December 25, 2015

The Other Christmas Story

We are all aware of the principle story surrounding the Christian biblical account of the Lord’s first advent. The story of God coming to earth and taking on the human form for the purpose of the salvation of man but there is a much more important story here, a much more monumental one for the Lord’s advent. The very creation itself was in jeopardy, our very existence as humans.

Swedenborg writing while his mind was opened into the spiritual world for over 30 years tells us about the other Christmas story. . . what was happening in the spiritual world outside of time and space . . . .the far more monumental one.

Swedenborg writes in The Arcana Coelestia [6373];

“. . .heaven and those things in hell could not be brought by means of that kingdom strong enough to serve as the means by which all things could be preserved in a state of order. And what is more, as a consequence hellish spirits were at the same time breaking out of hell and having dominion over souls who were coming from the world, as a result a situation was coming about in which none but the celestial ones could be saved. At length scarcely these could have been saved if the Lord had not taken on the Human and made that Human within Himself Divine.

. . .he goes on,

By doing this the Lord brought all things into a state of order, first those in Heaven and then those in hell.”

What becomes clear here is that the salvation of man is actually about the restoring of order in the spiritual world and not about the Divine scapegoating for man’s sins. It is also clear from Swedenborg that if God had not taken on this role, the heavens would have eventually been decimated leaving an overwhelming presence of hellish spirits. These being in absolute conflict with the Divine attributes, the God of infinite love and wisdom could not have allowed that to have happened and would have terminated his Divine proceeding ending the existence of everything in the natural and spiritual worlds. . . . . none of us nor the universe around us would have continued to exist beyond that point absent the Lord’s advent.

So the advent of the Lord was for the purpose of saving man but in a much more profound sense than portrayed in the literal sense of the word. It was the rescue of the entire creation itself.
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This article was written by Ron Vath. It is my prayer as we celebrate the Lord bowing the heavens and coming down that we keep these thoughts in the forefront of our thinking this season. Merry Christmas – Mike Cates