Swedenborgianism and Colossians 1:15-20: Who Is Christ?
Short answer: Swedenborgianism, also called the New Church, is a movement rooted in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and visionary. It teaches that there is one God, that Jesus Christ is that God in human form, and that his second coming happened not in a body but through the opening of spiritual sense in Scripture. It rejects the Trinity of three divine persons. Colossians 1:15-20 confesses Christ as the one in whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together, the head of the body, the church, the one through whom God was pleased to reconcile all things. The passage testifies to Christ's pre-existence, supremacy, and reconciling work, which is where Swedenborgian claims must be weighed. This article compares the two carefully, without caricature.
What Swedenborgianism Actually Teaches About Jesus
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) spent his early career as an assessor of mines and a writer on mathematics and anatomy. In the 1740s he reported a series of spiritual experiences and began producing volumes describing what he called the heavenly doctrines: Heaven and Hell, Arcana Coelestia, and others. The resulting movement organized itself into the New Church, which still exists in several branches today. Its central claim is not that Jesus is merely a good teacher but that he is the one God, the divine being who became incarnate. Swedenborgians affirm Jesus, but they define him within a framework very different from historic Christianity. Understanding that framework is necessary before any comparison is made, because the disagreement is not about whether Jesus matters but about who he eternally is.
In Swedenborgian thought, the divine being is one person, not three. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are described as three aspects or operations of the one God rather than three co-eternal persons. The Son, on this account, came into existence at the incarnation rather than being eternally begotten. The human nature that Jesus took was gradually glorified and made divine until the human and the divine were fully united in him. This is a real difference from the Nicene and Chalcedonian confession that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father and took a human nature into union with his divine person without ceasing to be who he always was. Swedenborgianism is not simply a variation of Christian doctrine; it restructures the doctrine of God around a single divine person whose Son is a temporal role.
Swedenborgians also understand the second coming differently. Rather than a bodily return, they teach that Christ returned spiritually by opening the inner meaning of Scripture to Swedenborg, who was told to write it down. Judgment, heaven, and hell are interpreted through an inward or correspondential reading of biblical imagery. This matters for Colossians because the letter's language about Christ's cosmic supremacy assumes a person who existed before creation and acts within history, not a role that began at Bethlehem. The question Swedenborgianism raises is not whether Jesus is central but whether the Jesus it describes is the same figure Paul worships. Historic Christians have answered no, while insisting the disagreement be stated fairly and the movement's own writings be represented accurately rather than mocked.
It is worth saying plainly what Swedenborgians do affirm. They take the Bible seriously, they call people to repent, they speak of love to God and love to the neighbor, and they reject the idea that faith alone can be separated from a changed life. Many of their ethical emphases sound familiar to Christian ears. The problem is not moral seriousness. The problem is whether the identity of Christ that Swedenborgianism presents can be reconciled with the apostolic witness. Colossians 1:15-20 is one of the clearest places where that question is put, because it says things about Christ that assume he existed, acted, and was worshiped before anything was made.
The Cosmic Christ of Colossians 1:15-20
The passage opens with a statement of relation and rank: Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." In context, Paul is answering a church tempted by competing spiritual claims. He does not argue that Christ is one among several mediators. He places Christ at the head of everything. The phrase about being the firstborn is about pre-eminence and inheritance, the right of the firstborn son, not about Christ being the first created thing, because the next verse explains that all things were made in him. The imagery draws on Jewish wisdom language about the one through whom God made the world, but it applies that language to a person the readers know as Jesus.
The argument continues in Colossians 1:16, where the scope of creation is total, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities. In the ancient world these terms described spiritual powers that people feared and sought to appease. Paul's answer is that Christ made them all, and they exist for him. If Christ made the invisible powers, no one needs to consult those powers for access to God. This is directly relevant to any system that places intermediaries, spirits, or progressive spiritual illumination between the believer and God. The supremacy of Christ in creation means nothing in creation can compete with him for mediation. He is not one link in a chain of being; he is the one for whom the whole chain exists.
