christian Beliefs” that the Bible Doesn’t Teach. Its purpose is to show that many old, traditional, and common “Christian beliefs” are not actually taught in the Bible, even though many people think they are.

This article will occupy a prominent place here on Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life. It may also be updated from time to time with additional “Christian beliefs” that are not taught in the Bible.

Here’s how it starts:

Q: What do the “Christian beliefs” in the list below have in common?

A: None of them are taught by the Bible.

“Christian beliefs” that the Bible doesn’t teach:

There is a Trinity of Persons in God

We are saved by faith alone

Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins

The Bible is inerrant

Only Christians can be saved

All of these beliefs were originated by human beings hundreds or even thousands of years after the Bible was written.

Are they wrong? I think so. But the purpose of this article isn’t to show that they’re wrong. It’s to show that even though millions of Christians believe them, they are not actually taught by the Bible. They are human interpretations.

To read the whole article, please follow this link:

“Christian Beliefs” that the Bible Doesn’t Teach

If you like it, please tell your friends. Thank you.

Enjoy!

Tagged with: biblical inerrancy, Christian beliefs, Christianity, faith, faith alone, fundamentalism, God, Jesus Christ, pay the penalty, the Bible, the Trinity, Trinity of Persons, Vicarious Atonement
Posted in All About God, The Bible Re-Viewed

Is it Easy or Hard to Get to Heaven?

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Lee — 23 Comments

Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Echoing Jesus’ words, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) wrote, “It is not so hard to lead a heaven-bound life as people think it is” (Heaven and Hell #528).

A reader named Rob is not so sure. In a recently submitted spiritual conundrum he asks:

What if I cannot attain to the kind of life Swedenborg says I need to to go to heaven? The demands are too burdensome. I try and fail. Spectacularly.

Am I doing something wrong here? Are some people just born with a better disposition and can do the good easily?

Thanks, Rob, for the great questions!

My sense from what you write, and from your earlier comments here on Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life, is that life has been difficult and painful for you. You question in your heart whether someone like you can really find your way to happiness and to heaven. It seems to you unlikely, if not impossible. It seems that you may be fated for pain and sorrow, and for eternal darkness.

Is it really so easy to get to heaven? Or is it hard . . . maybe impossible? Is it even worth trying?

The short answer is: It’s both easy and hard to get to heaven.

As Swedenborg says, living a life that leads to heaven is really not all that hard. We don’t have to be perfect, pious people who spend all of our time praying and never have an evil thought. Mostly, we just have to avoid doing dishonest and destructive things, and make ourselves useful to our fellow human beings.

Unfortunately, there is often huge resistance, both within us and around us, to living the way our better self wants to live. We have an ideal for ourselves, and we just can’t seem to live up to it. We keep on thinking, wanting, and doing the things we swore we’d stop doing.

There are also a lot of misconceptions floating around about what type of person we have to be to get to heaven. Heaven has room for all different kinds of people, not just for the bubbly, cheerful types that are held up to us as shining examples of what a “real Christian” is supposed to look like. In fact, heaven needs all different types of people.

Even though you may think that with your particular character, disposition, struggles, and failures, there will be no room for you in heaven, it’s very possible that heaven needs someone exactly like you.

For more on the rocky path to heaven, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Emanuel Swedenborg, evil, failure, heaven, Heaven and Hell, hell, pain, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, success, suffering, temptation
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Spiritual Growth

Good News of Great Joy

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Lee — 9 Comments

The brightest star

At Christmastime, Christians celebrate the greatest event that has ever taken place—the greatest event that ever will take place. It is not a victory in war. It is not a world championship in sports. It is not a triumph of medicine or technology. It is not a great scientific breakthrough. It is not a political or economic breakthrough. It does not fit into any of our usual categories of great events. It is in a category all its own. It is unique in history. Though the world is still not sure exactly what happened, we number the years of our history forward and backward from this event.

What is the great event that forms the centerpiece of our world’s history?

It is the birth of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Not a great, flashy current event that would, in our day, have its brief moment of fame in the media and then be forgotten a few days, weeks, or years later. The birth of a baby. A birth that was noticed only by a few shepherds, prophets, and wise men who were told by angels. A birth that took place, not in the ornate halls of a royal palace, but in a village—and in that village, not in a comfortable bedroom in a house or inn, but in a place where animals lived.

