Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
It keeps you (and me) from responding too fast. Gives a chance to look at it and rethink wording.
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I prefer the immediacy of typing and sending. Like Martin Luther's "Letter from Birmingham Jail", though I'm not quite in his league!
I wonder why someone doesn't call Mr. Kangas on his "Christ and the church" rhetoric. I see no scriptural basis. Christ is our all, not Christ and the church.
When we believe into Jesus Christ, and acknowledge the common faith we share with others, Christ is well capable of building His church. When we place the church as an entity of itself, and on a par with God, no less, we do great disservice to the Gospel.
Yes, yes, I know -- "The Spirit and the Bride say come", but when we gather together and by the Spirit beckon our Beloved Bridegroom, it is not the Bride we eye, but Him. Yes, "...the church, which is His Body", but again, we only are tasked with seeing the Head, and our neighbor. Christ alone is capable to care for the Body. We are tasked to care for the person next to us. Anyone whe deigns to care for the Body in toto is venturing into territory reserved for God alone. You end up trying to control those for whom Christ died, and usurping the King. Instead, the King instructed you to love the person next to you, best as you can, and trust the Shepherd to care for the flock.
Jesus said to love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves. It doesn't say, "Love God, and love the church". It says love your neighbor. What happens when we unduly elevate 'the church' into a place for God alone, is that we pursue such a creation at the expense of our neighbors. Those who can't get with our program are jettisoned. Ask Steve Isitt what happened to him when he attempted to contact some of the flotsam and jetsam of the Local Church church-building program. He was immediately branded as contaminated. Such is the care that actual human beings get under the organization-promoting idea of "Christ and the church".
No, there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the Man Christ Jesus. There is no "Mother of God, Queen of Heaven", there is no "Pope", and there is no "Oracle". There is only Jesus. There is only one name given whereby men might be saved. Any organization placed on the same level as Jesus is bad thinking, bad theology, and ruinous to the humans for whom Christ came.