Welcome to another edition of Morning Coffee on The UnSunday Show. Today, let’s talk about some important distinctions between the system we call church and the body of Christ, or ekklesia. Jesus never said the system we call church would never be overcome or ultimately defeated. But he did say that about the ekklesia. That difference is monumental. Let’s talk about the implications of that difference in this episode.
This episode of The UnSunday Show is also available in video format and is posted on my YouTube channel.
Welcome to episode 28 of The UnSunday Show. At its core, The UnSunday Show is a podcast about the system we call church. To a very large extent, this system has come to us via church history, religious tradition, and theological distinction, not from the New Testament. Mike talks about that system we’ve inherited in this episode. He also makes an exciting announcement about the future of The UnSunday Show. Push Play and join the conversation.
Welcome to episode 26 of The UnSunday Show. Today’s episode is a look at William Tyndale and his authoring of the New Testament in the English language. He wanted the people of his day to have a New Testament in their own language so they could read and interpret it for themselves instead of having to rely solely on the church hierarchy of the day to tell them what it meant. In his desire to remain true to the Greek text, he translated a handful of words according to their true meaning as opposed to the church’s long standing definitions. Particularly, he translated ekklesia as congregation, not church. He translated presbuteros as elder, not priest, agape as love, not acts of charity, and metanao as repent, not penance.
But this didn’t go over well with the church of his day because it exposed the true meaning of these words the church had been keeping from the people for hundreds of years. As a result, Tyndale was strangled and then burned at the stake for refusing to compromise with the top-down authority figures in the church and water down his translation of the New Testament.
Welcome to episode 25 of the UnSunday Show. Let’s talk about your options when living in a Christian sacral society where conformity to the church’s rules is required on the threat of punishment and death for non-compliance. Such was the environment the Anabaptists found themselves in as the Reformation progressed. Like their Roman Catholic counterparts, the church the Reformers created had the power of the State behind it, along with the full weight of the military to enforce the church’s top-down rule.
“Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion – which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the will of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform.” – Barbara Brown Taylor
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