The Christian Church Sequence:

I recently received an e-mail query from a woman in America regarding an e-mail broadcast I had sent around the world called: ‘The Value of People ..... NEW CRIMES ON THE ROAD TO "PROGRESS"

She said: ‘I ESPECIALLY NOTICED THIS CREDIT FOR FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANITY: Woman Received Freedom and Dignity

'Off the top of my head ---Seems to me the role of Christian churches (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox in particular) then worked diligently to keep a woman in her place. At one point the Catholic Church performed marriages on the church steps to keep woman from defiling the buildings. Remember things like the hierarchies devised to keep Kings in power. Can't see much difference between early Christian women and her Jewish counterparts.

For a religion to survive it must be both adaptable and encompassing. Look at all the old ones that have died from inflexibility and inability to assimilate other cultures. The truth is Gods of Rome , Greece , Egypt or Norse were made for those cultures and acted as part of those groups identity. Take a look at Paganism -- one would have thought the religion had died out except for a few folks. but it seems to be re-inventing itself as an earth friendly belief system and shedding all nearly all the pagan deities except by poetic connotations. Then again, for centuries Native American or Native Peoples elsewhere have had a cultures that assimilated Christianity to blend with older myths.

I wish I could recall the Gnostic and other early sects better, Dan Brown rants in his books how the Roman church in particular re-wrote the role of women from a mystical elevation to a subservient partaker. Perhaps the message is that Christianity would be revealed over the years and its messages be refined to reflect and be part of any society by appreciating the will and efforts of its citizens'.

......... ANY COMMENTS?’ …..

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My comments were these: Note the Christian churches (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox in particular) didn't emerge until the 3rd and 4th Centuries as Christendom in the Western World. This blog site documents how the Christian Community became the Christian Church with an emphasis on a Christian Philosophy with good Christian Principles ie. not a Christian Spirituality but as Christian Religion. The Church changed from being Community to one of being a Corporation. This began to emerge in the 3rd and 4th Centuries as Christendom in the Western World. The Apostle Peter came to be seen as the earthly successor to Jesus Christ on Earth .... the first Pope. Therefore all Popes had a right to direct the form and strategy of the Church because they alone heard from God. The Church Community in becoming a Corporation led some of these changes:

• Jewish Church becomes a Gentile Church (Gentile is any position which wasn't Jewish ie. Greek, Roman etc.)

• Gentile Converts steeped in Greek Platonic philosophy began to predominate in the Church

• The Church becomes the gateway to God and the spirit realm

• The priest represents this removed spirit realm

• The Church became the gateway to Heaven with the Church very much at the centre

• The Church: The priest + the mass + sacraments = The way to Salvation into the spirit realm

• These were the key mediators

• There came about a separation of common life from the spiritual realm

• This view increasing became the status quo across Europe

• It extinguished the lamp of Celtic Christianity in Ireland and Britain it forcibly caused the abbeys and churches to become part of the Holy Roman Empire ….. see the following websites:

• ·www2.gol.com/users/stuart/celtihs.html (Celtic Christianity)

• www.celticorthodoxy.org/index.shtml (Celtic Orthodoxy)

• www.iona.org.uk (Celtic Iona Community)

• www.esatclear.ie/~dougheff (Celtic Prayer Centre)

A marriage of Rome and Empire led to:

• Launching of the Crusades

• Saved Europe from Islam

• Made the nations and rulers subservient to the Pope under the threat of excommunication

• Kept the masses confused by Latin

It further meant that three realms emerged:

Neoplatonism was at work in the Church (The new influence of Plato .... Greek Philosopher from 600 B.C.)

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1. God in the Spirit Realm: the perfect realm …. forever removed from life …. the ideal dimension found in the eternal realm …. Detached from the temporal …. Known only vaguely through concepts and possibly available after death.

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2. The Church: The priest + the mass + sacraments ….. These were the key mediators = The way to Salvation

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3. The Created Realm: was seen to be not the real realm but one of dark shadows and imperfect forms … Christians lived in a wispy land of shadows …. Was the temporary testing ground for the reality of the next worlds arrival …. Humanity was greatly devalued:

• Human sexuality denied …. Led to an emphasis on celibacy by priests

• Everyday activities were considered to be in opposition to higher spiritual pursuits

• Marriage, family and secular work were devalued (hence the marriages on church steps in case woman defiled the church)

• This led to a view whereby other world things like celibacy, sacraments and obsessive moralism replaced a common view on humanity

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The Historical Outworking of The Christian Church Sequence:

St. Peter’s Square itself, St. Peter’s Basilica: (At this website) is a vast impressive aerial view of St. Peter's Square in Vatican City which looks over Rome. You see on this website the following things:

• You see the basilica of St. Peter's = Construction begins in 1506 and completed in 1626. You see the dome = Original designed by Donato d'Angelo Bramante, designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti

• Obelisk is at the centre of the square.

• You see the facade = Designed by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.

• Peter's Square = Designed by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.

