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| The Sayings of Christ Unite Us All |
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I have spent years examining the teachings of the major Protestant denominations, as well as those of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. I find wonderful Christians everywhere coupled with heart-rending division. So, what unites us all? Where is there common ground?
Personally, I agree with the major creeds, the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and even the Athanasian Creed, except for that anathema bit at the end. Although they unite most of orthodox Christianity, none of those creeds is really Scripture, and so to me ought to occupy a secondary role, rather than THE thing we recite every Sunday.
There is however, something that unites us all and I want to put it forward for consideration. That is the logia, the sayings of Christ. In my journey, I am finding that they have become my creed even more than the common creeds, because at least that is direct Bible.
As Christians we are divided over so many issues: the mode and timing of baptism, the wine for communion, the bread for communion, tongues, prayers to Mary, music, liturgical style, worship days, church polity, clothing styles, church money issues, authority issues, predestination, millennialism, religious titles, dancing, alcohol, eternity, etc.
Jesus commanded that his disciples teach what? He charged them with teaching what he taught them. So often we teach a whole host of other things instead. Yet, that is what unites us. No matter whether you are Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant or Pentecostal, you believe in what Christ taught. So, if there is a priority in the Bible, it is the words of Christ, what we call the logia.
And guess what! When we focus on Jesus and what he taught, all the other issues seem to fade into the background. Surprise! We actually find common ground that wonderfully unites us all. Ain't that just fantastic? |
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| To add a comment to "The Sayings of Christ Unite Us All" |
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| October 10, 2007 |
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| Well said Grant! |
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| October 10, 2007 |
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Way cool, Grant.
In my earlier days I did a lot of street witnessing in college (it certainly was "earlier" - way, way earlier). During one of these episodes, I met up with a group that was going back to their dorn for some pizza and discussion and invited me along. It turns out that they were reformed Jews, returning from a midweek gathering at the college Hebrew center. I thought that I was going to be in for a real drilling.
As it turned out we had a really great discussion. It added to my understanding of Judaism and they returned the compliment by mentioning that it was a pleasure to talk with a disciple of Jesus. that started me thinking about what it means to be a disciple of someone as opposed to a follower of something.
THAT was one of those events that started me down a real path to pursuing the person of Jesus and His teachings, rather than the pursuit of doctrine and ritual.
Sorry to steal your blog. I'll return it now.
(Yes. It IS fantastic!) |
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| October 10, 2007 |
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Ah, yes, the ecumenical movement - an attempt at unity, with imperfect human beings, and so an imperfect attempt. There is good and bad in it. Hmmmm, the one world religion theory is an interesting prophetic interpretation. I don't know that it is the best view of end-time events, nor even the most balanced, but it certainly does make a lot of people turn away from seeking to find the unity that Jesus encouraged. |
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| October 10, 2007 |
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When I was a teenager, I used to think I knew more than my parents. They were so "out of touch" with what I knew. But when I entered my 30's I began to realize how much my parents knew more than me. Now that I'm in my 50's I see so much more how LITTLE I really know.
I have had a similar journey in doctrine. When I was young in the faith, I thought I knew more than the rest of the church. I believed that the Catholic Church was the Great Whore of Babylon and that all the other Sunday churches were merely daughters of the Great Whore. They were too self-willed, too rebellious against God, too deluded by their pagan syncretisms to understand what I knew. When I entered my 30th year as a Christian, I began to learn how much wonderful knowledge and faith and obedience there was out there in the greater Christian community.
I also learned that I was wrong. I learned that my so-called superior Bible knowledge was based upon back yard theology, ignorance, proof-texting, concordance sermons, string preaching, and a whole host of other bad Bible Study (read exegetical and hermeneutical) methods. I was no longer one of the "few" who really understood their Bibles, but one of the ignorant ones who had been filled with totally wrong understandings.
So, I went back and sat at the feet of theologians from various denominations. I gave them a hard time, and they showed me grace in return. I learned that these theologians were not vain and arrogant "chief cock of the henyard walk" like I had been taught, but were humble and dedicated servants of the living Christ. I was the arrogant and proud one, who didn't know enough to know that I was wrong. A little knowledge is truly a dangerous thing, and my knowledge was so little, when I had thought I knew so much.
As I left that spiritual immaturity, I began to run across so many others who are still walking in that kind of self-righteous, teenage know-it-all Christianity that I had lived for so long. I don't know how to talk to them and tell them that they are wrong, the churches are not evil, they are not the seed of Satan, but merely seeing through a glass darkly, exactly as all of us do.
We certainly need to encourage each other to focus on Christ and what he taught. It is a focus on the unimportant things, the "one world government" conspiracy prophecies, the healing gimmicks, the pseudo-Christian exclusive knowledge that makes us believe that unless others also have this wacky, off-beat, unimportant doctrine, that they are somehow missing out. That kind of thing is nothing but a wind of doctrine. The REAL DOCTRINES of Christianity are the TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. The rest is of no real consequence. |
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