Have you ever wondered about how we got to where we are in Christianity in the U.S. ? I started this blog in 2008 to study of how well current Christian denominations follow Jesus Christ’s words. As reported here (see the About This Blog button above) I found that hardly any of them pay much attention to Jesus’ words especially putting them into action. Instead they seem to be more interested in our sex lives and many other “empire” issues (empire meaning worldly issues). I was so disappointed in what I found I no longer call myself a Christian but simply a “follower of Jesus Christ”. The word “Christian” has just been polluted so much as to lose any spiritual value to me.
This finding was a big downer to me. I wondered just how today’s church drifted so far away from its foundation! It depressed me so much that in August of last year I basically quit blogging here. But with the disappointment came another mission and that is to try to find out what happened to the church of Jesus Christ? I have been on a study to discover that since that time and am now ready to start blogging about it.
I want to tell you up front a few guidelines that I am using during this study:
- I am approaching this study pretty much from a historical standpoint. I will try not to get bogged down in theology but sometimes the two will blend together.
- I will state again that I am by no means a church historian or theologian. I am just a guy who has questions. In some ways I think this is an advantage as I do not have a lot of baggage going into the study that would distort my findings.
- I am approaching this study to view the “forest” of Christian history and not going to talk much about the “trees”. That is I will not get bogged down in the details nor will I get into debates on any specific beliefs or doctrine.
- As we get started I will try to give a basic time-line of events but after that I will likely be hitting on issues that cross different periods of the Christian evolution.
- As a rule for all my blogs I will try to keep all individual posts around five hundred words or less. To do that some discussions will have to be split into multiple posts. I personally become bored if something drags on and on…. I call this “bla, bla, bla…”. I will try not to let that happen here.
So here we are at the beginning of another study this time into faiths and beliefs and other such things. I think you will be surprised as to what I found. Try to keep an open-mind about some of the issues that may be sensitive to you. I promise it will be anything but a boring journey.
RedLetterLiving 
I am really looking forward to your information, RJ. This summer i am involved in a study group that is spending occasional Saturday mornings learning about the Sabbath and its convoluted move from Saturday to Sunday, and from holy day to just another day.
This site looks like a regular on my must-read list.
Thanks Bob. Yeah this is going to be an interesting study. As with the Red Letter study there are things I am discovering with this one that surprise me. Like your Saturday to Sunday move things that seem foundational today were just not so for hundreds of years after the resurrection. So, when the more conservative members of each congregation say “We have always done it that way” it turns out that that is not really true. Christianity has been very fluid over the years….
I am interested to see what you think of the split between Greek Orthodox and Roman Orthodox very early in Church history. Are you going from the Baptist or Catholic/Christian perspectives.
I LOVE Church history and enjoy the sources people find. I hope you don’t mind questions. They will be respectful- but I have a lot of them!
Welcome Janette. You just happened to catch me at the keyboard generating some posts. Yes I will have some things to say about this early split. It was the first major one but there have been thousands of them since then and most for basically the same reasons. I certainly welcome your perspective on these issues but please let’s not try to prove each other wrong but to respect our possible differences.
As to where I am coming from I was Catholic in my childhood, Lutheran in my middle years, and Quaker in my matured years. Of course all of these experiences have shaped to one degree or another (some of them in negative ways) how I approach this study. I too still have lots of questions but at least now I also have a few answers I am willing to share. Welcome aboard; lets all have a joyful and informative ride and learn something from each other…
RJ,
Glad to see you back. Have read read every thing in this blog and enjoyed the bits of wisdom and personal thought. I am looking forward to more. Being a little older than you, twelve years os so and having more body parts that are worn out, than work, I have come to the conclusion that ” we have met the enemy and it us” Pogo. For I believe everthing can be said very simply with this quote, Micah 6:8.
To your continued health sir.
Thanks Paul and I am glad to be blogging on a regular basis on RLL again. This will be a very interesting study and I look forward to any comments you might have. You found a good verse there (To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God). It does all come down to that doesn’t it??