It is hard not to feel pity for Christians after looking briefly at the historical development of orthodoxy in church life; of a community of people so disconnected from the author of their faith and so disjointed in their thinking about the essential character, will and mind of God, that whenever there is a ‘free’ discussion about the Lordship of Christ immediately one is overcome by the spiritual oppression of Rome.
Whatever Jesus came to do you can be certain that man has very studiously and busily made a very complex religion out of it since. The experience of God is a simple affair but immediately when the Romans got a sniff of people worshipping Jesus instead of their warring and angry God they applied the rules of faith like a tourniquet as soon as expediently possible, to stem the flow of Christ’s healing blood and congeal it with the doctrinal straightjacket of half-wits and Spiritless authoritarians. Rome had established itself with the iron foot of canonical authority long before the Gospel message penetrated the heartlands of their political influence, but when it did, they immediately set about transplanting their iron feet onto the ecclesiastical body of authority that was already clad with the clay feet of the Old Testament. Before the sapling church could grow in Christ they crushed it to death literally, spiritually, theologically, economically, ecclesiastically, with the wine press of a Roman way of thinking that was almost kith and kin to the Old Testament way of thinking. Jesus got dumped as the authoritative voice from Heaven the moment the Bible was compiled. Nice one Rome, but don’t think you can celebrate much longer.
As a result of fundamental errors in understanding the role and purpose of Christ the church suffered an early imprisonment to the thoughts and traditions of men instead of to the words and teachings of Christ. An imprisonment that expresses itself in the many denominations that have arisen since in which membership of a rigid formulaic system of belief is a prerequisite for acceptance, which is a process entailing attitudes and beliefs that are often at odds with its pioneering origins. Christ is sidelined, orthodoxy is rigidly imposed by an authority that Christ has not endorsed.
Not even Brian McLaren, writing in the parlance of next wave orthodoxy, under the title of ‘A Generous Orthodoxy’ could get his head around the source of the problem.
A problem it most certainly is. My contention is that the Bible is the problem. A book that presents Christ as a product of culture rather than One who brought the law in word and in the flesh that challenges the culture of men who came before and after Him. The Law, reflected by the Prophets who tried unsuccessfully to champion the Law, came as a living testimony of it, requesting politely that we listen to His voice and none other.
What the Romans did, by stuffing Jesus in the Bible, was to 1> Disobey Christ 2> Twist His words to mean something that He never intended.
The root problem of Christian theology is that it has been constructed using a bastardised foundation stone. Consequently the whole structure of Church life sits uncomfortably on top of a rubble of words canonised insolently by architects under Roman patronage who later enjoyed fiscal and political benefits connected with the anti-Christ like system of ecclesiastical authority and control. Their very actions demonstrated they didn’t have a clue what Jesus meant about Him being the cornerstone.
The word ‘Roman’ stands for the culture and ideas of a band of thugs who chucked out the Etruscans, who set up a dynasty in Rome, and then expanded by creating wars with its neighbours, then by writing laws and canons to subjugate their newly annexed lands, then by punishing recalcitrants who expressed a personal wish not to be collectivised or 'catholicised' by the State. This is a pattern that repeated itself in the administration and development of their bonehead ideas about a catholic church under the see of Rome. They hijacked Christian belief for their own egotistical purposes and chucked out Jesus as the Priest of His own church.
My advice to any believer who is confused about the way the Old Testament presents a testimony of God’s character that is wholly different to the testimony that Christ brought is to read very carefully ‘Beyond Christ Authority is Evil - 96 Theses’.
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