Not All that Glitters is Gold

One of the most challenging problems one has as a Christian evangelist is, where do we direct people if they are interested in getting connected to a church?  In order to have a basic understanding of safe church tradition and doctrinal creeds one needs not only an understanding of basic bible but a bit of understanding of church history as well.  Over the years I have often found myself turning to the Handbook of Denominations by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill and Craig D. Atwood.

One will quickly find that not all Baptists are on the same page.  Nor are those who fall in the Pentecostal category.  Many of those which have a "Christian" name are far outside the lines of historical orthodoxy.  Which brings up another question what is orthodox?  This handbook can help you wrap your head around the various Catholic traditions as well.  Many religions are offshoots of something else.  Lutherans and others came about as an effort to clean up the Church of Rome during the Reformation.  Buddhism sprang from Hinduism.  The Bahaii Faith is an offshoot of Islam, and so on.  Understanding the roots of a movement often gives us a clue as to what we are looking at.  Many church groups are merely a result of a spiritual revival in which people were simply trying to get back to basic biblical truths.  There has been enough time in some cases for these to have drifted of into the far left liberal world we live in, but for the most part this Handbook of Denominations gives us a place to start.  Someone once said that as Israel was scattered to the nations, the church has been scattered to the denominations.  It is like a river that starts crystal clear in the mountains but as it moves down stream it begins to slow down and becomes contaminated with the run off from the farmer's fields as well as the pollution of every town along the way.

Catch the foxes for us,

 the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards.

Song of Solomon 2:15