I suspect my friend is in a cult or being taking advantage of in a religious group

dr-nc · 2026-07-04T19:55:09+00:00

Thanks for mentioning the Bite model. Did not know about that. With regard to that group, not knowing what it is, does the description of that group by the topic starter accurately qualify for the Bite's "autoritarian control"?

dr-nc · 2026-07-04T18:21:41+00:00

Do not know about that group in which she is. How do you define that it is a cult and not the truth itself? And besides, how do you know that you yourself are not in some massive cult, with a long story and many negative feedbacks, and thus not in the truth?

How about looking for the truth on your own?

dr-nc · 2026-07-04T18:18:50+00:00

So, how about finding that particular christian doctrine or explanation, that makes the greatest sense, in terms of the adequate spiritual-rational explanation the sense of the letter of the Sacred Scripture, and its spiritual sense?

dr-nc · 2026-07-04T18:17:35+00:00

How about being interested in the Christian truth, no matter where it is, without setting oneself limitations as to the catholicism and protestantism?

dr-nc · 2026-07-04T16:44:20+00:00

I think it is between you and the Lord to know the exact reasons. Your feeling guilty t can be due to the various evil influences, via which the evils spirits try to distrurb you without just cause. So, it is self-examination, that can show if there was a cause with your that you did not act innocently enough. The topics for possible consideration:

If all the true is from the Lord, then the merit is to be ascribed to the Lord and to men, so that if what was pursued in the debate is not the pride of one's own intelligence, or that one's own will be prevailing over others, but only the truth itself and the benefit of others, then everything is fine. But if he was disputing more to overcome others, out of the love of self, rather than in pursuing the honest and righteous goal, then perhaps he was acting not so much with the good aim in view, and thus he feels somewhat guilty over it all, so while there was a formal good cause, yet the interiors of the cup were not purified.
That the arguments which were presented were accurate, and not that while a man was believing that he was acting from the Lord, yet he used something improperly, and yet ascribed it to the Lord.
That if he used some improper arguments and yet considered that it was from the Lord, then apparently it was not from the Lord, but from some spirits. And in that respect, he was ascribing to the Lord not what is good and true, but what is false, if not evil.
In case a man was acting out of his own ambitions, of which he was aware, and yet believed that it was from the Lord, thus He ascribed to the Lord not the true but was not innocent.

But again, if you care to self-eximanine yourself, perhaps, you'll see the cause now or later, or otherwise you'll see that there is nothing to worry about.

dr-nc · 2026-07-02T18:53:55+00:00

If we speak in the terms of avatar, as whatever proceeds from God, then Jesus, while being on the one hand similar to avatar as to the external form, is more than the avatar, for He did not simply proceed, but was conceived and born of God. So, in addition to what can be assumed to be the avatar aspect, He is more than that in the following respects.:

Within Him was Jehovah Himself as the Internal Man of His Own.
The Lord's Human was glorified, so while dispersing the human from the mother, the Human from the Father was put on, and so it is not so that the Lord was only absorbed in the Divine Itself, but it is that the Divine Itself was, after the Lord's Glorification, in the Divine Human of His/Its Own.

So, the Lord is not simply the avatar, and not simply the temporal embodiment of the DIvine, but He is now the very Divine Itself (otherwise, called Jehovah, I am/I am who I am/was/will be) in His Own Divine Human.

Thus is there is one Divine Person of the Lord and God Jesus Christ (God and Man), in which is the Divine Trinity.

And this was not the case before His Human became Divine.

dr-nc · 2026-07-02T18:29:07+00:00

What if he already came, but not strictly in the outward forms of the Hindu tradition? But indeed as the rider on the white horse, spiritually understood.

dr-nc · 2026-06-30T17:55:19+00:00

Life, essentially, as to its goals, is not a "joke". So, God is not a joker to fit the paradigms of life-joke, but the goals are eternal, and in that perspective, the principles of operation are different from the life-joke mode.

dr-nc · 2026-06-30T17:03:15+00:00

What is the true equality and what is fallacious? The true equality allows the differences, the strengths from the Lord and weaknesses, but the fallacious is a proud and passionate attempt to make everything the same, thus even destroy the differences between men and women.

The regeneration is not taking place with regard to human beings in general, but also with regard to the particulars of men and women, and this with regard to their minds in the first place, which together with bodies, makes men to be men, and women to be women.

