JULY 11 “STUBBORNNESS IN RELIGION”

It was not that King Henry VIII had a change of conscience regarding publishing the Bible in English. His motives were more sinister… but the Lord sometimes uses the evil intentions of men to bring about His glory. King Henry VIII had in fact, requested that the Pope permit him to divorce his wife and marry his mistress. The Pope refused. King Henry responded by marrying his mistress anyway, (later having two of his many wives executed), and thumbing his nose at the Pope by renouncing Roman Catholicism, taking England out from under Rome’s religious control, and declaring himself as the reigning head of State to also be the new head of the Church. This new branch of the Christian Church, neither Roman Catholic nor truly Protestant, became known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. King Henry acted essentially as its “Pope”. His first act was to further defy the wishes of Rome by funding the printing of the scriptures in English… the first legal English Bible… just for spite. The Episcopal Church describes itself as being "Protestant, yet catholic," as in universal. Though some commonly refer to Anglicanism as a Christian movement in its own right, alongside Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy, a number of parishes within the Episcopal Church keep many of the high church traditions of the Catholic Church.Today the Church calls for the full legal equality of gay and lesbian people, a movement partly inspired by their similar call for racial equality during the mid-1900s. The church's General Convention has passed resolutions that allow for the blessing of same-sex partnerships in states in which it is legal. The lesson here is what we’ve always known, behind every religion, is the ego of a man, with an ulterior motive. We may hide behind “ignorance is bliss” but each individual has the responsibility to search the scriptures and research for themselves, the religion that they are involved in. Religion is man’s attempt to reconcile himself with his Creator, on his terms. At the source, the root, of every religion, is a man with skewed motives, why not just be a Christian and stay away from man made religions. Whether Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, why not just “be Christian”. I would almost guarantee, not 1 out of 100 Episcopalian’s realizes their religion was started by a man, who wanted to divorce his wife and re-marry and then execute his two prior ex-wives. That sounds like the quintessential, Christian religion to me (please not sarcasm)! We know that Roman Catholicism came to us the Constantine who merged some of the pagan beliefs at the time, with Christian beliefs that he hoped would appease the Romans and bring peace in Rome. Catholics never question, “why do we pray to dead people?” Because that’s what pagans did. The ignorance of people and their decisions to die in that religion, with no research or due diligence done on their mind, is mind baffling, especially when the stakes are so high, eternity rests on what we believe to be true or a lie, you would think, we would take some time, research, pray and do our due diligence?! They say in Real Estate, "Buyer beware" do your due diligence, well I say in the business of Eternity, "Soul beware" do your due diligence!