Colossians 1:17 adds that he is before all things and that all things hold together in him. The word for hold together carries the sense of being kept in coherence rather than falling into chaos. The universe does not run on its own momentum with Christ merely watching. He sustains it. This is a strong claim to continuous divine activity, and it fits the opening of John's Gospel, where John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John places the Word already existing before creation, in personal relation with God, and sharing the divine identity. Any account that makes the Son begin at the incarnation has to explain these texts, not ignore them.
Then the passage turns to the church: Colossians 1:18 identifies him as the head of the body, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have the pre-eminence. The resurrection is included in his supremacy, not treated as a separate event. He is first in creation and first in the new creation. And Colossians 1:19-20 states that in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and that through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, making peace by the blood of his cross. The reconciling work is achieved through a real cross and real blood. That is not a symbol of inner illumination; it is a historical atonement with a historical cost.
Why the Pre-Existence of Christ Is Not Negotiable
Pre-existence means that the Son existed before Bethlehem, before Abraham, before creation, in eternal relation with the Father. Swedenborgianism treats the Son as the divine which took on humanity in time, so the eternal relation of Father and Son is replaced by a single person acting in a new way. The New Testament does not permit that reading without strain. John 1:1 places the Word with God in the beginning and calls him God. John 1:14 then says the Word became flesh and lived among us. The becoming does not create the person; it reveals one who already was. Colossians 1:15-17 assumes exactly this: the one who is the image of God is the one through whom all things were created.
Hebrews makes the same assumption differently. Hebrews 1:1-2 states that God has spoken in these last days by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages. The Son is the agent of creation, which places him before creation. Hebrews goes on to describe him as the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature, sustaining all things by his word. This is personal, eternal, divine agency. If the Son only came to be at the incarnation, he could not be the one through whom the ages were made. The author of Hebrews treats the Son's role in creation as settled, then argues from it that he is superior to angels and to every previous messenger.
Peter adds a different kind of testimony. In 2 Peter 1:16 he writes that the apostles did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He then recalls the voice from heaven at the transfiguration and says the prophetic word is confirmed. Peter's point is that apostolic testimony rests on events that were seen and heard, not on inward visions that must be accepted on a teacher's authority. Swedenborgian claims rest on Swedenborg's reported experiences. That does not automatically make them false, but it places them in a different category from the eyewitness testimony Peter appeals to, and it means they must be tested by the apostolic word rather than treated as its interpreter.
Paul also warns about a different gospel. Galatians 1:6 says, "I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different 'good news'," and he goes on in verses 8 and 9 to say that even an angel from heaven preaching another gospel should be rejected. That warning is not an invitation to suspicion of every new idea, but it does establish that the content of the gospel about Christ is not infinitely flexible. If a system redefines who Christ is at the level of his person and work, the question of whether the gospel has changed is legitimate and must be answered from Scripture, not from the sincerity of the teacher.
Reconciliation by the Blood of His Cross
Colossians 1:20 is the verse Swedenborgianism has the most difficulty absorbing as written: God was pleased through Christ to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. The reconciling agent is Christ, the means is blood, and the location is a cross. In historic Christian teaching, this means the death of Jesus was a substitutionary sacrifice that dealt with guilt and hostility between God and sinners. In Swedenborgian teaching, the cross is typically read as the final stage of the glorification of Jesus and the defeat of evil influences, not as the payment of a penalty. The moral seriousness is present, but the legal and sacrificial dimension is treated differently, and that changes what the gospel announces.
The New Testament repeatedly ties forgiveness to blood and sacrifice. That is not a medieval addition. It runs from the sacrificial system through the words of Jesus at the last supper and through the letters of Paul and the letter to the Hebrews. If the cross is only a demonstration or a final battle, the language of peace being made through blood becomes a metaphor without a debt, and the apostolic explanation of why Jesus died is replaced by another. Colossians 1:14, just a few verses earlier, speaks of redemption and forgiveness of sins in Christ. The passage's own context joins reconciliation to the forgiveness of sins, not merely to inward renewal or the removal of harmful spiritual influences.
