Who is right, if the known Christians are wrong?
This article is written because there has always been criticism and condemnation among the various major Christian sects as each claim to know and teach the right doctrine. Secondly, similar debate was raised in my unpublished work in which I journeyed with an unborn child.
There are many Christian sects and it can be said, in recent times, that few Christian sects teach and preach mutual understanding and tolerance among Christians and even among the various world religions. However, there have always been claims of authenticity and originality by the earlier Christian sects. Funnily enough, even the newer Christian sects have joined in the struggle for originality. The struggle and debate for acceptance took a major turn following the birth of the protestant movement and since then it can be said that Christianity has adjusted its doctrine to the extent that people claim one can find a church that suits one’s believe or faith or doctrine, no matter the belief or doctrine.
It is said that Jesus Christ brought Christianity and so he is the founder. It is also said that he passed his teachings to his followers. The apostles also claimed that false teachings were going on in their time so it may not be a surprise that such claims is still held till date by the various sects that fail to agree. Then the big question is which of the many sects is/are teachings the doctrines as it was rightly and exactly passed down by Jesus to his followers? .
The question is necessary because the Roman Catholic Church is said to be the first recognized Christians although other forms of Christianity existed like the Orthodox Christians, Gnostic Christians among others some of which might had lived and worshipped in secrecy to protect their existence. Therefore if we shall consider the various known and unknown Christian movement it becomes difficult to know the sect that is right in this struggle for authenticity.
However, let us assume that the Catholic Church which is the officially recognized church (although we may not know the really truth behind such recognition and union) has the original teachings as was passed down by Jesus to his followers just as they alleged. Then if the Catholic got it right; why would the Protestants and others claim that they are wrong? Many accusations have been made against the Catholic doctrines and their abuse of power when the church had the power showed that something might not be right because it is wrong for any Christian to rule by dictatorship, at least not when Christianity suffered same persecution. That was exactly what the Catholic did as history can confirm it and that was why an unborn child exclaimed and asked why must the persecuted become the persecutor?
It simply means that if the other Christians are right that the Catholic Church got it wrong then the real Christians can’t be among those that moved out from Catholic because they only modified the Catholic doctrines to fit their own understanding of the scripture, the same scripture the Catholic Church compiled and decided what shall be and what would not be. What it then means is that if actually there was a message passed down by Jesus to his followers and if those that have the true message are also called Christians then the really Christians maybe out there somewhere going by other names or they may still be called Christians but have been looked down upon either because their teaching is strange compared to that held by the Catholic and most other churches or because they have been accused from the beginning that they are now k now as “the devil worshippers”. This is very possible because not all known Christians joined in the formation of Catholic Church and others that taught anything against the Catholic teachings were persecuted so those that disagreed with the early Catholic Church had to seek ways of survival. But we may never know the truth because a lot of things has been changed and falsified so Christians will have to accept whatever message they think is the right message. Moreover, recent findings and claims has made it certain that some books were not included in the bible in order to achieve the aim at which it was compiled. It is also known that some people or group held and treasured such books as they did not want its message to be lost even as it was ignored when the bible compilation was made. Some of them had to protect it with their life and some of them died in the process but they knew that someday, some people will stop obeying and bending to any doctrine they hear but will learn to reason and ask questions. May be that age started when the protestants asked the Catholic church some questions and since then many people learnt to ask questions that now we no longer know the truth because everyone claims to has the truth.
