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insight. It is the nature of mere humans that defensiveness and judgments can
stand in the way of being open to another’s point of view.
We are taught that when we act from charity or love to our neighbor,
we are more able to see what is true. (“They who are in charity are in light...
light is truth ... Charity 112) We must search our hearts as well as the Word.
I just came across this statement in Arcana Coelestia 1408: “The Word
teaches nothing else than that everyone should live in charity with his neighbor,
and love the Lord above all things.”
Donnette Alfelt
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
The ‘Old Church’ in a New Light
To The Editors:
I read with great interest the Rev. Bradley D. Heinrichs’ sermon, For He is
Risen, in the March/April 2014 New Church Life. For the most part, I thought
it was a well-prepared sermon about the resurrection and its importance to
all humanity. I appreciate and value the New Church explanation of this great
miracle. However, some of the things Mr. Heinrichs wrote about traditional
Christian theology regarding the resurrection just didn’t sound right, and I
would be doing my “Old Church” Christian upbringing a disservice if I did
not respond.
Mr. Heinrichs draws some comparisons between the New Church
understanding of the resurrection and that of “modern Christianity” (read:
Old Church). But the things he writes about the Old Church simply don’t
ring true. Some might be offended at the notion that folks who haven’t been
enlightened by the Writings about the resurrection can only “grasp…blindly
in the dark.” I believe enlightenment can be found in both views, but I won’t
go there specifically. I will suggest, however, that Mr. Heinrichs choose his
phrases more carefully when referring, either directly or indirectly, to those of
us who were born and raised in the Old Church.
Having been born and raised, and been quite active, in the Methodist
Church, and having been exposed to many other “modern, traditional”
Christian churches, on many levels, for most of my life, I do not agree with
him when he says that the “traditional” vision of redemption, and even of the
Lord Himself, is “markedly different” than, or “a far cry from,” that of the New
Church.
Mr. Heinrichs contends that th H8