The Deliberate Ruminator

This blog is not a slam on organized religion although I do mention a few segments to make a point.  I do hope it encourages constructive thoughts.

Throughout chapter 17 in the book of John, Jesus makes it clear he desires his followers to be “one”.  He wants us to be united.  This is a common prayer in many denominations, although I think Catholicism gets most of the credit since this was the first official church sect.  Catholicism can be traced back to Peter, even if it wasn’t called that.  The common statements of faith (Protestant, Catholic and others) includes the phrase “holy catholic church” which you will notice catholic is not capitalized.  The definition of catholic in this sentence is best described by the following two definitions:

• universal in extent; involving all; of interest to all. 
• pertaining to the whole Christian body or church.

I used to incorrectly think it pertained to the “C”atholic church.  So, in essence, many Christian religious denominations hope for the union of all believers.  That being said, I have some concerns as to where we have come over the years, and where we seem to be regarding any type of “union” amongst believers.

In my view, looking back at the New Testament, the Pharisee’s and some other Jewish groups were the “church”.  They did the best they could, but their humanness kind of got many of them into trouble.  Many became money hungry, power hungry and status hungry.  They in effect became self-righteous.  They made new laws that did not quite coincide with the Old Testament (some involved payments for offerings as well as the buying and selling of “sacrificial” animals in the temples etc).  Does any of this sound familiar?  Again, just to make people think, here are a few “laws/rules” that have come around that just don’t seem to coincide with the Old and New Testament.

• Acceptance of sin in the church (rampant divorce, homosexuality, and yes, abortion)
• Purgatory, a place where the dead go and can be prayed into heaven as I understand it
• The book of Genesis is just an allegory or poetic (this wasn’t ever accepted by many until the last few hundred years, even Jesus did not accept this teaching considering the number of times he quoted and spoke about the first 3 chapters of Genesis literally)
• Communion is not to be served to non-believers (this is not made clear to church visitors enough etc)
• The ten commandments are not held up to a high standard as truth.  Do we rest one day a week, dedicate a day of the week as HOLY, strive not to LUST (which is adultery), keep God #1 in our lives etc?

These are just a few well documented “beliefs” that various denominations have accepted, created or ignored on various levels.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect by any means, I’m just pointing some things out to make us think a bit.  So how in the world can we be “one” body with so much “division”?

Well, Jesus is clear in his teaching that HE is the way, the truth and the life.  Jesus is THE WORD OF GOD.  We are to know HIM, seek HIM, believe in HIM, thus believe in the WORD OF GOD.  The book of John makes it so clear I am amazed.  In order for us to have a holy catholic church, we must look to Jesus and not to human desire, human rules or human ideas.  We must look to the Word (Jesus) and go from there.  That doesn’t mean we will still all agree, but it might just be a better starting point than looking at the current laws that are on the books.  Maybe we just need to REWIND back to the WORD OF GOD and forget about the word of man.

Hope this encourages some new ideas!

Jeff