I think most people, especially those who call themselves Christian, are at least a little familiar with the third great rummage sale in Christianity which was the Reformation. I will only give a very brief look in this post. Martin Luther, a monk with an incredibly low self-image, started it in 1517 when he nailed his list of 95 complaints about the workings of the … Continue reading The Third Great Rummage Sale — The Reformation
The Great Schism is basically when the Christian church split in the Roman Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This happened around 1054CE. What had once been a single church slowly separated into two distinct identities. Most of the differences that caused the split were almost nit-picking about what to believe and had little or nothing to do with how to “be” a Christian. This … Continue reading The Second Great Rummage Sale — The Great Schism
In this second post about the first major reconfiguration of the Christian church I will be covering some ancillary info about just who was affected by the Dark Ages and will be talking a little about the person “saved” the church for a later resurrection. First of all I have found that the term “Dark Ages” has many definitions and stated causes. For purposes here … Continue reading The First Rummage Sale – The Dark Ages (con’t)
Continuing with our study of the “rummage sales” within the Christian church every five hundred years lets look at the first one. Before we start I will admit that I didn’t know much about this period of time before this study so I relied on several books on the shelves behind me and in my Kindle to help me understand. I will put those references … Continue reading The First Rummage Sale ….The Dark Ages…
Anyone who has visited this blog in the recent past know that I am pinning great hope on the “emergent” church being able to rescue the current Christian establishments from their focus on believing things about Jesus as opposed to of “being” a Christian through our actions. I was very disheartened when I discovered the statistic that almost no one can tell the difference between … Continue reading A Giant Rummage Sale…
Here is a quote by Philip Gulley in his book entitled The Evolution of Faith – How God is creating a better Christianity that will be used for this discussion. To be sure, if one believes Christianity is primarily about worshipping Jesus, a faith that incorporates other religious traditions will be considered heretical. But if one believes Christianity is primarily about following the example of … Continue reading Following the Examples of Jesus….
Several years ago I came across a small book entitled Quaker Spirituality – Selected Writings. I’m still not sure what made me pause on the title but I am glad I did. Inside that book was an essay by Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941) talked about the “Eternal Presence”. I didn’t know it then but this essay put me on the path to learning much more about Quakers. … Continue reading Eternal Presence….
This is the fifth post on the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers. While I could go on and on I am going to stop this review here. The following will serve as the focus for this post: Some belong to churches that explicitly emphasize the hope of heaven and the threat of hell. Others … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 5) Heaven and the Threat of Hell….
This is the fourth post on the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers: One thing every pastor knows is that knowledge is not redemptive. Indeed, sometimes we can know the truth, and it will not set us free…. One of the great divides in the church could be overcome if we got one … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 4) Science is Not the Enemy…..
This is part three of my review of the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers. This is somewhat the continuation of the study of the pre-Easter Jesus and the after-Easter Jesus mentioned in the previous text. Here is the quote for this post: The simple fact, that the Bible came to us through a … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 3) About the Gospels….
This is a continuation of my review of the book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers. Here are the quotes we will look at on this post: Adoration of the post-Easter Christ so dominates the language and liturgy of the church that the wisdom of pre-Easter Jesus is all but lost. We know that … Continue reading Saving Jesus — (Part 2) Post-Easter Jesus
I am going to spend several posts discussing some of the insightful words from a book entitled Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin R. Meyers. This book gave me some pretty profound re-enforcement of my belief that the words of Jesus have been losing focus in the church. Here are the words for today. Strangely, … Continue reading Saving Jesus….(Part 1)
I came across an article entitled Sheer Christianity in the November 2012 Sojourners Magazine that moved me. I want to tell you a little about it and quote some of the inspiring words. It is by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson who is the general secretary of the Reformed Church of America. I have to admit that I don’t know much about this organization. Here is a quote … Continue reading Sheer Christianity….
I live in Indiana which is pretty much a red State. Senator Lugar, who was our long-time representative in the U.S. Senate was defeated in the primary by Richard Mourdock who proudly announced that he is a loyal Tea Party candidate. His stated view on compromise is when the Democrats finally come to agree with everything Republicans want! I really haven’t been paying much attention … Continue reading God’s Will…
Today Christian families are often also military families but at the beginnings of our religion that was definitely not the case. Up until about the time Constantine made Christianity a State religion (about 350 CE) to be a Christian meant you refused military service. Of course Augustine in the fifth century disavowed this belief and put forth the first rationalization of a “just war”. After … Continue reading On Ward Christian Soldier????
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