 |
| European Union |
Preface
I reside in Canada and have Canadian citizenship but also have United Kingdom/European Union citizenship through a parent.
I lived previously in England for two years starting my Doctoral work and visited Wales in the process of obtaining my final degrees.
On The Briefing online last Tuesday, Albert Mohler was asking if post-Christian Europe would survive?
He indicated it was doomed as post-Christian.
I certainly would prefer that there was less secularization and more Christian influence.
My view is Europe will survive, however.
The European Union may change and lose some power, but I personally favour the European Union as a military and economic union and do not favour a concept of European court I prefer each nation to have its own court as the highest court of the land.
I also do not favour the idea of a 'United States of Europe' as I reason having experienced life in England, for example, that significant cultural differences still exist throughout Europe and nations should usually at least, have individual sovereignty.
But I ponder in regard to the theory of Europe being doomed because it is post-Christian.
When was Europe not very sinful, historically?
Was Christian Europe ever Biblically Christian?
I do not accept theologically or philosophically this implied golden age of Christianity, philosophy from some very conservative Christians in regard to Europe and even the more recent Christianized America.
The Western World has always been a very sinful realm.
Jesus said his Kingdom was not of this world in John 18 and Christianity has never been perfectly represented in it.
I am not claiming to be an historian but my MPhil and PhD theses contained aspects of historical theology.
One can reason that Christianity in its most Biblical New Testament form was spread by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Cairns (1981: 55).
The Jews were preached to first and then the Gentiles. This means that persons were preached to within the Roman Empire in places such as Rome and Antioch.
Europe and Eurasia.
One can read in Scripture that even in the beginnings of the Christian Church theological error set in with heretical teaching and false teachers (Galatians, 2 Peter, Jude for example) and perhaps considering the Roman Empire environment, Europe would have perhaps been Biblically Christian in pockets.
Christianity beginning in the New Testament era under the Roman Empire, which had State religion.
Therefore, the New Testament era was not necessarily one that caused Europe to be predominantly, Biblically Christian.
And in an empire known for its brutality.
Future church-state connections meant the politicization of the church in many contexts starting with favour for the church from Constantine (ca. 274-337) and eventually the development of the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Greek Orthodox Church in the East, and the Schism of 1054. Cairns (1981: 205).
Politicization of the church may have protected it from persecution but there was the danger of State influence in church matters with a church-state union and this often effects the integrity of the Biblical and New Testament message and theology.
Cairns states between 313 and 590 the Old Catholic church became the Roman Catholic Church in which the bishop of Rome won primacy over other bishops. Cairns (1981: 157). At the same time church ritual also became more elaborate. Cairns (1981: 157).
Was Europe Biblically Christian therefore from 313 to 590?
This would seem unlikely, at least culturally, again it would be in pockets, as it was in the New Testament era, if it was evolving from the New Testament era Christianity while under the Roman Empire which had Roman State religion, into more elaborate ritualistic Roman Catholic Church Christianity, which although it maintained a Biblical core, depended heavily on tradition.
Perhaps after 590 from a non-Roman Catholic perspective this would be the actual historical beginnings of the Roman Catholic Church, not believing it is actually traced to the Apostle Peter.
The Middle Ages forward seemingly would not qualify as historical periods or eras where:
Europe was not very sinful, historically.
Christian Europe was Biblically Christian.
Therefore, should Europe be assumed to be doomed at this point in history because it is this secular in the 21st century period and era?
CAIRNS, EARLE E. (1981) Christianity Through The Centuries, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
 |
| Vernazza, Italy-Facebook, Travel+Leisure |
 |
| Vernazza, Italy-Facebook, Travel+Leisure |
I enjoyed your analysis of Europe and its Christian influences through history.
ReplyDelete-Future Fiasco-
A difficult, speculative article.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteRussia has a larger surface area than Pluto.
Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia.
ReplyDeleteNorth Korea and Finland are separated by one country.
ReplyDeleteThe unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.
ReplyDeleteHi, Νeat post. There iѕ a proƄlem togetheг with your weƄ site
ReplyDeletein wеb explorеr, would check this? IE nonetheleѕs is tҺe market
chief and a huge part of otҺer people wіll pass over yߋur excellent writing due
to this problem.
Also visit my homepage - live corals for saltwater tanks
'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come.
