Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger
Reading your post about Christianity being a vast waste land sent shivers up my spine and leads me to believe that you [Hope] still don't get it when it comes to talking about "Christianity." I say that with all due respect.
I agree with CMW. The problem with the Local Church is not that they didn't have logical justification for criticizing Christianity. Who can't see their faults? The problem is that rather than being able to see the beam in their own eyes, they looked at themselves by comparison and found themselves quite good.
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I agree. Paul rebuked Peter, and then reproved the "bewitched" Galatians. Paul also censored the Corinthians severely. John excoriated the assemblies in Asia. But neither Paul nor John decided they'd had enough with the degraded "christianity" they found themselves part of, and then went and started their own, supposedly "pure" organizations, based on some scriptural ground or another. Surely they could have spun off some new improved sect, and many sheep would have followed. But they wisely abstained.
The cracks about Judaism and Protestantism and Catholicism are based on scripture, and as such are accurate exegeses to a degree. But they come from an abomination ten times worse than the intended targets. The splinter and beam analogy holds well here.
Remember the two men praying, and the first one says, "God, thank You I'm not like that sinner over there"? He actually was technically correct. The other man was, in fact, a sinner. But the first man thought that his condemnation of a fellow sinner could somehow stand before God. He left with nothing.