Talk:Constantine

The following is a question asked by a Dr. Willie Joubert Author

Comments

The Pharisees challenged Jesus and Jesus challenged them in Matthew 15 and that challenge still applies to the modern Christian. In Mark 7 He names the problem of the Corban of the Pharisees that was making the word of God to none effect. Part of the modern confusion is that word tradition which is defined today as "the transmission of a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another" or in Theology "a doctrine believed to have divine authority though not in the scriptures."

Questions

The powerful hold of tradition

In Matthew 15 Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees about his disciples not following the traditions. In response he challenged them that they nullified the commands of God by their traditions! The fact is that tradition, especially cultural and religious, has a powerful hold over our lives. In Canada we are dealing with the historical facts of the abuse that generations of First nations people endured and at times still experience. This has been documented for example in the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 and since then by the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential schools, run by churches, the majority having been Roman Catholic. The fact is that the abuse arose in great part as a result of the church operating as an institution, with power vested in the hierarchical structure. The view of the church as an institution is nothing else than a human tradition and as Jesus said, it nullifies relationships ordained by God for his ekklesia to express his love and grace. The fact that the institutional church functions as a Christianized Levitical institution is contrary to the very heart of our faith, for in Jesus this was abolished and replaced by the order of Melchizedek where Jesus is the High priest and every member is a royal priest. However, tradition is a powerful force to keep people in bondage as the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the revelations vividly illustrates.

The various denominations responded to the revelations by offering apologies and money to survivors. However, the R.C. Church spent millions to fight litigation and used every legal loophole and political connection to minimize the money actually given to survivors. They likewise hid or destroyed documentation to help families of missing and murdered children. Moreover, many survivors despite the horrendous abuse, after years tied to the institution are unable to walk away and despite all the revelations, as Catholics they beg the pope to come to Canada to apologize! So, in the name of Christ little children were torn from their families and homes and placed in schools created as means to commit cultural genocide, suffered mental, physical, spiritual and sexual abuse. They had to receive mass from the hands of the very priests that prowled the halls at night to abuse them. Those who knew kept silent to protect the institution and still they do to this day, refusing to offer the requested apology. The tradition of the church as institution has nullified the very heart of God’s love to bring healing to the hurting.

As I see the hurt, my prayer is that we will truly return to the very roots of our faith to know our Lord who became the high priest in the order of Melchizedek and that we grasp that the old covenant has been replaced by a new covenant where every believer is a chosen royal priest called to do the works of our Lord. We do not need any person by whatever title to act as mediator between us and our Lord and no one needs another human to act as priest or pope to receive healing and to be set free.