How to Share your Faith with People of Other Faiths: A Study in World Religions by Ryan M. Marks - HTML preview

Week 1-2  Introduce the class and look at Christianity from a religion perspective (yes Christianity is about a relationship and not a religion, but the majority of nonChristians are going to look at Christianity as a religion and honestly so do a lot of  professed  followers of Christ). Branches of Christianity—Church History Big Picture—Denominations

We’re giving a big picture of denominational distinctives, Church History, and how to focus on Christ despite our differences. 98-99% of doctrine Christians agree on. The 1-3% is what most fight over. We must emphasize that no denomination has it all right when studying this topic. May we never think (no matter what denomination we most closely adhere to) that we have it all right and are better than another Christian. The standard of Truth is the Bible and everything listed below in terms of denominational distinctives must be compared to the Bible for whether it should be considered “Christian” or not.

We have not covered every “nook and cranny” of denominations, but give a general overview in the order of the historical development of denominations and have included beliefs of those that are very common. 

Catholicism

The word catholic means universal and it was first used of Christians in reference to the fact that we are all one in Christ. Thus, the Early Christian writers refer to the most holy catholic faith—meaning the most Christian faith and universal Body of Christ. Most unbelievers that study Christianity study Catholicism. In addition, Catholicism was the first mainline institutionalization and denomination of Christianity. Therefore, we start here.

Constantine

When Constantine came on the scene in the early 300s AD, he was a Roman General fighting a key battle that could destroy him and his army. He claimed to receive a vision of a cross and was told “by this sign conquer.” Well, Constantine won the battle and then “converted” to Christianity. But Constantine’s life does not seem to bear the fruit of true surrender to Jesus Christ but rather a political use of the Christian religion. Let’s look at the evidence.

Constantine forced some 10,000 of his troops to be baptized and convert to Christianity at the point to the sword following his victory. Constantine became emperor of Rome and prior to this time the Christians were mercilessly persecuted and martyred by the Roman Emperors. Christianity was largely made of underground churches and met in homes and in the catacombs (tombs and sewers under Rome) to worship. When Constantine became “a Christian” it was now popular to be a Christian because the emperor was. Soon magnificent cathedrals sprung up and Christianity became somewhat controlled by Constantine and soon the Catholic church was born.

Idolatry

Constantine led the way for the Catholic church to embrace idolatry. After all many flocking the churches now were not flocking because they truly believed on the Lord Jesus for salvation but because it was popular and became the state religion. The “Holy Roman Empire” was born.

Some key ways that Constantine led the way for idolatry in the Catholic church was by

• Prayer to the Saints—there was a Saint for everything (fertility, prosperity, health) just like the Greco-Roman gods that had been around for years.
• The dates of holidays were changed, notably Resurrection day which was renamed Easter and occurs with the Spring Equinox—a pagan festival time marked by fertility rituals such as bunnies, eggs, and more—items that were identified with pagan ritual for centuries. Christmas was established as a holiday—early Christians never celebrated it. The date of Christmas is not anywhere near the right month in which the census was taken when Christ was born, rather the date is based on winter pagan rituals and signs. One Christmas custom, Christmas trees, originated from the tree-worshipping druids in years to come.
• Mary became the goddess of the church. Jesus was a cruel judge (so the Catholic church taught) and the only way to get on His good side was to pray through Mary or a Saint that had lived an extra holy life and could get you a favor.
• The Pope was established. The name coming from the Latin word papa meaning father (regardless of the fact that Jesus clearly said because of the Pharisees not to call any man on this earth “teacher” or “father”, Matthew 23). Supposedly the first Pope was Peter because Jesus said in the Gospels “on this rock I build my church.” Jesus was referring to Himself as the Rock, not Peter. So to continue, the line of Popes is supposed to be unbroken; although, historically, it has been broken several times as European nations at odds each declared their own Pope to maintain political power. The idolatrous factor of the Pope is that his words are to be the very words of God, God’s representative on earth or as evangelicals would say, his words are scripture. As a side note, many theologians today believe that the Pope will be the false prophet that aids the antichrist in the end times.

So the Catholic church was born. Christianity supposedly went from an underground movement to mainline institution overnight. As history continues, the Catholic church in the “name of Christendom and Jesus Christ” definitely was a political tool.

