Paul to Timothy, shortly after: “Find faithful men and pass this tradition down.”

The Apostles’ successors, next three centuries: die for faith, write liturgies, establish canon of scripture, doctrine, and practice based on that tradition. Church built.

The Church: for 1,000 years: “I believe in one holy, universal, and apostolic church”

Christians in 1054 AD: Church splits, East from West, supposedly over a minor point in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit but more deeply over whether the Bishop of Rome is Pope. West called Roman Catholic; the rest called Orthodoxy in the East. The East retains most apostolic cities and the language of the scriptures; West turns Latin.

Roman Catholicism for the next 500 years: fights Islam; embraces rationalism and scholaticism

The Roman Catholic West by 1500 AD: thoroughly corrupt and ineffective; soon a number of reformed churches split off

Reformed churches through 1500’s and 1600’s: can’t ultimately agree on doctrine and procedure; establish a number of denominations

The Protestant churches in the early 1800’s: Some go anti-supernatural, while others become revivalist; cults proliferate

The Revivalists in the late 1800’s: Become fundamentalism; denominations splitting and replicating all over the landscape

The Fundamentalists in the 1950’s: Evangelicalism splits off over insularity and harshness and embraces pop culture; charasmatic movement desperately trying to recover supernaturalism

Evangelicalism in late 1990’s, 2000’s: Begins to “emerge”

Emergent Church 2000’s: has become utterly cynical, displaced, and incoherent; surrounded by thousands of competing denominations and cults has watched the degeneration of the Christian West building speed; knows the ship is sinking.

Unaltered Eastern Orthodoxy right now: “Come back.”

You poor wretched people must creep quietly into an Eastern Orthodox church NOW and stay there worshipping, doing WHATEVER they tell you to do, UNTIL it all makes sense! Greek, Russian, OCA, whatever - it’s all the same faith and it was passed down from the apostles and I promise they will love you.

(Yes, I’m yelling. Just a little. I’m the Mom.)

May God have mercy on your souls.

read this blog:

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/

I’ll ask again: what is your point, in plain language?

You keep on saying “Jesus has set us free” but it seems to me that is precisely the opposite of how David is feeling, if I’ve understood his recent posts correctly. Why do you think you’ve been set free when it’s arguable that the notion of Hell with which Christians are terrorised has set you in bondage in the first place?

And I completely disagree with what I think you are saying in this paragraph: “We feel like we are still in bondage and that brings a sense of unworthiness, guilt, and feelings of “I am not worth loving.” This is a lie from the enemy to deceive and destroy us. Our flesh also lies to us. Denial is the worst deception - it is self-deception.” - isn’t it the case that the bible teaches you to feel guilty and unworthy? It sells both the cure and the malady, and you have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

Who is this enemy you keep referring to? I think you are looking in the wrong direction.

Who is in denial here? It looks very much to me that it is you, and not our friend David, who is finally opening his eyes from (yet another) dogmatic theology.

I appreciate your criticism, so I will try to say in a few sentences what my main point is.

1. David posted this out of transparency to answer a cry in his spirit that he still feels like he is in bondage. (correct me if I am wrong David)
2. Christ has set us free from ALL bondage.
3. We must fix our eyes on Jesus and live out our life in the freedom and grace that Jesus alone has provided.

The feelings of bondage that we all carry are real, I am not dismissing that because as I said in my post, it resonates with my soul as well. Its just that these feelings of bondage and condemnation we feel are not from God.

Let me explain if I can.

We feel like we are still in bondage and that brings a sense of unworthiness, guilt, and feelings of “I am not worth loving.” This is a lie from the enemy to deceive and destroy us. Our flesh also lies to us. Denial is the worst deception - it is self-deception.

Jesus thought all of us worthy enough to love, to even die for. If God thought we were worth that much, to come and set aside his glory and give his life for us, than we should not have these feelings of bondage but of thankfulness and freedom.

The real battle is not that we doubt our faith, but that our flesh still stands to condemn us. It is why we come to the cross - daily.

“For there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” - Romans 8:1

Abundant Blessings,

Thanks for your encouragement and being able to admit your own feelings of bondage. Remember, Jesus has indeed set us free. Amen.

David,

I appreciate the post. It has caused me to re-evaluate where I stand in Christ.
This reminder is glorious.

Blessings to you all!