Throughout the years, I have spent a significant amount of time reading books about God, faith and religion. It fascinates me to read about other belief systems and I have always been amazed at all the different theories there are about God. But what amazes me more is how many ways there are to think about God within the Christian faith.
The two obvious differences are Catholics and Protestants, where Catholics have their Pope and their traditions and Protestants are typically more Bible based. Then within the Protestant faith there is even further breakdown…Methodists, Presbyterians, Evangelicals, Pentacostals, Unitarians, and the list goes on.
And each of these churches has their own slant, their own personal agenda as to which areas of the bible they tend to focus on. Then there are all the books that I have read by various pastors, reverends, bishops, even the Pope. All with their opinions about the bible, God, religion, faith, etc.
And for each book that I have read there is commentary online about why this opinion or that opinion is wrong or right. Of course to eliminate confusion, I could just read the bible. But which one in my house should I choose from? The New International Version, the King James Version, the Message? With each bible comes a slightly different interpretation, so its wise to read the bible along with further commentary, or within the confines of a bible study, but which one?
So my thought for the day is this: If there is a devil, and his job is to keep us separate from God, he must be ecstatic. He doesn’t have to do anything but sit back and watch us all fight amongst ourselves about the truth about God so we never actually come together as a united front and put the devil out of work.
Good point you've made via this entry. It's amazing how there's one God but all these denominations and religions. I love this blog. Keep up the great work, my blogger friend!
ReplyDeleteI love your comments EJ, you are so kind! :) I'm so grateful our paths have crossed :)
ReplyDeleteyour last paragraph is very profane and so true; we need to put outside the things that are "inconsequential" and focus on what really matters, making Jesus known with his message of hope and forgiveness. There will always be slight differences of thoughts between different denominations (take baptism for instance, some churches baptize babies and others dedicate them and wait until they are old enough to make their own decision for Jesus to be baptized). What we need to do is look beyond that and not compromise on the "basics" of the Bible. Jesus is God's son; he came to die for our sins, he died, he rose again, the Bible is the true word of God. Those we cannot compromise with.
ReplyDeleteSome translations of the Bible are easier to read than others. I personally like NIV because its what I've used for a long time. If one wnats to memorize scripture, which is always good to have in one's heart, one should always memorize it from the same translation, makes it easier I ear.
there is a devil because the Bible says there is one. I believe the Bible to be the true word of God so if it says there is one, there is a devil.
betty
I always find it sad that there are so many divisions within Christianity itself. There are also so many misconceptions within Christianity about other denominations and ways people worship God. I agree with you that the Devil must be laughing and that we have made his work easy.:)
ReplyDeleteTo me the absolute main thing, Catholic or Protestant, is that the core of our belief is the same. We believe in God the Father and in salvation through Jesus His Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the core. The others issues, while they certainly are interesting are side issues. Perhaps focused far too much on. I have heard time and time again from Protestant friends that Catholics are so wrong because they do this or that and I always am mildly surprised because our creeds are almost exactly alike. Yes there are differences
but not in the matter of salvation. Not in the matter of who Jesus is, there's no confusion there.:)
Great post!