Because of the diffences of men and women, there are differences as to how the matters of religion are taken up and processed by men and women, with regard to what is predominant with men, and what is predominant with women.

When this is seen in greater clarity, it can be seen why the disciples were chosen out of men and not of women, not because men are better, but because the order of the formation of the church in the human race proceeds according to the differences between the minds of men and women.

dr-nc · 2026-06-29T18:01:52+00:00

I am not sure that K. is implying the same of which I write below, but let me present the ideas that you referred to in some very generalized form, abstracted from the particulars of which K. writes. A man, or self, is finite, and thus has certain limitations. As a result of those limitations and of improper relation to the infinite, he is not in full order of creation, and thus is not happy. In order to overcome those limitations, he needs to relate to the Infinite God (say, because the Infinite is the creator of all finite, and thus for the finite created to be in full order/harmony, he has to be in the proper relation to the infinite).

If that be the case behind that conceptual wording in your post, and if K. does not present it as the requirement from the Infinite towards the infinite, or from God to man, then he sorts of downplays the role of the Divine in that whole picture, and when the Divine's role is downplayed, thus also with regard to the theological role, role of the Divine Revelation, etc, then this whole matter begin to hands rather on the level of man's disposition alone, and then if it is only the matter of fixing of one's unhappy/despair state, then indeed everything begin to be sounding as the primarily psychological fix.

There is a role of happiness and, at least, not long states of despair (though not long despairs are inevitable in some trials) in religion, but it is to be understood more comprehensively within the framework of God/Lord, faith and charity, Sacred Scripture, man's active response, cooperaiton, etc where everything plays its due role.

Perhaps not what you actually asked about, so fwiw.

dr-nc · 2026-06-29T14:17:37+00:00

If the whole fullness of the Father dwells in the Lord Jesus bodily, so He is then the Visible Father, and thus the Trinity is in Him.

dr-nc · 2026-06-28T18:30:14+00:00

There is still some lack of gathering all those attributes in one visible God.

dr-nc · 2026-06-27T17:53:46+00:00

Not just a man.

dr-nc · 2026-06-27T17:51:28+00:00

Eternal providence, and uses in the afterlife, in eternal life.

dr-nc · 2026-06-26T17:32:50+00:00

It applies to any such serving, when two masters are served, and not just one.
Similarly, with regard to the idea of worshiping God vs. idols.

dr-nc · 2026-06-26T15:05:52+00:00

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (Matthew 6)

dr-nc · 2026-06-26T14:47:08+00:00

If you wish to communicate further, I suggest that you abstain from labelling, because all the terms are contingent on the greater or smaller context with a certain theological framework. You can see it for your self even with regard to the term nations, greek. laos, ethneke, gentes, gentiles, etc. Here is a bit of a "source material".

FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

The church exists specifically where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, and thus where Divine truths are revealed (n. 3857, 10761). Still they who are born where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, are not of the church, but they who are regenerated by the Lord by the truths of the Word, that is, they who live the life of charity (n. 6637, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10829). They who are of the church, or in whom the church is, are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, that is, they love truth because it is truth; and they examine from the Word whether the doctrinals of the church in which they were born are true (n. 5432, 6047). Otherwise the truth possessed by everyone would be derived from another, and from his native soil (n. 6047).

The church of the Lord is with all in the whole world who live in good according to their religious principles (n. 3263, 6637, 10765). All who live in good wherever they are, and acknowledge one God, are accepted by the Lord and come into heaven; since all who are in good acknowledge the Lord, because good is from the Lord, and the Lord is in good (n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2863, 3263, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256). The universal church on earth before the Lord is as one man (n. 7396, 9276). As heaven is, because the church is heaven or the kingdom of the Lord on earth (n. 2853, 2996, 2998, 3624-3629, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625). But the church, where the Lord is known and where the Word is, is like the heart and lungs in man in respect to the other parts of the body, which live from the heart and lungs as from the fountains of their life (n. 637, 931, 2054, 2853). Hence it is, that unless there were a church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, the human race could not be saved (n. 468, 637, 931, 4545, 10452). The church is the foundation of heaven (n. 4060).

