From the Commentaries of Luther on Galations:
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"Paul is speaking of a far better liberty, the liberty "wherewith Christ hath made us free," not from material bonds, not from the Babylonian captivity, not from the tyranny of the Turks, but from the eternal wrath of God.
Where is this liberty? In the conscience.
Our conscience is free and quiet because it no longer has to fear the wrath of God. This is real liberty, compared with which every other kind of liberty is not worth mentioning. Who can adequately express the boon that comes to a person when he has the heart-assurance that God will nevermore be angry with him, but will forever be merciful to him for Christ's sake? This is indeed a marvelous liberty, to have the sovereign God for our Friend and Father who will defend, maintain, and save us in this life and in the life to come.
As an outgrowth of this liberty, we are at the same time free from the Law, sin, death, the power of the devil, hell, etc. Since the wrath of God has been assuaged by Christ no Law, sin, or death may now accuse and condemn us. These foes of ours will continue to frighten us, but not too much. The worth of our Christian liberty cannot be exaggerated. Our conscience must he trained to fall back on the freedom purchased for us by Christ. Though the fears of the Law, the terrors of sin, the horror of death assail us occasionally, we know that these feelings shall not endure, because the prophet quotes God as saying: "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment: but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." ( Isa 54:8 .)
We shall appreciate this liberty all the more when we bear in mind that it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who purchased it with His own blood.
Hence, Christ's liberty is given us not by the Law, or for our own righteousness, but freely for Christ's sake. In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, Jesus declares: "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Joh 8:32 He only stands between us and the evils which trouble and afflict us and which He has overcome for us.
Reason cannot properly evaluate this gift. Who can fully appreciate the blessing of the forgiveness of sins and of everlasting life? Our opponents claim that they also possess this liberty. But they do not. When they are put to the test all their self- confidence slips from them. What else can they expect when they trust in works and not in the Word of God?"
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What was taught and endured by the first century Christians started going to hell before the real Apostles died. Why do you think they said the apostasy had already started before their deaths? What we have today is nothing close to what they had. By the third century, I believe Christianity was completely screwed up from its roots and most of the Christians were dead from persecution under the hands of the Romans.
People have been searching hard to find the truth and freedom while some have been searching for a reason to enslave.
Is Early Christianity the Basis For JW Practices?
by OldSoul 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Lieu
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greendawn
Narkissos do you know of any links that deal with the issue of fragmentation and conflict and what was considered by different groups to be orthodox belief, in the early church?
It would be interesting to see what they have to say on these issues. -
Narkissos
greendawn,
There are scores of books on the subject; here's a link which will lead you to some of them:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/diversity.html
-- but you will find a lot more if you just google "early christianity diversity orthodoxy" (for instance).The problematic concept, of course, is precisely "orthodoxy" -- just as "mainstream" in your previous post. Until some partial agreement gradually emerges from the negotiation of the weightiest churches (from the 2nd century onward), excluding other Christians from both the negotiation and agreement, there is neither orthodoxy nor heresy -- just groups struggling with each other as long as none of them reaches a ruling position.
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greendawn
Narkissos thanks I will check them out to see how they will affect my opinion that the majority of early Christians had a set of common core beliefs that could be properly called orthodox.
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Terry
Terry I am not an expert in early Christian history (33-313 AD) but my impression is that it was not so highly fragmented.There were pro mosaic law jewish christians. Also there were agnostic sects but we don't think of them as part of mainstream early christianity. The rest of the christian church was fairly unified in doctrine.
Keep in mind we look BACK through history through a series of window panes.
These window panes are to various degrees soiled by the owner of the window through which we peer.
Is that a mountain on the horizon, or, a splotch of grime?
What I am saying is this:
Whatever remains of authority (usually Catholic Church documents) is very much after the fact of purges, inquisitions, crackdowns, revisions, redactions of movements and opinions over a long long stretch of time.
We come to think of those early groups all under a general heading of __UN orthodox fringe groups. They did NOT think of themselves that way, however.
A person just coming in to the Jehovah's Witness organization today will look back over the JW history THROUGH THE EYES of the ___official history___of that movement.
This "version" of their history is bogus to a large extent. It has been whitewashed and revised and positioned to give a certain impression.
We must view all religious histories the same way.
Judaism, at the time of the purported so-called ministry of Jesus, was fragmented. Opinions about any would-be Messiah were fragmented. Reactions differed.
Responses evoked opinions. Opinions evoked arguments. Arguments evoked the necessity for PROOF TEXTS. In this controversial atmosphere things got written down for the very purpose of PROVING whose opinion (version) was orthodox.
