Saturday, December 24, 2011
Bible Recipe for a Church
Mike has mentioned the apostolic injunction to "go unto all the nations and preach" yet at times I get the impression that Mike feels he IS apostolic and is preaching his brand of understanding to convert, say, Roman Catholics, away from the error of their monolithic Magisterium and bring them over to the truth of his local store front church. Now it seems to me that all the world is aware of the Bible and the choices of religions by means NOT of apostles wandering sandal-clad with staff in hand but because of Gutenberg's printing press, and Internet podcasts and magazines and the activities of all sorts of secular scholars who write books on the topic. Mike seems to feel that the words of the Bible are clear, obvious, unambiguous and all that is necessary and sufficient to produce a Bible-based Christian. If this is true then why does anyone need a pastor or preacher. It seems to me that anyone who is literate and can read can make themselves into a Christian. And since it is written "wherever two or three are gathered in my name" then all you need to do is find one or two people who see eye to eye with you and get some bread or matzah and wine or grape juice and bingo, you can have Communion. I mean, why not? But what confuses me is that if the Bible is a clear-cut cook-book recipe for how to make a Christian and have a church then WHY is there not more unity or agreement or fellowship among all these Bible based Christians. In fact, some of them insist upon having poisonous snakes as part of their service and certainly there is a verse which says "and if you touch a poisonous serpent it shall not harm you" . So are those snake-handlers Christians? What they do certainly seems Bible-based. And WHY is there a place like St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai Egypt which has practiced unchanged since at lease the third century. Are THEY Christians? If St. Catherine's is in error then why did God allow them to survive all this time to confuse everyone as to what the true definition of Christianity is. We know that God destroyed those priests who offered "strange incense" in the Old Testament and had the earth open and swallow them up.