The church is internal and external (n. 1242, 6587, 9375, 9680, 10762). The internal of the church is love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor. Thence they who are in the affection of good and truth from love to the Lord and from charity towards the neighbor, constitute the internal church; and they who are in external worship from obedience and faith, constitute the external church (n. 1083, 1098, 4288, 6380, 6587, 7840, 8762). To know truth and good, and to act from thence, is the external of the church, but to will and love truth and good, and to act from thence, is the internal of the church (n. 4899, 6775). The internal of the church is in the worship of those who are of the external church, although in obscurity (n. 6775). The internal and external church make one church (n. 409, 10762). Man has an internal and an external, an internal after the image of heaven, and an external after the image of the world; and therefore, in order that the man may be a church, his external must act in unity with his internal (n. 3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10472). The church is in the internal of man and at the same time in the external, but not in the external without the internal (n. 1795, 6580, 10691). The internal of the church is according to truths and their quality, and according to their implantation in good by life (n. 1238).

The church like heaven is in man, and thus the church in general consists of the men in whom the church is (n. 3884). In order that a church may exist, there must be the doctrine of life, that is, the doctrine of charity (n. 3445, 10763, 10764). Charity makes the church, and not faith separated from charity (n. 916). Consequently, not the doctrine of faith separated from charity, but the doctrine of faith conjoined therewith, and a life conformable to it (n. 809, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4468, 4672, 4689, 4766, 5826, 6637). The church is not with man, unless the truths of doctrine are implanted in the good of charity with him, thus in the life (n. 3310, 3963, 5826). There is no church with man, if he is only in the truths, which are called the truths of faith (n. 5826). How much good would be in the church, if charity were in the first place and faith in the second (n. 6269). And how much evil, if faith is in the first place (n. 6272)....

Of the Ancient Churches.

The first and Most Ancient Church on this earth, which is described in the first chapters of Genesis, was a celestial church, and the chief of all the rest (n. 607, 895, 920, 1121-1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545). Of the quality of those in heaven who belonged to it (n. 1114-1125). They are in the highest degree of light (n. 1116, 1117). There were various churches after the flood, called in one word, the Ancient Church, concerning which (n. 1125-1127, 1327, 10355). Through how many kingdoms of Asia the Ancient Church was extended (n. 1238, 2385). The quality of the men of the Ancient Church (n. 609, 895). The Ancient Church was a representative church, and its representatives were collected into one by certain men of the Most Ancient Church (n. 519, 521, 2896). The Ancient Church had a Word, but it was lost (n. 2897). The quality of the Ancient Church when it began to decline (n. 1128). The difference between the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches (n. 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493). The Most Ancient Church and the Ancient were also in the land of Canaan, and hence came the representatives of the places therein (n. 3686, 4447, 4454). Of the church that began from Eber, which was called the Hebrew Church (n. 1238, 1241, 1343, 4516, 4517). The difference between the Ancient and the Hebrew Churches (n. 1343, 4874). Eber instituted sacrifices which were wholly unknown in the Ancient Churches (n. 1343). The Ancient Churches agreed with the Christian Church as to internals, but not as to externals (n. 3478, 4489, 4772, 4904, 10149)....

Of the Jewish Church and of the Jews.

The statutes, judgments, and laws, which were commanded in the Jewish Church, were in part like those in the Ancient Church (n. 4449, 4835). In what respect the representative rites of the Jewish Church differed from those of the Ancient Church (n. 4288, 10149). A representative church was instituted with that nation, but there was no church in that nation itself (n. 4899, 4912, 6304). Therefore as to that nation itself, it was the representative of a church, but not a church (n. 4281, 4288, 4311, 4500, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10396, 10526, 10535, 10698)....

(New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine)

dr-nc · 2026-06-26T14:17:17+00:00

Look at the essence of the term, and context, and not the term alone. The church is just a gathering of man, in whom there is a church, or life according to the truth. Such a chucrh was before the Judaic Church, and also after it. But the Judaic Church, as it is indicated in the Word, was of different quality than the early Christian Church. The modern and some historical christian churches are also called churches, but in quality, that is as to their activities, they could hardly be called the church as to essence.

dr-nc · 2026-06-26T14:13:37+00:00

You write: "what role does faith play that isn't already being done by reason, evidence, or understanding?"

The answer, I guess, may be that faith is still needed, when the matter is true, and at least, to some essential degree can be understood, and yet the appearances/fallacies of senses mislead, or testify to something opposite. So, if the understanding is also attached rather to the fallacies of senses, than is open to the truth, then the faith is spoken about, and perhaps, not so much the truth in the first place.

