Showing posts with label Ordination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ordination. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Do we need another Luther?

Catholicism restricted the authority to interpret Scriptures to the clergy of their church and pretty much oppressed those who tried to interpret. It required a Luther to be born and used by God to break that bondage to some extend and as a result, the sect called Protestants originated. It was considered as a radical revolution and indeed it was. Now, within the Protestantism, we are in a situation where we need another Luther (or many such kinds) to take the authority to interpret Scripture from the clergy of Protestant churches and denominations to the individuals through the revelation from Holy Spirit. When I challenged some of the teachings of a particular church I attended in past, I have been handed over with some printouts of ’16 fundamental truths we believe’ from their denomination’s website. It was almost like a blow on my face, telling me to accept these ‘16’ things or keep your mouth shut. There was not even a room for sincere discussion or expression of concerns. Pastor clearly conveyed to me that he is dedicated and authorized to strictly follow the teachings of ‘their’ church and used many hours of his preaching to bash me from the pulpit (which in my opinion was a one-way-speech, in other words – cowardice).

This is my question: What is the significance of Holy Spirit in the lives of individual believers? How we (Protestants) are different from Catholics if we do not let the individuals freely depend on Holy Spirit for any revelations from the Scripture? Does Jesus save individuals or institutions? Who invented the practice of ‘ordination’? And what does it mean? ‘Ordained’ to do what?