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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: The Foundations of Truth

The Gazillion Forms of Christianity

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

In another article (170) we argued that Christianity is the only logically consistent, and experientially solid, religious base for our search for Truth. Christianity alone is unafraid of historical inquiry. All other religious persuasions either have some skeletons in the closet (witness the persecution and attempted murder of those in Islam and other forms of religion who write historically valid material that is critical of the religion), or have some fundamental experiential or logical flaw. But, this only narrows the search for Truth a little.

There are a gazillion forms of Christianity. Which gives us the Truth? To answer, let me say up front that the only logical and experientially valid foundation for Truth is what Truth says. In other words, God is Truth. Thus, what He says is the only foundation for Truth. Christianity has two basic forms: that form which claims that its teachings come from the Bible, but in reality teaches encrusted commandments of men in the name of the authority of the Church and the traditions of the saints; and that form which not only claims that its teachings come from the Bible, but also teaches the Bible so that men and women can see that the Bible actually says what the form of religion says it does.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul inveighed against those who set forth words as from God which were not in harmony with the recognized Scriptures. He was never afraid of people comparing what he said to what the Scriptures said. Today, however, we have multiple forms of so-called Christianity which do little or nothing to impart understanding of the words of the Bible to its people. In fact, today we have forms of Christianity which do so little to give their people the truth from the Bible that a person can grow up in those forms, live their entire lives in consistent weekly faithfulness to those forms, and when they come to the end of their lives they know little more of what the Bible says than they did when they were born. Any group which countenances such impoverished ignorance of God's Word is not Christian in any sense except the name. In fact, in the name of faithful practice we have many forms of Christianity today which actually worship ignorance by ignoring the clear mandate of Scripture which says we should meditate in the Law of the Lord day and night.

Therefore, when we ask the question of which brand of Christianity we should pursue in our search for the Truth, we should be aware that God has spoken in His Word; He has had it translated from its original languages into most of the languages of this world; He has made copies of His Word readily available; He has mandated that we should love Him with our minds sufficiently to study His word; and He will sit in judgment on all those who reject His Word in favor of an empty form of religion that gives people a sense of self-satisfied comfort while they live their lives in ignorant violation of most of what He has said.

Thus, the only form of Christianity which is a genuine repository for Truth is that form which finds out what the Bible actually says, and proclaims it clearly.


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This is article #171.
If you wish, you may contact Darrel as darrelcline at this site.