Church Hopping

I don’t doubt the existence of George Washington because I’ve touched his bed. I don’t doubt the existence of Elvis because I’ve been to Graceland. I don’t doubt the existence of Tupac because he’s still alive. But there are many who doubt the existence of Jesus because we don’t have His toothbrush displayed in a museum somewhere. Wouldn’t it be great if we could say, “Of course Jesus existed, here are His sandals.” Too bad for us, things like that do not generally last for 2,000 years. Or do they?

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Halloween now overshadows the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door (creepily depicted in the picture), beginning the Protestant Reformation. I think that Martin Luther has also overshadowed two other men who had the reforming spirit long before Luther was born. Luther is credited as the hero of the Reformation because of his declaration of justification by faith, but he also had an advantage of new technology. The recently invented printing press allowed for mass printings of Luther’s material. Although these two men only dabbled in justification by faith, they started the movement with sola scriptura. Even without a printing press, John Wycliffe and John Huss set the stage for the cultural shift known as the Protestant Reformation.

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On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II went into St. Peter’s Square in Rome to bless some 20,000 worshippers. As he entered, a man named Mehmet Ali Hagca pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot the Pope four times from 15 feet away. Although Il Papa survived the assassination attempt, what resulted was a new cultural icon — the Pope-mobile.

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Ever since there has been a Christian church, there have been people who take the concepts of Christianity and run off in some weird ways with them. One of the earliest can be seen in Acts 19:13-16 when the seven sons of Sceva borrow Jesus and Paul’s names to cast out demons. The end result involves a beating and fleeing in the nude. Another heresy that pops up a few times in history involves John 14:16-17 where Jesus promises to send a helper after him. The word helper in Greek is parakletos or more commonly the prophesied helper is called the Paraclete. Most orthodox Christians believe that the promised Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, which came at Pentecost. As I said earlier though there have always been people to take things from the Bible and spin them in a different direction.

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There have been many crazy people interesting individuals who have labeled New York City as the modern day Babylon. In fact some faithful to the Bible Code thought that Manhattan would be hit by a nuclear bomb in May of 2006. When May past they revised their predictions many time with September being the new date. While New York City may not be seen as the epicenter for orthodox, evangelical Christianity, it was the launching point for a revival that is said to have produced over one million converts at a time when the US population was only about 30 million. Surprisingly, there are very few people who have ever heard of the Layman’s Prayer Revival.

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