There is a pastoral reason to press this. People who carry real guilt need to hear that it has been dealt with outside themselves. If the only remedy offered is inner illumination that must be received and improved, the burden shifts back onto the person. The historic gospel says peace was made by someone else, at a cost he bore, and is received by faith. Swedenborgianism's moral emphasis, taken alone, can leave a conscience still unsettled. Even where a system speaks warmly of divine love, if the cross does not objectively accomplish reconciliation, the comfort offered is thinner than the comfort the apostles preached, and it is not the comfort Colossians offers.
This is also where the passage's ending and the passage's beginning connect. Colossians 1:15 points to the invisible God made visible in Christ; Colossians 1:20 points to peace made through his blood. The one who reveals God is the one who reconciles us to God, and he does it as the eternal Son who became flesh. Any system that keeps the moral teaching but loosens the identity and the atonement has kept the shell and lost the substance. That judgment should be stated with care, because Swedenborgians are not indifferent to Christ, but care does not require vagueness. The text is specific, and specificity is a form of love when eternal matters are at stake.
Scripture's Own Inner Meaning and the Swedenborgian Claim
Swedenborgians argue that Scripture has an inner, spiritual sense, that the literal narrative corresponds to spiritual realities, and that Swedenborg was permitted to disclose this sense. Christians have always acknowledged that Scripture has depths, types, and patterns, and that some passages carry symbolic weight. But there is a difference between saying Scripture is rich and saying its literal sense needs a key held by one teacher. The New Testament writers themselves interpret the Old Testament in ways that are publicly argued from the text, not delivered as private disclosures. When Paul reads the law and the prophets, he appeals to what is written. When Swedenborg's followers read Genesis, they claim a hidden sense accessible through the Writings.
The practical danger is that a claimed inner meaning can absorb any statement that contradicts the system. If the plain sense of Colossians 1:16 is that Christ made all things, and the system requires that the Son began in time, the plain sense must be reinterpreted. Once that move is allowed, no text can function as a check, because the literal sense is never the final authority. This is different from the ordinary Christian practice of reading a verse in context and letting clearer passages clarify harder ones. The context of Colossians is not hidden; it names creation, the church, the cross, and blood. A reading that redirects all of these into interior states has moved the meaning of the letter somewhere the letter does not go.
This does not mean every image in Scripture is flat and literal. Jesus called himself the door and the vine, and no one thinks he was made of wood. Wisdom literature uses metaphor throughout, and Revelation is saturated with symbolic visions. Historic Christians differ on the details of eschatology and on how much symbolism is present in particular passages. The issue with Swedenborgianism is not that it uses symbolism but that it treats a comprehensive inner sense as the intended and primary meaning of nearly everything, so that historical events like the cross become pictures of inward processes. Fairness requires acknowledging that Swedenborgians see this as recovering the true spiritual sense. The question remains whether the apostles read Scripture that way, and the evidence of their letters is that they did not.
What Historic Christians and Swedenborgians Actually Disagree About
Some disagreements are secondary and can be discussed without breaking fellowship: how to interpret particular prophetic passages, the details of church order, the degree to which spiritual experiences should shape doctrine. Others are first-order. The first-order issues here are whether the Son is eternally divine and distinct from the Father, whether the incarnation added a human nature to an already existing divine person, whether the cross objectively accomplished reconciliation through blood, and whether the second coming is a future bodily return. Colossians 1:15-20 touches the first three directly and the fourth by implication, because the one who is head over all things will be the one who is finally seen.
It is worth saying that Christians who share the historic creeds still differ on many things: baptism, the Lord's supper, church government, the timing of end-time events. Those differences are real and should not be minimized. But the creeds exist because the early church concluded that the identity of Christ is not a matter on which every reading can be true at once. If the Son is eternally begotten, then the claim that he began at Bethlehem is false. If the Son is a distinct person from the Father, then the claim that Father and Son are one person in different aspects is false. These are not semantics; they change who is being worshiped. And worship is what Colossians 1:18 describes when it calls Christ the head of the body, the church.
