Posted by john on April 11, 2002 at 06:58:52:
In Reply to: clarification on nature of the Bride posted by giveawayboy on April 10, 2002 at 22:06:24:
: :I see this because to me the churches of today are largely dilluted and perverted human faccimilies of what the real "Church" is.
: I can't agree more that churches today are diluted and perverted human copies of what the REAL Church is. But, how do we know WHO the REAL church is anyway?
Well all I can think of is that they will know we are His disciples by our love for one another. And that God's worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth. I know that it is NOT anything to do with morality, or gifts, or message, or calling.
: :They are so full of tradition and dogma that has lost all connection to the spiritual truth which is its origin, save a disconnected rememberance in the minds of a few who read old books.
: Who is this remnant, and which old books are they reading. I want to know. Also, what spiritual truth do you refer to. Just so I can understand better. I'm really not trying to be knitpicky here. I just need to know so I can understand you. I'm sure that the tradition and dogmas that have lost all connection with spiritual truth are different from those traditions and dogmas that agree with spiritual truth, am I right here?
Well I was actually referring to all traditions and dogmas. Since most started as a natural expression of some aspect of a whole mysterious truth. The problem is now people drink, eat, sing, recite, kneel, and even study with no real knowledge of how or why these traditions arrose. Except for those few who have actually been drawn to the rituals BECAUSE of their orignial significance...I think you would be an example of this type. There is always a remnant in every body of people.
: :I think at some point Christians will be forced to choose whether they will accept the heritage that is in them, that they always knew deep in their meditations, or retain the superficial framework of broken pieces that they have archaelogically pieced into a system.
: Wow! You sound like a Catholic! Anyway, I agree. I hope we do accept the heritage that is in us. What is that heritage John? For me it is rooted in God, and comes to us via the patriarchs, the prophets, the Lord himself, then his church.
Catholic in the sense that I beleive in the universality of all beleivers in Christ, but I include the Roman Catholic Church as one of the very big dilluted behemoths. And we've argued this before, but remember that I don't think ANY denomination is representative of THE universal truth... see post at top of board about the bride and all. I think that when we finally see the whole picture we will be very surprised at how the delineations of man that we see as so significant pale in the light of God's distinctions of human history and movements. I beleive we'll see clearly the connection of the true body then and all marvel that we never saw how it related while we were here.