Jesus is intrinsically connected to all humanity and especially to His Bride, the Church.
Matthew 25:40
"the least of My brothers" does not mean the elect. See the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Remember the Samaritans were despised apostates, yet he did the will of God.
Acts 9:4
How can Saul be persecuting Jesus if He is in heaven?
The "if Jesus walked into any church today" scenario is comic book theology. It's not in His nature to do that and it shows a hostility to "any church" presumed to be full of pharisees.
Secondly, the fear that any discovery of truth would make us pretentious is also counterproductive. Truth is not of our own making. Even Christ proclaimed that the truth He illuminated did not spring from Him alone. “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me” (John 17:6)
Truth is not subjective. It represents the objective order of things. The person who comes to know something of the truth, then should experience humility, not vanity, for he discovers something that is not his.
Christ was emphatic in his denunciation of the Pharisees who claimed to know something of the truth but behaved with a pretentious snobbery. Truth is not he cause of Pharisaism, vanity is.
And both Christ and his Church are unrelenting in their advocacy of humility and in their condemnation of vanity. In fact, it may be far less tolerant of Pharisaism than the secular world. Consider, for example, the comment, “I hate anything fake,” made by Britney Spears, a veritable icon of artificiality and pretense. The secular world awards this kind of duplicity with celebrity.
From the OP.
There is a difference between "any church" that knows that truth is not something to possess, and bible cults who think they own it.
Matthew 25:40
"the least of My brothers" does not mean the elect. See the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Remember the Samaritans were despised apostates, yet he did the will of God.
Acts 9:4
How can Saul be persecuting Jesus if He is in heaven?
The "if Jesus walked into any church today" scenario is comic book theology. It's not in His nature to do that and it shows a hostility to "any church" presumed to be full of pharisees.
Secondly, the fear that any discovery of truth would make us pretentious is also counterproductive. Truth is not of our own making. Even Christ proclaimed that the truth He illuminated did not spring from Him alone. “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me” (John 17:6)
Truth is not subjective. It represents the objective order of things. The person who comes to know something of the truth, then should experience humility, not vanity, for he discovers something that is not his.
Christ was emphatic in his denunciation of the Pharisees who claimed to know something of the truth but behaved with a pretentious snobbery. Truth is not he cause of Pharisaism, vanity is.
And both Christ and his Church are unrelenting in their advocacy of humility and in their condemnation of vanity. In fact, it may be far less tolerant of Pharisaism than the secular world. Consider, for example, the comment, “I hate anything fake,” made by Britney Spears, a veritable icon of artificiality and pretense. The secular world awards this kind of duplicity with celebrity.
From the OP.
There is a difference between "any church" that knows that truth is not something to possess, and bible cults who think they own it.
