WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE FAMILIAR WITH CHURCH HISTORY Someone has said that we learn history so we do not repeat the mistakes of history. Church history is replete with a lot of heresies and wrongful teachings and practices especially after the Edit of Milan in AD 313 and the subsequent role played by Emperor Constantine in trying to unify Christianity for his own selfish agenda. We have read about the christianization of pagan religious rites and ceremonies ( practices that are unfortunately being practiced in our time - one of which is Easter ) In my little research on baptism ,for example, I wondered whether the ecumenical council consulted the word of God before coming out with its ruling, that baptism should be done in the name of God the Father , God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, when the Acts of the Apostles upon whose foundation we are built ( Ephesians 2:20) never baptized anyone like that. The next question , also relating to baptism is, why sprinkling of water ( rhantizo) and not baptizo ie immersion as recorded in the word of God. This is also not an apostolic tradition. Then again ,where is infant baptism recorded in the word of God ? Then, the celebration of Easter . The term itself is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. It was not instituted by Christ, nor was it connected with Lent.. It has been noted that the pagan festival of Easter was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of an attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity What about the celebration of Christmas ? Another pagan religious ceremony ? What we should be doing , during our period of time ,is to go back to the word of God ( and thankfully, the original Greek manuscripts are still available )and not what the early church fathers churned out - their teachings ,practices and their theology. They did not write the Bible. Let us see Christ and Christianity from the perspective of the Bible and not through the lenses of so called church fathers and theologians. Remember , their writings are not what the judgement awaiting us will be based on. The spirit that inspired the authors of the Bible is still available in our time : he will lead us into all truth.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 07:50:44 +0000
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