Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation, spacing, capitalization, and unmistakable OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
In a recent number of the New Church Messenger, occasion is taken to arraign the principles of Koreshanity as set forth in the columns of THE SALVATOR AND SCIENTIST, published in Allegheny, Pa.
The most remarkable feature of the arraignment is in the fact that in so small a space there could be exhibited so much ignorance of not only scientific facts, but of the plain teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which the New Church Messenger claims to represent. The article commends the statement of THE SALVATOR, in that it acknowledges the Lord Jesus, the Christ, as not merely the Son of God, but the fulness of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It denies the equally truthful statement of the Scriptures, that to as many as believe in his (the Lord's) name gives he power to become the sons of God. In that the Bible declares Jesus to be the Lord (Jehovah), the God-man, Creator of heaven and earth, the Bible is true; in that it makes of the children of wrath—by regeneration (reproduction) from Jesus the Lord—the sons of God, the Bible is false, according to the New Church Messenger. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him," is not true, according to the New Church Messenger.
If the hundred forty and four thousand who stand on Mount Zion and sing the new song that no man can sing but the hundred forty and four thousand, the Father's name is written in their foreheads, because the Father in the Lord Jesus was transmitted by multiplication through regeneration (reproduction).
The Swedenborgian church is merely the tail of the old dragon (the Catholic church being its head), which was fully represented (head, body, and tail) at the Parliament of Religions held during the World's Fair, where the Koreshan Unity could not be represented because it had not on the wedding garment of the marriage of a spurious Christianity with paganism.
This is a specimen of the logic by which the New Church Messenger tries to disprove the accuracy of THE SALVATOR'S statements of cosmogony: It queries, "Can the Koreshan Scientist get the engineers in the United States Geodetic Survey to acknowledge that the earth is concave instead of convex? If he cannot, it follows that the Koreshan is mistaken." The Swedenborgians cannot get the dignitaries of the Catholic church, including the Pope, to admit the doctrines of Swedenborg to be true, therefore the doctrines of Swedenborg are false.
This kind of logic would place even the Swedenborgians in a dilemma. We will state, however, that we can find brighter minds and better reasoners than the United States Geodetic Survey ever included, who can see the force of our logic, and who can, through the application of facts and the interpretation of phenomena, mentally embrace our unanswerable conclusions regarding the concavity of the earth's surface.
The acknowledgment of the New Church Messenger, that our publications are well supported, and that Koreshanity is growing rapidly, is indicative that the people in the world are not quite all fools. As comparatively few people are capable of reasoning, and as the editor of the New Church Messenger has shown himself either incapable of or opposed to reasoning, it is scarcely probable that a line of argument can or will be followed, though it inevitably leads to a knowledge of truth. We herewith illustrate—by the accompanying diagram—some principles which, though rejected by the wiseacres, will be appreciated by many of our readers. The facts are as we herewith present them.
Fig. A represents the track of a balloon sixty feet in diameter, starting out from 1, point of observation, and extending to the place 2 2. It is a fact that the circle representing the space of sixty feet, a d, is equally broad at 2 2 as at a d, and that the straight lines constituting the boundary of the upper and lower limit of the sixty feet space are just the same distance apart at the place 2 2 as at the place a d. The third or middle (dotted) line is an actual line extended from 1 to 3; but a person taking a position at 1 cannot see the line at 3, because there is no rectilinear course of observation, though there is an actual chord.
Fig. B will help to illustrate this last proposition. The lines a and b (Fig. B) represent again the limit of the sixty feet track of the balloon; the lines c c c and d d d, the visual appearance of the two parallel lines a and b, as seen from the point 1, Fig. B. What is the reason for this deception in vision? for it is a deception. Can we afford to ignore facts in order to bolster up theories, and to maintain that the appearance is the reality, as is done by the "scientist" of today?
The line 2 3 (Fig. B) is sixty feet long, and makes the picture upon the retina from e to f; while the line 4 5 (equally long) makes a short picture on the retina, as indicated by the pointing of the dotted lines. The sixty feet at the line 4 5 is observed as a mere point at g, because the distance provides for an acute convergence of the dotted lines to a mere point upon the retina. If we had as little reason as the modern so called scientist, we would note that a balloon sixty feet in diameter at a given distance would appear to diminish by reason of the law of foreshortening, while a mast or pole at the same distance would not be subject to the same law.
If we stand on the top of the tower g, thirty feet from the base h, and look toward 6, the line b appears to rise to the point 6. Shall we say, because the line b appears to rise to 6, that the appearance is the reality, and build up a system of cosmogony fabricated upon the fallacy of an appearance? But this is precisely what is done by the modern scientist.
A ship seen at i, with the mast extending to j, would appear at k on the line d d d, with mast appearing to extend to the line c c c. At the point 6, a ship with a sixty foot mast would vanish. The end of the mast at the line b, at 5, would disappear at 6; so, likewise, would the top of the mast at 1 appear to vanish at 6. Is it because the earth is convex? or for the reason shown by the facts in the illustration, namely, through the law of foreshortening? The ignorance of the so called expert scientist is the modern miracle of Satan's power to blind men, while at the same time he causes them to imagine their eyes are open. It must be understood that the vanishing point 6, namely, from 4 to 5, is sixty feet long; hence there can be no line of observation in reality. A line starting from the visual point 1, over which the vanishing point 6 is observed, must necessarily broaden till at 4 5 it is sixty feet broad, the bottom and top of the line being sixty feet apart, but both apparently observed at the vanishing point 6.
The only reason that the so called educated mind cannot recognize these facts and a corresponding theory, is merely because a false theory has been urged upon the mind from childhood, and so filled it with fallacy that it is made an obstacle in the way of truth.
We never blame a man for resorting to ridicule when it is his best, if not his only, argument. It answers for a while, but the day will come when fallacy will yield to unanswerable logic.
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 9, No. 12 · · PDF pp. 4-6