When we had Week 4 of our Italy holiday in Rome in 2005, we stayed in a small convent on the edge of St. Peters Square: Santo Spirito. In the two photos on the website above, the convent was one minute around the corner of Peter's Square .... circled by the big colonnade of columns .... the taller building in the middle of the photograph to the right of the circle of columns.

From there we walk downstairs after breakfast to see places such as:

· St. Peter’s Square itself, St. Peter’s Basilica

· The Palatine plus the Forum Area (First Century) see plus website at: http://www.bigfoto.com/europe/italy/rome/ ..... includes general photos of Rome as well

· Colosseum: http://www.bigfoto.com/europe/italy/rome

· The Catacombs …. One of six around Rome (see www.catacombe.roma.it/welcome.html)

· The Vatican Museum (see www.vatican.va) the Vatican Museum is something be seen!! This website gives a tiny impression of the span of years which are covered in the Museum.

It was interesting to note even though Harriet and I have a Christian Spiritualty which focuses on Jesus Christ alone vs. the Church, we have a real relationship with Catholic Christians .... even though we do not identify with the Pope as being the successor of Jesus Christ on earth + the worship of Mary being the mother of Jesus + the worship of all the Saints. If Catholic Christians have a Spirituality from Jesus Christ, we have everything in common.

We just arrived in Rome just one week after Pope John Paul II had died in April 2005. The chairs were still out in rows in St. Peters Square from all the hundreds of thousands who come to pay their respect at his death. There were still hundreds of visitors around Rome.

We have a great focus on the value of people and not on organisational systems. We have met and shared together with Catholic Christians a wonderful sense of a Spirituality from Jesus Christ independent of their background. We looked through the impressive architecture of the basilica of St. Peter's, the dome St. Peter's, Peter's Square itself and circled by the big colonnade of columns. We went through many wonderful churches on our travels in our four weeks in Italy but then, would Jesus Christ have said to build all this? .... I hardly think so.

When I look at what is happening on a global scale, I see that this form of Christianity is not growing very rapidly. There is growing evidence that the centre of Christendom has moved. Africans are running to accept Jesus Christ. It is a scene playing out all across the developing world. Christianity is sweeping across the southern hemisphere and Asia like a tidal wave. The scale of Christian growth is almost unimaginable. Dr. Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of History and Religious Studies at Penn State University ..... Jenkins shocked and probably panicked some of America 's political and media elite with his acclaimed book, 'The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity'. Jenkins argues the greatest movement of the past century was not communism or capitalism but global Christianity. See the next page: BACK TO THE FUTURE: "A TIDAL WAVE of Christianity" for a more detailed discussion on this area. See the website listed at the end of this Blog Site.

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The Later Christianised Kingdom of God of the Fourth Century and Its Conflict With Islam:

A marriage of Rome and Empire in the Fourth Century eventually led to:

• Launching of the Crusades in later centuries

• Saved Europe from Islam

• Made the nations and rulers subservient to the Pope under the threat of excommunication

• Kept the masses confused by Latin

There is a big difference between The Kingdom of God focus with the early Christians and the later Fourth Century Christianised Kingdom of God focus.

The Kingdom of God focus with the early Christians conquered Rome. However the later Christianised Kingdom of God which is still with us today, didn’t conquer Islam in later centuries but only kept it at bay. To this day, those lands are still Islamic and strongly so. A Christianised Kingdom of God is represented in the American Democratic way of life. That Democratic way of life is present in many other countries allied with America. The stated quality of that American Democratic way of life is that we are good and those who are not with US are evil. However the central teaching of Jesus Christ is that evil is within all of us and not some group out there who not with us.

From a Biblical overview, I would suggest that that approach applied to everyone in this century, will only have similar results as in the warring against Islam as in earlier centuries. The difference is in Jesus’s ‘The Kingdom of God’. See the full quote below but the portion of the quote from Message Bible, Jesus emphasises:

^{27 -30} ”To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

^{31 -34}”Here is a simple rule of thumb for behaviour: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.

^{35 -36}”I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

The question to be asked now: ‘Are Christians today prepared to stand against Islam as did the early Christians against the might of Rome in the first few centuries? The church could conquer Rome then but not Islam in later centuries? I was discussing the question above as to why the crusades stopped the advance of Islam but also made no penetration in ground lost. To this day those regions lost to Islam are still Islamic 1400 years later.

The early church would have conquered Islam. They would have only recognised Jesus as Lord, and would have been so severely persecuted that their witness (in grace and forgiveness) would have extinguished Islam entirely. The crusades were the antithesis of Christianity. Although Islam uses it against the church, it is the usual practice of Islam to conquer by the sword, not by love.

We will know we are in the last days when Christians are ready to stand against Islam in love, truth, grace, sacrifice and advance truth and live for the Kingdom. It, and secularism, are the two major 'gates of hell' before the Kingdom. They are nothing when we are filled with God's Spirit and committed to his commission.

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To see photographic sequences of a recent holiday we did in Italy in May 2005, see the following sites at:

• Leaning Tower of Pisa
  
• The Cathedral of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• The grounds of the Cathedral
• The old stone walls and the old Pisa
  

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What is this 'The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity' which Jenkins argues was the greatest movement of the past century which was global Christianity?

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