Monday, November 30, 2009

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders ...

I like cheeseburgers, the "Cracker Barrel" makes a mean bacon cheese burger, I get it on a grilled sour dough bread. There is also a resturant called JB's who makes the "best" burger I've ever ate. Some people like Fuddruckers' cheeseburgers, then ya got Big Macs, Whoppers etc. If I decided to eat a burger from the Texas Roadhouse instead of the Outback, does that make the Outback burger wrong?

I think the same could be said about Christian Churches. So what if we got a thousand Denominations, what the hell does that prove? Some people want a big thick slice of fresh onion on their burger, some want avacodos and hot sauce.

The Church in Corinth was founded by the Apostle Paul, and they were arguing over which Pastor was the best. Paul, Appolos or Cephas, Cephas being Peter.(1 Cor. 3:21-23) Guess what? Paul says it's ok to like them all. Philippians 1:18 says it like this "Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being preached therefore I will rejoice, yeah, I will rejoice. I think it's cool we have different churches to fit the needs of all the different people. Gives you Atheists more to choose from?

And finally hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

So dear friends, this week please go find the least repulsive Christian Church you can, there's one out there custom made for you.

P.S. Krystals or White Castles?

Late, Wimpy

5 comments:

  1. So do you think salvation is available at any one of them?

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  2. LX


    Rom 10:9 "For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved".

    And you don't even need to be anywhere around a church to do that.

    Dueces, feeno

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  3. Feeno,

    First off, lemme say that it sounds like you've got much more variety in your burger selection down there than we do up here in Canuck-land. Or maybe I just haven't seen some of those restaurants around here...but anyway you made me hungry :P

    The real problem with the idea of different denominations is not necessarily the problem of salvation per se. I mean, there are some Baptists who are insistent that their denomination is the only correct one and everyone else (even other flavours of Baptists) are going to hell. But even disregarding that, there are certainly some denominations where the doctrinal differences may be significant enough to make it questionable whether they can be saved or not. Take the Catholics for instance, who place a much higher role on good works to attain salvation - sure they also talk about faith, but they are not "sola fide" like the Protestants tend to be. Some might claim that this means they likely aren't saved.

    But even disregarding that, the problem with the huge number of denominations is that according to most Christians, they have the Holy Spirit inside them who is supposed to "lead them into all truth." And I mean, even if some doctrinal differences are not important in terms of being saved or not, certainly there is only one "correct" set of doctrines. So why, if all these people have the Holy Spirit whispering in their ear, do we have such wild disagreement on these things? You could chalk it up to simple difference of interpretation, but supposedly the Holy Spirit helps to interpret the Bible as well, right? It just doesn't seem to make sense that we'd have all this variety if there was a divine influence here.

    Now, if the differences were a simple matter of preferences, like hamburgers, that would be one thing. But most denominations don't split over whether to sing fast songs or slow songs. They split over more significant things, like the legitimacy of speaking in tongues, or a literalist interpretation of the Bible, or predestination vs. free will, or a number of other doctrines. Presumably, these are the things that the Holy Spirit would be trying to tell people about. Maybe he's been spending too much time at the Cracker Barrel and forgot all about "leading people into all truth"...

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  4. Jeff

    How about a maple glazed Canadian bacon burger?

    You might be right about the Holy Spirit spending to much time at the Cracker Barrel. At least that will be my excuse to the Lord about my gluttonous habits, I'll just tell him I was led by the H.S. there?

    Now then, if we look to God and expect special favors because we are Believers we will usually wind up disappointed. Yes, the Bible makes it clear that one of the "jobs" of the Holy Spirit is to help us understand scripture. But while Christians are guided and or led by HS we are not controlled by Him. We wont be perfected or glorified until after judgment.

    The HS might whisper in somebodies ear to reveal some Biblical truths, but I know he screamed into my ear and revealed that I was a sinner. That is his main job, and in my life and he did it well. (John 16:7-11)

    I'm glad you brought up doctrines, if there is a doctrine of Christianity it should be this. Romans 1:16-17 "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: As it is written the Just shall live by faith. (if you want to know what the "gospel of Christ is, it can be found 1st Cor. 15:3-4. where it says "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: And that he was buried and he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.

    It should be as simple as these 4 verses, but man turned it into religion, God just wants you, warts and all.

    Thanks for commenting brah, feen

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  5. Hmm, maple glazed Canadian bacon burger? Needs some seal blubber in there lol.

    Well sure, I suppose you can chalk it up to human freedom, and I wouldn't assume that all Christians are going to listen to the Holy Spirit perfectly. But I still think there's a lot of disagreement in interpretation of the Bible for having a divine influence there.

    But at any rate, I don't think that Christianity can be "as simple as these 4 verses". I mean, if that's really all that matters, why the heck did God have Paul write a gazillion other verses as well? It almost seems like he was trying to incite disagreement if it's all trivial stuff anyway.

    No, see, Christians like to say it's not a religion, it's all just a relationship, but your relationship with God is directed by the words in the Bible, and there's a lot more in there than just "get saved". Christians also make a big deal about discipleship and "growing in the faith", and the way they do that is to look at the OTHER verses in the Bible. And that's aaaaaaall part of Christianity. You also can't forget meeting in church (don't forsake the meeting of the brethren), the taking of communion (do this in remembrance of me), and evangelism (go into all the world). That sounds like a lot more than just a simple "relationship with God". It sounds like...well...a religion.

    So unfortunately it's not as simple as those 4 verses. God obviously thought the rest were important, or he wouldn't have put them in. But he also should be interested in making sure people are reading and interpreting them correctly. But, as is shown by the wide diversity of denominational beliefs and differences in interpretation, there's significant disagreement about who is "right" about how to interpret the Bible. And that, my friend, is why the Holy Spirit needs to lay off the burgers and get back to doing his job.

    Later dude,
    Jeff

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