On Christian Principles OT

James Wynn · 01 Dec 2004, 22:37 · from 2004-December.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Wed Dec  1 22:37:45 2004
Subject: (urth) On Christian Principles OT
References: <20041202060211.CB82D3950 at sitemail.everyone.net>
Message-ID: <033501c4d839$6a06e9f0$4c1e4b0a at vcorp.ad.vrsn.com>

>Really, what the Chruch is saying is that we have it all here,
>the manual for the universe with this Bible and this catachism,
>you're set, just believe in Christ and go to confession, never
>mind spiritual growth.

I don't think the New Testament, the Eastern Orthodox, the RCC, or any
Protestant demononation teaches that. It is no easy lifelong task to "die
daily" or to "put on the whole armor of God". One might as well say that the
purpose of a wedding is to set aside the work of a marriage.

>We don't even need revelation or prophecy anymore.

The Charismatic segments of Christianity (most are Evangelical) hold
contemporary revelation as very central to their worship experience and are
very open to prophecy (in the sense of revelation of the future). All
Christian traditions hold prophecy in the sense of "professing God's Word"
to be key to their worship. However, to my knowledge, only the LDS believe
that contemporary revelation/prophesy can overwrite the Scriptural canon.

>And then people wonder why Evangelicism started in America,
>born out of Protestantism which was as mechanistic as Newton's
>physics.  This is also why Eastern religions are now popular in america.
>People want to undergo transform[ation]. All the Church offers the
>Christian is the transformations of death and the resurrection but none
>for the life between now and death.

Christian conversion is expected to be transformative.
Ask any convict who was "saved" in prison.

>It seems with the advent of modern psychology Christian churchs
>at least in America have changed their tune to a certain degree,
>there is a 12 step self help program for everything, but for a long
>time Protestanism was admit your a sinner, believe in Christ, and
>before that, not even those simple coercions were a gurantee.  The
>moment you remove ritual, culture, and history is the moment you
>lose relevance.

I think it was the 12 step program that adopted the conventions of
Christianity (with it's emphasis on 'giving your testimony'). I'm not
certain what Luther would say about "falling from Grace" but obviously
Calvin's teaching declared the very idea absurd.

~ Crush

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