written record they had left. If you have ever played the message game, where a simple message is whispered from person to person along a line of people, you know how quickly memory can distort a message. Around 100 AD had to be total chaos. Everybody had a view on what was right and what was wrong, and as the trail got colder the differences broadened. By 300 AD things had deteriorated far enough that some church leaders felt a necessity to band together under a title of a universal or Catholic church, and they made claims to direct ties to the church started by Jesus Christ. There are two other groups, who make this same claim. The Mormons say it is either the Catholics or them who are right and have a direct link to the Almighty. Some Baptists claim through the pamphlet, 'The Trail of Blood', that they are the true church, not related to John the Baptist, as some say, but the Anabaptists, with their persecutions. The rest of the denominations either split off of the Catholic church claiming that the Catholic church had strayed from the gospel, or they just came out of the wood work. Today, sometimes the determination of whether a group is a cult or not a cult is extremely difficult. Contrary to the first century A. D., we now have multiple platforms from which we can view life around us. Each view point gives us a slightly different idea of what is true. Satan has in effect pulled the rug out from under us, and we are spending all our effort trying to stay on our feet. The pastor I posed the question to about why don't we still refer to ourselves as the church at our community, also said that it was tempting to do that, but he would be afraid to do it, because he would be labled as presumptuous. He also said that if he was in a new town and saw a church listed that way, he would immediately visit it, with a critical eye, to see what was going on. Because of current customs and habits, he was right, that would be everybody's approach. What then are we to do? Are we to go into one church after another, screaming "You are wrong! You are wrong!"? That would be totally disruptive, 149 _______________________________________________________________________________ and a furtherance of Satanic desires. Are we to just quit going? No, the popular notion now is to belong to a support group, and church is the Christian's support group. Possibly, what we are supposed to be doing is to prayerfully, in guidance from the Holy Spirit, from a stance of love, with strong scripture, in context, to back us, speak out in our own local church as Jesus did before us in His local synagogue. What can we expect from these actions? I think I experienced some of it at the Berean church I visited. We can expect to be set aside from the 'in group', looked at askance, and treated as a threat to their authority. Was it different when Jesus was on earth? Luke 4:16-22 says, "And when he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said Is this not Joseph's son?". In those days, there were numerous sects, whose members had varying influences from centuries of traditions ingrained by being tied to membership in one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus was in a complex synagogue situation then, just as we are in a complex church situation today. What did He do? Did He moan and groan over which synagogue? No! He attended, not passively, but, speaking out with the truth in love. Did He get their attention? Yes. Was He well received? No. In fact, they questioned His authority. This probably brought more 150 ________________________________________________________________________________ |
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