New Church Champions

'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.' So King Henry rallies the troops according to Shakespeare. Battles need champions. Are you one?

Courageous leaders inspire their comrades. They set an example for others. They follow their inner vision and light. Their passion to achieve victory is driven by their loves, perhaps for 'God and Country'. Or perhaps they fight for their church, or tribe, or neighbours. Some may fight for their marriage, or their children and grandchildren. Many fight for Truth, Freedom, Justice or Reconciliation. Many are the 'unsung heroes' whom we never know.

So many champions and heroes are mentioned throughout the stories of the Old and New Testaments. The Word of the Second Coming, with its focus less on personalities and more on principles, names very few. When Old or New Testament champions like Joseph, David, Saul, Samuel and Jesus are spoken of in the Heavenly Doctrines, we learn of their representative, not their personal qualities. Each denotes a Divine Heroic attribute.

Does this mean that people of the New Church should not have their personal favourites? Or that heroes, idols and champions are fine for children, but mature spiritual practices leave such childish things behind?

For many in the New Church, Swedenborg is held up as the first hero or champion in the New Church. And for very good reasons.

Swedenborg's Battles

Emanuel Swedenborg had to fight for the New Church, as well as for his own life and that of other New Church adherents. Because of the strong political grip the mainline religious leaders held over the spiritual discourse of his native land, Swedenborg had to travel to more spiritually and politically free countries to publish the Word of the Second Coming. People in the UK are familiar with this, as England was one of the few European nations which allowed the Writings to be published.

Though a man from a Noble family in Sweden (which may have saved him from incarceration) and although a well respected leading citizen, civil servant, politician and scientist, with decades of positive contributions and peer reviews, Swedenborg and several 'Swedenborgians' were eventually put on trial for heresy. Several early Swedish New Church members were removed from their official positions for adhering to and championing the Doctrines of the New Church. These heroes openly challenged the 'official narrative' of the government and its church.

People conspired to have Swedenborg arrested and declared insane. The plot was to summon him before a court of justice, find him guilty and declare his writings to be a danger to the health of society. When Swedenborg heard of this conspiracy he 'became very sorrowful and, going straightway into his garden, fell upon his knees and in tears prayed to the Lord, asking Him what he should do. He received the comforting assurance that no evil would befall him, as turned out to be the case; for his enemies did not dare carry out their persecution when they considered that he was the head of a family and related to other influential families'* both in the House of Nobles and in the House of the Clergy. It seems being one of the elite aristocrats had tangible benefits.

Other Early New Church Champions: Beyer, Rosen and Schmidt

Along with Swedenborg, there were several other champions of the New Church in those early days. The best known are two highly placed university professors, Drs. Beyer and Rosen, who were persecuted and slandered for their beliefs. They were removed from their university positions and church government consistory memberships.

Losing one's reputation and job based on conscientious adherence to the New Church doctrines was an early champion's battle wound in the war to bring the Holy City down from God to live in the minds and hearts of people on earth.

Weaponising Medical Diagnosis Against New Church Heroes

Lesser well known was Rev. Sven Schmidt, a pastor from Swedenborg's home diocese, who began following and preaching New Church doctrine years before the Gothenburg trials of Beyer and Rosen. He lost his pastorate for not rescinding his beliefs.

Rev. Schmidt is noted as the first person to publicly declare that the Writings of Swedenborg were the Word. 'The testimony courageously given by Pastor Schmidt constitutes the first recorded public statement that the Writings of Swedenborg are the Word of God, equally as are the Old and New Testaments; and being made while Swedenborg was still on earth engaged in publishing his Writings, though Pastor Schmidt had never met him, the utterance gives the stronger testimony that it was founded on an inner conviction of the Divine truth of his Writings.' *

Whereas Rosen and Beyer met and knew Swedenborg, and so a personal relationship was involved in their connection with the Word of the New Church, Schmidt had only read the Writings and based on his inner conviction of their Truth became a champion for their teachings.

You must be crazy to believe such things

In 1771 Rev. Sven Schmidt was deprived of his office, declared insane and imprisoned because he insisted on teaching the Swedenborgian tenets. He was released, but returned to champion the New Church and gather followers of its teachings. In 1778 Schmidt was again imprisoned for insanity and remained incarcerated for 26 years until the end of his life, dying in 1805.

The enemies of the Truth, those described as Dragonists, managed to convince the church leaders that such a sacrifice was for the general welfare of the people – Schmidt must be crazy to continue spreading these harmful ideas, preaching these teachings! So they declared him mentally ill, insane and shut him up by shutting him away.

Censored and Silenced

When we consider the champions in the Word, we look both at natural history and politics, as well as spiritual accounts from the other world. The persecutions Swedenborg experienced are more fully explained in the pages of the Word of the Second Coming. The Gothenburg trials focus especially on the publication of Apocalypse Revealed, Brief Exposition and Conjugial Love. These books were confiscated and condemned and Swedenborg knew from the Lord that this persecution would take place.

