This blog is a review of Martin Erdmann’s video “Cult: State: Church – Christianity in Conflict”.
Your theory in the video is that ALL religions come first and then the social structure of society as a glue in the state, and in politics. So as I understand you, religion is the supporting entity that is the foundation for any society. And when a society is in decay it is because the religion connected to the specific culture is first in decay. I would like to point to Christianity as it was in its very first beginning as a very important exception. Scriptural based Christianity represented by Jesus and later his Apostles was the very opposite of being a support and a glue for the state. Christianity was not a state-cult. It was actually by its very existence a threat to the state-cult in Rome. The authorities of the Roman Empire were violently against this new, unheard-of religion because it didn’t obey the state-cult figures as gods.
And when it comes to you thesis about what paved the way for Christianity to emerge I caan not follow you. You say that it was the disobedience and unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders (Kings) that cleared the way for “a new reallity…a new testament church”…”That was a culmination of that particular development that started 500BC when the sourthen kingdom was led into captivity”.
You forget one thing: God had build-in to his Jewish nation (The Kingdom of Isreal) that it ONLY should exist UNTIL the promised Mesias would come. So if the Jewish Kingdom (its Kings) had been obedient, faithfull servents, the VERY existance of THAT form of priesthood, and structure arond the Jewish temple service (sacrificing of the lambs etc) should cease to exist. The new religion (Christinity) was defenetely not a result of a decaying Jewis religion. It was a prophecied reality that God intended from the very beginning even before there was any Jewish nation in existance.
Your thesis is holding water – when we are talking the Jewish nation – so far that it was BECAUSE of their unfaithfullness that God punished the nation and allowed them to go into the Babylonian captivity. But emerging of Christianity was not a result of Jewish unfaithfulness. The traansition from Jewish religion to christian could had been smooth and without conflict IF the Jewish leaders had not been spiritually blind and too proud to let go of their power over the people. BUT because the leaders would not recognize Jesus Christ as their promised Mesias, it became the total fall of the Jewish nation.
Your assortment is that ALL religions come first and then the social glue, the state, and politics. So as I understand you, religion is the supporting entity that is the foundation for any society. And when a society is in decay it is because the religion connected to the specific culture is first in decay. I would like to point to Christianity as it was in its very first beginning. Scriptural based Christianity represented by Jesus and later his Apostles was the very opposite of being a support for the state. Christianity was not a state-cult. It was actually – by its very presence in the Roman Empire – a threat to the state-cult in Rome. The authorities of the Roman Empire were fiercely against this new, unheard-of religion because it didn’t recognize and obey the Roman state-cult-figures as gods.
And when it comes to your thesis about what was the cause that paved the way for Christianity to emerge I can not follow you either. You say that it was the disobedience and unfaithfulness of the Jewish leaders (the Kings) that cleared the way for “a new reallity…a new testament church“…”That was a culmination of that particular development that started 500BC when the sourthen kingdom was led into captivity“.
That is not correct. Here you assume that IF the Jewish leader had continued to be faithfull servants, then the Jewish system could have continued and there had been no need for a new religion (Christianity).
You forget one thing: God had form before there ever existed something called jews, planned that the Jewish nation should ONLY exist UNTIL the promised Mesias would come. So if the Jewish Kingdom (its Kings) had been obedient, faithfull servents, the VERY existance of THAT form of priesthood, and structure arond the Jewish temple service (sacrificing of the lambs etc) should cease to exist. The new religion (Christinity) was defenetely not a result of a decaying Jewis religion. It was a prophecied reality that God intended from the very beginning even before there was any Jewish nation in existance.
Your thesis is holding water – when we are talking the Jewish nation – so far that it was BECAUSE of their unfaithfullness that God punished the nation and allowed them to go into the Babylonian captivity. But emerging of Christianity was not a result of Jewish unfaithfulness. The traansition from Jewish religion to christian could had been smooth and without conflict IF the Jewish leaders had not been spiritually blind and too proud to let go of their power over the people. BUT because the leaders would not recognize Jesus Christ as their promised Mesias, it became the total fall of the Jewish nation.
You say that the new Christians were “forced to separate from Jewish Cult“. No, they were neither forced or feeling forced. They saw that the promised Mesias had come and that God, therefore, completed his plan of old to end the Jewish Cult at the promised time. The Jewish Cult (state/kingdom) had been ended even if the it had been faithfull the Mesias. They new pact was to form a new strcture – not based on a nation-like State-Cult, but on a global, spiritual structure without any ties to any state-cult structures in the world.
The Reformation – same thing
And when you come to the Reformation in the 1500s biblical Christianity was once again a “trouble-maker” to the state-cult of the medieval period – The Papacy.
And when you come to the Reformation in the 1500s biblical Christianity was once again a “trouble-maker” to the state-cult of the medieval period – The Papacy.