| Author | Message | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 385 Registered: 8-2004  |
"If any man is tempted to think - as one might be tempted who read only contemporaries - that 'Christianity' is a word of so many meanings that it means nothing at all, he can learn beyond all shadow of a doubt, by stepping out of his own century, that this is not so. Measured against the ages 'mere Christianity' turns out to be no insipid interdenominational transparency, but something positive, self-consistent, and inexhaustible. I know it, indeed, to my cost. In the days when I still hated Christianity, I learned to recognize, like some all too familiar smell, that almost unvarying SOMETHING which met me, now in Puritan Bunyan, now in Anglican Hooker, now in Thomist Dante.... "We are all rightly distressed, and ashamed also, at the divisions of Christendom. But those who have always lived within the Christian fold may be too easily dispirited by them. They are bad, but suh people do not know what it looks like from without. Seen from there, what is left intact, dispite all the divisions, still appears (as it truly is) an immensely formidable unity. I know, for I saw it; and well our enemies know it. That unity any of us can find by going out of his own age. It is not enough, but it is more than you had thought till then. Once you are well soaked in it, if you then venture to speak, you will have an amusing experience. You will be thought a Papist when you are actually reproducing Bunyan, a Pantheist when you are quoting Aquinas, and so forth. For you have now got on to the great level viaduct which crosses the ages and which looks so high from the valleys, so low from the mountains, so narrow compared to the swamps, and so broad compared with the sheeptracks." --CS Lewis From "On The Reading of Old Books" quoted in "The Business of Heaven - Readings For The Year" | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 2203 Registered: 3-2004  |
When I look at the history of Christianity I can appreciate it so much better now. When I read the Bible and what happened to Paul, Peter, John, then further on in history those martyred for their faith in Jesus. Modern history shows us that people are still being persecuted for their faith. All these people believed and still believe in Jesus Christ. He is the one that holds us together. He held the apostles and all the martyrs in His hands and He is holding us there. Thank you for your quote Helovesme2. Diana | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 3224 Registered: 12-2003  |
Mary, what a great quote! The central issue of Jesus and Him crucified is a unifying fact that has power the rest of the world cannot understand. Whether we are pre, mid, or post-tribulationists, free-will Baptists or Calivinistic Presbyterians, if we know Jesus, we are unified in Him in the way that matters. The rest of the issues God Himself works out in us as we continue to give our minds and spirits to Him and grow in Him. When I think about how much my view of God has changed since I first knew I was saved, I am amazedóand I know it is entirely His work in me that has changed me. It is a wonderful thing to know He will not stop growing me and changing me. Great quote, Mary--thanks again! Colleen |
