In the American Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

How does this square with New Christian thought? In this short article, we'll focus on the unalienable Right to Life, and starting thinking it through.

Admittedly, the 1776 Declaration is an American-centric place to start from, and the New Christianity transcends political entities and borders. But new thinking was clearly in the wind at that time, in many places. Swedenborg published his capstone work of theology, " Vera Christiana Religio", or True Christian Religion, in 1770. Six years later, the American Revolution help create a sea change in the way we think about human rights, all over the world, and about government. It's the universality of the thinking in the Declaration that makes it an important thing to compare to the tenets of religion.

The Bible clearly values life. In the Ten Commandments, we have the plain command: "Thou shall not kill", in Exodus 20:13.

Cain's murder of Abel is condemned, in Genesis 4:8 and the following verses.

Jesus emphasizes the promise of eternal life, but still saves people's natural lives -- e.g. Jairus's daughter (in Mark 5:22), and his friend Lazarus (Luke 7:11), the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5) and the woman taken in adultery (John 8:3).

Swedenborg makes the point that life flows in from the Lord, who is life itself. The universe is created as a place where life can be formed, and -- though this may seem self-centered -- where human beings can develop to the point where we can actively exercise spiritual freedom and rationality -- making decisions about good and evil. See The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 278.

If we think that life is a gift from the Lord, flowing to us, and not really ours, we'll treat it with respect. When we're setting up governments, we'll do it in a way that protects human life.

To come back to our initial question... does the "right to life" square with New Christian thought? Yes.

(सन्दर्भ: The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 278)

278. Of the influx of life with man in particular.

There is one only fountain of life, from which all live both in heaven and in the world (n.1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2886-2889, 3001, 3484, 3742, 5847, 6467).

This life is from the Lord alone, illustrated by various things (n. 2886-2889, 3344, 3484, 4319-4320, 4524, 4882, 5986, 6325, 6468-6470, 9276, 10196).

The Lord is life itself, may be seen (John 1:1; 1:4; 5:26; 14:6).

Life from the Lord flows in with angels, spirits, and men, in a wonderful manner (n. 2886-2889, 3337-3338, 3484, 3742).

The Lord flows in from His Divine love, which is of such that it wills that what is its own should be another's (n. 3742, 4320).

All love is such; thus the Divine love is infinitely more so (n. 1820, 1865, 2253, 6872).

Hence life appears as if it were in man, and not as inflowing (n. 3742, 4320).

Life appears as if it were in man, because the principal cause, which is life from the Lord, and the instrumental cause, which is the recipient form, act as one cause, which is felt in the instrumental (n. 6325).

The chief of the wisdom and intelligence of the angels consists in perceiving and knowing that the all of life is from the Lord (n. 4318).

Concerning the joy of angels perceived and shown by their discourse to me, from this that they do not live from themselves, but from the Lord (n. 6469).

The evil are not willing to be convinced that life inflows (n. 3743).

Doubts concerning the influx of life from the Lord cannot be removed, so long as fallacies, ignorance, and the negative reign (n. 6479). All in the church know that all good and truth is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and that all evil and falsity is from hell; and yet the all of life has relation to good and truth, and to evil and falsity, there being nothing of life without them (n. 2893, 4151).

The doctrinal of the church derived from the Word teaches the same thing (n. 4249). Nevertheless man does not believe that life inflows (n. 4249).

If communication and connection with spirits and angels were taken away, man would instantly die (n. 2887).

It is evident from hence, that the all of life flows in from the first esse of life, because nothing exists from itself, but from things prior to itself, thus each and all things exist from the First; and because everything must subsist from the same source from which it first existed, since subsistence is perpetual existence (n. 4523-4524).

Angels, spirits, and men, were created to receive life, thus they are only forms recipient of life (n. 2021, 3001, 3318, 3344, 3484, 3742, 4151, 5114, 5986). Their forms are such as the quality of their reception (n. 2888, 3001, 3484, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Men, spirits, and angels, are therefore such as are their forms recipient of life from the Lord (n. 2888, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Man is so created, that in his inmost, and hence in those which follow in order, he can receive the Divine, and be elevated to the Divine, and be conjoined with the Divine by the good of love and the truths of faith, and on this account he lives to eternity, otherwise than beasts (n. 5114).

Life from the Lord flows in also with the evil, thus also with those who are in hell (n. 2706, 3743, 4417, 10196). But they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, and thus life into spiritual death, for such as the man is, such is his reception of life (n. 4319-4320, 4417). Goods and truths from the Lord also continually inflow with them, but they either reject, suffocate, or pervert them (n. 3743). They who are in evils, and thence in falsities, have no real life; the quality of their life (n. 726, 4623, 4747, 10284, 10286).

5986. It is worth my mentioning that it has happened many times and thereby been proved to me that no one person's thought, speech, will, or action - either in heaven or in hell - originates in the person himself but comes from others, so that ultimately every individual is dependent on the all-embracing inflow of life from the Lord. When I have heard others saying that nothing of a subordinate's thought or speech originated in himself, yet the subordinate imagined that it did come solely from himself, I have been allowed on many occasions to talk to those entering the subordinate. Whenever they would argue that their own thought and speech originated in themselves unlike a subordinate's - and because they really thought this was so - I have also been allowed to tell them that their idea is false. I have told them that they, exactly like a subordinate, derived their thought and speech from others. To prove the point I was allowed to talk to the spirits entering them; and when these spirits professed much the same, I was allowed to talk in turn to the ones entering them, and so on in unbroken sequence. This proved that each individual's thought and speech came from others. The experience made the spirits highly indignant, for each of them wants his thought and speech to originate in himself. But because the experience served to teach them the truth of the matter, they were told that the whole of their thought, and of their will too, is something that comes into them, for the reason that there is but one life alone, which is the source of the life those mental powers possess. That life flows in from the Lord, employing an amazing form, the heavenly form; it flows not only into all people universally but also into each individual specifically. Variation occurs in every case, determined by the form each subordinate recipient possesses, in the measure that the form agrees or does not agree with the heavenly one. From all this one may also see what the situation is with man, who will be dealt with in what follows where influx is the subject.