Articles
It Would Look The Same
A “progressive” church in Santa Cruz, California likes to think of itself as progressive, serving beer during services and opening a brewery, while its pastor claims Jesus was a feminist and a “person of color that was killed by white supremacy.” The pastor of the Greater Purpose Church, Christopher VanHall, said, “What would it look like to be a church that looked like the movement that Jesus started and not like the church that we know in America today? Out of that consistent questioning came this model for a brewery church that generates funds for local charities” including Planned Parenthood. (TDW 8/27/18)
Does anything shock us anymore?
For sure, we don't know the pigmentation of Jesus's skin, but other than that, WOW! Most of us probably picture Him as many artists have portrayed Him, fair skin and long blond-brown hair. A thousand artists could paint Him, and none knows what He looked like. Many want to lay claim to Him, but what we know is that He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, and He was a Jew.
What we also know, is exactly what the church that Jesus started would look like today, unadulterated by mankind. We have a picture of it in the New Testament, a model, and the instructions necessary to reconstruct it and maintain it. We have the doctrine (teaching) of that church, and we have multiple accounts from Apostles and other inspired writers about how the members of that Church are to live. We also know that there is only one church, and it belongs to God.
If Mr. VanHall truly wanted to know what the church that Jesus started would look like, he should read the book that describes this Jesus he is referring to. You don't arrive at how Jesus's church would look by asking questions of our society, but rather by reading the history book that described the church in its original form. That book, by the way, says that the church belongs to Christ, so to name it otherwise is not consistent with what we read.
Jesus certainly was respectful to women, but His respect wasn't limited to women, so to call Him feminist would certainly not be accurate. He taught that God is no respecter of persons, and that would include race, sex, nationality, or religious belief(s). He taught love for every human, even those who don't deserve it.
I suppose anybody can concoct anything and find somebody willing to support and follow in their path. That's why it is a matter of unparalleled importance to know what God says about the church because this is a prime example of why we can't ever listen to what man has to say without holding it up against scripture to see if it is so!
