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| Earl Gillespie |
A Discussion of Biblical
Proportions
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In a political correct society, when
engaging in a discussion the purpose should be for the enlightenment of one’s self. The process of transferring thoughts or ideas
is loosing ground to, “We all have the right to believe as we want to.” When two parties are engaged in a discussion
for the purpose of proving their own ideology or advancing their own agenda,
an argument usually ensues. Knowledge
can only be transferred when one or both parties are seeking to gain a deeper understanding
of a stated subject. In today’s society
the question of what can be gained from entering a discussion should be answered first, if you are not prepared to have your faith shaken,
it is best to refrain from many non-indoctrinated discussions.
In this day of changing values it
has become necessary to mount a decisive battle to undermine the Christian
opposition. The church seems to have
shrunk away from its responsibilities by failing to put on the whole armor of
God. Choosing not to be labelled a hater
it has become passive and accordance with Jesus it is neither hot nor
cold. The Bible has always been the
weapon of choice of the religious hierarchy, it is at the forefront of the
battles for control and also the changes that has been viewed as immoral. The
greatest blow to Christianity would be the destruction of the Bible, the
foundation upon which Christianity is founded.
It would seem that any attempt to discredit or destroy the Word of God
would be met with a swift and decisive battle by the church of God.
Christianity has been made ashamed
of its bloody past and the message of salvation has been dumb-downed. The Old Testiment slaughters, the crusades
even the killing of the Jews is a part of Christian history that is being
purged. The God who once said, “I am a
jealous God” and went on killing sprees has been recreated as a God of love standing on the street corner of
life passing out blessing..
Often, ministers who have no
academic background, will base their expertise of Bible interpretation upon the
old adage, “What God calls he qualify,” as they stumble over passages of
scripture distorting the meaning in the process. This
concept has led to the proliferation of the word of God, thus providing the
fuel for discontent within the ranks of the would be believers. Seeds of doubt are sown and the indoctrinated
few shouts “Amen.”
Often Christian finds themselves
concern about the different translations of the Bible. Translations will always be relevant to the
different languages of the world. It
would be unthinkable that you must learn to read Latin in order to study the Word
of God. The problem arises in the household of faith because
there are too many interpretations of the Bible. When it comes to consistency there is little
or none within the many different churches.
There also is that ethnic divide that drives a more literal and
diverse interpretation of the scripture and it has provided the fuel for a
house divided against itself. It is easy
to overlook the Schism and state that my way is right and all others are wrong,
thus rendering any debate undebatable and the message unbelievable.
If the discussion is to prove
which translation of the Bible is more reliable, unless experts in the ancient
languages are fielding the discussion, the outcome of the discussion is of no
concrete value. Yet, these discussions which
have no concrete value can be and often is detrimental to the faith when there is
no one to turn to for enlightenment.
There are historical facts and
there are internet facts. Historical
facts must remain true to their own credentials, whereas internet facts are
subject to who is providing the citation.
The internet is a viable source for research projects, but if you accept
everything that you read on the internet you will be shamefully misled.
Growing up in a Bible based
environment, we were taught that King James was the defender of the faith and
that the King James version of the Bible was the true Bible and some even went further
to state that all others were false.
Since the early 1600’s the King James Bible has been hailed as the
vanguard of all Bibles and its sales has skyrocketed.
In the early 60 a concerted
attack was launched to destroy mankind’s belief of God. Through a drug induced stupor many gains the
courage to publicly denounce God as being dead.
The destruction of God was not forthcoming as planned, it merely allowed
for the reinvention of God. The God of
today is more involved than the God of old.
God is performing more miracles than ever before and that ethnic divide
is changing the order of worship service. The fear of God, which once was a part of worship
services is slowly fading.
Now if we were to argue as to
which Bible was the true Bible the argument would be without merit because the
first question that must be answered is, “do we believe in God.” If the answer was “yes”, then the question of the Bible would go
away. Now, if we are guilty of trying to prove the existence of God, then we
must prove which Bible is proper and correct and from the layman perspective
this is an impossible task.
A true study of Christianity must
include the Roman Empire in 313 AD under
the leadership of Constantine ended the persecution of the Christians. The Government of Rome and the church began
to walk hand in hand. In 321 the church
was granted the right to hold property, Constantine donates the palace of the
Laterani to Pope Miltiades. The Lateran Basilica (Basilica of Our Savior)
becomes the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Rome or the Catholic Church. In February 380: Emperor Theodosius I issues
an edict, De Fide Catolica, in Thessalonica, published in Constantinople,
declaring Catholic Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. The Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I in 382 sets the Canon of the Bible, listing
the accepted books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. No others are to
be considered as scripture.
In time, several Churches split
off from the Catholic Church because of differing opinions of theology. This
caused breaks in the Church called schisms. Most schisms happened because
people had different beliefs about what is true.
In 451, a church division
happened when all the church leaders meeting at the Church Council in the city
of Chalcedon excommunicated (cut off) three leaders, because they held to
monophysitism and would not accept the view that Jesus had two natures (fully
divine and fully human). These three were the bishops of Egypt, Syria, and
Armenia. Of course, these three bishops did not accept being excommunicated
either, so the churches under them are still known today as Oriental Orthodox
Churches.
In 1054, the Church split in two,
in the East-West Schism. The church in Western Europe, which followed the Pope
became known as the Roman Catholic Church, and the churches in the rest of the
world which did not think that the Pope should lead all Christians became known
as the Orthodox Church "Orthodox" means "correct belief",
as they believe that they have kept the teachings of the early church and the
Roman Catholics have not.
The next split was the Protestant
Reformation. Protestants resisted the central authority of the Church in Rome
and rejected many practices, beliefs and disciplines. The Reformation started
in Germany, where Martin Luther sent his demands for change to the Church.
Because of politics in Europe, many nations supported Luther. The Lutheran
Church was started. Later the Calvinist or Presbyterian Church started.In England, King Henry VIII
started the Anglican church. He wanted to divorce his first wife, but the Pope
would not grant him permission. At first, The Church of King Henry VIII later called
the Church of England, was very similar to the Catholic Church. The major
difference was that the king was the head of the church, instead of the Pope.
Later, under his son, Edward VI, the Anglican Church became more reformed or
Protestant. Anglicans, and several other Protestant denominations, still
believe they are reformed Catholics. Puritanism arose among Anglicans who
thought the reforms didn't go far enough.
After the Reformation, many other
Churches began because of disagreements over beliefs and practices of earlier
Protestant doctrine. According to the 2010 U.S. Religious Congregations and
Membership Study this accounts for most of the Protestant denominations in the
United States. There are about 314,000 of these. Two examples of these
Protestant (or Reformed) churches are Methodist and Baptist.
In todays society splits or
schisms have become commonplace, giving vent to the term, the proliferation of
the churches. With the advent of the
Pentecostal movement storefront churches became a reality. It is not uncommon for churches exist across
the street from each other. Many of
these new churches are formed claiming to have the seal of God and all others
are false.
From this limited dissertation,
we can conclude that all of the different churches that exist today is the
result of a split with another church.
To put it in the proper context, churches split because of confusion
within the ranks of the leaders or an excessive increase in those that desire
to be leaders. The intoxicating desire
to lead or be a superstar, the desire to be noticed many times is the driving
force behind accepting a call from
God. Many of the schisms in the early
churches were because of power grabs within the pious elite.
The un-indoctrinated soul who refuse to scream "Amen" wonders how all of this is going to play out in the Kingdom of God.
To be continued
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