• The Crusades were launched. They were wars supposedly Holy wars (sounds like Muslim Jihad or the Conquest of Canaan by Joshua). Many unbelievers mock Christianity to scorn because of this supposed Christian act.
• Mass (church services) were conducted for hours in Latin every Sunday. The common person could not understand that. Only the intellectually elite who were mostly priests. Education was taken away and the Catholic church caused the dark ages.
• Excommunication—was a coercive tool. Excommunication is a biblical teaching in certain instances, but the Catholic church changed it. The sacraments (communion) saved you, the Priest could take your salvation away if you angered Him by withholding communion. You did not have to confess your sin to the Lord but go to the confessional booth and say, do, or pay whatever the “man behind the box” told you in order to be saved.
• Creeds were created and recited as truth. Creeds had the authority many times more than the Scriptures.
• Indulgences were created. For a fee, you could by a pardon for your sin or even get uncle Harry’s purgatory time shortened. There is one funny story in regards to this. One catholic leader was traveling around selling indulgences a man came up to him and asked if he could purchase an indulgence for a sin he wanted to commit. The catholic leader replied sure and sold him one. Later on as that leader was walking back to his base of operations with a chest of gold a band of robbers jumped out and took the gold. They ended up getting caught and put on trial and when asked what they had to say for themselves the leader of the robber band stepped forward and showed the indulgence that he had bought to commit his robbery. He and his robber band were let go!
• Purgatory teaching developed—there was a place between Heaven and Hell where you suffered pain and torment by fire until you could be made holy and pure enough for heaven. You could be hear upwards of 7 years. That simply is not biblical and likely originated from paganism.
• Tradition became exalted as important much as it was by the Pharisees.

What Changed it all? The Reformation

Reformation simply means back to the Bible movement. When Martin Luther stepped forward in 1517 with his 95 theses he began a movement of getting back to the Scriptures. Soon many left the church and new denominations sprang up like wildfire—the Lutherans, the Baptists, the Pietists, the Puritans, the Quakers, and so on.

When the Bible was printed (the first book off of Gutenberg’s press) the Dark Ages ended and the common person could now read the Scriptures (though they had to be smuggled for some time). In response to so many getting the Bible and beginning to raise questions the Catholic church put together the Apocrypha and declared it part of their “scripture” to try to justify their teachings (the Apocrypha was not considered to be scripture by the Catholic church prior to the reformation).

Catholicism’s political power gradually began to wan and the reformation brought some key changes to the Church:

• Preaching became based on the Bible and in the common language of the people
• It was understood that Scripturally all Believers had priesthood (could enter into God’s presence)
• Jesus was the only high priest, no earthly man
• Scripture was the sole Authority of Faith and practice

Lutheranism

Martin Luther began to lead the Body of Christ back to the Bible and the denomination ended up bearing his name (though it is believed he didn’t want this). The Lutheran church was formed.

The Lutheran church is very formal and appears to most to be like Catholicism. In many ways it is in the sense that it is liturgical, that is that God is worshipped solemnly, creeds and catechisms are repeated and worship is a serious and solemn matter. In addition, Lutheranism’s teachings on communion are more closely aligned to catholic teaching than the Biblical teaching that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act (not one that saves you or is literally Christ’s blood and Body. Early Christians attested that communion was symbolic when they were accused of cannibalism because of Christ’s statements of His blood and Body prior to the Catholic church’s formation.)

The Lutheran church Baptizes infants as the Catholic church does, claiming that the Apostles did so based on the testimony of the Early Church Fathers. The problem is that practice does not occur in Scripture. The only Scripture that perhaps could validate the practice is when Acts says that whole households were baptized. Yet, no scriptural mention of children being baptized exists much less sprinkling. The word for baptism means immersion in water and every instance in Scripture an adult is baptized by immersion.

The Lutheran church has the distinction of having the practice of Confirmation of youths into the Body of Christ. After going through certain classes and assignments, the young person becomes confirmed into the Body of Christ. The problem is that this appears to supposedly save them in some instances—not faith in Christ alone.

A key Lutheran leader was Dietrich Bonhoeffer a brilliant German theologian who wrote The Cost of Discipleship (a classic) and lost his life a few days before the end of World War II.

Reformed Traditions—Presbyterian, Calvinist, Calvinist Baptists, etc

Reformed tradition holds firmly to Scriptural teachings of election and predestination, but seems to carry them beyond biblical parameters claiming that man has no free will to choose God and the Lord has predestined some to Heaven and some to Hell. In addition, evangelism does not appear to be very common in these circles since God will save those who He has predestined.

