My
wonderful wife, Amanda, has laid the groundwork for the beginnings of our
spiritual journey. And so we shall begin with coffee and television.
Shortly after becoming a Christian
through the Southern Baptist church I began attending a non-denominational
church complete with a full coffee bar. This was a new and fresh way for me to
view church. It was liberating for me. This became home for me. That was in
2003. Now we are in the year 2014, more than ten years later. Coffee is still
served in an adjacent room to the chapel of most churches in America, and along
with this we have TVs set up so that the congregation may sip coffee in a
comfortable chair while worshipping their God via a television. Who could ask
for anything more? I am speaking on this topic for two reasons. First, we
noticed that there is little to no reverence for God in non-denomination
churches. And secondly, that this idea of being comfortable in church addresses
the problematic issue of division.
Please note: I may go off on a few
tangents now and then because there are so many thoughts going on in my mind
right now, but I will try my best to keep it simple.
The fact that we now have coffee and
television in church is not in and of itself a sin, but it does distract us
from the Holiness that God is. The question we began to ask ourselves is; where
does it end? How far does this go? The answer to these questions may soon be
found out. Several months ago I read an article online about a church in America
that decided to serve beer before their worship services… (Stop reading, and
re-read that last sentence). That’s right; America is now serving beer
alongside the worship of the creator of the universe. Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/03/242301642/to-stave-off-decline-churches-attract-new-members-with-beer
Once this practice
becomes accepted after about ten years or so, what will they do next to draw
people in? Drugs? Prostitution? I’m going too far by suggesting these things,
but that’s exactly the point: how far is too far? Don’t get me wrong; there is
nothing wrong with drinking beer. I love beer, especially while I’m reading
Tolkien. However, there is a time and place for everything. In my humble
opinion, drinking beer and worshipping our God do not go together.
Because of these questions we began
to realize rather quickly that there is a lack of reverence for God in most
churches in America. What is reverence for God? I believe it is promptly
portrayed in the book of Exodus:
Now Moses
was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he
led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain
of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from
within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.
So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does
not burn up.”
When the
Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush,
“Moses! Moses!”
And Moses
said, “Here I am.”
“Do not
come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are
standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his
face, because he was afraid to look at God. (Exodus 3:1-6)
Notice how God tells Moses to remove
his sandals, for he is standing on holy ground. Notice how God does not say,
“Moses, grab a seat next to me and lets talk about life over a cappuccino!”
There seems to be a particular interest in the God of the New Testament, which
is the same God as the one from the Old Testament. The good news of Jesus
Christ is that we are saved through Christ’s death and resurrection. However,
Jesus Christ is one part of a triune God, the Holy Trinity. God the Father
still exists and is alive and well today. Have we forgotten that? Have we forgotten
the God of Isaiah? Have we forgotten that immediately after the prophet Isaiah
saw the LORD Almighty he cried aloud, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man
of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have
seen the King, the LORD Almighty,” (Isaiah 6:5)? You be the judge.
The second point, concerning the
division of the church, has become a very disturbing concern for us. I am no
expert on church history, but I have learned a thing or two from RCIA classes.
What I do know is this:
The church
as we know it began shortly after Jesus’ resurrection and subsequent departure
from this world. We know from the four gospel accounts that several key things
happen concerning Christianity. We know that Jesus appears before his disciples
in the upper room. We also know that he gave the Great Commission, and along
with this the promise of the Holy Spirit who guide us on our walks with Christ.
All of this happened just before Jesus ascended into heaven. But something very
important happened before this. In the gospel of Matthew we read of an account
in which Jesus addressed his disciples:
Now when
Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who
do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the
Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He
said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you,
Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the
Christ (Matthew 16:13-20).
