When Faith Turns Into Power

In the last entry, we saw that where there is a church that says that there is no way to God outside of it, then it breaks the First Commandment of the Decalogue. However, there is also a point at which the faith that God gave to all of us-- past, present and future-- becomes the sole possession of the institution, and thus the claim of 'the only way to salvation.' In the early Christian churches, i.e before the 4th century CE, there were individuals who were leaders in the church. They were the ones who had a great zeal for the faith and not only wanted to spread it far and wide, but also wanted to live by the Word-- the Truth-- and would even put their lives on the line for it.

As these numbers continued to grow, the Emperor Constantine saw that this was a formidable force that could be harassed. He placed a cross on his battle banner and all of the Christians in the kingdom joined him in fighting for the Cross of Christ. This was a ploy to increase his power, and in the power void after the fall of Rome itself, Constantine conquered many of the lands and became the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. He then appealed to all of the Christian Bishops at the time and tempted them with wealth and temporal power if they would follow him and become one with the state. The bishops would be treated like kings. Many of them took this offer and the first of which was the Bishop of Rome. Up until this time, the center of the Christian church had actually been spread out over a number of missions and Patriarchies. Once Rome became both the religious and secular center of the newly formed nation, the power was centralized. At this point, the once holy men who were full of zeal became naught more than an arm of the state. This structure still exists today in the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope is both a head of state and a spiritual leader, thus mixing temporal power with religious and moral leadership. The culmination of this power came in the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) which dogmatized the idea of Papal Infallibility. In this (even though it is only in a limited sense, it still exists) the Pope can speak on the level of God, thus making a human being EQUAL to God. This makes no sense and is NOWHERE to be found in Scripture. Even in the famous passage about Peter being the rock on which Christ will build His Church, it is not Peter the man, but the faith Peter showed at that point when he re-claimed the loss in his relationship with Christ because of his earlier three-fold denial. Immediately before Christ makes his statement about building his church, He asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him (in the Greek, each time it is asked the word for love is different and more intimate each time). It is this faith and love of Christ that the Church is built on... not the man himself.

So, is OUR faith and love of Christ strong enough that He can build His church on it?