BIBLE TOPICS

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path". Ps 119:105

Subjects

ONE BIBLE, MANY CHURCHES:

WHY?

THE NARROW WAY

This very brief examination of the origin of present-day Christianity in all its diverse forms prompts the most searching questions about the nature of Christianity itself. It implies that the established Churches, far from being the repositories of divine truth, have more often been the shrines of error, of fleshly and anti-Christian teaching; that the majority of Christians throughout western history have been ignorant of the true Christian hope; that the small groups that have splintered away from the church at various times, far from being heretical, have often been prompted by a genuine desire to return to the distinctive spirit and teaching of original Christianity;* [*There are of course exceptions: notably the comparatively recent emergence of groups such as the Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc., holding novel doctrines with no historical precedent.] that the true Christians have always been and still are in the minority, more often than not a very small minority indeed. Can such a view, so totally opposed to most present-day Christian thinking, be sustained? Is it consistent with the message of divine love for mankind that Christ came to preach? Does such a view find any support in the New Testament?

Jesus recognised that the distinctive way of life which he practised and advocated for his followers was a difficult one, and one that would prove quite unpalatable to the majority of mankind. Jesus warned:

"... wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7 v 13 & 14).

He knew that faith in him would not increase, but would rather decline, the nearer Christ's second advent became. Again words of Jesus:

"When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18 v 8).

"As the days of Noe (Noah) were. so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24 v 37-39).

At the time of the flood, only eight people were saved by God; this is the measure of those who will be saved at the coming of Christ. The justice and severity of God revealed in this Old Testament incident, whilst entirely consistent with New Testament revelation, have conveniently been lost sight of by most churchmen.

The standards of behaviour set by Christ were the complete oppositeness of all man's natural inclinations, and were certainly quite inapplicable in the context of society at large. Christ's law makes no provision for the recognition of legal rights, defence of property, judicial punishments, etc. Jesus himself said on one occasion, with particular reference to his teaching on divorce:

"All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given .. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it" (Matthew 19 v 11 & 12).

He knew that the mass of humanity would never respond to a teaching which demanded total dedication to an ideal which offered very little reward in this life. The alliance of Church with State and the mass conversion to Christianity were achieved only at the cost of sacrificing virtually everything that was specifically Christian.

The consistent theme of the Old and New Testaments is the calling and selection by God of a small minority of the world's population as His witnesses and instruments in a future age when the whole world will serve Him. The Old Testament records God's choice of the Jews, an insignificant racial minority, not for any particular merit of their own, but simply as witnesses to and instruments of His purpose with the earth (Deuteronomy 7 v 6 - 8). Of the Jews themselves, the majority forsook him in favour of other gods, other religions. When Christ came most of his people, though eagerly anticipating the promised coming of the Messiah, spurned him: he was not the political revolutionary they desperately wanted. Later Peter described how "God ... did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name," and the Christian converts remained a small and oppressed minority until the third and fourth centuries. It was only after the dramatic changes outlines above, and after the Church had taken over many of the forms and practices of the paganism which surrounded it, that a debased Christianity became a majority, not a minority, religion. 

In his teaching Jesus foresaw that, whilst his message of love and humanity was ideally suited to bring peace to the world, in would in fact lead to strife, dissension and suffering:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household!" (Matthew 10 v 34 - 36).

Augustine's fallacious 'City of God' concept has led the church to expect the total conversion of the world through the efforts of the Christians themselves. No such expectation was part of Christ's original message; certainly as we approach the end of the twentieth century since Christ first came, such hopes seem as far from fulfilment as ever. The angel's promise, "on earth, peace and goodwill toward (among) men", will not be realised until Christ returns to complete his work, not this time as the all-suffering Lamb of God, but as World King, wielding Divine authority, executing summary justice amongst the world's population. (See 2 Thessalonians 1 v 7 - 10) Only then will the Old Testament ideal described by the prophet Micah become a reality:

"... many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sward against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Micah 4 v 2 & 3).

It is an ideal rejected by the Church as far too mundane and literal-minded, but entirely consistent with the hope of Christ's immediate followers (see Matthew 19 v 28; Acts 1 v 6-11; 2 Thessalonians 1 v 7-10; Revelation 2 v 26 & 27; 5 v 9,& 10; 11 v 15).

WHAT IS TRUTH?