Paul's Passing Thoughts

Church is a quagmire of confusion and decadence driven by an overt false gospel. The former is what we should expect from the latter, or in the specific wording, what we see now on a routine basis should be expected from institutions founded on a false gospel or ideology. An ideology that produces bad things should be deemed metaphysically errant and irrational as well.

What has happened to church? It was never like this until recently, right? As we now hear often, “Gee whiz, the Protestant church is looking more and more like the Catholic Church with all of these sex scandal cover-ups.”

Does the same fruit come from two different trees? Not really. So, what happened? Well, it all started in a garden far away and long ago when God talked to every individual face to face. Then the serpent introduced mediation. Obviously, the serpent sold Eve on the idea that he knew more about God than she did, and she would be more like God by following his counsel. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

Hence, the religion that dominated humanity from the beginning was the pagan-state. This is based on the idea that mankind cannot know reality: “A” doesn’t equal “A.” Man is unable to discern reality. Therefore, the supreme, whether a person, God, gods, the universe, or some other creative force, preselected individuals to guide the great unwashed masses to the best life now or a progressive utopia of some sort. Plato systematized this construct into three societal classes: philosopher king (priesthood), warrior (the state), and producer (the great unwashed).

Also note: Plato believed that the man/boy relationship is the highest form of love. This applied definition of love absolutely dominated Greco-Roman culture. In addition, Plato’s disdain for women and their relegation to second class citizenship was also a social norm. For a woman to be raped was a crime committed by the woman who deserved much worse.

Then God sent His own mediator; Christ. The establishment of Christianity completely turned world philosophy on its head. First of all, it identified holiness with the material world which shattered the foundation of world philosophy; ie., Dualism. Secondly, it claimed no kingdom on earth, but a future kingdom to come.

Not long after the deaths of the most influential apostles of Christ, a distorted form of Christianity competed with the pagan-state for enforcement of its own orthodoxy. This distorted movement sought to institutionalize the assembly of Christ which was organized in non-institution home fellowships. Unfortunately, this misguided movement which was nothing more than a different pagan-state with a Christian label was led by former disciples of the apostles. These men are known as the “Church Fathers.” They started with one church and one bishop located in Rome because that was the epicenter of world power at the time. This put them in direct competition with the pagan-state for Rome’s sword in enforcing its orthodoxy. At the same time, the “church” at Rome waged war against elder-led home fellowships. Over the next 100 years or so, the bishop-led institutional church became the Roman Catholic Church which was fundamentally Platonist.

What then led to the Protestant “Reformation”? The Catholic Church began to stray away from its Platonist roots because of Enlightenment Era influence. Martin Luther and John Calvin were rabid followers of St. Augustine, an avowed Neo-Platonist and Doctor of Grace for the Catholic Church. Seemingly strange is the fact that both Catholics and Protestants claim Augustine as their legitimate father; that seems strange if you don’t know real church history.

Even today, the Catholic Church is a confused mix of Platonist and Enlightenment ideas. Until 1970, the Protestant church had strayed further from its Platonist roots than Catholicism, but we must remember that both were created in a church-state and for a church state. The American Revolution furthered the confusion for both.

1970 marked the beginning of the New Calvinist movement which is a return to authentic Protestantism which sought to return the Catholic Church to its Platonist roots. The orthodoxy of Luther and Calvin sought to systematize and further define Augustine’s Platonist Christianity to pave the way to a hopeful reformation of the Catholic Church that never happened.

An articulation of that doctrine, and why it leads to sanctified rape in the church can be found here and is MacArthur/Holland relevant. Meanwhile, discernment blogs seeking to fix the church by exposing its ills still promote the very doctrine that produces this evil. The blog that revealed this latest scandal and cover-up recommends New Calvinist reading material on another page that promotes the very doctrine from which these evils flow. The roots of the church and its founding fathers represented misogyny on steroids and total commitment to church-state principles for which it was designed.

All of these root elements can be found in this most recent scandal as well as the former ones. The Protestant Church looks more like the Catholics that it came from in recent years because it is returning to its authentic doctrinal roots. As a footnote, Holland objected to the victim going to the police because in a church-state, what happens in the church is not any business for secular authorities; according to Protestant orthodoxy, God ordained them to enforce the church’s orthodoxy or whatever else deemed appropriate by the church. This is why churches insist that that the police are not to be notified in these cases; what happens in the church is church business and only the church has authority there to address these cases as it sees fit. And do they not state this plainly?

Meanwhile, our ministry waits patiently as this doctrine will produce more and more evil in the church and more and more questions as well. Right now, for us, these new revelations are routine and boring. This also pertains to churchians as well. Did you notice what was missed in the event due to these things becoming commonplace? For crying out loud, the girl was kidnapped and held hostage; you can get life in prison for that! However, we see more and more evidence of increased numbers of people who get it.

The late J. Vernon McGee predicted that Christianity will eventually return to its roots of home fellowship and we agree; as Protestant doctrine produces more and more evil in the church, those who have always sensed that there is something wrong with church will finally come home.

paul