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In the fall of 2007, we attended my sister's wedding. After the Catholic Church denied their petition for the Sacrament of Matrimony, my sister (who is one tough chic-don't mess with her ever, seriously) started calling around to see what other churches would be willing to marry them. Of all the places she called only one got back with her, a United Methodist Church with a lady pastor.
The church was pretty fancy, an old building right in the heart of their large town. There were stained glass windows, a tiny baptistery bowl in the corner (no immersion there) and an alter in front. My nephew, my sister's son from her first marriage, served as the ring bearer and my seven year old daughter was the cutest little flower girl ever. After all the turmoil that went on internally about whether it was a sin to go or not, it was such a relief that now it was really a non-issue. We were not Catholic anymore. We didn't know what we were, but were sure that God would be patient with us as we figured it all out.
It was back to the Bible for us and as I wrote about here, a lot of Christian TV and radio also came into the picture. It became clear pretty early on that there were some conflicting, or at the very least unsettling things going on in scripture, but I knew there had to be an answer.
As I mentioned before, I became very pleased with the way dispensationalism cleared up the problems for me. It had some bugs to work out, but I liked the idea of it very much.
Things like the The Rapture, The Great Tribulation, and The Millennial Kingdom were central to this way of thinking and I jumped in with both feet. My husband was a bit more cautious before going all in with this, since being burned before, but I knew it would be different this time.
It was the first time I was exposed to the idea that Jesus in the gospels was still operating under the Old Covenant. I had never in my Christian life heard that, but I found that it was true enough in my own studies. The New Testament did not begin at the beginning of the book of Matthew, but after Jesus's death, according to the writer of Hebrews. One thing that gave me a slight pause was the fact that many dispensational teachers will say that Jesus's earthly ministry has absolutely nothing to do with the Age of Grace that we are now in. In fact, nothing that Jesus said was to us at all. There was something that just didn't feel right about that.
Paul is who we are to listen to, not Jesus, according to this theory. As crazy and perhaps blasphemous as that sounds, after reading the arguments, it started to make a lot of sense. Jesus came for Israel to set up the earthly kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament, most of Israel rejected Him (which was preordained, but anyway), God raises up Paul to preach the Heavenly kingdom to the Gentiles and to Jews who would believe it. After the fullness of the Gentiles came into the Body of Christ, God will rapture the Church, send the Great Tribulation on earth, and then the 1000 year reign of Christ will begin, with Jesus on earth as a literal king. We saints, both the Raptured ones and the Tribulation Saints who didn't take the mark of the beast, will reign as high officials in the Millennium. After that, Satan comes back again, the final battle is waged and then the Great White Throne judgement, and eternity.
As you can see, the main focus is on the future. And that's where my head and heart were, ready to be with the Lord. After my husband started to warm up to this, we became very excited about the imminent return of Jesus, just trying to hang in there while the End Times revved up all around us. I was very thankful that God had taken us out of the Catholic Church when He did, so that we would not be deceived when the One World Religion showed up. It was all starting to fit together.
Who can stop what must arrive now?
Something new is waiting to be born
Dark as the night you're still by my side
Shining inside
Crazy Fingers- Grateful Dead
In the fall of 2007, we attended my sister's wedding. After the Catholic Church denied their petition for the Sacrament of Matrimony, my sister (who is one tough chic-don't mess with her ever, seriously) started calling around to see what other churches would be willing to marry them. Of all the places she called only one got back with her, a United Methodist Church with a lady pastor.
The church was pretty fancy, an old building right in the heart of their large town. There were stained glass windows, a tiny baptistery bowl in the corner (no immersion there) and an alter in front. My nephew, my sister's son from her first marriage, served as the ring bearer and my seven year old daughter was the cutest little flower girl ever. After all the turmoil that went on internally about whether it was a sin to go or not, it was such a relief that now it was really a non-issue. We were not Catholic anymore. We didn't know what we were, but were sure that God would be patient with us as we figured it all out.
It was back to the Bible for us and as I wrote about here, a lot of Christian TV and radio also came into the picture. It became clear pretty early on that there were some conflicting, or at the very least unsettling things going on in scripture, but I knew there had to be an answer.
As I mentioned before, I became very pleased with the way dispensationalism cleared up the problems for me. It had some bugs to work out, but I liked the idea of it very much.
Things like the The Rapture, The Great Tribulation, and The Millennial Kingdom were central to this way of thinking and I jumped in with both feet. My husband was a bit more cautious before going all in with this, since being burned before, but I knew it would be different this time.
