Christian/Muslim ThreadsDo Christian men have a strong sense of Brotherhood?Loki said: Loki, This is exactly the attitude of Christianity towards God's truths, that THEY are negotiable. So many things that are clearly unGodly becomes accepted practice because we prefer negotiation over responsible leadership. This is "Protestant consumerism" talking. One of the reasons Protestantism spread so rapidly in Europe is because the lack of central authority and the ability of the Bible to be interpreted in a variety of ways when it comes to business practices and morality, gave Northern and English Europeans what they wanted: FREEDOM! They could run their own churches with local control, they could devise their own theologies that would fit into their local cultures and, as King Henry VIII found, he could get a divorce if it suited him. One point that you have made many times (and it has a large measure of truth to it) is that religions find it very hard to deal with prosperity. People quickly forget what matters to God when their lives are filled with possessions and comfort. The point that I have been making about Islam is that its authority structure helps keep its building standing. Christianity may seem to be going strong in America, but Europeans (being somewhat ahead of America in many ways) is ready to leave Christianity, especially Catholicism behind. I suppose arguments could be made that Protestantism is the answer to modernism (at least in popularity). Yet Christianity's success in Asian countries has been, overall, very limited. (Yes, I know of some of the large congregrations in Korea) Yet oddly enough, again, as I have argued before, the areas where Christianity is seeing growth in Asia is in the cell, home group type churches. It is within these small groups, often without a formal building (which robs people of Christianity's true focus) that people are able to concentrate on Christ's true message to the world. But whenever I argue against the church building and pastor model that most of the western church is so eager to defend, I am told left and right that I do not know what I am talking about and that this is a perfectly acceptable form of Christianity. This is why I have made the reference to Paul, the Gospel of John, and the effects of the Nicene Creed (formulated in the interest of the Roman government that wanted a unified church doctrine so it could attempt to unify the empire under one church). All of the above have played a role in twisting Christ's message away from the emphasis in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Especially when very convincing evidence is given that certain scriptures in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, appear to have been "doctored" largely in an effort to support the theme of the Nicene Creed. It seems that whereever Christianity becomes the majority religion, the government decides to endorse it for a time. As Christianity continues to spread the country becomes prosperous, secularizes, and eventually separates church and state. Then, the complete absence of authority inherent in the design of the faith leads to the complete collapse of the family which leads to the demise of morality which leads to what we have in the west today. If you want to talk about the TRUE CHRISTIANITY you have to be willing to admit that it existed before the Roman government and the early church councils corrupted into a faith that allowed and, perhaps, encouraged a sense of nationalism among its believers. You say that I fanatically rant. I say that it sounds perfectly logical. What is so mysterious and twisted about the corruption of the scriptures and faith that so obviously happened? Out of time for now, Peace2God'sPeople |
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