An Attempt to Explain: Christ through the Ages

Instructions Before Reading

I stand by the right to publish incomplete snippets. The point of this blog is to share life. If there is a unity in my life, it will become apparent what that unity is. No post is a complete thought, theology, worldview, or poem within itself, it must be taken within the context of the entirety of this blog, considerations of who I am in public as well as who I am in extreme situations like when I am forced to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to help my wife jump start her car in 20 degree weather.

I recognize my right as a flawed human being to do the following: 1) be wrong, 2) change my mind, 3) be inconsistent, 4) have improper grammar and spelling conventions. You are just as flawed, wrong, capricious, and prone to theological alteration as I am... so get over it.

I wonder what it would be like to see history through God's eyes. I'm thinking particularly from Christ till now. What did he think of the church from century to century?

The church at Corinth was filled with all kinds of decadence and yet Paul addresses them as in Christ. He called them babes in Christ but in Christ nonetheless.

Then through the early church age. Who was right? As various 'heresies' arose, were people disqualified from the kingdom because of a different thought process?

Then we delve into the Constantinian change; a muddled mess of religion and polotics. Were there genuine Christians who believed that their role in history was to bring the kingdom literally to earthly power?

Augustine's confessions seem to point to a genuine conversion until we see his orders to slaughter a group of 'heretics.'

The Reformation brings hope until we hear about Luther and Zwingli's persecution of Anabaptists who practice a believers baptism. Lutherans would give Anabaptists their third baptism in a lake with chains tied around their feet.

I could go on and on. I am frankly puzzled. I am also puzzled by an amazing fact. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been preserved through all sorts of heresies and shortcomings, sin and debauchery. No event in history has stamped out the name of Jesus Christ. Now there's providence 2000 years in the making.

Maybe Brennan is on to something.