The
Struggle for Institutional Continuity
11/18/14
Wouldn’t
it be grand if everyone had the exact same philosophy when it came to
life? What about the concept of religions coexisting with each other
without the slightest hint of animosity towards another brother or
sister? Being humans we all know that this type of physical
togetherness probably will never see much fruit, but it is good to believe that
we may come to some unified solutions. Do we really understand the
reasons why that these concepts cannot link together and to form an
impenetrable bond that would only serve and operate in one positive
direction? Actually, there is a process that succeeds in obtaining
this type of goal but it does not originate from the physical aspect of our
lives but through the spiritual aspects of our lives, and it plays more of a
part in our lives than one might believe. Humanity’s only problem
with this truth is that in order to achieve this unity, humans would have to
give up self and turn their lives completely over to God.
One
of my favorite past times is to watch a debate between two or more opposing
sides concerning “hot topics”, and I can include cold topics for that matter
also. It is fascinating to me to sit back and watch how humans
become defensive and then within a few moments time be on the prowl again to
make another point. Accusations, rumors and supposed knowledge fly
left and right during these times and it amazing how we react to the mud that
is present on everyone involved egos. We all have fallen into this
category and I must freely and formally admit that I have been a huge offender
of this practice and even until and including this day some of my actions
towards other believers have severely crippled any relationships that I might
have had with these people. So I am placing myself into this
category right up front and I pray that I may act and live like Jesus more and
less of what I want to be.
In
the religious communities this question must be asked: if our beliefs are
subjected to personal feelings and ideas or do they originate from the Word of
God? This is the basis for all understanding as to why no
denomination shall ever completely agree with other denominations simply
because the root of such entity is bound by a personal belief that they know
more than the other, or that the way that we believe is holier than anyone
else’s; that is the bottom line and if you are honest with yourself you could
not argue this point. Now, I am not saying that every person within
each denomination is bad and holds entirely true to the beliefs of said
denominations, but in general this fact rings loud enough to divide the Church
and allows our enemy to widen the gap between believers in Christ.
This
ideology was present even before Jesus told us about how we are the Church, and
if one reads the New Testament with this concept in mind they will understand
just what Jesus was trying to get across to both the Jewish leaders and to the
everyday citizens of that time. Not once did Jesus preach to any
type of denomination, He only taught Kingdom principles. Jesus
understood completely how Kingdom worked and how it operated through our lives
and what it meant to have a relationship with God. It was this
purpose that Jesus was on earth, not only to establish a final sacrifice for
our restoration with God but to teach us how to tell others about this process
and what it means for all humanity. Without Jesus’ life here on
earth we would still be in the confines of sacrificial institutions on a yearly
schedule with absolutely no hope of direct relations with God.
I am
reading a book called “The Early Church” by Henry Chadwick and it contains some
eye-opening information about how the Jewish community reacted to Jesus,
Christians and the establishment of Christianity. What is more
amazing is that this book refers to so many internal settings from both Jewish
and Christian authorities that it forces the reader to take a new look at how
things have developed throughout the religious world, and how lucky we are not
to have destroyed ourselves in the process. The early portions of the book
even brings into light how divided the Jewish Christians and the Gentile
Christians were and how through these differences divisions were formed which
proved to be the foundations of denominational separations that we recognize
today. I am going to present a fairly decent sized section of the
book to give examples of general ideologies within denominations have
controlled our thinking over the centuries and millennia. I did not
write this passage nor do I have any holdings with regards to this
passage. It was strictly written by Henry Chadwick and I have no
claim to its material.
One
of the portions that struck me most is where the author is beginning to
describe the Essenes, which is a separate Jewish sect from the Sadducees and
Pharisees. Every word that is within quotations comes from the
author of the book and everything within the parentheses is my general
comparisons of denominations that some of us are familiar with today.
“Their
life was frugal, and any member who had two coats gave one away to his needy
brother and wore his remaining coat until it was threadbare. (Mennonite,
Amish) They were a close-knit body which practiced property sharing
and distributed money to each other according to his need. They
appear to have been divided among themselves about the question of passive
resistance. Most of them rejected the carrying of arms (Amish), but
some of them were Zealots dedicated to the nationalist cause of resistance to
the occupying Roman power. (Many Protestant denominations,
Muslims) The site at Qumran became the scene of bloody fighting in
the Jewish War of 66-70. They rejected slavery in principle as
incompatible with the equality of all men before their Creator; and though they
did not condemn marriage as wrong, they expected full members of the community
to be celibate. (Catholic priests) Entrance into the community was
hedged about with tests and solemn vows preceded by a novitiate, and any
delinquency led to expulsion.” (Many denominations)
“They
practiced very frequent washings, and had a sacred common meal to which the
uninitiated were not admitted. (Mormons and non Mormons into the
Temple) They rejected the use of oaths. (Jehovah’s Witness) They
were particularly precise about keeping the Sabbath day, and exercised extreme
care to avoid ceremonial pollution. (7th Day Adventists and
Jewish) They devoted much attention to the exegesis of the inner
meaning of scripture, and made predictions of the future.” (7th Day
Adventists and many other Protestant denominations)
The
above paragraphs are not designed to offend or even upset anyone, but if they
do then the person that is offended needs to stop and take a harder look at
their beliefs, because being offended by these remarks can only mean that you
value your denomination more than you do your relationship with God. Jesus
did NOT come to this planet to establish a denomination or an organized and
contained religion. He had one purpose and one purpose only and that
was for Him to live, die and be resurrected by the Father as a living sacrifice
that humanity missed for thousands of years in order for us to be the Church
that shines into the dark world by exposing our enemy for who he is. This
is a Kingdom principle and Jesus spoke only about Kingdom and did His best to
get it through our pig-headed blindness and pious lifestyles of why He was here
in the first place.
