Subject: "Once Saved Always Saved" |
Bible Note: Hello Brian, You said: "Next, today when people are learning, they can go to a Bible class, or a bookstore, and gain an education. When the Catholic Church was carving out Christianity, they were preaching to people who lived in caves and huts, and no concept of a written language." The Catholic Church did not carve out Christianity Brian. I'm not picking words here, but it was God through Christ that is building His church. God's church is people who believe Him. People who learn from Him -- from His Holy Spirit. [Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.] Concerning the written language... during Abraham's day there were libraries and schools. And that was about 2,000 BC! Archeologists have discovered sites in Ur, Lagash, Nippur, Sippar (which means "Book Town"), and every important city in Babylonia during the approximate time of Abraham -- with schools, temples, libraries with thousands of books; Dictionaries, Grammars, Reference Works, Encyclopedias, Official Annuls, works on Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography, Religion and Politics. In Ur, also in the stratum of Abraham's day, they uncovered 150 school Exercise Tablets, with Mathematical, Medical, Historical texts, and one large tablet in parallel columns with a Complete Conjugation of the Sumerian verb and its equivalent in Semitic. And in Canaan, near Hebron, city of Abraham, was a town called "Kiriath-Sepher", which means "scribe-town". And did you know that in Rome during the days of Christ... people had running water and public bath houses? Even Jerusalem during the time of King David had aquaducts that brought water into the city to fill the wells from underground. Early Christians were not "cavemen", nor primitives who lived in "huts". Each community used the resources that were available to them to build houses, temples, stadiums, stores, palaces, etc. In fact many times great cedars and marble blocks were shipped (in a boat) from one country to another... and each ship usually had written manifestos for their cargo. They've found bills, and receipts, and all kinds of things in the strata for that time period. Not only in Rome and Israel, but also Egypt, Babylon, etc. Even though in Jesus' day everyone did not have the elitist training that Paul and other scholars had... the remainder of the apostles --- who were basically common folk --- could apparently write... and write quite well as we see in the gospels and epistles. Certainly if they could, then surely others during the next few hundred years could also. The dumbing down occurred during the dark ages (late 400's-1100's AD). It is a time that gradually got bleaker over the years for the common people due to severe oppression from those in power over them. Schools were not permitted because the rulers knew that with knowledge, comes power -- and those in power didn't want to be usurped. I won't go any further with this thread, but that is the juxt of the matter as to why many people couldn't read during those years. Another point is that the Bible was not available to them even if they could have read it. But there too... if anyone believed God... they could not so easily be duped into doing whatever they were told. Ignorance is bliss... but only to those who want to control the ignorant. It was during the Reformation that public schools were built, and Bibles were translated into common languages, with the intent that people should learn to read so they could read the Bible for themselves. You said: "Let's look at Christian theology. Every Christian religion today is built upon the theological principles defined by the Catholic Church over the past 2,000 years." Actually Brian, I think the principles were defined long before the Catholic Church became involved. It was God who defined those principles in His inspired Word - the Holy Bible. And it is God's "teachings" that should be taught. I think I have said this on here before, but I will say it again because you may not know my stance on this. I thoroughly believe that the only "doctrine" that should be used AS "doctrine" for a Christian denomination -- is the Word of God. Nothing added and nothing taken away. The Lord even set up a plan to keep false understandings of His Word out of His church. And by the way, His Church is not Catholic, or Methodist, or Baptist, nor any other denomination. God's church is people who believe Him. It is universal only in the sense that God has saved people all over the planet. God bless. |