church history
0AD-ish: Jesus is born.
30-ish AD: christianity is born
33AD: The Assyrian Christian Church is founded
50AD: The Coptic Church of Egypt is founded
325: The Nicene Creed is written
1054: The church breaks into Catholicism and Orthodoxy (east and west)
1517: The Birth of the Reformation/Protestantism
1534: The church of england
1559: John Calvin leads the Presbyterian church
1609: The Baptist church is begun
1720: The Great Awakening
1729: John Wesley founds methodism
1738: the Wesleyan church is founded
1830: Mormonism began in New york city
1872: Jehovah's witnesses began
1880: The Pentecostal church is started
1895: Founding of the Church of the Nazarene
I was inspired to note how many times the church has revised itself. Some of these are considered cults. some are considered heretical, but all are considered by someone to be wrong. notably, all are wrong to some extent. And if your denom isnt on here, that was because its WAY wrong. lol. just kidding...
i've made it through chapter 4 of my new book. I'll admit...he's said some things that make me uncomfortable. but i dont know what part of me is uncomfortable. the part that thinks he might be wrong, or the part of me that is used to believing a certain way. its hard to say. its hard to say how much of my foundational beliefs are based on scripture, and how much are based on "so and so told me this or that" oral tradition throughout the church has been at times fundamental to her growth, but at what point to i stop buying the BS and study it for myself.
So far that is what Rob B has inspired me to do.
I'm going to let you in on a secret about my head. Dont tell anyone...or do...what do i care?
I remember my first day as a christian ministry major. I learned about the council of nicea, and the however many dudes who decided what should be in the bible. I remember thinking..."WHAT!? a Bunch of DUDES decided what was of God and what wasnt!? And I hold so tightly to that today?!!?"
It was the beginning of the shaking of my foundation of faith which was really shakey to begin with.
Then I moved on to the doctrine of the Trinity..."its like water, and ice and vapor, but not." "its like this picture of a triangle, but it isnt" "its very biblical, but the word trinity isnt in the bible."
Then we talked about heaven, "its like an eternal worship service." (yuck) "its everything wonderful with no crying or pain" "its here but its not happened yet." "no silly its not in the sky"
then, more difficult, we talked about hell. "Its a place were people spend eternity separated from God." 'everyone who doesnt believe in Jesus spends eternity there after they die" "Weeping and gnashing of teeth." (what is gnashing of teeth, is that like grinding? do they need football guards when they sleep but dont get them because its hell?)
After a while it got so impossible for me to wrap my head around all of this i decided i needed nothing more than to take an Apologetics class. Likely for the same reason that apparently 80% of us took psychology classes, to self diagnose. Clearly, if Apologetics were how we defended our faith, I would find something helpful in there to help me defend my faith against myself!!
The first day we learned: "God is greater than anything. to exist is greater than to not exist, therefore God exists."
I remember wanting to cry.
That was ridiculous.
I spent a lot of my religion courses growing more and more confused. As classmates left class doe-eyed in wonder and excited about what they were learning, i felt more and more confused. i never felt like i got an answer that made any sense.
So eventually, i stopped allowing myself to ask the questions...and i stopped looking for the answers. i took it back to my basics...see the post from a couple days ago. I allowed nothing else to matter. Obviously something was wrong with my faith. Crap...maybe I was one of the people that the truth was blinded to because i didnt believe enough!??!?!?!?!?!
Tonight, Rob Bell started a book asking all of those questions. the exact same questions that stressed me out so much that I stopped learning, he asked. And he began to answer in hypothetical ways that opened up my mind again to attempt to discover the truth for myself. I'm not going to say I believe any of his answers, because some of them were silly. but some of the answers made me feel a lot better about God..and jesus, and the earth, and all the questions in it...
I'm not calling Rob a genius, I'm not calling him correct...but I am saying, he's doing something that the church universal needs to take note of...HE'S ATTEMPTING TO ANSWER THE PEOPLE'S QUESTIONS. The church has notoriously talked only about what she wanted to talk about...preachers preach in one direction...services are rarely interactive...and heaven forbid a regular person get a hold of the microphone...Because the church is afraid of what its people will ask, or say. The church is scared of the very thing that made her who she is. They are afraid of reformation, of change, of awakening. They cling tightly to Dante's inferno as their definition of hell and harps and paul at the pearly gates as their definition of heaven. We're all heretics and sinners people. Why can't we look at and acknowledge how? In this life youre going to chose someone's interpretation of Scripture...Just calling it scripture is choosing to believe the guys on the council. Do you believe Calvin? Wesley? Luther? Bell? Your pastor? Your dad? Your gut?
At this point, just halfway through the book i would encourage you to read it. if ONLY to see how you answer all the questions. Maybe you've got it all figured out. Maybe you're a 100% correct. maybe you should research your answers to see if they came from the Bible or something else. Maybe you should try contradicting yourself with other verses in the Bible.
Either way...I'm enjoying the walk I'm being taken on.