“On this rock I will build my
church…” It doesn’t get plainer than that. Jesus basically just told Peter that
he would establish his Church though him. I want to take a step back for a
moment to look at the world we live in today. After we announced that we would
soon convert to Catholicism it seems as if a dam was broken to release a
massive flood against our ill-favored and immature decision. I never really
noticed until now just how much Protestants despise Catholicism. Looking back
at that verse, it is then safe to say that (most) Protestants despise one of
the first acts that Jesus Christ established concerning future Christianity. (This
is one of my tangents). Lets try to get back on track…
So the Church gets up and running
after a few years or so. The book of Acts is basically an account of the first
acts of the Church. Certain doctrines are established and life goes on (and on
and on and on…). From roughly 34 AD until the 11th century the
Catholic Church is the only church. There are no denominations; there is no
“better way.” So for everyone against Catholicism you have to admit that Jesus
made a mistake because no one was going to heaven for all that time or you have
to believe that people were being admitted into heaven for the time being until
Martin Luther would come along and make everything right. Anyways, it is during the 11th
century that the first split occurs. This split results in the formation of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. And for about 500 years these two sects exists with no
more interruptions. And then a man named Martin Luther is born. This man grows
up and becomes a priest in the Church, but he soon realizes that some things
are not quite right. Indulgences are being purchased in order to receive
forgiveness of sins. Many other forms of idolatry and corruption of infiltrated
the Church. Luther decides to do something about it. After he nailed the 95 Theses
to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg change began to happen.
I want to make three things very
clear at this point. First, I am in full agreement of what Martin Luther did on
that October day in Wittenberg. The truth of the matter is that the Church had
become infested with corruption and a cleansing was necessary in order for the
gospel and the Church to be brought back to life. Second, it is very, very
important to understand that Luther never ever intended to purposefully split
the Church. No, he was merely addressing what was wrong with the Church and sought
to rid the impurities while maintaining the unity of the Church. Unfortunately,
Catholics are human as well and are just as capable of anger and greed as
anyone alive today. Luther was labeled as a heretic and, to make a long story
short, the second split of the Church occurred. If the papacy of that time had
realized their errors and corrected the issues immediately, Luther would have
been satisfied and we wouldn’t be having this conversation today! Third, and
perhaps most important, once an organization splits more than once and continues
to split, it will inevitably continue to split over and over again with no end
in sight. In fact, various estimates state that there are now roughly 32,000
different “denominations” of Christianity!!! (Look it up if you don’t believe
me). In light of this statistic it is important to ask, when does it stop? How
many more times will the Church split? Will the Church ever stop splitting? The
way our culture is going right now, probably not. Remember those comfy chairs
that churchgoers sit in while sipping their frappuccinos (from the first
paragraph), yep; this is one of the reasons why we have division. People
nowadays want to be comfortable in church and when they become uncomfortable
they seek a new place where they will be comfortable instead. This, to me, is
known as church shopping or dating the church. We also took careful note of most splits in the Church occur due to one verse passages of scripture that have been interpreted differently among Protestants, while at the same time practically half of the New Testament exemplifies the theme of unity.
The Protestant Reformation took off
and changes of all sorts engulfed Europe. But here is perhaps the real kicker:
all of the issues that had plagued the Catholic Church (to which Luther
addressed in his 95 Theses) have either been corrected with time or were not
real issues but rather misinterpretations on Luther’s part in the first place.
So, if Christians today claim unity of their church body and vow to never leave
their local church, then the truest way to carry out this mission would be to
reunite with Catholicism.
What am I saying here? I am saying
that Catholicism is the only way? No. But perhaps it is what is the preferred
way by God. When the Israelites demanded a king to rule over them in (1 Samuel
8) God warned them through the prophet Samuel that there would be consequences.
Did he prevent it from happening anyway? No, he gave them a king and sure
enough, there were consequences. Did God continue to work through that
circumstance nonetheless? Yes. Was that his preferred way? Perhaps not.
This
idea of unifying the church as we knew it was what originally peaked out
interest and curiosity in Catholicism. But as our journey progressed we would
soon found that there were many holes in the theology that we had come to
accept through Protestantism over the years. I would like to address some of
these holes in the weeks and months to come. It is also my intention to address
some of the key issues that most Protestants have with Catholicism, like Mary
and the Saints. Thank you for your patience in this process. Stay tuned!Mark
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