Religion Today…

As I stated in this post, for the past 5 years I have been very deep into religion and learning more about the various religions out there. I had already spent about 20 years learning, following and teaching about the ways of the Apache Nation, specifically the Mescalero Tribe.

From my studies then and since, I have been convinced that God created the earth, and then gave the, now called, Jewish community His Graces. He saw where sin was taking them and He had various holy people state that there would be a Messiah to come along and save the World. In the thousands of years that the Jewish people had favor with God, they continued to sin and move away from, then closer to, then away from God, in cycles.

As time went on, from my reading of history, the Qur’an, Torah, and “Christian” Bible, I see a nation, the Jewish, following in appearance the rules of God, but at the same time trying to gain wealth and stature in this world, while appearing to follow the rules of God.

Finally God gave the world His Only Begotten Son, Jesus as the Messiah/Christ. When the Jewish world saw this man of extreme knowledge and power, “spouting” words that challenged the leaders of the Jewish communities, and at the same time showing the various traits and happenings that were foretold to the Jewish hundreds of years earlier, the leaders of the Jewish communities, and the Jewish communities as a group shunned and despised the Foretold Messiah as it would mean that they would loose their power and wealth. This even after the Jewish Leaders acknowledged Jesus’ miracles as being done and teachings as being valid.

Since the Jewish communities, as a group, with exceptions of course, were not accepting the Messiah, the Messiah spread the word to the rest of the world, accepting anyone who would take His Word and follow it. In the process He changed the rules of life, opening up the protection of God to those who loved one another, lived as sinless lives as possible, and followed the new Covenant of Christ. Thus began the “new” Church of God, the Christian Church.

My studies show me that this Church started out as one Church that covered two areas, the “East” and the “West”. Many years later those two areas split into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. They follow to this day the same basic practices, with some minor differences, and they both can show an uninterrupted “laying of hands” of the 11 Apostles/Disciples of Christ on their Clergy and Leadership. There is only one Pope, currently Pope Benedict XVI, who is the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, and whom the Eastern Orthodox Church respects and listens to with respect.

The Muslim or Islamic faith began in roughly 610AD when Mohammad began having visions in caves. His following was slow to grow, and grew from fighting and conquering of peoples. To this day, his faith is centered on death of anyone not following his words. His history and sayings didn’t start taking to written text until over 100 years, and in many cases 200-300 years after his death from illness. (This is an area I know least about, but have looked at to an extent.)

The rest of the Christian faith systems currently out there really didn’t start until 1500+ years (just in the last 500 years!) after the Christian faith started through the teachings of Jesus Christ himself! This split from the Orthodox/Catholic Church system was started over protesting various issues in the Church. So, Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic Ordained Priest split from the Church and created his own Church, the Lutheran Church. The rest of the Protestant (derived from protesting) Churches, have come from that split at various levels years later.

The foundation for the Christian faith is recorded in documents that are created in the lifetime of those that witnessed Jesus’ actions, and have been proven through archeology and through various in depth reviews and research from many professions and by people of many faiths, often those trying to disprove them.

Over the last 500 years, and probably longer, the Catholic Church has started heading the way of the original Jewish faith. They have gone towards the desire of money and “fame”. Many of the Protestant Churches and leaders have as well. The Catholic Church has, in the recent 100 or so years, appeared to have gotten away from spreading the Word, and has gotten centered on “shortening” the Word to make it easier for people to come to Church. The Catholic Congregation is more worried about football games, time off to play, etc, than worrying about going to Worship services, etc. For example, the Easter Vigil done on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday normally has 7 large readings that are done, and most Churches, at least in the US do 4 or less of the readings to make time go by faster. The Palm Sunday services, which are historically about 2.5 hours long now last about an hour, and many aspects of the service are shortened or removed to make it a shorter service so more people will come.

One aspect of the Protestant Churches that is good is that many Protestant Congregations know the Bible much better than those of the Catholic basis.

All of these Churches/Faiths, Orthodox-Catholic/Muslim-Islamic/Protestant, pray to the same God of Abraham/David. The Christian side, Protestant/Orthodox-Catholic, using the same Bible (not counting the King James Version, which I am not sure how valid it is to the original wording of the Authors), and with the same intent, and with the Muslim-Islamic faith come from an entirely different direction.

The newest Christian Churches are those that take the current “me” aspect of life that many people are leaning to, and are almost doing away with all the traditions and teachings of the Church and making it a religion that the individual sets up for themselves, almost making themselves God. In many cases the ones I’ve been to have looked like the Pastor, a self appointed “Reverend”, was attempting to make money from tithing while screaming at the top of their lungs about Sin/etc.

The Christian Church needs to get back to it’s roots and get back to the teachings of Jesus and God. Stop hording the money and valuables. Find Christ again, follow His Words and give to the poor, help the needy (go to most Catholic Churches today and ask for help if you are homeless!!), and teach and live the Love of Christ again!

The Christian faith needs to come together again within the Catholic Church grow strong as a single and united Church in Christ. The Catholic Church needs to learn from the Protestant Churches on the evangelizing and missionary practices they are known for, while keeping the items that Jesus and the early Church taught, such as the Eucharistic services, and the process of Mass, which many Protestant Churches have done away with to further remove themselves from the Catholic Church they came from. The Catholic Church needs to look at the early Church and the Priest being married, at least initially, and rethink the need to have Priest being 100% celibate. (In the Old Church, if the wife passed away, the Priest was not allowed to remarry and must remain celibate to his state in life.) This issue is probably one of the biggest issues in the need for new Priest within the Church.

After converting to the Catholic faith last year, I was pretty negative on the Protestant Churches out there. This past two months I have been looking at that negativity closer and am now moving well away from it. All Christians are good as long as they follow the Rules as set down by God through the Commandments and the rules as outlined by Jesus.

Both sides of the Christian Fence should look with less negativity towards the other side of the fence and learn from their piers in Christ!

In Christ!