Order and Chaos
ĐāżŦ {mostly absent} at Flickr
Christ started a Church
He chose leaders; in fact he stayed up all night choosing them
They in turn chose leaders; these leaders chose leaders and these chose leaders.
They compiled what they thought were valuable documents and letters written by early leaders.
They governed the growing Church for hundreds of years through a lived faith that was both oral and written.
Then many of those governed declared that they had no right to be governed at all, but only the written old manuscripts had a right to govern them.
They all to varying degrees began to self-govern under the old text.
Interesting enough the founder never gave any authority to the old text but the men He chose.
Millions self-govern under a text compiled by the leaders they now reject.
They claim the text is the standard to govern but the text itself never says or gives them this right whatsoever.
The text becomes a private revelation to each individual but the text was given to community.
In fact not a single letter left behind was written personally to any of us, so how could we read it as a private letter?
Letters left behind were written to local communities or the universal Church, except for a few letters from Paul and even that not to any of us.
The text becomes a defense against the chosen leaders
Now they are governed not by leaders but by a book in which they are in charge of which they had no place in it’s compilation.
They oppose one another to no end on what the book means and says
Confusion is the effect, the text isn’t confused
Only those who have declared independence from the leaders are confused
Sola Scriptura doesn’t work simply because it is a lie of false governance
Governance is the issue, who has been given charge as oversight?
One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic | Many, Shifting, Denominational, felt needs
Ancient, historic, growing, timeless | Fad, novel, fragmenting, momentary
Which Church or governance was and is established by Jesus Christ? Is it really that confusing?
Clear and concise, the part about the text being given to community especially resonates with me.
This is an interesting argument. I never thought about it exactly like that. I think there is, however, a caution to be issued in that the Church needed reform and the breaks acted as catalyst for that to happen. At least, that’s my understanding of the history of the Church.
Shall I cut off my feet because they stink? If breaks were applied I’d of cheered but that is not what happened they jumped out of the bus all together.