"Church History" Seems an Oxymoron

Two passages come to mind. Christendom through the ages ignored Jesus' words that His kingdom is not of this world.

Also Church history clearly demonstrates Paul's warning in Acts 20:29-30 about the rapid decline after his departure.

Christian witness in this world has always been a minority report. Or, as the saying goes, "Not everyone talking about Heaven is going there."

 

I object to everything distinctively Catholic. And, the Catholic church as persecuted and murdered Christians. But, I think practically every church would persecute Christians given enough time and opportunity. Baptists are politically powerless, so it's no sign of virtue that they aren't persecuting people. Today's Catholic church isn't persecuting people.

Christians have no political power the US, as proven by the only people being coerced into acting against their conscience, philosophy, or religion are Christians. We voted for Trump, not because Trump has any interest in a Christian agenda, but because his opponent called us deplorables and wanted to make us criminals.

 

Comes to mind, ". . . Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. . . ." -- 1 John 3:15.
And,
". . . Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. . . ." -- 1 John 5:1.

". . . Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. . . ." -- New Living Translation.

 

You came to THE EXACT HISTORICAL REALITY.

YOU WERE "BROUGHT TO"
THE EXACT HISTORICAL REALITY.

GOD HAS BLESSED YOU MORE THAN 100s of Millions.

Make this: THE DEEPER YOU DIG and THE MORE YOU LEARN WILL BE A NEVER-ENDING SOURCE of HISTORICAL and BIBLICAL REVELATION to CONFIRM Your Original Post.

God has Highly Favoured you.

What did you do, if you don't mind me asking:

Did you ASK GOD?
Where you wanting to know THE TRUTH?

WERE YOU SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM of God and His Righteousness?

WERE YOU ASKING, AND SEEKING, AND KNOCKING?

ARE YOU A MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART???

Most 'Christians' never even read their Bible and see this subject in there.

Maybe, you haven't, yet, either, but it is in there.

So, all of Mankind will probably tell you they know all about it, but you LOOKED AT HISTORY.

You need to see all The Baptists, there, that you can.

Listen to Historical Baptists.

They all believed about the exact same thing 60-70 years ago.

The Bible is their Home Court Advantage.

 

I have never been enamored with “greats” no matter the age.

No matter who, those that served and serve the Lord are merely engaging the strength and gift given them for that service.

The reward is not given for effort, but for dedication and faithfulness.

We love because He first loved.

We serve because He served us.

There is no puff up in the heart of a true servant.

 

The Home Court Advantage Baptists have Committed to them, By God ALMIGHTY, in The Preservation of The Oracles of God and The Whole Counsil and Manifold Wisdom of God, includes The Bible Prophecies regarding Jesus Christ Building His Scripturally Structured and Authorised called-out assemblies, during His Earthly Ministry.

The Branch Built His church, as a Fulfillment of Prophecy.

2 "In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

3" And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem"

Steven, you are experiencing some of the Deepest and Most Precious Revelations from God's Word.

If The Lord Permits, YOU WILL SEE THE CHURCH ASSEMBLIES THAT JESUS BUILT and Have been here on Earth, THROUGHOUT HISTORY, as Jesus PROMISED, And SHE Will Be Until He Comes Again.

Here, in The Bible, is The Prophecy of The Branch, Jesus Christ BUILDING HIS ASSEMBLIES.

5 "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

6 "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."

Stick with what you have learned and The Bible.

If you learn that 'a church' in The Bible is an Assembly, in all of it's 113, or so, usages AND GOD NEVER REFERS TO "ONE BIG SCATTERED OUT RANDOM BUNCH OF BELIEVERS ALL OVER THE WORLD, AS HAVING ANYTHING TO WITH GOD SAYING IT, about" the church", because the plural of that is "churches", just like any other word used generically, then:

Matthew 16:17 "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

18" And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, (a 'small rock', in the Greek, i. e., this is a PLAY ON WORDS)

and upon this ROCK (The Rock of Ages, The Cheif Cornerstone) I will build my church (an Organized, Divinely Originated Organism and Organization Out of those Jesus Was Speaking to, WHO WERE SAVED... AND... SCRIPTURSLLY BAPTISED, BY JOHN THE BAPTIST, a man Sent from God with The Authority of God to BAPTISE) and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (JESUS' KIND of assembly, Authorized by GOD HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON EARTH, AS ASSEMBLIES of Baptised Believers, since The New Testament times:

19 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: (The Word and The Gospel) and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

20 "Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ"

Jesus' Disciples were ASSEMBLED, as His Assembly, that He Was Building = Edifying, at that moment and from then on, EVEN THOUGH THOSE MEN HE WAS SPEAKING TO WOULD DIE.

He Was Speaking to His Tabernacle, His Assembly, His called-out church,

JESUS' DWELLING PLACE.


5 "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence."

"put you light on a candlestick"

"And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."

Spiritually take your shoes off your feet, Gentleman. Joshua did so.

And, please, be careful want you rail.

 

The Dark Ages was characterized by dictatorial elitist believing it was Godly to "compel" others to adhere to their beliefs. Some go so far as to claim Augustine was the father of the dark ages by mistranslating Luke 14:23. Rather than "compel" translators should go with (according to modern scholarship) "urge" them to come.

Many of the posters on this forum believe God compels belief in Christ, rather than God allowing people to choose of their own volition whether to fully trust in Christ.

 

One of the primary reasons why one should study history is to prevent it from repeating and to do that one has to understand why things happened to begin with.

