CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

What were the original christians like? How can we be like them? at first, they were not called christians. They were called people "of the way". later, they were given the name christ-ians because the people persecuting them saw the same pesonality as they saw in christ. You need to hear this message.
what have christians become? compare yourselves with the first christians in history.
They were blessed!!!!!!
"well, of course! they gave thier whole lives to jesus"
exactly! we need to be living for jesus on a regular basis (if you already are, then you are already blessed as well, amen?). I'll keep things short, but I want you guys to listen to this message.
///////listen to this message////////
http://www.generationchurch.or.....e%3Dgca06-09-272.mp3


generationchurch.org

As a moderator of the site, I made the decision to move your thread to our "links" forum since this thread exists for the purpose of promoting a website. I hope you don't mind.

Just as quick administrative note, while we do allow people to list their URLs here (if we didn't allow it, this sub-forum wouldn't be here), this board exists primarily for discussion and not for solicitation. Please, keep that in mind as you post in the future.

Your link, unfortunately, does not work. However, I do wish to say one bit. The Church has, throughout all its history, been plagued by problems. The Early Church, and Early Christians, had to deal with problems from day one, while many were dedicated to God, many were also sinning, failing, bickering and fighting, in essence showing all the failings we do today. Paul makes that abundantly clear, the Early Church, and Early Christians, were as varied and sinful as Christians are today. While it is, assuredly, useful and important to learn from and emulate the Early Church, I just want to caution against romanticizing them. They were as flawed as we are with the same problems and difficulties we have now (though in a different time and place). They were blessed and they were persecuted, some of them were fervent, others got so caught up in their lives they forgot God and had to be reprimanded. While we all need to emulate Christ and truly strive to follow and emulate him, the idea that the past is somehow better than the present just doesn't sit well with me, I've seen too much evidence to the contrary. Just my two cents.

To me what makes the early church so interesting is that they did have problems and that they took significant steps to work through them. A perfect community would be so different from our own that it wouldn't be much of an example; the early church without any of its imperfections glossed over can be inspirational.

Puritan wrote:Your link, unfortunately, does not work.

It seems to me as though it was copy-pasted from a site that shortened the url automatically, hence adding the ellipsis to the actual link.

I agree completely, UC, this is a large part of the reason why I dislike romanticizing the past so much, you learn much more from history if you see people for who they truly were rather than romanticizing them or demonizing them without understanding what was actually going on at the time.

well, yeah. they had alot of those same problems we have. But, they were also alot more motivated. I have actually tried to follow what they did. and.... well...it works! I'm coming closer to God each and everyday!
what do you mean by romaticizing?

um.... click the link, and then scroll down till you find organic christianity.
the link

Romanticising? It means to make something look better/greater/more perfect then it really was/is. To see the world through rose-tinted glasses is romantising.

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:Romanticising? It means to make something look better/greater/more perfect then it really was/is. To see the world through rose-tinted glasses is romantising.

oh. well then I definately wasn't doing that. personally, I want to get as close to the original's as possible. "You got to be a mimick before you can be a voice."

Kamakazi wrote:well, yeah. they had alot of those same problems we have. But, they were also alot more motivated. I have actually tried to follow what they did. and.... well...it works! I'm coming closer to God each and everyday!
what do you mean by romaticizing?

um.... click the link, and then scroll down till you find organic christianity.
the link

I'm curious then if you're really following the early church's example or if you're following Christ's example. Additionally, you may have been in poor church situations, because there are innumerable contemporary Churchs which have the same drive and motivation of the early church. Either way, I think you might be better off were you to glean from both the early church and the modern church in what they do correctly to pursue Christ, but, more importantly, I believe you would be better off simply to follow Jesus' example, rather than idealize imperfect groups of people.

Mangafanatic wrote: I believe you would be better off simply to follow Jesus' example, rather than idealize imperfect groups of people.

Well, that's just it. I haven't met jesus in person. so I mimick someone who is on a higher spiritual level than me. I find it kind of hard to mimick what I cannot see. However, I do try to be as much like christ as possible. having a close friend to guide you is of great help.

Kamakazi wrote:Well, that's just it. I haven't met jesus in person. so I mimick someone who is on a higher spiritual level than me. I find it kind of hard to mimick what I cannot see. However, I do try to be as much like christ as possible. having a close friend to guide you is of great help.

In light of that, I'm curious why then you chose the ancient church's example. You also have not seen a church in the days of Christ function. We surely have more examples of Christ's life than we have examples of the ancient church. . .

I believe he's speaking of the young church as appears in the Epistles, however, I find that the basis of which he's speaking is lacking: While the Saints Paul, Peter, and other Apostles are amazing examples of the faith, the church was beset, even as it is today, chaotic, fraught with troubles, heresy, and traitors.


However, this is not a debate thread, since that is out of CAA policy, so I will merely point out that I believe his interpretation of scripture to be idealized.