That is how the God of the universe chose to come to us. “A bruised reed he will not break,” says the prophet (Isaiah 42:3). God did not want to overwhelm us with grand miracles, forcing on us a belief that would be only skin deep. No, God came to us gently, with the innocence of a baby—not demanding, but asking graciously for our faith, our love, and our obedience. The Lord stands and knocks at the door, waiting for us to open it and let him into our lives (Revelation 3:20).

For more good news of great joy, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: Advent, baby Jesus, Christianity, Christmas, God, great events, Jesus Christ, love, religion, spirituality, the Incarnation
Posted in All About God

How Can I Help a Loved One who is In an Abusive Relationship?

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Lee — 8 Comments

A reader named “Sister-In-Law” recently submitted a spiritual conundrum in which she describes the situation of her husband’s brother, “John” (not his real name), who is married to a woman who abuses him verbally and physically. The woman has a child from a previous marriage. The two of them also have one child together, and another one on the way.

Here are a few of the relevant pieces of information based on Sister-In-Law’s account:

John’s wife puts heavy pressure on him to make poor financial decisions and to leave his well-paying job, although she herself is not gainfully employed.
She is also distant and cruel to their children, and in general is not a good mother to them.
John is a great guy, but he does have a domestic violence charge against him from his high school years.

Not a pretty picture. But unfortunately, an all-too-common one. Whether it’s a man or a woman dishing out the abuse in a relationship, the result is a lot of terrible pain and suffering, and emotional scars that can last a lifetime.

Based on the situation she describes, here are Sister-In-Law’s questions:

My spiritual conundrum is this: HOW can I convince John, a macho guy who refuses to let anyone help him on small things, that he needs to get help for his marriage, his children, and himself? What can I say to him? How can I pray for them? The last is my biggest hurdle, because these things make me so angry every time I think about them that all I can do is ask God why this is happening. John is a great guy and deserves much, much better than this.

Let’s dig into these questions.

For more on helping loved ones who are in abusive relationships, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: abused men, abusive relationships, Anger Management, controlling behavior, domestic violence, Emerge, marriage, pain, prayer, relationships, responsibility, suffering, violence
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Sex Marriage Relationships

Nelson Mandela 1918-2013: From Revolution to Reconciliation

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Lee — 3 Comments

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

We are pleased to dedicate our 100^th post here on Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life to the memory of Nelson Mandela, who died this Thursday, December 5, at the age of 95.

In his younger years, Mandela gained notoriety as a divisive figure: a socialist revolutionary aiming to overthrow the harsh apartheid regime that ruled South Africa. But Mandela will not be remembered as a socialist revolutionary.

He spent twenty-seven years imprisoned under a life sentence on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government. And though his time in prison molded him into the person he was to become, Mandela will not be remembered as a political prisoner.

He was released from prison in 1990 under mounting international pressure, during a time of severe and increasing civil strife in South Africa.

Then began the events for which he will be remembered.

In 1994, as the first black president of South Africa, Mandela held the reins of power in his hands. He had seen the bloodshed and the civil and economic destruction that ravaged many African nations when their black majorities overthrew the ruling white elites. Despite the oppression under which he himself had suffered, he chose a different course.

This is what Nelson Mandela will be remembered for. He will be remembered as the man who led his nation toward multiracial democracy after years of racism and oppression. He will be remembered as the man who, having tasted violence and bloodshed, and having every reason to choose the path of revenge, chose instead the path of forgiveness and peace.

He will be remembered as the former revolutionary who led his country to reconciliation, and showed the entire world that constructive peace and understanding among former enemies is both possible and achievable.

Perhaps his greatest testament is that at his death, he was mourned equally by blacks and whites in his own country, and by people of every race throughout the world.

Tagged with: Apartheid, forgiveness, justice, Nelson Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, peace, political prisoners, racism, reconciliation, revolution, revolutionaries, South Africa, violence
Posted in Current Events

To Train Up A Child, or: Spare the Rod? What Rod?

