Posts Tagged Christianity
There are approximately 38,000 Christian denominations and only one John 17
Posted by Joel in Religion and Politics on October 14, 2010
Thanks to Stuart for this,
Salem News today has this article:
During the past nineteen hundred years over four thousand different Christian religious denominations, organizations, and movements, have evolved in the world. These four thousand we call main line groups. Go outside of these main line movements and the number of groups cannot be counted.
A great number of these main line groups have developed their own individual plans of salvation.
Between these four thousand movements we estimate somewhere between one hundred and two hundred different plans of salvation are believed to be the true salvation plan of God.
You should read his commentary on the link above. He also has another article which calls for unity against Islam. We forget that the fastest growing religion in the world is not Islam, but Christianity. It is often under reported (pick your reason), but in fact, Christianity is exploding in places where it is facing the toughest persecution. Pakistan, India and other places are seeing Christianity rise. The only commonality there, for an enemy, is sin.
Unfortunately, in the West, we’ve had the freedom to combat the only common enemy – each other. Sin was removed from the individual and placed upon doctrines and dogmas. And for what good purpose? Christianity is divided and is continuing to divide further and to what end? What has our doctrinal disputations accomplished? Our hierarchical structures? Have we done the good works of Christ? Have we sought unity? Have we kept to the bare minimum of essentials, and in all things, ‘charity’?
“My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. (John 17:9-11 NLT)
I guess instead of overcoming the world, we are really overcoming Christ.
What Makes the Church One?
Stuart has a post about the unity of Rome and the East, which I shared on Facebook. NT commented about the last stanza of the Creed –
In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. (Creed of 381)
The Apostles’ Creed ends like this,
I believe in …. the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,
What united the Church? Is it the head of an organization? The Creed? Or is in the One Faith which predated these things? Is ther anything that unites Christians?
Has America destroyed Christianity?
Posted by Joel in Religion and Politics on August 16, 2010
Maybe that’s not the best way to get my point across, but I cannot think of a better way to say it… Maybe ‘has the West destroyed Christianity?’ I blog, you decide.
I want to bring to you three posts from this past week which deal with this precept.
From Padre Steve –
As a result much of the Christian landscape is dominated by churches that understand little of the Christian faith, no longer see value in practicing things like Baptism or Holy Communion and while they preach about “Biblical absolutes” in regard to abortion, an admittedly abhorrent practice and homosexuality they seem to gloss over other many moral issues including divorce, sex outside of marriage, materialism, greed and avarice, so long as those practicing them are on “our side.” Likewise they are prone to give people who actually oppose the Christian faith a pass if they fall on the same side of the political aisle. We are simple selective literalists.
Celucien points us to an article from Sojourners’ writer Soong-Chan Rah,
In April 2009, Newsweek magazine featured an article by Jon Meacham that describes what he perceives to be “The End of Christian America.” Meacham asserts that “Christians are now making up a declining percentage of the American population,” leading to the “end of a Christian America.” In the opening paragraph of the Newsweek article, Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, laments what he perceives to be a disturbing trend. “As Mohler saw it, the historic foundation of America’s religious culture was cracking.” Mohler is particularly disturbed by the decline of Christianity in New England, as he states: “to lose New England struck me as momentous.”
Then, an article from USA Today –
“Bye-bye church. We’re busy.” That’s the message teens are giving churches today.Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.
“Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook,” says Barna president David Kinnaman.
The point?
The eastern branch of Christianity has suffered centuries of persecution which drew them to their doctrine and focused themselves on the Christian faith. The West has grown complacent in its liberty and freedom to wonder after other gods. We have liberty, freedom, peace, and the technology to make every person a qualified biblical scholar and interpreter, each right in his or her own eyes.
And of course, there is the Cowboy Creed, said in the ‘Cowboy Church’ –
The Lone Ranger Creed
I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.
That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
That “this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people,” shall live always.
That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
That sooner or later…somewhere…somehow…we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone lives on forever.
I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.
(the HT for that is reserved for a reason)
When we replace real creeds with garbage like this, it undermines the notion of what a Creed is supposed to be – a unifying statement of history, tradition, and theology which acts as a foundation and a bulwark against those heresies and out right stupidities which come against the holders of thee Creed.
Call me grumpy, but unless the American Church returns to biblical Christianity, with the heart of the Gospel preached, then this country will cease to bear any marks of the city on the hill.
There Really Is An App For Everything
Posted by Craig Falvo in Religious News, Technology on July 10, 2010
Are you a Christian and need help debating an Atheist? There’s an App for that.
Are you an Atheist and need help debating a Christian? There’s an App for that.
The App wars have gone to a whole new level. Apps like Bible Thumper (an App for religious skeptics), Fast Facts, Challenges, & Tactics and The Atheist Pocket Debater have taken the App war to a whole new level.
In a dozen new phone applications, whether faith-based or faith-bashing, the prospective debater is given a primer on the basic rules of engagement — how to parry the circular argument, the false dichotomy, the ad hominem attack, the straw man — and then coached on all the likely flashpoints of contention. Why Darwinism is scientifically sound, or not. The differences between intelligent design and creationism, and whether either theory has any merit. The proof that America was, or was not, founded on Christian principles.
Really, we need an App to do this? Here’s something novel…take a course on logic…take a philosophy class. Even better yet, pick up a book and read it. In my opinion, any of these will actually serve you better than an App you may or may not use and you might actually learn something.
