May 19, 2006

• B"H

  
  

  Church History: The Light and the Gory

  
  

  Church history can be fascinating to study, but it can also function as a depressant like none other. How can it be that the very same people whom we celebrate as heroes of the faith, acted in such evil and cruel ways towards others? For me, I can only maintain my sanity by considering the lesson of the wheat and the tares. Jesus said that we must allow them both to grow here and now. If we try to uproot the tares then we will also destroy some of the good wheat with it. Instead, we are to let them both grow and flourish and the angels of GOD will sift them apart at the time of the final judgment. Whenever I discuss this stuff, I pray that the LORD will give more grace, because this is one extremely fertile area of spiritual warfare.

  
  

  I'm not going to write a summary of Church history here. That is a project far beyond my abilities and altogether outside the boundaries of interest here in Xangaland. What I do want to share though is a part of my life's passion to see unity in the Body of believers.

  
  

  Those of you who know me, know all too well that one of my hobbies is Church History. I haven't read any of the major works by the great theologians of the past, but I have read a ton of articles by and about these men and women of GOD. I have had the great privilege of participating twice in a symposium of some of the best modern Messianic Jewish thinkers of our time. I have also been blessed to know personally a prominent Anabaptist theologian who only lives one block from me. My primary area of interest and study lies between the present and the time of the Bible translators; Hus, Wycliff, Tyndale, etc. I became a believer during the tail end of the Jesus Movement (1967 - 75) in 1973 and have since studied the movement extensively. I don't regard myself as an expert in this field, but neither am I a stranger to most of the names and places that were important and influential then. I am roughly familiar with the era of the 1st and 2nd centuries, and I think I have a decent handle on the Jewish background of Jesus and Paul and the early believers.

  
  

  I mention all of this because I have no true credentials in the conventional sense of the word. I love to read and study and am a highly self-motivated learner. On the other hand, I have a HS diploma and nothing else. I have been blessed by GOD, in regard to the work that I do that pays our bills. I feel very humbled in the presence of most of my friends who have multiple college degrees.

  
  

  My interest in Church History is subordinated to my passion for unity in the Body. I grew up in a family that wasn't really in the pale of belief. My Father was a nominal Baptist and my Mother was intermittently active in the local A.M.E. church. I never had any special feelings or attachments to any type of organized denominational religion. When I became a believer at the age of 21, I described myself as non-denominational.

  
  

  I have learned to appreciate and love believers from all sorts of backgrounds and traditions. I like to share a teaching from 1 Cor chapters 1 - 3. In that passage Paul berates the believers for being carnal or worldly in their thinking because they allowed themselves to be divided according to who their teachers were. Some were followers of Cephas (Peter), some followed Apollos and others were disciples of Paul or Barnabas. Paul clearly rebukes them saying that by dividing along these lines they are showing the evidence that they are not really mature and are walking after human or worldly thinking. He wanted to teach them many other spiritual lessons, but he couldn't, because they weren't mature enough to handle it. (Check out the Bible passages yourself and see if I'm correct in my interpretation.) Who is Cephas? Who is Apollos or Paul? They are merely the servants of GOD through whom the Word was preached. One plants and another waters, but GOD causes the growth and increase according to His own purposes. 1 Cor 3: 1 - 7 

  
  

  Suppose we change these names and then consider how it might sound.

  
  

  
  

  For while one says, I am of Luther; and another, I am of Calvin or Wesley; are you not carnal? Who then is Luther and who is Calvin or Wesley, etc and etc except ministers by whom you have believed?   1 Cor 3: 4 - 5

  
  

  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Finney or Moody or Billy Graham, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you belong to the Messiah; and the Messiah belongs to GOD.      1 Cor 3: 21 - 23  .

  
  

   

  
  

  Our past as believers is filled with heartache and tragedy. Exclusion and hatred were visited by one group on another even to the point of violence and death. All in the name of GOD, Who is love and ever compassionate.

  
  

  We desperately need each other. GOD has purposely not given all of His fullness to any one group or individual. If we are ever going to progress and begin to reflect GOD's glory, then we need to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He speaks through the many different movements within Church History. Is GOD at work among the Jesus Freaks and left over Christian Hippies? What about the Crusts and those who are Emergent and Emerging? Is GOD interested in healing the rift between Blacks and Whites? What about the chasm between the Jewish and non-Jewish disciples? Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Eastern, Antiochian, etc.). How can we ever overcome the centuries of mistreatment and misunderstanding? Will Jesus' prayer in JN 17 ever be fulfilled? "Father I pray that they may be one as we are one in order that the world may believe that You have sent me."

  
  

  I pray that we might soon learn to love one another in deed and in truth, not just with our words. I see many believers exploring paths from the past in an attempt to gain greater depth to their faith and I think this is good. While I may not be personally interested in some of the aspects of high church traditions, I certainly recognize that there is so much that I don't know that I am therefore hesitant to be critical of things I have little or no knowledge of.

  
  

  Blessings in the name of Yeshua Adonaynu (Jesus our Lord),

  
  

  Shlomo

  • 6:28 am
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