The same persecution in the natural world had its origins in the spiritual world. The 'male child' born of the Woman Clothed with the Sun seen in the Heavens, was in fact the New Word given through the books written by Swedenborg and championed by the early New Church followers. War broke out in both worlds.

The Rev. Donald Rose gives a fascinating account of the attacks in both worlds in three articles in New Church Life 2006:

Uncovering a Conspiracy to Keep People from Reading The Writings

A well known symbol of the New Church is the woman clothed with the sun in Revelation chapter twelve. The woman is in danger, as is her offspring, threatened by the dragon. The following is a specific application of this vision, a phenomenon in the natural world.

It has been disclosed that a conspiracy against the Writings took place in the spiritual world and also in the natural world. First, there was an effort in the spiritual world to keep the books from being written.

Strange as it sounds, when Swedenborg undertook to write certain books of the Writings, evil spirits surrounded him trying their hardest to prevent the writing from taking place. 'This strange circumstance it is permitted me to relate, because of a truth it so happened' (Apocalypse Revealed 543). Being unable to 'extinguish' them, they endeavoured to prevent their being read or received.

The conspiracy took form in the natural world in specific efforts by certain individuals. In the year 1758, Swedenborg sent the books to many influential people. There were men who made calculated efforts to see that they would not be read.

How can you prevent people from reading books? You can mis-represent them and make them seem not worth reading. You can scoff at them. But a key device is to keep them out of the public eye. The conspiracy is largely a conspiracy of silence. And so we read in Apocalypse Revealed number 716, that some 'persuaded as many as they could not to read them', and they brought it about that they would not even be mentioned in the books of religious catalogues.

By 'them' in this instance specific books of the Writings are meant including Heaven and Hell. Swedenborg recorded that the conspiracy was successful. So successful that 'nothing is now heard of them' (Spiritual Dairy 6098).

Nothing was heard of them! Meetings had taken place where plans were hatched against the books. A mastermind was a Bishop. That same Bishop later confessed in the spiritual world. He 'described in what manner he especially scoffed at the five works, on Heaven and Hell, and the rest, which I [Swedenborg] had made a present to all [the Bishops] and to all the Reformed Lords in Parliament, by abuse and misrepresentation, and at last put a stop to the reading of it – together with the rest – until they utterly rejected them. He also related what he had said to them, and something that others had said, and various discussions respecting them' (Spiritual Diary 6101).

Those discussions took place in the natural world, but it was in the spiritual world that they came out. We read elsewhere of various plots in the natural world that came to light in the other world, fulfilling the saying, 'What you have spoken in the dark shall be heard in the light' (Luke 12:2,3; Heaven and Hell 462). The plots we are speaking of here, however, relate directly to the suppression of the knowledge of the books of the Writings.*

Cancel Culture Then and Now

As Rev. Rose points out, the battles those like Swedenborg, Schmidt, Beyer and Rosen faced involved numerous tactics. Smear campaigns, false testimony, vindictive slander, misinformation, censorship and medical misdiagnosis for political gain. A conspiracy of silence is also at work.

We see the same attacks take place today against the Word of the New Church and those who follow the Light of New Church teachings. Our hope is to see more champions and heroes among the membership of the New Church. But the hells have not given up their conspiracy campaigns and smear tactics against the teaching and the followers of the New Church Word. We are inspired by the dedication the early champions displayed, and the sacrifices they made.

Stay True

How goes the battle for you? Do you remain silent when injustice takes place around you? Do you dare not bring up Conjugial Love, or freedom and rationality, if it would challenge the current political or cultural narrative? Are you afraid of being pushed aside for professing your genuine beliefs about God, the Second Coming, true marriage, Heaven and Hell, free speech and open dialogue?

It is challenging to be a champion for a cause which so few people see or believe in? Your mental health may be questioned, or you may lose your job or reputation for your New Church convictions, but that may be the cost in 2026 for true New Church Champions and Heroes.

Know, however, that you are not alone and your spiritual journey has many fellow travellers. The conspiracy of the hells involves creating feelings of isolation. It involves slipping in thoughts like 'no one else feels or thinks this way' or 'I shouldn't bother others with my little problems.'

Don't let the hells convince you that there is no help or support. That is what this New Church is for, and worth fighting for. Creating a loving community of like minded spiritual helpers is the coming of the Holy City onto the earth. It is a City of Hope and Restoration.

Be a champion for the New Church by sharpening your convictions and dedication to its teachings, and when battle weary, be refreshed and restored at church or in fellowship with your New Church comrades.

'Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more'

* Quotes other than Rev. Donald Rose in New Church Life, are taken from THE SWEDENBORG EPIC BY CYRIEL SIGSTEDT

Rev. Michael Cowley