My Comments Are Too Long

I was gonna publish this on TL Davis's blog, but I got long winded and it wouldn't fit.

http://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-man-in-clouds.html

So, for your perusal, here is what I would have posted there.

TL, In my misspent youth I thought like SW Richmond. My exposure to religion was limited to bible thumpers demanding I believe as they did or I was going to hell.

I asked, "Who says so?"

The reply was always, "Its in the Hooleh Buy-able!"

My question was always, "What makes it Holy and who wrote it?" 

I could never get a definite response. "Its ancient scripture! It comes from God! It was inspired!"

I was told, "You have to believe!"

I asked, "Why?"

I was told, "Cuz ya have to!"

I asked, "Why?"

"Cuz ya have to!"

"Why?"

"Cuz ya have to!"

"Why?"

I was screamed at, "You'll burn in hell!"

"Who says so?"

"Its in the Hooleh Buy-able!"

Oh jeez, here we go again... (I joke now, fictitiously, that there was a preacher with a crooked finger pointing at me saying, instead of the above response, "It fell out of the sky! And landed in my lap! Signifying that I am to bring the Gospel to you!")

I was the same adrift person, trying to be good and do good generally, without a moral anchor, nor a compass. I didn't understand, that the values which guided me, the values of Western (White, European) Civilization are the values of Christendom. Studying history, and studying the Communist

movement helped to guide me. My question was, why do the Communists keep winning? The answer I came to was, it is because they are at war with Western Christian civilization, absolutely committed, and vicious. They are at war with everything that, I assumed from my environment, is good. They are destructive of humanity itself. We, on the other hand, have been in the process of abandoning our compass and our anchor for five hundred years. We have left the door wide open for evil to attack us. 

I remind you, it wasn't the "Army of Martin Luther" which saved Europe from the Muslim invasions.

This led me to the Church. In my search, I was also spoon fed by some close friends. Which Church? The one that Christ founded. The one which has been the lamp for the world for two tho thousand years. The one which Christ promised us, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The one which is riddled with cancerous modernism, liberalism, communism, masonry, satanism, and homosexuality. Why? Because it holds the Truth. Yes it is riddled with Cancer. That doesn't mean it is wrong. It means it is under continuous, devastating attack. People who see only the cancer are not looking at the whole of the body. The Cancer is not the Nature of the Body. It is a Cancer. It can and will be excised. Christ promised it so.

Back to the Hooleh Buy-able...

No, Virginia, the Bible didn't fall from the sky. It was assembled at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Yes Constantine made the Council happen, but why? If we're going to have a Christian Empire, we must hammer out what we believe. The Council did that and gave is the Creed. The Council also canonized the Bible. Why were some books left out and others included? Well, Virginia, the best minds of the Church at that time did their best, guided by the Holy Spirit, to determine which books were without error and worthy of belief and which were not. By what standard, you ask? By living the creed, by following doctrine as Christ gave it to us, by looking at the teachings of the Church Fathers, the faith of the apostles and martyrs, by adhering to that tradition.

So why was the book of Enoch not included? Why not the Gospel of Thomas? Or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene?

The best minds of the Church looked at all the information available and said, "These books, here, are the ones we can be confident are without error and support Christian Doctrine as Christ himself gave it to us." 

The other books were not suppressed. They were not collected and burned. They were not hidden. They were simply set aside. 

No, Virginia, the Bible didn't just fall from the sky, whole and complete. And, no Virginia, the Church is NOT based upon the Bible. The Bible exists because of the Church.

So, having been just like SW Richmond, I grew up. 

What kind of Christian am I? Not a very good one. I am as fucked-up as the next fellow. I do, however, now have a guiding lamp. I have an example. I have tradition to look to. I have a body of teaching which is two thousand years old and without error. I now believe.

I have said all of the above to say this, in brevity. Without God, without the Church, there is no Law. Without God, without the Church, there is only Man's whim. Then we are back to modernism, liberalism, masonry, communism, homosexuality, etc...

God have mercy on us!