Monday, March 27, 2006
Jesus was not a Heretic (or why I'm not a new kind of Christian)
I'm not post modern. I don't believe that our individual interpretations of what words mean can keep us from knowing Truth.
I believe that because of abuses in the church Mr. McLaren et all come to the wrong conclusions.
What do I mean? Well. Dogma and Doctrine have never been my issues. Seeing it lived out in my life and the lives of others, yes.
Same thing from what I read of McLaren. But rather than recognize that I believe he comes to the wrong conclusion.
Rather than owning the fact that it's not the Truth that needs to be changed by people but that people need to be changed by Truth, he decides that we need:
A New Kind of Christian, and then that's not enough we need to re-discover the:
A Secret Message from Jesus (afterall the Gospel - Good News - is not about Salvation, nevermind scriptures that say "Whosoever belieth on me shall not perish).
A message that the Church has and continues to miss (Wake Up Holy Ghost!)
Which to me is ridiculous.
Some would label Jesus a heretic, and say that we need to be heretic's to get to the meat of what God is saying to us today.
But I firmly believe Jesus wasn't a heretic even though SOME of the Hebrew's didn't recognize Him He was / is the Fulfillment of the Hebrew Religion.)
I read a book called "If Grace is True: Why God will save every person" and one of the things in it I see as very intersting is this:
The author comes to the conclusion he can no longer call himself a Christian. Because if God saves everyone, we don't need Jesus.
We don't need to be a Christian.
It's like instead of Jesus we have Richard Bach as tour guide. Richard Bach? Anyone old enough to remember him? He wrote "Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah"
The story goes like this. Imagine Jesus in the Garden, but this day and age and Jesus' name is Donald.
He prays to the Father to take the Cup away, and God says:
Sure, no worries.
Well, that is the fictional account. In the Garden there was not a way to take the cup away from Christ, that would result in our Salvation & Reconciliation with the Father.
So Jesus goes to the Cross. Which results in the Salvation of those who believe.
Even Fr. Robert Capon's belief that the results of Jesus life death & resurrection have been cosmologically applied to Everyone... (ALL) to me is reading what you like back into the text, rather than allowing the doctrine to arise from the text.
oy vey. We don't need a New Message. We don't need a New Kind of Christian. We don't need post-modernism to correct our interpretations so we can see Truth.
We just need to somehow, accept the message of the Gospel. And rather than people changing the truth we need to be people changed by the truth.
God's Peace
I believe that because of abuses in the church Mr. McLaren et all come to the wrong conclusions.
What do I mean? Well. Dogma and Doctrine have never been my issues. Seeing it lived out in my life and the lives of others, yes.
Same thing from what I read of McLaren. But rather than recognize that I believe he comes to the wrong conclusion.
Rather than owning the fact that it's not the Truth that needs to be changed by people but that people need to be changed by Truth, he decides that we need:
A New Kind of Christian, and then that's not enough we need to re-discover the:
A Secret Message from Jesus (afterall the Gospel - Good News - is not about Salvation, nevermind scriptures that say "Whosoever belieth on me shall not perish).
A message that the Church has and continues to miss (Wake Up Holy Ghost!)
Which to me is ridiculous.
Some would label Jesus a heretic, and say that we need to be heretic's to get to the meat of what God is saying to us today.
But I firmly believe Jesus wasn't a heretic even though SOME of the Hebrew's didn't recognize Him He was / is the Fulfillment of the Hebrew Religion.)
I read a book called "If Grace is True: Why God will save every person" and one of the things in it I see as very intersting is this:
The author comes to the conclusion he can no longer call himself a Christian. Because if God saves everyone, we don't need Jesus.
We don't need to be a Christian.
It's like instead of Jesus we have Richard Bach as tour guide. Richard Bach? Anyone old enough to remember him? He wrote "Illusions: The Adventures of A Reluctant Messiah"
The story goes like this. Imagine Jesus in the Garden, but this day and age and Jesus' name is Donald.
He prays to the Father to take the Cup away, and God says:
Sure, no worries.
Well, that is the fictional account. In the Garden there was not a way to take the cup away from Christ, that would result in our Salvation & Reconciliation with the Father.
So Jesus goes to the Cross. Which results in the Salvation of those who believe.
Even Fr. Robert Capon's belief that the results of Jesus life death & resurrection have been cosmologically applied to Everyone... (ALL) to me is reading what you like back into the text, rather than allowing the doctrine to arise from the text.
oy vey. We don't need a New Message. We don't need a New Kind of Christian. We don't need post-modernism to correct our interpretations so we can see Truth.
We just need to somehow, accept the message of the Gospel. And rather than people changing the truth we need to be people changed by the truth.
God's Peace