Between my Droid and iPad, I have dozens of Apps…some games, blogging programs, and various other stuff like Foursquare and Tweetdeck. There is little overlap between the Apps on my Droid and the Apps on my iPad. The one thing that overlaps is I have the YouVersion of the Bible on both. Nothing on debating, especially Atheists. Have we really gotten to the point where we can’t argue without the aid of an App? Are we that lazy as a culture? Does anyone else think this is getting a little out of hand?
I mean, I can understand why these Apps are so popular. We’re a society of instant gratification. We want it now. We don’t want to wait to read a book or to learn philosophy. It will be interesting to see how Apps continue to change our culture…for better or for worse.
You Say God Is Dead? There’s an App for That | The New York Times
A Christian and his agnostic partner
Posted by Newtaste in Other Posts on June 20, 2010
Retired Australian high court judge Michael Kirby is a committed Christian. His partner of 41 years Johan van Vloten is a non-believer. Both men talk about their relationship and faith, or lack thereof, in an television documentary airing next week in Australia.
Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan made false allegations about the couple in 2002. Their individual reaction now to Heffernan is … different.
Eight years on, Kirby betrays no sign of anger, but insists it is a subject he hates having to discuss. ”I’d rather not talk about it really because every time I do so it becomes part of my life,” he says ”Do you know, if you Google Johan’s name, what comes up is not this prudent, loving, faithful companion. What comes up is Senator Heffernan’s attack. I regard that as sad and offensive. I hope that one day if his name is Googled what will come up is his example of human kindness, support, intelligence and goodness to everyone.”
Read more
The Patina of Christianity
Patina occurs over time on surfaces of such things as bronze, wood, and cloth. It changes the surface of the object, over time, covering the original object with change producing a different surface, or even hiding the original surface. The Statue of Liberty is an example of what patina does to copper. The James Ossuary Box was examined according the patina that had settled over the years, as has the Shroud of Turin. So too Christianity must be.
The Christian Faith has existed for nearly 2000 years; it is bound to have patina covering it. The Reformation scraped some off; current theological trends are attempting to do the same thing, to go further to the original source through biblical studies of context and culture. Many are afraid at what is being discovered and how it is affecting their belief system. No longer are we only to accept the words and works of those who have come before us, but we can get to the source of thought for the writers of the New Testament. It is difficult for some, because studies are showing that some of that patina is indeed the thoughts of us. That is not to say that we do not add by our experience some truth to the base material. Indeed, many that have come before have accurately portrayed the faith of the early Church.
A previous congregation that I attended serves today as a prime example of patina. They loved their former pastor, no doubt, but they quoted him extensively. As humans do, sometimes those quotes contradicted each other in minute details. It was not until they started to quote him has saying something where it was originally recorded in Scripture that I began to wonder if they were following the deceased pastor or the Scriptures themselves. They would quote him as saying something, but the very words that he said were found in Scripture. Further, they would use his facts, and although he was not an ignorant man he was misinformed on more than a few things, to substantiate their own knowledge and weigh anything new against what he determined should be the truth. The Scripture, while verbally was the source of thought, became secondary because the congregation focused only on his interpretation and viewed Scripture, history and science through his words. They insulated themselves from examining Scripture through the patina of their recent tradition.
This is why I desire to focus on biblical studies, instead of theology. There is no doubt that theology must play a role in biblical studies but I intend to focus not on Tradition or developed theology, but on the theology which first bound the early followers of Christ together, gave rise to their interpretation of Him, and what finally defined their words as they first took to pen the Gospel Story or answer questions posed to the new community.
Like any scraping of patina, there are times when the violence of the worker will damage something, but we must judge to see if that damage harms the patina or the original source. Violence is not always a terrible thing, in that a certain amount of gentle roughness is need to removed the long entrenched viewpoints and understanding of what Scripture says. The Scriptures were not written in our culture, context or time, and yet, we seem to passively accept that the Apostles and Prophets wrote according to our ears. Ignoring the culture and context, which is the rich beauty of the times in which the writers lived, and supplanting it with our own, is a heinous act which should be stopped.
Generally, Christians have little to no problem challenging new trends in the religion, such as the Prosperity Gospel which has gripped the United States and now threatens to maim Africa, and rightfully so, but when it comes to examining their own viewpoints, they bulk. Why? Surely if we can examine these new fads by the light of Scripture, we can examine our viewpoints, no matter how right they are, by light of the authors of Scripture.
I intend in my studies to get past the patina of tradition, to the heart of the matter.
You?
Cornering: Does Knowing When Christianity Begin Make You a Christian?
Posted by Joel in Debate/Discussion on May 15, 2010
There is a Facebook discussion going on on a page I cannot see, but this is the question sent to me from someone who can:
Is the person who said this a Christian? I’m anxious to hear from all of my FB friends! “Christianity was not invented by Constantine at the council of Nicia, it was invented by God with the resurrection of Christ”
Since when does one statement make someone a Christian? Especially such a fact-based one. Since neither of those answers are correct, how could answering them either make one or keep one from being a Christianity? Knowing the exact date when Christianity began (there is no exact date) does not make you a Christian any more than believing in the Historical Jesus does.
Does it come down to believing in a literal resurrection? Hardly. I’ve seen people who don’t believe be better Christians than those who do. Separation. Corning. That is what these debates are all about.
