What I Think of the Church Fathers

WHAT I THINK OF THE CHURCH FATHERS

  This boggles my mind.  Everytime I discuss these things with men who have learned their religion.... religiously, it all boils down to "Well what about the Church fathers?"

  My first response is... well, as the image up above.  Crap.  Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

Romans 3:4 .... Now let God be true, yet every man a liar, even as it is written: "That so Thou shouldst be justified in Thy sayings, And shalt be conquering when Thou art being judged."

  It doesn't really baffle me, as their minds have been blinded to the truth and they're not meant to know these things.  All the same I just think... "You are willing to put the truth of God, in his word, and subject it to the opinion of men?"

   This is exactly what Jesus spoke on when he said in

Mark 7:13 13 invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you give over...

  What the hell?  You would rather follow the teaching of men which lead us into the dark ages where no man had access to the Bible but to priests who read it in latin.  Where people were lead by the nose to believe all sorts of lies about God.  Their teachings of morality and attempts to restrain the impulses of mankind by law did nothing but to cause sin to ABOUND.  Take a crash course in Romans if you need help figuring that out.

  And you want to go BACK to that?!  In an age when we have the Internet in every corner of the world, multiple translations of the Bible, that capability to learn greek and even if you DONT there are concordances, study bibles, commentaries, and most importantly... THE WORD OF GOD.

   And you want to go back to that bondage again?

  This is not a new phenomenon.  Even in the first century Paul was battling this within the early ecclesia he writes

Galatians 1:6-12

6 I am marveling that thus, swiftly, you are transferred from that which calls you in the grace of Christ, to a different evangel,
7 which is not another, except it be that some who are disturbing you want also to distort the evangel of Christ.
8 But if ever we also, or a messenger out of heaven, should be bringing an evangel to you beside that which we bring to you, let him be anathema!
9 As we have declared before and at present I am saying again, if anyone is bringing you an evangel beside that which you accepted, let him be anathema!
10 For, at present, am I persuading men or God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I still pleased men, I were not a slave of Christ.
11 For I am making known to you, brethren, as to the evangel which is being brought by me, that it is not in accord with man.
12 For neither did I accept it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

And further in;

Galatians 3:1  O foolish Galatians! Who bewitches you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was graphically crucified?

  It was an evangel that was a DIFFERENT EVANGEL BUT NOT ANOTHER. It was a gospel that was being taught that looked JUST LIKE the gospel Paul taught but was "tweaked" to be slightly different... Gee?  I wonder what that was.

Pssst... they call it christianity.  Those are your Church Fathers people.

  Martin Luther began a reformation that began putting the Bible back into the hands of common men.  But it has taken years and years for mankind to shed themselves of the weight of tradition.  It still is extremely difficult, but for those of us who are called to the Gospel of Christ.  The GOOD NEWS of Christ (hint: if it has hell in it, it's NOT good news) Those of us who are called to the Body of Christ; we can see the lie for what it is.  Don't let those frowning "Church Fathers" hinder you from reading your Bible and discovering the truth for yourself.

  If it takes years of seminary, and the convoluted teaching of men who are wiser and older than you... Then maybe... it's too complicated to be the truth.  

1 Corinthians 2:1 And I, coming to you, brethren, came not with superiority of word or of wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God,

2 for I decide not to perceive anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

  The gospel of Christ is this simple, let me sum it up for you.

Jesus died... stone cold, DEAD.  no conciousness.  complete oblivion.  He was DEAD as everyone else in their grave today.  No spirit was floating around.  No soul plucking a harp in heaven, no pseudo death.  We was DEAD.

Three days later he was risen from the dead by the power of HIS FATHER.  To say anything else nulifies the incredible FAITH OF JESUS that now SAVES YOU ALSO.

And lastly.  His death has forgiven all mankind their sin.  When he said "It is finished" he meant it.  It was 100% complete.  You are FREE from the ultimate penalty of sin.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 1 Now I am making known to you, brethren, the evangel which I bring to you, which also you accepted, in which also you stand,

2 through which also you are saved, if you are retaining what I said in bringing the evangel to you, outside and except you believe feignedly.
3 For I give over to you among the first what also I accepted, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
4 and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures,
5 and that He was seen by Cephas, thereupon by the twelve.
6 Thereupon He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the majority are remaining hitherto, yet some were put to repose also.
7 Thereupon He was seen by James, thereafter by all the apostles.
8 Yet, last of all, even as if a premature birth, He was seen by me also.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not competent to be called an apostle, because I persecute the ecclesia of God.
10 Yet, in the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace, which is in me, did not come to be for naught, but more exceedingly than all of them toil I -- yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
11 Then, whether I or they, thus we are heralding and thus you believe.

  If you believe this - you have Eonian life.

  God bless you!!

Travis Penner