***Pardon me...
This article is under construction and is not yet finished.
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When one beholds the works of the Hand of God all around us, one can not be anything but dumbfounded and amazed by the intricate detail of organization and beauty. Whether one is looking at a waterfall, a snail or the circulatory system of the human body....
Article summary:
- God's work is amazingly organized, serves a purpose, proclaims His Glory, etc.
- We know a lot about Him through His creation...to a non-Christian, His Creation is the only clear Truth one can know.
- any good student should recognize His handiworks vs an imitation and His modus operandi.
-as Christians we know that Jesus is God and Christ is the builder of His Church.
- therefore we should be able to recognize His handiwork in the Church.
- all we know about Christ is revealed to us by the writings of the Apostles, through the Church (Ephesians).
- if God was to build a Church how would He do it?
- what is a Church? Those who are called out.
- He built one before in Israel? O.T. even refers to Israel as His Church.
- In Israel, God established leaders with His Authority and Succession.
- Christ clearly established leaders, even more clearly than in the O.T. shared His own authority.
- All who admit this (Orthodox and Catholic) believe Rome to be the heir to the see of Peter, the head of the Apostles.
***It is because we can trust in Christ and His very own words, that we know how He, the Good Shepherd would build His Church and guide her. He would protect it, correct it, endure it. He would not take away Her Authority without signs and wonders and give it to another (the early "Reformers" believed they were given this Authority (redefined), later reformers were the ones who believed this authority never existed.
He led Israel the same way He has led the Church. Sinful men in a hierarchy who have full Authority from God. (He sometimes condemns these men but He never has a kind word for rebels). The difference is, this leadership has been more stable, Universal and more trustworthy...there are problems that arise but the appointed leaders are never conquered. The Body of Christ like an injured human body, it can display weakness and damage but the body heals and compensates for the injury to work toward order.
- Christ would not rule through chaos that works toward more chaos.
Christ would not abandon His Church. Christ is not a liar.
If God wants to be knowable, than He would establish a Church (the Body of the Son, who is the Truth) that is knowable.
Many others claim the the Bible is the only trustworthy rule of faith. Would God now in this Church (Israel version 2.0) provide only a document that was not available to the average member for 1500+ years as the one and only means of knowing His revealed Truth, as interpreted by each member.
- if so, what would this document include that a Master Builder would deem necessary for His followers to know? Would He not make it unambiguously clear with little room for debate; like a ruling legal document for a nation, a Holy Constitution to rule His Church.
But this is not what we have in the Bible at all. Instead we have five books of historical accounts, four, but especially three, of which mostly repeat the same stories and teachings, in different orders, sometimes even seeming to contradict one another a little.
- we have many letters from party A to party B regarding issues (false teachings, rebelliousness, discord, etc.) we don't fully understand. These letters also refer in general to the importance of following teachings and traditions that were taught in previous personal visits, teachings that are not spelled out.
- Would there be no clearly laid out list of what one needs to do to have eternal life...so that you would not need to be a "scholar" to ascertain the real way. Is it: follow the commandments, believe and be baptized, call on the name of Jesus, eat His flesh, etc?
*Side note - if the "plan of salvation", as interpreted by each Christian tradition, were a mathematical word problem (in some sense they are just that) what would you get if the factors were deconstructed, the factors removed from our biased words? If you tried to prove their answers from raw data, who's solution would be correct.
