Saturday, February 02, 2008
FROM SWEDENBORG TO THE SPIRITUAL CINEMA CIRCLE ?
While researching Swedenborg, I discovered that an Ethan McCardell, Pastor of a New Church, lectured and signed his book, BE OF GOOD CHEER, at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. The news appeared in the Restyn LLC website. What is Restyn?
Another page in the website explained:
Restyn, LLC is the leading Second Advent Christian™ communications company. Founded in 2005 by Stephen Simons and located in Lutherville, Maryland, Restyn, LLC publishes books, music, software, and websites discussing the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
Stephen Simons is the founder and Principal of Restyn, LLC. Stephen holds a Master's of Divinity from the Academy of the New Church Theological School, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Physics at the College of William and Mary. As a leading authority on Second Advent Christian studies, Stephen seeks to introduce the Second Advent Gospel of Jesus Christ to mainstream American culture.
Second Advent Christianity™ is based upon a simple, compelling principle: the purpose of life is to have good and fulfilling relationships with Jesus Christ and with other people. In the world view of Second Advent Christianity, every human being on earth has the means available to him or her for salvation; God created all people to live forever in heaven and He guarantees every human life that possibility.
At the same time, our quality of life now and forever is limited by our knowledge. From the Second Advent Christian™ perspective, misunderstanding God's nature, God's purposes, or God's commands always leads away from happiness, prosperity, and peace. ...
In the view of Second Advent Christianity™, God has a vision of a church that is one in His name. To accomplish this, He fulfilled the Biblical prophecies of the Apocalypse and commissioned Emanuel Swedenborg to complete the final revelation of His Word.
The Contact page in the website indicated Restyn is located in Lutherville, MD.
Looking for Simon and Lutherville, MD brought up the Swedenborg Project website. The Overview page explains what they believe. The statement is signed by Kurt Simon. A relation of Stephen?
Stephen Simon is credited with the creation of the Second Advent Christian movement at a preterist website:
Second Advent Christian™ movement Redefines Canon - "Stephen Simons, the founder of the Second Advent Christian™ movement and a principal at Restyn, explains, "The commonly accepted canon of the Word of God was set by men, not by God. Small Canon Search™ is provided for believers who want to focus their study on God's revelation without distraction." The Second Advent Christian™ canon of scripture includes books from the Old and New Testaments and books from the works of Emanuel Swedenborg."
You will need to scroll quite far down to find that passage. Another entry there seems to have the idea that Catholics believe the Rapture happened in 70 A.D. and has created a "wall of shame" depicting the faces of those, apparently, who are accused of preaching the Catholic mistake:
Critical: Preterist Wall of Shame / Discussion The pictures of the men on this Wall Of Shame are those who have perverted the Word of God and are teaching the false 70AD rapture doctrine of the Catholic Church. They are to be disfellowshipped and not allowed in any Apostolic Jesus Name Pentecostal Church unless they repent and come out of this false doctrine.
In any case, here is the "small canon" that Stephen Simon is promoting. The Pauline epistles and other books are missing.
Stephen Simon has written a book called THE SECOND ADVENT CHRISTIAN BIBLE.
Only one question remains. Is this the same Stephen Simon, filmmaker, who produced the movie "What Dreams May Come", and who is the creator of the film club called the Spiritual Cinema Circle, a company that provides mailorder DVDs with a spiritual (as opposed to religious) theme.
There may be a clue in the Wikipedia entry for "What Dreams". The entry describes the plot of the book from which the movie was derived, including the religious theme:
The concepts in the book are derived from my wide range of reading."[2] One character quotes from the writings of 18th century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (pp. 132-3). Matheson bases his descriptions of the death experience itself on studies by Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross and Raymond Moody.
