The Plague of Churches
Search the yellow pages of your local telephone book and you will find that the different churches wanting your presence are many. They come in all different flavors and sizes, with as many different beliefs, teachings and doctrines as there are churches. Some church groups are small, very small, local or are much larger. Some church groups are national or international in scope. Some may be in association with a particular creed or set of beliefs. Had you not gone to a splinter group of the Worldwide Church of God, but instead had gone to lets say a Baptist church or perhaps a Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Methodist or any one of countless others, such as the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) or the Jehovah Witnesses, then your beliefs, doctrines, practices and customs would have been totally different from the WCG splinter group you are glued to. And lets not forget the Roman Catholic Church or anyone of thousands of other groups, to numerous to mention.
Every church group on earth thinks they have "truth", while all others are the poor deceived humans who are so blind they cannot see. I wonder how many different church groups there will be in another two thousand years and beyond? Will the different church groups keep dividing and splintering until there may be a billion different groups and each with their own human church Pope standing before the people, proclaiming himself as the "pastor king" of his group? How many Herbert W. Armstrong's, Garner Ted Armstrong's, Rod Merideth's, David Pack's, Gerald Flurry's and so forth are yet to arise in the future, that will deceive many into worshiping at their feet as if they are God in the flesh? To any outsider not associated with this comedy, it is ludicrous beyond comprehension that people are sucked into man-made religion as if God Almighty is the author.
The world of churches is not really "Christianity", but rather "Churchianity" (man-made). Religion is as old as dirt and has long been a major means to control people, have power over people and the endless flow of free $money. All human governments on earth and all religions on earth are the twin means by which the whole human population is seduced by those who assume the posture of power over all others. Control and power over the common people is both psychological (as in religions), and physical (as in governments, which exists by brute force). The source book for deception is the "sacred" text, which has magically hypnotized the masses for thousands of years and as privately interpreted by the gods in the pulpits.
Like the mythical plagues of ancient Egypt, the modern day plague of fake churches is appalling and the simple minded are forever overtaken as church slaves.
Van Robison
8 comments:
Van Robison wrote:
The world of churches is not really "Christianity", but rather "Churchianity" (man-made).
And let's not forget that Christianity was invented by Paul, not Jesus.
Norm
If the historical Jesus really existed as a bona fide person, he certainly didn't expect what we see as "christianity" today.
If Paul, whoever he was, probably another compilation of several hazy individuals into one, hadn't started what evolved into Christianity out of a hodge podge of cults, the philosophies and sayings of Jesus would never have deveoloped into what we see today. At most, they could have been another school of thought within Judaism.
Or, they might have died out completely along with the other plethora of messiahs who made promises they couldn't keep. Jesus, if the accounts we have have any basis in fact, certainly didn't and couldn't keep his.
He would have been back here within the confines of the first century if his promises were anything more than hot air. Anybody seen him? Anywhere? Any time?
Religious leaders have convinced the masses that they need to attend church to either avoid going to hell or just to gain more favor with God.
Many people go to church out of guilt. They have been conditioned from childhood to believe that if they discontinued to attend church that they will have less protection from satan and slide down the clift of sin and condemnation. Even many of those who believe that we are saved by grace and grace alone believe that not going to church will have nothing but bad results.
I am an agnostic but even if I was sure that God exists I would still not attend any church. Why? Isn't are relationship to God very personal. Why do we need to attend church for that? As far as fellowship, we can have close personal friends with-out belonging to any church.
So why belong to or attend church.
To me it isn't logical even if I was a believer.
I heard a UCG Pastor last weekend recycle an old line about attending "the church of your choice."
"Then we realized we couldn't attend the church of our choice," he said. "We had to attend the church of God's choice."
Considering WCG has split in so many directions (including UCG), it's amazing to me that he'd still use that line. Sabbath-keeping COG'ers have all sorts of choices now.
Allow me to clarify. They have all sorts of BAD choices now.
Let me guess, this is another way of saying that the dear listeners have no choice except to attend UCG, because UCG is the church of god's choice.
Of course, that doesn't explain what everyone in the world who does not attend UCG is doing. Are they exercising a choice that they don't have in the first place? Interesting.
Where did the word "church" come from anyway? I realize its an english word interpreted from the greek, eklesia. But what does that really mean? I can't stand reading the word "church" in the bible because it gives every group license to claim they are the ones being referred to.
Another musing, did the apostles in their teachings of "the way" require believers who were jewish to stop being jewish? No. Did they require gentiles to stop being gentiles (other than those damn idols) again I say No. So where did it all go wrong and turn into a heirarchical circus of groups and coercion to be a member of the group to gain your salvation. Seems like the whole thing fell apart shortly after the death of the apostles. Where do you turn if you do want to worship the Jesus/Yeshua of scripture, but not be associated with a bunch of crazy people?
I suppose the best research says that our modern word "church" comes from the old English word "cirice," from the West German "kirika," which itself came from the Greek, "kyriakon (doma)" or "Lord's (house)." It is an example of the borrowing of many words via Goth mercenaries who fought for the Romans at least as early as the 300's AD.
If you notice the similarity between the words "cirice" and the Latin "circus," from which we get "circuit" and "circle," others have too, as well as the similarity between that and the Greek goddess Circe, daughter of Helios the Greek sun god, and they then quickly make the connection between the word "church" and the ancient pagan worship of the circle of the sun. While it is true that ancient Anglo-Saxon places of worship, such as Stonehenge were round, they also lived in round homes. The grid city-plan along with its rectangular lots and rectangular homes only came to the British Isles through Roman settlements. It is not impossible that these other strands may be related to the derivation and use of the English word "church," but it is difficult to prove.
However, it is easier to prove that there was a great deal of syncretism that occurred between pagan and "christianity," and was often encouraged by Roman Catholicism as a method of conversion. Many of the old pagan beliefs (such as faeries and the undead) and stories (such as Beowulf) continued on, but with a veneer of new names and terminologies that made them sound more christian than they were. In some cases, official government sanction of the old pagan beliefs continued on side-by-side with christian beliefs until as late as the 19th century in Britain, as reflected in the history of British law.
Thanks Anon for your answer.
So I guess I wasn't too far off the mark calling "church" a circus. Basically, the patrons come and pay money to be entertained and hear what they want to hear.
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