Christian Brands? - Swedenborgs (The New Church)

At first I was a bit concerned that this had:

a. Something to do with worshipping that great tennis icon, Bjorn Born (who was after all Swedish), or

b. The followers of that great retail outlet, IKEA, that great shop which sells everything from self-assembly furniture to food, and I've even heard tell of people getting brides from it too! (not sure about that, but I understand there is empirical evidence!).

But, of course, I was wrong (sigh):

Origins: England and America
Began in: 1778 and 1792 respectively
Founder: Emanuel Swedenborg (or more accurately, the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg)
Membership:c. 2,000
Bible: It's there but needs to be interpreted (as Swedenborg did, word-by-word) to discover its true 'inner meaning'. OT contains the pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number and deuteronomy), Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Psalms and the Prophets from Isaiah to Malachi, NT limited to the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and Revelation.
Beliefs:
Don't see Jesus' death as having any efficacy. With regard to the Trinity, God is one person, with elements of the Father (infinite Love), Son (infinite Wisdom), and the Holy Spirit (His presence and work in us) and all are found in Jesus Christ, who is The God. He exists in both the spiritual and physical worlds and is the embodiment of a Trinity of Love, Wisdom and Energy.

Memory is what remains of a person after death and after death the, now, spiritual beings carrying living out their lives in heaven (just as on earth). the dying are aided by angels into death and then, after a few days of resting after the ordeal, they just carry on as if nothing much has happened - merely a translation from one for to another.
No real heaven or hell, merely choices and satan doesn't exist - but is either the group name for evil spirits or for our own, indestructible, desire to do wrong.
This means there is no eternal punishment and even if in your own hell, there is the potential to progress such that you can rise up out of it. Salvation is not a Christian thing, but open to all through their own efforts and merits.

Regarding the spiritual world, like an onion there are many layers which make go to make it - I assume that the outer is one extreme (i.e. heaven) and the inner the other (i.e hell).

The cross did not atone for the sins of mankind and although God did come to earth as Jesus to heal a broken world He is now present in all through love.

God wants us to be happy and to be love and by following His word, and serving others, life and love are found. We have our own freedom to find our way and we begin living heaven here on earth (what a nice thought - I rather like the man, een though I couldn't support him!) through love, reason and consideration for others

Are they Christian?: Well of course it's not Christian.
A very interesting theological and philosophical approach and one that I can see has some attraction (not that much as there's less that 2,000 of them) if you ignore the 'Christian' bit.

When I was a small child I always used to look at the window of the Swedenborgs (near the british Museum) and wonder what they were. I guess they could be subtitled, "The Much Reduced Bible Company". Now I know :)