Bridge of Reason

  Also known as The New Church or The Church of New Jerusalem, Swedenborgianism has been around since the late eighteenth century. This new religious movement developed around the writings of the scientist and Swedish Lutheran theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg was an exceptional scientist writing over thirty scientific papers, but he decided to leave his profession to write and speak on spiritual matters. He became convinced that he was to bring about a revival of Christianity, so he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in this pursuit. Like numerous founders of new religious movements, Swedenborg declared himself called of God to restore apostate Christianity. However, his account of being ‘chosen’ is a cause for concern: I went to my room, but that night the same man revealed himself to me again. I was not frightened then. He said that He was the Lord God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world, and that He had chosen me to declare to men the spiritual conte...

  ‘ But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved.’’ (Acts 15:1) In Acts 15 we see people who follow Paul around, questioning his message of grace, pressing the case for rules that they alone, of course, would teach and apply. These were likely the Pharisees of verse 5. Setting themselves up as authority figures , they insisted Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to become Christians. Y ou may throw at them as many grace verses as you like, their answer will always be the same familiar, ‘I know what it says, but this is what it means. Believe me, I am an authority on these things. I have been to the top of the mountain and have the anointing ’ Former cultists will find this so familiar, indeed I remember saying this myself. The message of the gospel of grace - saved by grace, through faith in Christ, works following - is so clear in the Bible. Yet there will always be th...

I am so honoured to be with you, and what an encouragement to the body of Christ and to you Mother Moon, for your tireless efforts and your work as you have continued to bring faith leaders from all over the world to work together in peace and unification, to bring together people for the better cause. I congratulate you.    Paula White     Recently, the former chair of the evangelical advisory board in Donald Trump's administration , Paula White, spoke at an event called The World Christian Leadership Conference. Did she not know that she was sharing the platform with a cult leader? If she did know, did this bother her? Is it possible that Paul White, the Word of Faith prosperity preacher had never heard of The Unification Church (The Moonies)? M...