PSYCHOLOGY 459 – JANUARY 26, 2006

SOME PROPOSITONS TO REMEMBER

BY: BRANDON CHANG

 

 

LN 1.0 Topic 3 Part A Divine Speech, Sacred Scripture, and Conjunction with God: Some Propositions to Remember, Leon James, Textbook of Theistic Psychology

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/459-g24-lecture-notes.htm - topic3A

 

 

I.                  Some propositions to remember

a.      We are human ÒvesselsÓ capable of receiving life from god

b.     We donÕt possess life, intelligence, rationality, power, or freedom of our own

                                                          i.      God constructed our mental organs out of spiritual eternal substances, and designed them as our receptors of these things that belong to god

c.      Immortality belongs to god

                                                          i.      Once we stop receiving the spiritual input signal of life, power, love, and intelligence, we turn into something incoherent that evaporates and disappears from existence

II.                Sacred Scriptures

a.      God manages the universe through divine speech

b.     Divine speech proceeding from god is divine truth

                                                          i.      It is the spiritual light from the spiritual sun

                                                        ii.      Spiritual light (truth) contains spiritual heat (love) and the two are united in god

c.      Physical objects on earth are made of atoms from the natural sun whirling in sub-atomic space

                                                          i.      Physical matter, atoms and space, are themselves made of something that is not physical but spiritual, made from the spiritual sun

                                                        ii.      Divine love and truth are spiritual substances that make up things in the physical world, which is time and space

d.     Eternity is the infrastructure for time and space

                                                          i.       Physical universe is outside the universe

                                                        ii.      Spiritual world and mental world is inside the universe

                                                      iii.      At birth our body is in the outside world and our mind is in the inside world of eternity

                                                      iv.      When we die, our body it ceased in the outside world, but we are only conscious in the world of eternity

e.      Divines speech governs our consciousness, understanding, and our feelings

                                                          i.      When divine speech enters the mind, we become conscious of its effects such as the ability to think logically or the ability to experience feelings and emotions

                                                        ii.      When divine speech enters the mind it activates our mental organs which allows us to do, think, and feel

f.       Divine speech joins are minds with god

                                                          i.      This causes humans to immortal and rational beings

g.     Gradations of conjunction or closeness with god

                                                          i.      Determines the quality of our thinking and life

                                                        ii.      The closer you are, the higher the quality

                                                      iii.      Irrational thinkers maintain themselves in the hells of their mental eternity

1.     They are under the spell of delusions, illusions, and their social environment is miserable, vicious, and uncivilized

2.     They are far away from god

                                                      iv.      People who dwelt in the first heavenÕs of their mind

1.     Were extremely skilled in everyday activities

a.      Business, sports, art, education, architecture, and government

                                                        v.      People who dwelt in the second heaven

1.     Far superior to people in the first heaven

                                                      vi.      People who dwelt in the third heaven

1.     Far superior to people in the second heaven

                                                    vii.      God hides his presence in the mind

1.     We undergo character change, reformation, and regeneration, while it is not possible in the afterlife

2.     God hides Hi Presence in our minds so that we may feel free to reject him if that is our choice

a.      Even if we reject god, we cannot get rid of him

                                                                                                                              i.      This is how he has control of the universe

h.     Summary formulaic expression

                                                          i.      Gradations of closeness with god = quality of human powers and abilities god can give us = quality of our acknowledgement of god in our mind = level of our understanding of divine speech = level of our enlightenment when we study sacred scriptures = consistency of our effort in applying doctrine of truth from sacred scriptures to our daily willing and thinking

i.       Sacred scripture reveals that we are born with hellish traits

                                                          i.      Every person must put voluntary effort to fight the hellish traits

                                                        ii.      God is powerful enough to overcome hellish tendencies, but in a situation of denial, he allows the occurrence of evil in order to preserve peopleÕs sense of freedom of choice

j.       People are too lazy to change their evil traits, and that is why god allows evil to occur in society

                                                          i.      This is done by god to allow the freedom of choice to the people

 

 

 

 

RELATED LINKS:

 

1.  http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/creat/creat2.htm :  Spiritual Sun

               I chose this as one of my links because I thought that it would be an excellent source of information.  In this section of the lecture notes, it mentioned how the spiritual sun is what gives us spiritual truth.  Spiritual sun is one of the important aspects of  what makes up the spiritual world, with divine love and divine truth.  Overall, I think that this site is a great starting point for understanding the meaning of the spiritual sun.

 

 

2. http://www.theheavenlydoctrines.org/static/d6548/208.htm :  The Three Heavens

               I thought that one of the important things that was mentioned in this topic was that of the first, second, and third heaven.  This site has information on meaning of these heavens and how they differ.  I thought that this site had some interesting information that was not presented in the lecture notes.  It helps one to understand the different heavens using definitions and examples.

 

 

3. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/Divine-talk.htm :  Divine Speech

It was funny that I found this site while searching on google because it was created by our teacher Prof. James.  This website would be a good source to find out information about SwedenborgÕs views on divine speech.  After all divine speech is what god uses to communicate to the physical world.  I think it is a valid site with a lot of informative content which can  be useful in understanding the basic concepts of divine speech.

 

 

 

 

My Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459s2006/chang/chang-home.htm

 

 

Class Home Page:  http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm