Posted by:
caffiend
(
)
Date: March 04, 2017 07:47PM
6 iron Wrote:
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> So this is what I did. I forgot everything taught
> to me, etc, and read one of the Gospels. I needed
> to understand what Jesus was trying to
> communicate.
Bravo, 6-Iron. Your sentiment brought this to mind for me:
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29.13 ESV). What Gospel was it? I recommend Luke's for people who are new to Biblical Christianity, as it's a good balance between Christ's teachings, his temporal and miraculous works, and his reaching out to people outside the pale of Pharisaic Judaism: women, the sick and infirm, Greeks and Romans, and--especially--sinners. Also, the longest and most detailed.
Trails End (below) Luke did not know Christ personally, either. He was a physician and self-appointed chronicler of Christ's life. Take a quick look at Luke's first chapter.
>
> And I was actually shocked. So I read until I
> understood, and this is what I discovered, that
> Mormonism doesn't understand Jesus' message, and
> neither do other churches.
>
> Jesus was very specific about what he expects us
> to do..
> Love God
I have a analogy of my own creation I use to illustrate Christian orthodoxy. Did you know that the word "sin" derives from an archery term, meaning, "to miss the mark?" Think of Christian doctrine as an archery target, with a black dot in the center, and various rings of different colors surrounding it. Just off the ring furthest out is "the white," which is on the target PAPER but has no scoring value whatsoever. Then there is the hay bale it's probably mounted on. No score there, either.
The very center is Christ Himself. To hit that point is to be perfect. None of us can do that, but we want to keep practicing so we get as close as possible to that center point as possible. Practice also develops proper habits, so your archery (i.e. Christian life) skills become reflexively better.
That center dot--Jesus Christ--has two axes leading away, one horizontal and the other vertical.
The horizontal axis is the "works" aspect of the Gospel. Christ had much to say about how to live, behave, and do our "works," but we Christians are still sinners, and we tend to go too far one direction or another. As you follow the "works" axis to the left, you get into the "social justice gospel," a.k.a. "liberation theology." We want to advance justice and mercy, but as you get further and further to the left, you have less and less Jesus, and more and more "social works," which is where I think a lot of liberal churches are, and others, such as Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker Movement. Go far enough left, and you're off the target--you've lost Christ completely--such as the Unitarians.
Take that horizontal axis to the right, and you get into the conservative churches with an emphasis on morality and piety. At a certain point, you're so caught up on a pharisaical sense or religious rectitude, your head is so far up your moral rectum you've lost sight of Jesus.
We want to be as centered and balanced as Christ is. To those on the left, I would ask: "When did you last lead somebody to faith in Christ? Or have you been preoccupied with your virtue-signaling 'good works?'" I challenge those on the right with the question, "When did you last help somebody without having the unspoken agenda of having them join your particular church?"
The vertical axis is theological: going upwards, you find people having a very high, ethereal, often worshiped through/via intermediaries and defined in highly intellectual terms. Go too far in this direction, and God is so remote you can't relate to Him. Take the vertical axis downward, and you have an increasingly "low" Christology. There's a decreasing sense of God's power, majesty, and mystery, and religion is defined in terms of personal experience, mostly positive. Here you'll find very long church services with numerous preachers, music specials, long prayers, and lots of VERY loud praise choruses.
Again, we want to be centered on both axes, not too high (mystical and/or cerebral) or low (too emotive and experiential).
Then there are the cults and false religions. My apologies for possibly slighting Unitarians, but this is a Christian thread, and I've never met a Unitarian who considered himself Christian. LDS, Christian Science, JWs, Bahais, Scientology aren't even on the target--they're in the hay bale at best, or off the target completely.
For all you ex-Mos who have found the real Jesus, the Biblical one, the Christ of time and eternity, keep focusing on that very center of the target, improving your aim with prayer Bible study, profitable reading, and good fellowship, which includes joining a church that advances the gospel in its members and in the community. My archery target analogy applies to local churches, also.