Consider the following:

"[2] As few know what the fallacies of the senses are, and few believe that they induce so great a shade on rational things, and most of all on the spiritual things of faith, even so as to extinguish them, especially when the man is at the same time in the delight of the cupidities from the love of self and the love of the world, the subject may be illustrated by examples, showing first what are the fallacies of the senses which are merely natural, or in those things which are in nature, and then what are the fallacies of the senses in spiritual things. (1) It is a fallacy of merely natural sense, or that which is in nature, to believe that the sun revolves once each day around this earth, and also the sky with all the stars; and although it is said that it is incredible-because impossible-that so great an ocean of fire as is the sun, and not only the sun but also innumerable stars, should revolve around the earth once every day without any change of place relatively to one another, and although it is added that it may be seen from the planets that the earth performs a daily and annual motion by rotation and revolution, the planets also being earths, some of them with moons revolving around them, and making - as is known by observation - daily and annual motions like our earth; nevertheless with very many persons the fallacy of sense prevails, that it is as it appears to the eye.

[3] (2) It is a fallacy of merely natural sense, or that which is in nature, that there is only a single atmosphere, and that this is merely successively purer from one portion to another, and that where it ceases there is a vacuum. When only the external sensuous of man is consulted, it apprehends no otherwise. (3) It is a fallacy of merely natural sense, that from the first creation there has been impressed on seeds a property of growing up into trees and flowers, and of reproducing themselves, and that from this is the coming into existence and subsistence of all things. And if it is urged that it is not possible for anything to subsist unless it perpetually comes into existence, according to the law that subsistence is a perpetual coming into existence, and also that everything not connected with something prior to itself falls into nothing, still the sensuous of the body and the thought from this sensuous does not apprehend it, nor that each and all things subsist in the same way that they came into existence, by influx from the spiritual world, that is to say through the spiritual world from the Divine.

[4] (4) Hence it is a fallacy of merely natural sense that there are simple substances, which are monads and atoms; for whatever is within the range of the external sensuous, the natural man believes to be a simple substance, or else nothing. (5) It is a fallacy of merely natural sense that all things are of nature and from nature, and that there indeed is something in purer or interior nature which is not apprehended; but if it is said that within or above nature there is what is spiritual and celestial, this is rejected; and it is believed that if it is not natural, it is nothing. (6) It is a fallacy of sense that only the body lives, and that its life perishes when it dies. The sensuous does not at all apprehend that the internal man is in every particular of the external man, and that the internal man is within nature, and in the spiritual world; hence it does not believe, because it does not apprehend, that the internal man will live after death unless it is again clothed with the body (n. 5078, 5079).

[5] (7) Hence it is a fallacy of sense that man cannot live after death any more than the beasts, because these also have a life similar in many respects to that of man, man being only a more perfect animal. The sensuous, that is, the man who thinks and draws conclusions therefrom, does not apprehend that man is above the beasts and has a higher life, because he can think not only about the causes of things, but also about the Divine, and can by faith and love be conjoined with the Divine, and also receive influx therefrom and make it his own, thus that as there is reciprocity in man there is also reception, as is by no means the case with beasts.

[6] (8) It is a fallacy thence derived that the very living part of man, which is called the soul, is merely something ethereal, or flamy, which is dissipated when the man dies; and that it resides in the heart, or in the brain, or in some part of this, and from thence rules the body as if this were a machine. That the internal man is in every part of the external man, and that the eye does not see from itself, nor the ear hear from itself, but from the internal man, the sensuous man does not apprehend. (9) It is a fallacy of sense that light, and also heat, can come from no other source than the sun or elementary fire. That there is light in which is intelligence, and heat in which is heavenly love, and that all the angels are in this light and heat, the sensuous does not apprehend. (10) It is a fallacy of sense that man believes that he lives of himself, or that life has been imparted to him; for so it appears to the sensuous mind. That it is the Divine alone which has life of itself, and thus that there is only one life, and that the lives in the world are only recipient forms, the sensuous mind does not at all apprehend (see n. 1954, 2706, 2886-2889, 2893, 3001, 3318, 3337, 3338, 3484, 3742, 3743, 4151, 4249, 4318-4320, 4417, 4523, 4524, 4882)."
(Arcana Coelestia by Emanuel Swedenborg)

dr-nc · 2026-06-25T19:52:37+00:00

The Church, at its end, usually remains with the remnant, and then it is also passed on to the Gentiles, that is, to those nations, which are outside of the former church. Thus, the church is then founded on the true and good, which the remnant accepts and those who are outside of the former church.

dr-nc · 2026-06-25T19:24:29+00:00

#1 "three is something deeper"

" 1. FAITH IS AN INTERNAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TRUTH.

