The name Robert Hindmarsh comes up often in early New Church History. He was the founder of the first New Church organization. He was the first person baptized into this new faith, as well as the first priest and the first high-priest, a position which he held for half a century.
Hindmarsh was born to a Methodist minister by the name of James Hindmarsh, in Northumberland, England, on the eighth of November in the year 1759. As he grew he began to study the doctrines of the church, and found what he believed to be flaws. The biggest problem he saw was the doctrine of the trinity. After a meticulous study of the Bible, he came to the conclusion that there must be only one God, who is the Creator (Father), Redeemer (Son), and Comforter and Redeemer (Holy Ghost).
The name of Swedenborg first reached Hindmarsh in the year 1778, while he was an assistant at a publishing company. This was the year that Heaven and Hell was published. He thought it sounded interesting, but was informed that the author, Baron Swedenborg, was "unsound of mind." Through the next couple years, he did continue his search for information on the life after death.
On January the first, 1782, Robert went to visit to his father James. One other topics they discussed was the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Robert anxiously inquired as to where he could obtain a copy of said works. The next day he went to visit a Quaker by the name of Mr. George Keen. (Mr. Keen later became a member of the New Church.) He loaned Robert a copy of Heaven and Hell and The Intercourse Between The Soul and Body. Hindmarsh eagerly read these works and rapidly reached in the conclusion that this was indeed divinely inspired. He further believed that any well-educated man would likewise believe this. In this he was mistaken, the New Church was to take hold very slowly, as predicted in Revelation and explained in the heavenly doctrine Apocalypse Revealed.
To Be Continued…..