Friday, January 05, 2007

Thinking Christ's Thoughts After Him

During my virtual wanderings tonight my eye struck upon an interesting ad. The headline stated, "A Different Kind of Christmas" and claimed:

"Our Faith is 2,000 years old."
"Our thinking is not."

Clicking the link takes one to a United Church of Christ site to "Pledge for all the People". The site clearly pitches the view that the UCC accepts everyone.

This is a startling admission from the UCC.

In two sentences totaling ten words, the UCC shows they are not serious about Christianity. A disciple is one who follows another's teachings. So a disciple of Jesus Christ is one who follows Christ's teachings. But Christ's teachings are 2000 years old (older if you consider Christ claimed he himself was God). If the UCC's thinking is not 2000 years old, then they cannot be following Christ's thinking.

Foundational errors lead to significant problems elsewhere. The claim that the UCC accepts all people is misleading because it tries to contrast the UCC as different from other Christian churches. Yet, most Christian churches also accept all people. While Christ invited all people, his message was clearly that He is "the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

How do we go through Jesus? In John 14:15, Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." So while churches invite the people, the difference is that serious Christian churches try to follow Christ's teachings, as best as possible, which clearly modeled how to be conformed into his image. That includes behaving righteously as their Teacher taught.

So the United Church of Christ is different from other churches in that they invite all people but they won't concern themselves with the spiritual righteousness of those individuals.

Jesus taught just the opposite. He said to come as you are but be like him.

Denying that fact, is to follow another Jesus, placing those that the UCC welcomes in eternal peril.

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