30-ish AD: christianity is born
33AD: The Assyrian Christian Church is founded
50AD: The Coptic Church of Egypt is founded
325: The Nicene Creed is written
1054: The church breaks into Catholicism and Orthodoxy (east and west)
1517: The Birth of the Reformation/Protestantism
1534: The church of england
1559: John Calvin leads the Presbyterian church
1609: The Baptist church is begun
1720: The Great Awakening
1729: John Wesley founds methodism
1738: the Wesleyan church is founded
1830: Mormonism began in New york city
1872: Jehovah's witnesses began
1880: The Pentecostal church is started
1895: Founding of the Church of the Nazarene
I was inspired to note how many times the church has revised itself. Some of these are considered cults. some are considered heretical, but all are considered by someone to be wrong. notably, all are wrong to some extent. And if your denom isnt on here, that was because its WAY wrong. lol. just kidding...
i've made it through chapter 4 of my new book. I'll admit...he's said some things that make me uncomfortable. but i dont know what part of me is uncomfortable. the part that thinks he might be wrong, or the part of me that is used to believing a certain way. its hard to say. its hard to say how much of my foundational beliefs are based on scripture, and how much are based on "so and so told me this or that" oral tradition throughout the church has been at times fundamental to her growth, but at what point to i stop buying the BS and study it for myself.
So far that is what Rob B has inspired me to do.
I'm going to let you in on a secret about my head. Dont tell anyone...or do...what do i care?
I remember my first day as a christian ministry major. I learned about the council of nicea, and the however many dudes who decided what should be in the bible. I remember thinking..."WHAT!? a Bunch of DUDES decided what was of God and what wasnt!? And I hold so tightly to that today?!!?"
It was the beginning of the shaking of my foundation of faith which was really shakey to begin with.
Then I moved on to the doctrine of the Trinity..."its like water, and ice and vapor, but not." "its like this picture of a triangle, but it isnt" "its very biblical, but the word trinity isnt in the bible."
Then we talked about heaven, "its like an eternal worship service." (yuck) "its everything wonderful with no crying or pain" "its here but its not happened yet." "no silly its not in the sky"
then, more difficult, we talked about hell. "Its a place were people spend eternity separated from God." 'everyone who doesnt believe in Jesus spends eternity there after they die" "Weeping and gnashing of teeth." (what is gnashing of teeth, is that like grinding? do they need football guards when they sleep but dont get them because its hell?)
After a while it got so impossible for me to wrap my head around all of this i decided i needed nothing more than to take an Apologetics class. Likely for the same reason that apparently 80% of us took psychology classes, to self diagnose. Clearly, if Apologetics were how we defended our faith, I would find something helpful in there to help me defend my faith against myself!!
The first day we learned: "God is greater than anything. to exist is greater than to not exist, therefore God exists."
I remember wanting to cry.
That was ridiculous.
I spent a lot of my religion courses growing more and more confused. As classmates left class doe-eyed in wonder and excited about what they were learning, i felt more and more confused. i never felt like i got an answer that made any sense.
So eventually, i stopped allowing myself to ask the questions...and i stopped looking for the answers. i took it back to my basics...see the post from a couple days ago. I allowed nothing else to matter. Obviously something was wrong with my faith. Crap...maybe I was one of the people that the truth was blinded to because i didnt believe enough!??!?!?!?!?!
Tonight, Rob Bell started a book asking all of those questions. the exact same questions that stressed me out so much that I stopped learning, he asked. And he began to answer in hypothetical ways that opened up my mind again to attempt to discover the truth for myself. I'm not going to say I believe any of his answers, because some of them were silly. but some of the answers made me feel a lot better about God..and jesus, and the earth, and all the questions in it...
I'm not calling Rob a genius, I'm not calling him correct...but I am saying, he's doing something that the church universal needs to take note of...HE'S ATTEMPTING TO ANSWER THE PEOPLE'S QUESTIONS. The church has notoriously talked only about what she wanted to talk about...preachers preach in one direction...services are rarely interactive...and heaven forbid a regular person get a hold of the microphone...Because the church is afraid of what its people will ask, or say. The church is scared of the very thing that made her who she is. They are afraid of reformation, of change, of awakening. They cling tightly to Dante's inferno as their definition of hell and harps and paul at the pearly gates as their definition of heaven. We're all heretics and sinners people. Why can't we look at and acknowledge how? In this life youre going to chose someone's interpretation of Scripture...Just calling it scripture is choosing to believe the guys on the council. Do you believe Calvin? Wesley? Luther? Bell? Your pastor? Your dad? Your gut?
At this point, just halfway through the book i would encourage you to read it. if ONLY to see how you answer all the questions. Maybe you've got it all figured out. Maybe you're a 100% correct. maybe you should research your answers to see if they came from the Bible or something else. Maybe you should try contradicting yourself with other verses in the Bible.
Either way...I'm enjoying the walk I'm being taken on.
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