I wish I could have been there. During the third century, when Christianity was legalized, large numbers of people started coming into the church. As this began, the unwritten requirements of the faith, i.e., that what the average Christian was expected to be, began to ease, considerably.
In response to this, a substantial number of holy men and women began to flee to the desert. In summary their thought was this: Christianity is becoming watered down. Christianity is being popular and easy. It is not supposed to be. Our life should be a hard struggle against temptation and sin.
I wish I could have been there to see and understand what exactly they were seeing and saying. What exactly was their argument?
I have to wonder if we are in the same place, here in America, but we are to lazy and sinful to see it and respond?
In response to this, a substantial number of holy men and women began to flee to the desert. In summary their thought was this: Christianity is becoming watered down. Christianity is being popular and easy. It is not supposed to be. Our life should be a hard struggle against temptation and sin.
I wish I could have been there to see and understand what exactly they were seeing and saying. What exactly was their argument?
I have to wonder if we are in the same place, here in America, but we are to lazy and sinful to see it and respond?
Famous investor Warren Buffet once advised us to be greedy when others are being fearful, and to be fearful when others are being greedy. I presume this adage becomes an applicable metaphor in regards to the waxing and waning of Christian popularity. I had little interest in it when society seemed less corrupt, and conversely, now I'm dedicated as society embraces a downhill slide. But I see the tainted variants too. Nothing is sacred once it becomes popular, as I begrudgingly noted in my childhood when my supposedly underground interests reached the mainstream - so as much as we'd love to see all men and women come to Christ, we'd hate to see Him be a mere fad, or a malleable ideology to personalize. Many churches today are preaching a diluted message, just to appeal to those who hate it at heart anyways - seems a recipe for failure, to me. I don't wish for hardship, but it does seem that Christianity was at its strongest and purest when most persecuted, or when it was just a dozen guys following an itinerant Carpenter around the desert. It seems a display of contrast, a yoke that's easy and a burden that's light still ending in a statistical majority choosing the path of destruction. What's that say about our nature? I hope our one defining attribute in eternity isn't the ability to dilute paradise.
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