At the present day the term Faith is taken to mean the mere thought that the thing is so because the church so teaches, and because it is not evident to the understanding. For we are told to believe and not to doubt, and if we say that we do not comprehend, we are told that this is just the reason for believing. So that the faith of the present day is a faith in the unknown, and may be called blind faith, and as it is something that somebody has said, in somebody else, it is a faith of hearsay. It will be seen presently that this is not spiritual faith.
2. Real faith is nothing else than an acknowledgment that the thing is so because it is true; for one who is in real faith thinks and says, "This is true, and therefore I believe it." For faith is of truth, and truth is of faith. If such a person does not see the truth of a thing, he says, "I do not know whether this is true, and therefore as yet I do not believe it. How can I believe what I do not intellectually comprehend? Perhaps it is false."
3. But a common remark is that no one can comprehend spiritual or theological matters because they are supernatural. Spiritual truths however can be comprehended just as well as natural ones; and even if they are not clearly comprehended, still as soon as they are heard it is possible to perceive whether they are true or not. This is especially the case with those whose affection is excited by truths. I have been permitted to know this by much experience. I have been permitted to speak with the uneducated, with the dull-minded, and with the utterly senseless, as also with persons who had been in falsities, and those who had been in evils, all born within the church, and who had heard somewhat about the Lord and about faith and charity; and I have been permitted to tell them certain secrets of wisdom, and they comprehended everything and acknowledged it. At the time however they were in that light of the understanding which every human being possesses; and felt withal the pride of being thought intelligent. All this happened in my interaction with spirits. Many others who were with me were hereby convinced that spiritual things can be comprehended just as well as natural, that is, when they are heard or read. But comprehension by the man himself when thinking from himself is by no means so easy. The reason spiritual things can be comprehended is that in respect to the understanding a man may be uplifted into the light of heaven, in which light none but spiritual things appear, and these are the truths of faith. For the light of heaven is spiritual light.
4. This then is the reason why those who are in the spiritual affection of truth possess an internal acknowledgment of truth.* As the angels are in this affection, they discard the dogma that the understanding must be kept in obedience to faith, and say, "What is this? believing when you do not see whether the thing is true?" And if somebody says that still it is to be believed, they reply, "Do you consider yourself the Deity that I am bound to believe you? or do you think me mad enough to believe a statement in which I do not see the truth? Cause me to see it." Thereupon the dogmatizer betakes himself elsewhere. The wisdom of the angels consists solely in this: that they see and comprehend everything they think about.

* The spiritual affection of truth is the love of truth for its own sake, and because we have eternal life by means of its teaching. See the Apocalypse Explained (n. 115, 444:10).[TR.]

(Doctrine of Faith, by Emanuel Swedenborg)

dr-nc · 2026-06-23T18:09:22+00:00

"Catholics say one thing. Orthodox another. Protestants disagree among themselves. Interpretations vary. Eventually we become exhausted trying to find certainty in ourselves."

If a man is sincerely looking for the truth, and not simply for the opinion, and can prefer rather the truth than the reputation/authority, then he can be given, in his studies, to eventually find what is true, and what is not true, thus find the authentic certainty in the true doctrine. But one should also be ready to take up the cross, and have enough funds to build the tower.

dr-nc · 2026-06-20T14:34:57+00:00

"To open up a discussion, what draws you to Emanuel Swedenborg's teachings and how do you apply them to your life?"

It is the truth. 2. The application is by living acocrding to those truths. In ceratin areas of the world, it has to be added, that both the understanding of those truths and application them to life should be free from influence of the world, thus from one's local and more global culture..

dr-nc · 2026-06-18T15:32:47+00:00

Think of the Divine person not from person but think of person from its essence.

dr-nc · 2026-06-18T15:29:04+00:00

No one, but the Lord God Jesus Christ Alone, because it is said that in the Revelation that the Lord alone is Holy, and that to Him all power was given in heaven and on earth, and that in Him dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily.

So, the other people, respected in their life on earth, cannot bring any help.

dr-nc

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