D
Daniel_Marsh
Guest
“The Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church”
- Status
F
Fidelis
Guest
Daniel Marsh said:“The Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church”
To me it sounds like someone is implying (rather simplistically) that it is because of some shortcoming in the Church --either scandal, uncharity, or doctrinal inflexibility–people are obliged to go out and start cults. In other words, it’s the Church’s fault there are cults.
What makes this erroneous is that it does not take into account the fact that cults can and have been started for inumerable other reasons, including personal pride, immaturity, ignorance, a lust for power, mental illness, etc.
G
Gottle_of_Geer
Guest
While that is largely true, it does not acquit the Church of all shortcomings - and as long as there are human beings with shortcomings, there will be shortcomings in the Church: those human beings are the Church, in every generation. So there will always be the possibility - and often the reality - of scandals and failures which are sufficient to lead to the formation of cults.
People are not coerced externally or even - as the word “obligation” implies - internally to form cults; but there are quite enough evils in the Church’s life to have made it look anything but a Christian body: at least in that sense and to that extent, the cults are the Church’s “unpaid bills”, signs of its indebtedness and - to keep the metaphor - shortage of funds or capital. ##
L
LilyM
Guest
Gottle of Geer:
I dispute that the Church is SOLELY comprised of its human members - that’s like saying a married couple is only comprised of the wife. We as a Church are the bride of Jesus, like most husbands He steps in when we are lacking for whatever reason, either individually or as a group. The difference is He is more than human, and perfectly able to supply what we are missing. That’s why he told Peter that the gates of H**l would not prevail against the Church.
F
Fidelis
Guest
Gottle of Geer said:
Michael, Michael, Michael–nobody is even implying this.
All I said is that the statement is a simplistic one that lays TOTAL blame on the Church itself for the existence of cults, instead of acknowledging that there are a myriad of human factors involved in every type of schism.Peace,
fidelis
T
thistle
Guest
Daniel Marsh said:“The Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church”
This was written by Jan Karel van Baalen who was an ordained minister with the Christian Reformed Church. In other words he was Calvinist and anti-Catholic.
D
Della
Guest
Daniel Marsh said:“The Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church”
The first thing that strikes me is the utter snideness of the statement. And the second is that it is typical of those who need an excuse for hating the Church, for whom any stick handy will do. And thirdly, that this is not the tone taken by the Church in dealing with other bodies of believers.
Even during the Reformation efforts were made to reconcile the Protesters to the Church, but they would not give up their heresies but rather used the faults of some leaders in the Church to promote heresy while using their dissatisfaction with men as the excuse.
The Church is still reaching out to try to bring these people back, but it is they who will not have it so. That is what I see in statements such as this.
D
Daniel_Marsh
Guest
I heard these words form Walter Martin’s mouth years ago and he was applying it to protestant churches.
- Status