T
TaliaHudspeth
Guest
I have posted a few times in this forum… done A LOT of lurking and reading as well… and I wanted to offer this reflection and solicit some feedback…
Throughout the Bible, there are a few things about God which leap to my mind:
I say this because Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church - not that it wouldn’t be attacked. And the more I search within myself, the more I wonder if our many different denominations of Christianity are able to set more people on the path to truth than would otherwise get there… in other words, God took a sinful situation and turned it into a powerful force within the church - one that eventually backfired on Satan since it allows theological dialogue such as this, which strengthens all our faith.
There are many people I know that I don’t know if they would be Christians at all if it weren’t for Protestantism. Not by any inherent evil in the Catholic Church, but simply because they can’t understand the Church’s doctrines (intellectual incapability). Becoming Protestant showed them the Gospel of Jesus, then from there, their faith and desire for truth can grow and (perhaps) even lead them to the fullness of Jesus in their life.
Or for people like me. I was raised Protestant and steeped in sola scriptura (and therefore a solid fundamental knowledge of what the Bible says) and feel like this background, which I’m feeling more and more is not the FULLNESS of Jesus (though not completely off-base), definitely has been a big part of my love and passion for wanting to be as close to Jesus as possible.
I really feel if we can use our denominationalism to show people Jesus, encourage them to seek Truth, and focus more on our similarities than our mud-slinging, we will take greater steps towards Christian Unity.
Does this make sense at all? Or am I completely tilting at windmills?
BTW- for the purposes of this discussion, I’m referring to “Protestant” in the sense of churches whose belief systems align with the points in the Apostle’s Creed. I do not consider Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. to be Protestant denominations.
Throughout the Bible, there are a few things about God which leap to my mind:
- God is constant and faithful - despite the myriad failings of the Jewish people in the OT, God was faithful to his covenant
- God can turn our mess-ups into miracles - the best example I can think of is David’s relationship with Bathsheba… it was a sinful situation that (once David repented) God turned into a miracle with the birth of Solomon, one of the wisest and best kings of Israel.
I say this because Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against his church - not that it wouldn’t be attacked. And the more I search within myself, the more I wonder if our many different denominations of Christianity are able to set more people on the path to truth than would otherwise get there… in other words, God took a sinful situation and turned it into a powerful force within the church - one that eventually backfired on Satan since it allows theological dialogue such as this, which strengthens all our faith.
There are many people I know that I don’t know if they would be Christians at all if it weren’t for Protestantism. Not by any inherent evil in the Catholic Church, but simply because they can’t understand the Church’s doctrines (intellectual incapability). Becoming Protestant showed them the Gospel of Jesus, then from there, their faith and desire for truth can grow and (perhaps) even lead them to the fullness of Jesus in their life.
Or for people like me. I was raised Protestant and steeped in sola scriptura (and therefore a solid fundamental knowledge of what the Bible says) and feel like this background, which I’m feeling more and more is not the FULLNESS of Jesus (though not completely off-base), definitely has been a big part of my love and passion for wanting to be as close to Jesus as possible.
I really feel if we can use our denominationalism to show people Jesus, encourage them to seek Truth, and focus more on our similarities than our mud-slinging, we will take greater steps towards Christian Unity.
Does this make sense at all? Or am I completely tilting at windmills?
BTW- for the purposes of this discussion, I’m referring to “Protestant” in the sense of churches whose belief systems align with the points in the Apostle’s Creed. I do not consider Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. to be Protestant denominations.