The heavy lifting required to formulate the Nicene Creed involved serious theological thought which resulted in the Doctrine of the Trinity as being three persons, of one substance, co-eternal and co-equal.
The Institutional, Liturgical Church which still claims this Trinitarian Doctrine as its Statement of Faith should spend some serious time reflecting on what it claims to believe, because its current actions could lead some to believe that this belief in the eternal, Trinitarian God has been abandoned.
The Institutional Church, which I view as being a distinct entity from the Church Militant, has apparently jumped foursquare into the quagmire that is modern, trendy thought. It is difficult to discern where this Church is focused on the eternal, because of the fast-follower strategy it uses in an effort to appear relevant by being ever so timely with current events.
Just a few years ago the Church was obsessed over Church Planting because there was a crisis about needing lots and lots of Church Plants. Right on the heels of this came Discipleship and the need to "make disciples of Christ" as if that was even a possible thing. And then as the 2016 Presidential campaign revved up Immigration became the front and center hot topic. Churches aligned themselves with questionable figures from entities called such names as the Immigration Table and many Churches brazenly lobbied for more Federal money so they could resettle more immigrants and provide legal services to illegal immigrants. And now, in the blink of an eye, Systemic Racism is the raging message of concern from the Church.
I am not going to debate the merits of all these issues, but rather point out how shallow and vapid the Institutional Church has become in its efforts to be like every other social institution on planet earth which all strive to be trendy and current and in the fray of the moment. Forgetting that its faith is supposedly dependent on an eternal God.
In every way possible, the Institutional Church is showing us daily how out of touch and how non-essential it is to the work of Salvation. In fact, it is making a very compelling case that it is down right dangerous to one's Salvation and should be avoided at all costs.
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