I for one am no expert on many church formalities; having only recently understood such terms as catechism. Frankly, I don't remember the reasoning for the Westminster "Divines" as to whether it is simply upholding principles of Protestant fathers of the faith movement itself or whether there is some exaltation above and beyond what is due for fellow sinners saved by grace no matter how great their doctrinal foundation was. Having held to a more Reformed view of scriptures the last 10 years; give or take doesn't give me any comfort in Calvin's actions toward Silvanus; or Luther's view toward the Jews. What I can say is that the necessity of viewing oneself as such a doctrine should makes a true worshipper humbled all the more (or they SHOULD) after realizing what a vile; wretched creature they were and their utter dependance on God's salvific grace. A cursory look at many who espouse such teachings however often seems in my viewpoint to reflect a lot of pride.
To objectively begin to study the history of the church as a whole has to avoid several common pitfalls. The first issue I see is the Euro Centrist sort of mindset; ignoring much of the history of the church and its origins in the Middle East and Africa; as well as places as far as India where evangelists seem to have made headway within the first few centuries after Christ's Resurrection.
The second issue is that many tend to indiscriminately consider all denominations without realizing the error that crept in everywhere. Some focus almost entirely on the Catholic church rather than the fact that the Protestant church itself started with a king who basically wanted to find a convenient way to get rid of his first (and I would argue only legitimate) wife. There were crusades (so called) where things were done going beyond scripture along with some where it could be argued were justifiable resistance to Muslim domination at the time.
I for one am no expert on many church formalities; having only recently understood such terms as catechism. Frankly, I don't remember the reasoning for the Westminster "Divines" as to whether it is simply upholding principles of Protestant fathers of the faith movement itself or whether there is some exaltation above and beyond what is due for fellow sinners saved by grace no matter how great their doctrinal foundation was. Having held to a more Reformed view of scriptures the last 10 years; give or take doesn't give me any comfort in Calvin's actions toward Silvanus; or Luther's view toward the Jews. What I can say is that the necessity of viewing oneself as such a doctrine should makes a true worshipper humbled all the more (or they SHOULD) after realizing what a vile; wretched creature they were and their utter dependance on God's salvific grace. A cursory look at many who espouse such teachings however often seems in my viewpoint to reflect a lot of pride.
To objectively begin to study the history of the church as a whole has to avoid several common pitfalls. The first issue I see is the Euro Centrist sort of mindset; ignoring much of the history of the church and its origins in the Middle East and Africa; as well as places as far as India where evangelists seem to have made headway within the first few centuries after Christ's Resurrection.
The second issue is that many tend to indiscriminately consider all denominations without realizing the error that crept in everywhere. Some focus almost entirely on the Catholic church rather than the fact that the Protestant church itself started with a king who basically wanted to find a convenient way to get rid of his first (and I would argue only legitimate) wife. There were crusades (so called) where things were done going beyond scripture along with some where it could be argued were justifiable resistance to Muslim domination at the time.
More to come...
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