What happened to later church leaders is that they were corrupted with temporal Earthly power. When Paul confronts Peter, Peter doesn't tell his followers to kill the upstart. But those who claim to be descended from Peter actually did that.

This of course leads to the tragic case of Luther. Luther simply wanted to confront the Pope about the Pope's heresy. Now, if the Pope behaved like Peter, Luther would have presented his case and everyone would still be Catholic to this day. However, that did not happen and Luther had to flee into the arms of a local ruler to save his life.

As one can see with many church leaders - even today - power corrupts. The longer Luther was a member of the power brokers, the worse he became. Even today, the same is seen among the Baptists.

Baptists started out persecuted in America and fought hard to stop state-sponsored religion. But as time went on and Baptists gained power, they forgot their roots.

When someone rightfully pointed out that state-sponsored school prayer should not be happening in school, some preachers idiotically went against Baptist principles and supported state-sponsored school prayer forced onto the students. Such people are too stupid to think past 2. They don't realize that some public schools have majority Mormon leadership and that their stupidity was causing Christian student to stand through Mormon hell. Thanks you for sending me through hell, idiots.

But can Baptists be even more stupid? The answer is - Yes, they can! So, after losing the debate on school prayer and losing money due to lawsuits, many Baptists of Texas supported "See you at the Pole!" (They even trademarked it!) Let's openly disobey Jesus and act like the Pharisees we are and announce our prayer location ahead of time so that everyone will see how awesome and pious we are!

Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, etc. weren't the only ones who have been silly idiots at times. The only difference between Baptists and them is that our silliness hasn't caused anyone to die.

This is why I believe in scripture alone. No one else has written anything which even approaches the wisdom of scripture. Every Christian author, I've read, fails at some point or another and starts writing human idiocy. Not that Luther or other Christian writers don't ever write anything that is useful - I just don't believe they are divinely inspired wisdom.

 

At what point in life does one acquire such “own volition?”

Born with it?

Develop it?

Granted by Satan?

 

One obvious give-a-way that compulsion is an ungodly satanic behavior is the effort to deflect discussion of it by its advocates.

The Dark Ages was characterized by dictatorial elitists believing it was Godly to "compel" others to adhere to their beliefs. Some go so far as to claim Augustine was the father of the dark ages by mistranslating Luke 14:23. Rather than "compel" translators should go with (according to modern scholarship) "urge" them to come.

Many of the posters on this forum believe God compels belief in Christ, rather than God allowing people to choose of their own volition whether to fully trust in Christ.

Scripture is full of references to "your faith," "his faith," and "my faith." "Your, his or my" God instilled faith is never mentioned. People reject Christ not because they are unable to believe in Christ, but because they "will" not to believe in Christ. OTOH, everyone believing into Christ will have eternal life. They question whether God credits our faith as righteousness, ignoring Romans 4:4-5, 23-24.

They deny "all men" can be drawn to Christ if they behold Him high and lifted up (dying on the cross for their sins.}

 

In all that you didn't answer the questions. So, here they are again.

At what point in life does one acquire such “own volition?”

Born with it?

Develop it?

Granted by Satan?​

I'm not even asking for Scripture validation, just your opinion.

 

Scripture is full of references to "your faith," "his faith," and "my faith." "Your, his or my" God instilled faith is never mentioned. People reject Christ not because they are unable to believe in Christ, but because they "will" not to believe in Christ. OTOH, everyone believing into Christ will have eternal life. They question whether God credits our faith as righteousness, ignoring Romans 4:4-5, 23-24.

They deny "all men" can be drawn to Christ if they behold Him high and lifted up (dying on the cross for their sins.)

Where does "your faith" come from? Since it is your faith it comes from you putting your trust in God and His Christ.

Does this "faith" have merit somehow earning salvation? Nope, all our works of righteousness are as filthy rags to God.

Do we develop our faith? Yes in response to our understanding of the gospel as nurtured (watered) by witnesses (ambassadors of Christ).

The next question shows the utter absurdity of Calvinism's acolytes arguments. Talk about a fabrication of deflection. I say God allows people to come to faith by not hardening their hearts. This fabricator misrepresents it as indicating Satan allows it.

 

See how you deflect!

You can't even answer that very simple question ask about your opinion.

I didn't even request that you back it up with Scriptures.

Rather you want to bluster about personal pronouns, what some other scheme denies, not answering the fundamental question of WHERE faith originated, and other distractions that you claim.

Answer the question, Van.

At what point in life does one acquire such “own volition?”

Born with it?

Develop it?

Granted by Satan?​

If you cannot answer this simple question, how then are you to present what is Scripturally factual?

 

Yet another regurgitation of the same questions, which I answered in post # 13. Post #13 is then ignored and the questions repeated, thus the tell tale behavior of an harasser.

The Dark Ages was characterized by dictatorial elitist believing it was Godly to "compel" others to adhere to their beliefs. Some go so far as to claim Augustine was the father of the dark ages by mistranslating Luke 14:23. Rather than "compel" translators should go with (according to modern scholarship) "urge" them to come.

Many of the posters on this forum believe God compels belief in Christ, rather than God allowing people to choose of their own volition whether to fully trust in Christ.

 

Yet another regurgitation of deflection and avoidance.

You just can't come up with an answer to that very simple question. Is it because you cannot and remain loyal to your scheme? Have you no simple answer to give other than beggarly deflection and avoidance?

At what point in life does one acquire such “own volition?”

Born with it?

Develop it?

Granted by Satan?​