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Lee — 34 Comments

Larry and Carri Williams

On October 29, 2013, Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro Woolley, Washington, were sentenced to 28 and 37 years in prison, respectively, for causing the death of their adopted daughter Hana Williams just after midnight on May 12, 2011. She was approximately 13 years old. She died of hypothermia and malnutrition after being systematically beaten, starved, and forced outside in the cold by her adoptive parents as punishment for her “rebelliousness.”

Hana Williams, 1997-2011

The Williamses had adopted Hana just three years earlier in 2008. The last year of her life was particularly brutal. In that year she lost 30 pounds due to her parents withholding food from her as punishment. Weighing only 78 pounds at the time of her death, her body was covered with welts and bruises from the beatings her parents had administered. They regularly punished her for such “offenses” as refusing to stand in a twelve inch circle that they had ordered her to stand in.

This was the third death linked to the child-raising practices advocated by Michael and Debi Pearl in their 1994 book To Train Up A Child.

Sean Paddock, 4, of Johnston County, North Carolina, died of suffocation at the hands of his adoptive mother, Lynn Paddock, on February 26, 2006. She had been systematically spanking her children according to the Pearls’ advice.
Lydia Schatz, 7, of Paradise, California, died on February 6, 2010, as a result of hours of beating by her adoptive parents, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz. Her “offense” in her final beating was that she had mispronounced a word in her reading exercises.

All three of these families believed in the child-raising principles advocated in To Train Up A Child. And though they went far beyond what the Pearls advocate in the book, the deaths of their children were linked to beliefs and practices inculcated in them by the Pearls’ book.

In To Train Up A Child, the Pearls advocate “training” children to absolute obedience by systematically hitting them with instruments such as a plastic plumbing supply tube whenever they disobey commands—including contrived and arbitrary commands—given by their parents.

Michael Pearl runs a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called No Greater Joy Ministries. To Train Up A Child is its best-known product. He preaches at a small fundamentalist church in the town of Pleasantville, Tennessee, where he and his wife Debi live.

He claims that the methods of corporal punishment (or “spanking,” as he prefers to call it) in To Train Up A Child are based on the Bible. But as we will see, his methods are actually based on the principles of behaviorism that were developed by atheist scientists such as Ivan Pavlov and B. F. Skinner.

For more on the Bible, behaviorism, and the Pearls, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: behaviorism, corporal punishment, fundamentalism, Hana Alemu, Hana Alemu Williams, Hana Williams, Hanna Williams, Larry and Carri Williams, Lydia Schatz, Michael and Debi Pearl, Michael Pearl, punishment, Sean Paddock, spanking, spare the rod and spoil the child, To Train Up A Child, violence
Posted in Current Events, The Bible Re-Viewed

Viktor Frankl on Meaning in the Midst of Suffering

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Lee — 5 Comments

For Part 1 of this article, see “Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Work.”

For Part 2 of this article, see “Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Relationship: It’s All About Love and Understanding.”

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl

In the second part of Man’s Search for Meaning, psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl lists three different ways we can find meaning in life:

By creating a work or doing a deed
By experiencing something or encountering someone
By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering

In Part 3 of this article, we’ll look at finding meaning in the midst of suffering. On that subject, Viktor Frankl writes:

We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation—just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer—we are challenged to change ourselves.

As with Frankl’s views on meaning through work and meaning through relationship, this, too, is harmonious with Emanuel Swedenborg’s views on our spiritual rebirth or “regeneration.”

In fact, Swedenborg agrees with Frankl that when we are in the midst of suffering and struggle, that is precisely when we are at our most human. And though it may seem just the opposite to us at the time, it is also when God is closest to us.

Why are these things so?

Let’s take a closer look at what suffering and struggle are all about spiritually.

For more on Viktor Frankl and meaning in the midst of suffering, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: children of God, Emanuel Swedenborg, evil, existentialism, logotherapy, Man's Search for Meaning, pain, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, suffering, temptations, Victor Frankl, Viktor Frankl
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Science Philosophy and History, Spiritual Growth

Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Relationship: It’s All About Love and Understanding

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Lee — 3 Comments

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl in 1975

In the second part of Man’s Search for Meaning, psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl lists three different ways we can find meaning in life:

By creating a work or doing a deed
By experiencing something or encountering someone
By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering

Part 1 of this article, “Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Work,” explored Frankl’s first path to meaning by offering some supporting elements of the path of spiritual rebirth or “regeneration” described by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) two centuries earlier.