I
understand that this concept and topic might be hard for some to understand and
to accept but we need to be clear upon the reason why Jesus came to this earth,
understand what He was trying to say into our lives, and comprehend as much as
possible of what it means to be under the blood of Jesus in order for us to
have direct access to God the Father once again. If Jesus had come
to establish a religion here on earth, He would have been here in vein and His
mission would be flawed from its origins. I am going to step on some
of my Catholic friends’ toes here but it something that needs to be addressed
and thought about; it deals with Peter and the establishment of the Catholic
Church. Please remember that I am not into religious organizations
as being better than the other, but concerned that everyone who reads this
article understands the reasons why Jesus came to this earth.
If
the Catholic Church believes that it is the one and only Church then I have a
couple of biblical and historical facts that one needs to take into
consideration. Do we understand and then acknowledge that Jesus
intended for the Catholic Church to be in charge then He would have promoted
violence? We all know that Jesus never did this, nor did He promote
it in any way. Many people proclaim that when Jesus told Peter about
being the rock that it meant that what Peter established was going to be the
foundation of Jesus’ Church. But it is the verses and setting that
Jesus presented that establishes the meaning of Jesus’ Church, not the physical
acts of a human being.
There
are countless examples that I could share with you that the Bible gives that
illustrates the topic of this article. But that is not God wants to
put into our hearts; if one chooses to see for themselves then study the book
of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or any other book in the Bible and if they
truly study it and wish to understand they will not have to read very far and
they will have the proof that they are seeking. The Bible is about
humans and how they choose to deal with God and His ways. It is a
wonderful history book that will shed light onto many of our current problems
of today, which are basically the same as the ones that the Bible gives.
God
already has His embassy set up on this earth and His embassy was established
when He created mankind. It was our deeds that set into motion the
separation between God and humanity and through the love of God He provided
another chance for us to be placed back into relationship with Him. We
cannot accomplish this feat through a denomination or group of church
buildings, the only way that relationship with God can be achieved is if we
lose the denominational spirits and focus our lives, hearts, and spirit back to
God. God is not directly saying to leave your church or to start
another denomination, but God is saying that it is time that we understand
exactly who we are in Him and once again focus on the mission that Jesus told
us to complete. And as long as our hearts and spirit is focused upon
who is right and wrong, greater than any other, or any other self righteous
garbage theology, we will accomplish nothing for the Kingdom of God.
God
has no desire to keep any information about our lives whether it is our past,
present or our future from us. If this was the case then He would
not have provided us with His Word as a guide to help us live more
abundantly. There is no possible way for us to understand this concept
as long as we believe that I am better than you are. The quest for
institutional continuity shall always be a struggle if we continue to birth,
nurture, develop and grow this mentality. I challenge you to take a
look back throughout history and locate the examples of what this
denominational struggle has accomplished for the Kingdom of God, if one does
this objectively and honestly it will totally break your heart.
God
loves His Church but we need to understand what Church He is referring to when
He is talks about her. It is time that we put away our
denominational differences and come together through Christ and work together
as one body in order to push back the kingdom of Satan. It is
evident that our denominational prides have concreted us in our places and has
stagnated the mission that is before us. We have even turned to the
world to try and solve this problem which shall prove more disastrous if we
continue this path. God wants us to turn back to Him before He has
to remind us of why He has placed His laws into place; this INCLUDES the Church
as well. Remember when God judged Israel the righteous were included
in the scattering after the fact. God loves us, it is time to repent and
turn back to God. Restoration into relationship is a good thing and
nothing to be ashamed about. Let us lose our pride and seek His
heart once again.
If
we complete this task I guarantee that our hearts will turn away from this
world and all of the denominational fortitudes that only bring division within
the Church. Jesus came to teach us about Kingdom and how it can only
be advanced through you; whether it is God’s Kingdom or Satan’s kingdom. The
struggle for institutional continuity is blur and it needs to fade away
quickly. It is God’s Kingdom that needs to be advanced and until
this occurs our lives are in constant danger.
DLB
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