From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Date: Thu Jul 09 1998 - 17:10:35 EDT
This is NOT a B-Greek question, so please reply to me off-list - some of
you, however, are the very ones that I would most like to ask this
question of:
Is the existence of such a plethora of denominations/sects/expressions
of Christianity/theologies, etc., today indicative of the
fact/possibility that "the faith once for all delivered to the saints"
(Jude 3) was not a single, well-defined faith? I.e., does our canonical
New Testament include, not just the "seeds" of all the divergent
practices we call "Christianity" today, but is itself a compilation of
different Christianities? For example: Paul teaches that our secure
relationship with God through Jesus Christ is by faith; James, however,
says that it is equally "works"-oriented; the author of Hebrews writes
about a salvation that is sure but not necessarily secure; John's
Revelation gives a more prominent place to the Jewish element of the
church than the epistles do; not to mention the fact that the gospels
give, through Jesus' words, a more apocalyptic/eschatalogical tone to
the urgency and immediacy of the Kingdom's coming than one seems to find
in the epistles. I know this is highly simplified and maybe wrong in
part, but my basic question remains.
Any takers? (Again, OFF-LIST, please!) [I know this probably sounds like
a naive question to some, and I think there is a recent book, ONE JESUS,
MANY CHRISTS, which might even deal with this question.]
-- Eric S. Weiss http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm eweiss@gte.net S.D.G.--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to unsubscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
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