JeanMichael –
What you are seeing is the fruits when people reject the truth of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ Himself is the founder and definer of Christianity and HIs One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church…Not Islam and certainly not Mormonism.
The problem you are describing is when others such as Islam – from its slaughter and staking of the Holy Land by creating more myths – Mohammed had no interest in Jerusalem…and the time in which he was supposed to ascend into heaven – the farthest mosque was 10 miles away…and the spot the Umayyhids created as his ascension was actually approximate to St. Mary Major Catholic Church!!..and the slaughter of Constantinople, the home of the Orthodox Church … from this religion…
To Mormonism appointing itself as the interpreter of the Apostolic Church originating out of the early 1800’s Stone Campbell movement with some pretty shady characters…insinuating Christ made a mistake…the apostles were not allowed to appoint their successors but the Mormons were…
Yes you would have a problem with organized religion.
And if you were to accept the fact that there is such a thing as authentic, concrete, non-arbitrary truth, it would help you to see that theology has its place in insuring Truth.
Jesus said to Pilate, who later had Him crucified named Himself as Truth.
Certainly within all these divisions there are falsehoods but there is only one Truth and that is Jesus Christ. It is his own apostles with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost began His church, appointed their successors, developed liturgy from the Last Supper, the Bible assembled. It took many people many years. No new stories.
There is great consistency of faith and worship since the beginning of Christianity that brings us peace, oneness with God and with each other, holiness not of ourselves but from God alone, the universality of faith inspite of heresies and apostates–they are always present-- throughout the world at the beginning era of Christianity inspite of many hardships and persecutions – not killing, not slaughtering or overtaking holy lands, no creating a new story 1800 years later using glasses—implying blindness because of blindness to the truth of the light of Christ.
Christ’s major healings were regarding blindness…where people could see. Why put on the glasses, Joseph Smith??
There is another thread here started by Soren who has studied under the best scholars in the world on the book of Hebrew.
There is such a thing as scholarly research and then there is another who wants to believe in myths and serve the flesh.
It is Islam and Mormonism that invalidate Christianity for Christianity’s sake.
I pray you come to see that the Truth does exist.
Kathleen, I don’t know how your words applied to anything I stated previously. The points I was making is that criticism of one group (certain Catholics against Mormonism) and others (Islam against Catholicism). The main point was this: Jesus never, not a single time, demanded of his followers to believe in the doctrine of the Trinity! Yet, you demand that all individuals must believe in the Trinity or they cannot even be a Christian! This is a pure doctrine of man. It was not taught by Jesus. It was not taught by the original apostles.
The original apostles most definitely chose their successors. Please refer to Acts and find out how the first apostle not chosen directly by Jesus was chosen to fill the place vacated by Judas.
Second, there is no historical evidence to support that the church founded by Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church. That is a position of faith; not historical fact. Anyone that states the contrary is simply not aware that there is nothing that supports that position. They are confusing faith with historicity.
Third, one of the things that I am trying to engender is a respect for all people of faith; to reject this senseless attack of others who follow Jesus Christ; to understand the position of faith that all have and that no one has a complete lock on “historicity”.
Truth is absolute. If it is not absolute it is not truth, but belief. As a student of Truth, as a follower of Jesus, and a his very broken disciple I have yet to find an organized religion that is not filled with zealots who know not Christ, but who speak in his name; those who ignore love and teach hate, war, lies in order to further their own church, its wealth and its power. Where is that church that teaches and soley focuses on Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, and that we teach by love, we proclaim truth in love, patience, and faith. Do any of you see your examples for what they are? Your logic is flawed and full of holes and yet you blindly repeat it in order to condemn another group that professes Christ as their Savior. The more I see this behavior the stronger I come in my resolve to reject you as those who draw nigh unto Christ with their lips, but as those who never knew him.
Seeing this in the church of my childhood continues to cause deep pain. I follow Christ and worship him with all those who follow him. Their religious affiliation is irrelevant to me because all organized religions are full of the same type of people; those who seek to aggrandize themselves and demean others. It disgusts me.
I don’t even like talking about this. I need to repent of this and focus on this wonderful time of year. He was born of the Virgin and all the angels did sing praises to the birth of the Lamb of God. Sheperds quaked at the sight of the Star of Bethlehem and yet they adored him who was born in a manger. Peace on Earth Good Will to Men. Good Will not just to Catholics, but Mormons, Muslims, Anglicans, Lutherans…everyone.