ReplyDelete˜My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'
˜We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is a religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
˜The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
˜The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous. Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
˜The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery? Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
˜History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
˜Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
˜Now Islamic prayers have been introduced in Toronto and other public schools in Ontario , and, yes, in Ottawa , too, while the Lord's Prayer was removed (due to being so offensive?). The Islamic way may be peaceful for the time being in our country until the fanatics move in
ReplyDelete˜In Australia , and indeed in many countries around the world, many of the most commonly consumed food items have the halal emblem on them. Just look at the back of some of the most popular chocolate bars, and at other food items in your local supermarket. Food on aircraft have the halal emblem just to appease the privileged minority who are now rapidly expanding within the nation's shores.
˜In the U.K, the Muslim communities refuse to integrate and there are now dozens of "no-go" zones within major cities across the country that the police force dare not intrude upon. Sharia law prevails there, because the Muslim community in those areas refuse to acknowledge British law.
˜As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts - the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand.
Extend yourself a bit and send this on. Let us hope that thousands world-wide read this, think about it, and send it on before it's too late, and we are silenced because we were silent!!!
Have you ever wondered why it's OK to make jokes about Catholics, the Pope, Jews, Christians, the Irish, the Italians, the Polish, the Chinese, the French (including French Canadians), the elderly, bad golfers, etc, but its insensitive to make jokes about Muslims?
ReplyDeleteWe need to level the playing field for the sake of political correctness.....
Stopped by Trooper
ReplyDeleteReturning from a trip to visit my grandmother in Canada, I was stopped by a state trooper in New York for exceeding the speed limit. Grateful to have received a warning instead of a ticket, I gave him a small bag of my grandmother's delicious chocolate-chip cookies and proceeded on my way.
Later, I was stopped by another trooper.
"What have I done?" I asked.
"Nothing," the trooper said, smiling. "I heard you were passing out great chocolate-chip cookies."
…..Laugh & Lift by way of Doc’s Daily Chuckle (pkaine@roadrunner.com) and “Christian Voices” (ChristianVoices@att.net)
Sakinah kenal, jelang mudahan menang selalu
ReplyDeleteStop by my website ... peluangluang.blogspot.com ()
OK . . . here is your smile for today
ReplyDeleteAn Emergency Call Centre worker in London, England, has been sacked , much to the dismay of her colleagues who are reportedly unhappy with her dismissal.
It seems a male caller dialed 999 from a mobile phone stating, "I am depressed and lying here on a railway line. I am waiting for the train to come so that I can finally meet Allah."
"Remain calm and stay on the line," was not considered to be an appropriate response.
Catholics say that the Catholic Church was the only church around in the early AD centuries. I know there were non-Catholic Christians, and I know the Catholic Church persecuted and martyred true Christians. But as far as an official "church" at that time, vs. mere groups, I would have to do more research.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that, much later, there were various Christian revivals in Europe (i.e., England), and great preachers, as well as missionaries going out from there.
But for a long time now, I believe Europe has generally walked away from God and become secular. Thus they have become very susceptible to Islamic takeover, which is currently in progress.
America has had revivals and has sent out missionaries more recently, but they are following basically in the same path as Europe, though they are not nearly as far down the immoral and irreligious road yet as Europe is---but they are gaining ground fast, it seems.
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI am just home from work, so again I shall be brief (busy week with my own work and extra work with Mom this week).
I still reason that with the rise of Islamic terrorism in particular, secular Europe will at least somewhat save itself from Islamic takeover by policy and bv immigration from other, perhaps, China and India for example.
Dr. Mohler states (paraphrased) secular Europe has no philosophical answer for religious Islam, indicating religion is stronger philosophically, yet here in North America secularism is winning the culture war against evangelical Christianity, Roman Catholicism and other, and so I am not sure that argument holds.
Of course I hold that Biblical Christianity is true...but take my point in context. I am meaning holding to a religious view is not a guaranteed culture win.
I live in England, I am a Briton by default as if such things could, or should matter. I have walked this land, my homeland, through areas where there are Jewish communities and also Muslim's. I have yet to encounter any that run contrary to what is fast becoming, thankfully so, as America was founded upon, secular. No where in this land I live in, not the capital not any city or any environs are anything but secular. Yes, there are those of faith but religion is dying in these lands. The most recent consensus taken reveal this land as having 56% religious people and the rest, like me, no religious. This is a growth in secularism that is very welcome. Religion, not faith, never faith, is fading. On one hand we have the evils of fundamental Islam and on the other Evangelists. We, people of spirituality who neither condone nor condemn others of faith, (how could we?) condemn religion. "I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies."
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the perspective, Russell.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to have commenters on 'uncool' Blogger here compared to Facebook.;)
Off to bed, it is a tough week with Mom's problems...and I still have to work.
All the best with recovery my friend...
I hope your mom's problems can all be resolved. x
ReplyDelete