Post Modern Christianity

 

When Martin Luther was in throes of The Reformation, a Cardinal warned him, “I foresee this will lead to church schisms, and splintering till there are thousands of churches.” Luther responded that if it means the True Gospel is champion, so be it. Well The Cardinal’s warning was right, there are an estimated 45,000 denominations of Christianity (OC Rigister). But beyond that now its individuals, people now are island of their own theology and doxology supported by what ever websites are online. The pendulum has swung from a central church authority with branches, Christendom, to individuals are their own church! Instead of placing too much trust in a central authority: popes, church councils, presbyteries, boards, and The Bible, it is now your own brand of theology, doxology, and etc pinned together with clips. We were led astray by a authoritian model known as The Roman Catholic Church, but now we risk error in no authority but our own backed by our own interpretations of Scripture and supported by reddit and articles of people who have the same view. We no longer our bound together by The Scriptures, Creeds (Nicene, Apostle’s) and the essentials, “in essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things love,” (Augustine of Hippo); we are now deciding even on the grammar of the essentials! People cannot agree “surrender your life to Jesus” and “born again” are the same thing. Worse they debate endlessly if The Alexandrian Text (Textus Receptus, Egyptian) or The Majority Text (Byzantine, Greek) is the truer source of The New Testament! When they say 99% the same thing, and 100% on essentials like Jesus is God and Son of God! If you cannot agree on Scripture is sound due to differences on sources you have lost Solae Scriptura (Scripture Alone) and now reformed Christians cannot even agree on what is suppose to be the foundation of Sound Doctrine!!!  I call this the rise of Post Modern Christianity, “my view is right, my text is right.” Each person now thinks their theology and doctrine is sound in its minute detail of eschatology and word use, and etc. This is worse than Cardinal feared, and it was invitable. When Luther said “conscious and Scripture,” where the hallmarks, the foundation, but if we all have difference consciousnesses that differ (post modern) and we cannot agree on which Scriptures are truest it is chaos.  Now Luther meant a “conscious in The Scriptures,” so He did not mean your own instincts and heart, but a conscious based in Words of God, but with this infighting over which Texts are authentic this makes things even more complicated! 

I am thankful for Luther, and The Reformation. The True Gospel and Scriptures is now ours thanks to him and other reformers like William Tyndale. But an unintended consequence did come as The Cardinal feared. Unless we stop fighting over Alexandrian (Textus Receptus) and Byzantine (Majority Text), and hold fast to The Scriptures and The Creeds (Nicene, Apostle’s) we will keep schisming, and Jesus prayer for unity will not be fulfilled (John 17:1-29), and we will be “blown by every wind of doctrine,” (Ephesians 4:14). 

I call it Post Modern Christianity because in Post Modernism, every individual person is right, no one is wrong, and all are wrong; it is recipe for chaos because community and civilization has to have maxims, laws, and creeds that all agree on like The Ten Commandments, Beatitudes, and more! We have gone to extreme in opposite of hating Offical Authority to recognizing only our own authority, which breeds pride, and God resists the proud, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). We have to agree on The Essentials, and stop this infighting over translations and texts which agree! We are biting and devouring one another (Galatians 5:15) to seem wise in our own eyes! (Proverbs 3:7). This hubris will tear us asunder, and make us prey for the enemy who loves to isolate saints, and what better way then to convince you that your brand and version of Christianity is the only true one, a cult of one! This is a death nail to the Church! You cannot even have a church, the community of saints if we are all divided into our individual interpretations and cannot agree on a iota of doctrine!!! 

Beware O Church! The Apostle’s teaching (Scripture), “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer,” (Acts 2:42) and The Creeds of Nicea and Apostle’s Creed are paramount! We must hold to the common statement of faith and The Holy Scriptures! Satan, that serpent is trying to slither in minds of people fighting over Scripture sources! To make you distrust God’s words which are God breathed and prophetic, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things, For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21). Do not let the devil decieve as He did Eve, “But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.” (2 Corinthians 11:3). And remember the serpent deceived our ancestors with knowledge, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, now he is doing if again on Scriptures texts, Alexandrian and Byzantine, making us the judges of God’s words! What pride! If a translation is truly faulty like Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, it will be exposed as his was by Erasmus and Luther and Tyndale. 

The Internet is a major culprit. It has pages to help support someone’s interpretation and personal scholarship, so that they prop up their error and pride, rather than testing it against the rock of Scripture and Creeds to see if it is sound. Remember the writers of Scripture did not hold to their own interpretation but the interpretation of The Holy Spirit, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.” (2 Peter 1:20)We must not conform God’s Truth to our view, but adjust our view to God’s Truth. Amen.