In Part 2, we’ll look at finding meaning by experiencing something or encountering someone. This, too, is harmonious with key parts of Swedenborg’s perspective on our path of spiritual rebirth. It’s all about love and understanding.

For more on Viktor Frankl and meaning through relationship, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: children of God, Creation, Emanuel Swedenborg, existentialism, logotherapy, love, Man's Search for Meaning, relationships, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, understanding, Victor Frankl, Viktor Frankl
Posted in Science Philosophy and History, Sex Marriage Relationships, Spiritual Growth

Viktor Frankl on Meaning through Work

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Lee — 3 Comments

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor Frankl in 1949

With over twelve million copies in print worldwide since it was originally published in 1959, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, has become a psychological and spiritual classic.

In it, Frankl recounts his experiences during three years in Auschwitz and several other Nazi concentration camps. And yet, as its title suggests, the message of Man’s Search for Meaning is not one of horror and despair, but one of meaning and of hope for humanity.

Instead of surrendering to hopelessness as many imprisoned victims of the Nazi regime did, Frankl viewed the horrors of the camps with a trained psychiatrist’s eye. In doing so, he found vindication for his view that the beauty and power of humanity is our ability to rise above even the worst suffering, and become greater than any barbarism that might be inflicted upon us.

Frankl proposes that in finding a meaning for our own particular life and circumstances, we can rise above hopelessness, depression, and the various neuroses that afflict us, and build a satisfying and worthwhile existence for ourselves. In the second part of Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl lists three different ways we can find meaning in life:

By creating a work or doing a deed

By experiencing something or encountering someone

By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering

These three paths to meaning in Frankl’s existential system of psychotherapy (which he named “logotherapy”) are harmonious with similar elements of the path of spiritual rebirth or “regeneration” described by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) two centuries earlier.

In Part 1 of this article we’ll look at finding meaning by creating a work or doing a deed.

For more on Viktor Frankl and meaning through work, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: architecture, Auschwitz, concentration camps, Emanuel Swedenborg, existentialism, logotherapy, Man's Search for Meaning, self-expression, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, Victor Frankl, Viktor Frankl, work
Posted in Pain and Suffering, Science Philosophy and History, Spiritual Growth

Personal Transformation: It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Lee — 8 Comments

SuEllen Fried

SuEllen Fried looks more like a grandmother than a group counselor for prisoners.

In fact, she is both.

In 1980, she began volunteering at Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kansas. That volunteer work became a lifetime commitment to the inmates. As reported in a recent CBS Evening News report, “Kansas prisoners get the granny treatment,” Mrs. Fried leads a program in the Kansas prisons called “Reaching Out from Within.”

Why does she do it?

“I am addicted to personal transformations,” she says.

And the program works. Although the national recidivism rate (prisoners who end out back in prison after their release) is roughly 50%, for those who attend Mrs. Fried’s program regularly the rate drops to less than 10%.

How does this sweet, grandmotherly woman accomplish such tremendous results?

For more on SuEllen Fried and personal transformation, please click here to read on.

Tagged with: It ain't over 'til it's over, Lansing Correctional Facility, personal transformation, prison, prisoners, Reaching Out from Within, recidivism, spiritual rebirth, spirituality, Sue Ellen Fried, SueEllen Fried, SuEllen Fried, the grandmother effect
Posted in Current Events, Spiritual Growth

	Fernando on Near-Death Experiences and the…
	Fernando on Where Does Our Soul Come From?…
	Fernando on Where Does Our Soul Come From?…
	Lee on Can We Really Believe the…
	World Questioner on God Is Unconvincing To Smart F…
	World Questioner on God Is Unconvincing To Smart F…
	Lee on Where Does Our Soul Come From?…
	World Questioner on God Is Unconvincing To Smart F…
	World Questioner on God Is Unconvincing To Smart F…
	World Questioner on Mats “Ibelin” Stee…
	World Questioner on Is It Okay to Masturbate in a…
	Lee on How can we have Faith when So…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Donate