Three quotes and a question:
“The Enlightenment brought to the discussion of life the proposition that the human being has matured to the point that he must become independent of any outside information about life. ‘He has come of age, but man could begin to see the world the way he wanted to. If reason is the only key to truth, anything may become reasonable to the one who does the explaining to himself.” – Udo Middelmann, Footnotes, December 1998, page 3.
“If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament…” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quoted in Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer (Nashville, 2010), page 137.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41.)
“But who do you say that I am?” – Jesus
This is all very interesting to me. After trying to be a part of various churches professing to love Christ and God, I have always come away disappointed in the holy institutions of “man claiming to serve God.” I do feel more in presence
Of God in the midst of his creation…as in nature or when I am helping the sick or poor. God gave me discernment, and I listen very carefully for his voice in all my endevours. If I am wrong for this…then I must ask you…How can a church of Jesus be a business that profits. This seems contrary to his teachings. Are you saying that the real Jesus requires a leader, and cannot be found in a solitary way? Many “christians” are active in political agendas & this also makes me sick. Mitt Romney is popular with christians & yet his message is very contrary to the Jesus I know. Love of money does not equate with love of God, and caring for your fellowman regardless of his place in society, that to me is the real Jesus.
A genuine Church is full of genuine Christians who seek to come under the authority of Christ. Just as in the Old Testament, God set up the Tabernacle on His terms as His meeting place, He is the One who sets the agenda and the means and way of approach to Him. If there is a God and He has revealed Himself in nature and by His word (which I believe He has) then our job is to seek to find out what He has revealed, not make up a religion based on our own preferences. When we make this our starting point, then we seek to organize things according to the pattern shown us in the Scripture. There will be genuine love both for God and for people; His truth will be central, as will His gospel… the question should not be “can I find God without a Church?” but since God has revealed Himself, what kind of church does He approve of where I can serve Him, His people and His purposes. We find answers to these questions in His word, the Bible. Am I making sense?