Guarding His Flock Ministries

Oh, and by the Way, from Jesus Too!

In his recent book A New Kind of Christian, emergent church leader Brian McLaren explains that there are two disparate story lines (we might call them story lineups) explaining Jesus.[1] The dominant narrative, the Greco-Roman, arose out of an Aristotelian-Platonic philosophical dualism that has dominated the AD era (That is, after Jesus lived and died), and explains Jesus from what is an ongoing Western perspective. Of the bent of the Greco-Roman philosophical mindset, McLaren explains that it

was habitually dualistic, in the sense that an enlightened or philosophical mind would always see the world divided in two, the profane physical world of matter, stuff, and change on the low side and the sacred metaphysical world of ideals, ideas, spirit, and changelessness on the high side.[2]

This Greco-Roman “story line” has dominated how western civilization and Christendom has understood Jesus for centuries, having molded His narrative according its perspective of reality (i.e., the cosmos and the universe). The recessive narrative, the Hebrew, arose out of the cultural milieu of the BC era (That is, before Jesus’ life), and explains Jesus in what was an emerging story that was Eastern in perspective.

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T.D. Jakes and Communion at "A Table Set for Two."

"Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:17-18, KJV) 

In the Upper Room and to memorialize His upcoming death, the Lord Jesus took the common but symbolic elements of the bread and wine and instituted the ordinance that has come to be known as the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist, Communion, or simply, “the breaking of bread.” Luke records, “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood’” (Luke 22:19-20). Of the rite established by the Lord to be observed by the church, Ralph P. Martin stated that susequently it became “a fruitful source of heresy and confused doctrine.” [1] Not only was this to be the case for developing Christendom, but it is also so among churches today.

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