Practically, if you are talking with a Swedenborgian, the most useful thing is not to begin with labels but with the text. Read Colossians 1:15-20 aloud and ask what it says about who Christ is and when he existed. Read John 1:1 and ask who the Word was with and what he was. Read Hebrews 1:1-2 and ask who made the ages. Read 2 Peter 1:16 and ask what kind of testimony the apostles claimed. Let the questions be genuine and let the other person answer from the text. Then state your own conviction plainly and without contempt. The goal is not to win an argument but to be faithful to what is written and to love the person in front of you.
If you hold to the historic Christian confession, the passage leaves you with worship, not merely with a position. Colossians 1:19-20 says that in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and that through him all things are reconciled. That is a statement about the eternal Son who became flesh, died, and rose. Swedenborgianism is not the only system that reshapes this claim; many do, in many directions. The task for every generation is the same: to keep the Christ of the apostles, not a Christ rebuilt to fit a philosophy. Where faithful Christians differ on secondary matters, say so honestly. Where the text speaks plainly, do not soften it.
Biblical fidelity check
What Colossians 1:15-20 establishes is specific. It says Christ is the image of the invisible God, that all things were created in him and for him, that he is before all things and holds all things together, that he is the head of the church, that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him, and that God reconciled all things through him, making peace through the blood of his cross. These are claims about his identity, his pre-existence, his role in creation, his authority over the church, and the means of reconciliation. The passage does not use the word Trinity, and it does not spell out the technical language later creeds would use to guard the mystery of one God in three persons.
What the passage does not establish is equally important. It does not say the Son came into being at the incarnation, and it does not say the cross was merely a symbol or an inward process. It also does not answer every question about how creation and redemption relate, or about the order of events at the end. A common misreading is to take the phrase about the firstborn of all creation to mean Christ was the first created being. That reading is wrong because the next verse says all things were created in him, which would make him his own creature, and because the term in context carries the sense of pre-eminence and heirship. The verse magnifies Christ; it does not rank him among created things.
Other passages that speak to Colossians 1:15-20
Several related studies help round out the picture. What Does 1 John 1:1 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application explores the apostolic claim to have seen and touched the Word of life, which bears directly on the eyewitness testimony Peter appeals to. What Does 1 John 1:8 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application examines the reality of sin that makes reconciliation necessary rather than merely therapeutic. 1 John 1:9 Meaning: Confession, Forgiveness, and Cleansing shows how forgiveness is received, and What Does 1 John 2:15 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application addresses the love of the world that competes with love for the Father. Together these passages help keep the supremacy of Christ connected to the daily life of the believer.
Frequently asked questions
Is Swedenborgianism a Christian denomination?
That depends on how the word Christian is defined. Swedenborgians confess Jesus as the one God and honor the Bible, so in ordinary usage they call themselves Christian. Historic Christianity has usually defined the term by the apostolic confession that the Son is eternally divine and distinct from the Father, and that salvation is by grace through the finished work of the cross. Because Swedenborgianism redefines the Trinity and the atonement, most historic churches regard it as a separate religion rather than a branch within Christianity. The most honest answer is to explain the definition being used rather than trade labels.
Does Colossians 1:15 teach that Jesus was created?
No, and the verse itself rules that out when read with the next one. Colossians 1:15 says he is the firstborn of all creation, and Colossians 1:16 says all things were created in him and for him. The term firstborn in this context means pre-eminence and heirship, the rights of the firstborn son, not the first item made. The passage reaches its climax in the claim that all things hold together in him and that the fullness of God dwells in him. Whatever the phrase means, it cannot mean he is a creature, or the surrounding sentences collapse.
How should I talk with a Swedenborgian friend?
Begin with respect and genuine curiosity about what they believe, then move to the text. Read Colossians 1:15-20 aloud and ask what it says about when Christ existed and what he accomplished. Read John 1:1 and ask who the Word was. Ask what the cross accomplished, and whether peace with God is something already made or something we must still produce. Listen carefully and answer plainly. Where Scripture is clear, do not soften it. Where faithful Christians differ, say so. The goal is not to defeat a person but to commend the Christ the apostles preached.