It was the first time I was exposed to the idea that Jesus in the gospels was still operating under the Old Covenant. I had never in my Christian life heard that, but I found that it was true enough in my own studies. The New Testament did not begin at the beginning of the book of Matthew, but after Jesus's death, according to the writer of Hebrews. One thing that gave me a slight pause was the fact that many dispensational teachers will say that Jesus's earthly ministry has absolutely nothing to do with the Age of Grace that we are now in. In fact, nothing that Jesus said was to us at all. There was something that just didn't feel right about that.
Paul is who we are to listen to, not Jesus, according to this theory. As crazy and perhaps blasphemous as that sounds, after reading the arguments, it started to make a lot of sense. Jesus came for Israel to set up the earthly kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament, most of Israel rejected Him (which was preordained, but anyway), God raises up Paul to preach the Heavenly kingdom to the Gentiles and to Jews who would believe it. After the fullness of the Gentiles came into the Body of Christ, God will rapture the Church, send the Great Tribulation on earth, and then the 1000 year reign of Christ will begin, with Jesus on earth as a literal king. We saints, both the Raptured ones and the Tribulation Saints who didn't take the mark of the beast, will reign as high officials in the Millennium. After that, Satan comes back again, the final battle is waged and then the Great White Throne judgement, and eternity.
As you can see, the main focus is on the future. And that's where my head and heart were, ready to be with the Lord. After my husband started to warm up to this, we became very excited about the imminent return of Jesus, just trying to hang in there while the End Times revved up all around us. I was very thankful that God had taken us out of the Catholic Church when He did, so that we would not be deceived when the One World Religion showed up. It was all starting to fit together.
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There were two gospels then: one for Israel and one for the Church. There were some holes* in this that I could never really get any satisfying answers to. But for the most part, I thought we were really right on track. I did quite a bit of End Times watching and was convinced that we were close to Armageddon. I was excited, but a bit worried since I was now pregnant with our sixth child.
*For the sake of brevity, I won't go into all these here, but am open to discussing it in the comments if they are addressed.
There4 is so much black-and-white when man becomes involved in faith. To cut everything off until Paul doesn't just ignore everything Jesus had to say, it IGNORES everything Jesus had to say. Yes, the same word, but think about it. Not only are you not looking at it, you are basically rejecting it, because Jesus taught in many ways- most notably on the walk to Emmaus- that all scripture, old and new, are the story of Himself. Even Paul says (if you are paying attention) that there is NO DIFFERENCE between Jew and gentile.
ReplyDeleteSorry, not yelling at you. But preachers that will not look at the entire spectrum of scripture before opening their mouths hack me off. It was thinking processes like these that led ultimately to the holocaust. The New Testament is a book; it doesn't matter where one thinks it began. The Church began with the ministry of Christ- a ministry that included being born a human on earth, and thus began in Bethlehem, not the road to Antioch.
This is why I really love these posts- it forces one to have that ready defense of one's faith. I realize it isn't how your written journey started, but I won't be surprised if it ends up there.
I always loved the road to Emmaus story, it is so profound and mysterious.
DeleteYou are right about the ignoring everything Jesus had to say aspect of it, especially with the more hyper-dispensational stuff, which I also got into for awhile. Something was just not "quite right" about it to me.
Interesting. Your Christian ast has taken you through many roads. we used to be pre-millnial maybe forty years ago. Now we ars Amillenial.
ReplyDeleteIt has, and I'm not even done....if you can believe it.
DeleteAll very interesting Alice. I grew up Southern Baptist and am now a Reformed Presybterian and it can still be overwhelming at times to try to figure it all out. I don't think we can and are supposed to.
ReplyDeleteMy aunt and uncle are Baptists. I did think that it was very important to know all about these things. I guess I couldn't just leave it alone. I am in a way envious of those who can love God and not sweat the details.
Delete"Paul is who we are to listen to, not Jesus, according to this theory."
ReplyDeleteWhat a recipe for really bad theology. Better to interpret all of the bible through the life, ministry and teachings of Jesus.
"we became very excited about the imminent return of Jesus"
Brings back memories of my pastor speaking of how the rapture would come around the year 2000.
Yeah;) I was out of Rapture mindset in 2000, but was pretty hyped up about 2012....
DeleteWrong again:)
As I mentioned in a comment before... I became a hyper-dispensationalist for a period during my own journey. This was brought on because of debates with some Church of Christmas preachers. I was a Baptist. How was I to explain the verses which seemed to teach Baptismal Regeneration? Dispensationalism gave me a way to explain these verses away.
ReplyDeleteOh boy don't get me started on Baptismal Regeneration:) I always thought it strange that CofC teaches that, yet they don't baptize babies.
DeleteWhat I really liked about dispensationalism was the fact that the "sacraments" were not a big deal. I had had enough of that in the Catholic church.