Some core Reformed/Calvinist teachings:

• Can’t lose salvation
• Election
• Predestination
• Baptism of infants
• Creedal
• A almost messianic view of John Calvin who published The Institutes of the Christian Religion and codified the Calvinist teachings which bear his name. In his lifetime, Calvin had at least one man put to death for differing with him on doctrine and practically declared himself king of Geneva, the city which he molded with many legalistic “Christian laws” such as that of no dancing.
• Sometimes, it comes across that the Early Church Fathers and their writings bear the same weight and authority as Scripture in matters of Faith and practice. The Early Church Fathers have many writings that are helpful, but they were men, not the authors God used to write Scripture.

Baptists

Baptists originated from the Anabaptists as did the Mennonite Brethren (one branch of which are the Amish) which are named after Menno Simmons. The core distinctive of Baptists is that they don’t hold to creeds but to the Scriptures alone as the standard of truth. They are very well known for being focused on the Gospel and sharing Jesus—do people KNOW Jesus personally? Very well known for evangelism, many of the great revivalists have come from their ranks including Billy Graham, D.L. Moody, and Billy Sunday. Most Baptists have maintained a Calvinist leaning (such as never losing one’s salvation) although the free will (Arminian) view in regards to accepting Christ as Savior by one’s own choice is widely accepted.

Some distinctives:

• Very high emphasis on Called pastors and ministers as opposed to merely educated
• Unpaid pastor—many times in their history the pastor served for nothing
• All Christians are equal, no hierarchy
• Priesthood of all Believers
• Baptism by immersion

Methodism

Methodism actually had its beginnings with George Whitefield but he did not desire to start a denomination and so his friends John and Charles Wesley took leadership. The Wesley’s broke fellowship with George Whitefield later on. Methodism gets its name from the very structured and methodical devotion to the Christian life that John and Charles Wesley and a group of their friends exhibited.

Some distinctive of Methodism:

• Baptize infants
• Missionary focused
• Methodical
• Entire sanctification—an experience subsequent to salvation whereby the Christian ceases to sin and is completely sanctified (made holy) by the Holy Spirit
• Christian perfection
• Arminian doctrine (opposed to Calvinism)

Pentecostalism

The origin of Pentecostalism was basically birthed out of Methodism and began largely with the Faith and Healing movements of the early 1900s. Largely knowns for its emphasis on speaking in tongues and divine healing as well as hype and experiences.

Pentecostal Distinctives:

• Health and wealth Gospels
• Speaking in Tongues as evidence of Baptism in the Holy Spirit
• Sometimes known for emphasizing tongues over salvation in Jesus as mark of spirituality
• In many circles healing and sickness are taught to be of the devil
• Supernatural experiences
• Continuing revelation (prophecy, visions, etc.)

For more on Pentecostalism, Focusing on the Mark Ministries has an article which can be accessed here:

http://www.focusingonthemarkministries.com/2014/09/25/repenting-ofdenominational-prejudice-addressing-false-doctrine/

Christian Extremes

No matter what denomination a person is a member of, there are unbiblical extremes that must be watched out for.

Below we list some of the extremes that occur in among different doctrinal persuasions. NOT ALL Believers that identify themselves with one of these groups believe these extremes.

• Extreme Free Will (Arminianism—salvation is completely dependent on us and sustained by us, not by Christ.)
• Hyper Calvinism (some Babies that die are predestined to Hell)
• Fundamentalism (no drinking, dancing, cards or movies)
• Evangelism (very evangelistic, sometimes not very discipling)
• Liberal (the Bible isn’t the authority, explain away miracles with supposed scholarly explanations)

True Christian unity is that in Jesus Christ all Christian churches have unity. We do not and will not have unity for unity’s sake but for the fact that we believe Jesus alone is the Savior of the World, the Son of God who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life and died in our place for our sins and offers us the free gift of eternal life for receiving Him as our Savior and Lord.

For Deeper Study:

The Seven Churches—Problems in Christian Churches (potentially seven classes) Revelation 2-3

The Gospels preached today:

• The True Gospel—Romans, Galatians, Gospel of John, Acts
• Works based--legalism
• Seeker Friendly—extreme/cheap grace (example statement: we’re children of God so we don’t need to confess our sin or worry about it anymore [truth, we’re sinners saved by Grace, Paul said that, see below], programs focused not Bible focused)
• Health and Wealth Gospel—name it and claim it, Jesus is a genie in a bottle

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 1 Tim 1:15 (KJV)

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Gal 1:8-9 (KJV)