Hundreds, then thousands of these tales appeared in response to controversies.
When the Roman government became polarized under Christianity, what WAS Christianity?
That was THE question that had to be settled!
Constantine needed to unify his power base by settling internecine bickering and harrassment. Petty squabbles led to riots and church burnings and, often, murders.
Constantine's henchman was Eusebius for quite a stretch. Eusebius saw things ONE WAY and used his influence to make certain HIS view became orthodoxy.
We have the APOSTLES CREED and the doctrine of the TRINITY largely due to his influence.
After an agreement (power coup) produced the required orthodoxy, it took the power of the state to quash dissent by excommunications, purges and document burnings.
Over and over and over through time this happened again and again.
WE LOOK BACK through all these eras, as I mentioned before, like staring through window after window after window splotched and splattered with orthodoxies.
WE CANNOT see an historical truth about anybody or anything. WE SIMPLY CANNOT.
What we can do is this. We can see the corruption of the process.
This corrupt process is NO MODEL of behavior. It is no model of purity of worship. It is a self-serving straw man for authoritarians such as the Governing Body to invoke for their purposes.
Do not believe the lie. History demonstrates only this. Christianity is a series of groups controlling other groups by painting one side evil and the other side righteous.
It is a carrot and stick. The coming of Jesus is the engine that drives this reward/punishment program.
JW's say Jesus already came back. That makes them silly enough to beat their followers with the stick of Armageddon until they are bruised and senseless, but, submissive enough to sell magazines and feckless books to stuff the coffers with cash.
Thousands tire from the battering and fall away; but, new converts are logs that feed the fire.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY is a buffet table. Choose your own plate of yummies; the Watchtower does. But, keep an Alka-Seltzer handy for the awful cramps that follow!
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Terry
I forgot to mention something that gnaws away at me.....
You see, there is one giant PREMISE
that you have to destroy or it will poison everything you read and think about concerning Christianity.
From Christendom to Cults to congregations to corner churches of any banner there is one premise and one premise only they all share alike. Here it is:
GOD PRESERVED (somehow) true worship after having made it clear in the first place.
This is a huge error.
There was never....never...even in the ancient days of Israel, any consensus for very long about anything pertaining to true worship. There were always controversies and schizms.
The Bible itself is a series of redactor's efforts to stitch together differing versions of the same events.
The Synoptic Gospels are redactor's struggling to make contradictory hearsay into a piecemeal "history".
There was never....never....not ever a clear view of who God was, what he wanted, what he was doing or what his plans for man were; there were always only opinions.
Why do you think Pharisees and Saducess existed? Why was Protestantism possible? Why is it you can open your yellow pages phone book and look under CHURCHES and find more flavors than the local ice cream parlor?
It is always been this way. People make things up and argue about them. The strongest person has their way and gains the most agreement while the others lick their wounds and go their own way.
THERE IS NO MODEL of pure worship anywhere at any time in history. You have to resort to a FREEZE FRAME approach to even give the illusion this was possible.
JW's do this. Their religion and their orthodoxy is a series of cut and paste freeze-frames artificially put into a sequence to tell a story according to their own peculiar taste for things.
If you agree with that taste; you share their view and you are sucked into the machine to become mulch for their garden.
The premise is always the lie when no truth is possible.
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Pole
JW's do this. Their religion and their orthodoxy is a series of cut and paste freeze-frames artificially put into a sequence to tell a story according to their own peculiar taste for things.
Wow. THank god my left agnular gyrus is doing fine. Good metaphor, Terry.
Pole
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Terry
JW's do this. Their religion and their orthodoxy is a series of cut and paste freeze-frames artificially put into a sequence to tell a story according to their own peculiar taste for things.
Wow. THank god my left agnular gyrus is doing fine. Good metaphor, Terry.Pole
Hi Pole.
Haven't seen you around in a while. Good to have you back.
I guess I'll have to do a search on angular gyrus! You are educating me here. Thanks,
Terry
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SixofNine
Good points to underlay any discussion of god or the bible, Terry. Even as a little JW kid, I would wonder "why did those stupid hardheaded Isrealites slip into 'false worship' so often???". I mean, it just seemed that it should have been sooooo obvious, what with Jehovah actively taking a role back then.
Funny how all of my questions as a little kid would have saved me years of grief, had the adults around me simply been intellectually honest people. Ah well, too much to ask for from adults.
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Preston
I think the JW practices had their basis in what Eddie Izzard called... "The Psychotic Bastard Religion"
- Preston