Return, O wanderer, now return,
And seek thy Father’s face;Those new desires which in thee burn
Were kindled by His grace.
Return, O wanderer, now return,
And wipe the falling tear:
Thy Father calls, - no longer mourn;
‘Tis love invites thee near
William Benco Collyer back to grace love and faith ..
Most men cannot accept that the Infinite God
is bigger than their finite ability to understand. So we set about to reduce God
to fit within our rationalistic and intellectual reasonings. We reduce God to
fit within our mental "box," then we nail it shut, construct our creed, and
absolutely affirm that we have God figured out. We have reduced God to no bigger
than our cranial cavity.
few interesting references :critique of
priestcraft in his own Reasonableness of Christianity (1695).
The
commentaries and church histories, in correspondence and published treatises, of
Benjamin Furly, William Popple, Damaris Masham, William Stephens, and Sir Robert
Howard are examined.
The Lockean circle remained committed to Christian
revelation and, for the most part, to a reformed Church of England, and it is
argued that it is a mistake to identify the critique of priestcraft exclusively
with deism and the subversion of Christianity.
The polemical critique of the
priestly deformations of Christianity, though often scabrously hostile to
clergies, served equally the ecclesiastical and political causes of
post-Revolution latitudinarian Anglicanism.
The Lockean circle was committed to
constructing a Church Whig ecclesiology.
It is the propensity of man
to formulate religion to take that which is of the invisible God and attempt
to make it visible, tangible and controllable. Man-made religion!
The apostle Paul refers to it as "self-made religion" (Colossians 2:23), and goes on to indicate that it is of no value against fleshly indulgence. In essence, Paul is saying that "religion is of no value against man's sinfulness." In fact, religion is a co-dependent enabler of the sins of mankind. It is itself an addiction.
Religion is essentially idolatry. Men worship their man-made formations and structures their ideological idols formed in the concrete of inflexible minds. When the apostle Paul came to Athens (Acts 17:22), he observed their idols and exclaimed, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects." The Greek word that Paul used for "religious" literally means "to have great respect for demons."
Religion is inevitably the result of man taking that which is of God and forming it, formulating it, in such a way that men end up "playing God." Men can form idols out of wood or stone in an attempt to represent God, or they can formulate ideological idols (belief-systems, doctrinal definitions, theological theses). The men who thus form and formulate become the "chief priests" of the new religion because they are regarded as knowing the most about what God is like, and well they should for they formed "it."
The apostle Paul refers to it as "self-made religion" (Colossians 2:23), and goes on to indicate that it is of no value against fleshly indulgence. In essence, Paul is saying that "religion is of no value against man's sinfulness." In fact, religion is a co-dependent enabler of the sins of mankind. It is itself an addiction.
Religion is essentially idolatry. Men worship their man-made formations and structures their ideological idols formed in the concrete of inflexible minds. When the apostle Paul came to Athens (Acts 17:22), he observed their idols and exclaimed, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects." The Greek word that Paul used for "religious" literally means "to have great respect for demons."
Religion is inevitably the result of man taking that which is of God and forming it, formulating it, in such a way that men end up "playing God." Men can form idols out of wood or stone in an attempt to represent God, or they can formulate ideological idols (belief-systems, doctrinal definitions, theological theses). The men who thus form and formulate become the "chief priests" of the new religion because they are regarded as knowing the most about what God is like, and well they should for they formed "it."
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