Rowina (18 July 2013)
"To Bob Anderson on the wild history of the Church and its utter imperfection"


 

That is amazing, the account of the various sects, beliefs, and heresies which have occurred in the Church of Christ since Jesus walked the earth.  I hope everyone will read it who has not, I gather that it comes from Moriel Ministries online.

The only problem here is that the author gives us no guidance as to what "church denomination" or group is the true one.  He gives us a long long list of false ones, and I can recognize that much of what he's saying is true.

But how, practically, does a person today find a correctly scriptural church?  In my small town, for instance, there are many churches, as our population is known as churchgoers, and also we are known as people who are friendly to churches other than our own, who participate in hearing visiting preachers at other churches in the neighborhood, for instance.  We agree, I think, on the fundamentals of the faith:  Jesus came to die for our sins, to redeem us and point us in the right direction, and was resurrected from the dead as we shall be, with our true home in Heaven.  All the various denominations agree on these fundamentals.

But then they do not agree on other beliefs and practices.  Yes, the Episcopalians have in error accepted gay marriage.  In our town, the Episcopals don't go as far as the Archbishop of Canterbury whom you describe, who is so ecumenical that he has New Age and Hindu worship in his cathedral.  Yes, the Vineyard people do emphasize working for Jesus NOW, rather than hoping for imminent rapture--I heard a preacher there this weekend who emphasized loving everyone now, being love, being Christ to the hurting and lost.  Yes, he was a good preacher, but I still hope for the rapture (he didn't deny it would come along).
I could go down the list of our denominations in town, but my question for you and Mr. Moriel or whoever he is:  how do you find a perfectly scriptural church in your town?

I have never found a perfect one in my town, but I have found a bunch of people who do love the Lord and each other--and may be, incidentally, marked off from the atheists and agnostics and Unitarians who do NOT love the Lord as we do.  I'm not saying there are no
non-believers out there, far from it indeed!  My own family causes me suffering over non-belief.

Anyway, this description of church heresies may help someone reading it to find an almost-good church, but to find a perfect one in the real world you would have to start your own.  And that may be a problem we have had before.