Many, many years ago there was a man named Daniel Sydney Warner, who preferred to go by his initial D.S. thus causing a lot of people to go by their initials as well. [H.M. Riggle, E.E. Byrum, and F.G. Smith to just scratch the surface] This man got angry at the church around him and decided to 'come out' and begin again. This lead to the founding of the Church of God Reformation Movement. [as opposed to a Church of God denomination, which we are not going to get into right now]
Well this group of initialed people came to several conclusions about the world and the church and the Bible. Specifically, at least for today's conversation, they came to the conclusion that the way to interpret the book of Revelation was through a Historicist viewpoint, i.e. Revelation is the grand story of the church from the apostles through the end of the age.
Basically the conclusion they came to was that Revelation foretold Catholicism, Protestantism and disregarded them both as perversions of the truth. We, the Church of God were the evening light, the only ones who actually understood what God wanted the church to be. I was told a story just the other day about this particular belief and how it affected the relationship between a mother and a future son-in-law because he came from a different church.
To make a very long story short we came to the realization that neither the world nor the Book of Revelation revolve around us. We came to understand that we were one spoke in the wheel that is Christianity, and that those people in other denominations were our brothers and sisters as opposed to the wayward lost.
I would imagine that if Dr. Merle Strege is reading this he may just be shaking his head that I boiled down several chapters in his book to just a few paragraphs, believe me when I say that Dr. Strege does a much better job explaining the church's history. I take my shortcut path for several reasons:
1. I doubt any of you are very interested in reading the amount of material that could be written on this subject
2. I neither have the time nor the inclination to write that larger amount.
3. This is enough to get the point across.
4. That point is that you change and I change and the church has changed.
You see the church changed its viewpoint when it was presented with new/old evidence and new/old arguments. What if we all did the same?
Well this group of initialed people came to several conclusions about the world and the church and the Bible. Specifically, at least for today's conversation, they came to the conclusion that the way to interpret the book of Revelation was through a Historicist viewpoint, i.e. Revelation is the grand story of the church from the apostles through the end of the age.
Basically the conclusion they came to was that Revelation foretold Catholicism, Protestantism and disregarded them both as perversions of the truth. We, the Church of God were the evening light, the only ones who actually understood what God wanted the church to be. I was told a story just the other day about this particular belief and how it affected the relationship between a mother and a future son-in-law because he came from a different church.
To make a very long story short we came to the realization that neither the world nor the Book of Revelation revolve around us. We came to understand that we were one spoke in the wheel that is Christianity, and that those people in other denominations were our brothers and sisters as opposed to the wayward lost.
I would imagine that if Dr. Merle Strege is reading this he may just be shaking his head that I boiled down several chapters in his book to just a few paragraphs, believe me when I say that Dr. Strege does a much better job explaining the church's history. I take my shortcut path for several reasons:
1. I doubt any of you are very interested in reading the amount of material that could be written on this subject
2. I neither have the time nor the inclination to write that larger amount.
3. This is enough to get the point across.
4. That point is that you change and I change and the church has changed.
You see the church changed its viewpoint when it was presented with new/old evidence and new/old arguments. What if we all did the same?
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
p.s. for more history on the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) check these links out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_God_(Anderson,_Indiana)
http://chog.org/node/7
or do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of I Saw the Church by Dr. Strege
or do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of I Saw the Church by Dr. Strege
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