The Mystery of the Black Box
Published July & September 2004
Table of Contents:
The Rise and Fall of the Early Church
The Black Box
The demise of the vibrant life and faith of the first-century
church can be compared to the crash of an airplane, with
the Bible as the "black box" that holds the secrets as
to what caused its demise.
Upon this Rock
What is the "rock" upon which the church must remain
in order that the "gates of hell" would not prevail against
it?
The Crash
In
the analogy of a plane crash, to what does the wreckage
compare in the spiritual realm of the church?
The Olive Tree
A little parable about the rise and fall of the first
church, and the hope of its restoration.
Nightfall
The
Son of God spoke of a time when the light of the world
would no longer be in the world — a time called "night" when
no one would be able to do the work of God. What was He
talking about?
The Marriage of Church and State
Wedding Bells
What were the causes and the consequences of the marriage
of church and state in 312 AD?
The Church Councils
of the Emperor
What does it mean that the great church councils of the
fourth century, at which orthodox Christian doctrine was
formulated, were called and presided over by the head of
the pagan religion of the Roman Empire?
Saint Nicholas
Strikes Arius
Old Saint Nick has another side to
his character...
Augustine
and the Pedophile Priest Scandal
Did you know that the pedophile priest scandal plaguing
the Roman Catholic Church today is not so serious after
all? St. Augustine made a doctrinal provision 1500 years
ago to accommodate such faulty priests.
Augustine and the
Wars of Christendom
Christianity is history's premier warrior religion,
surpassing by far militant Islam in the number of her slain
and the vast nature of her wars and conquests.
The Dark Ages
The Crusades:
God Wills It!
The cataclysm of violence unleashed against the "enemy" (11th-century Muslims in the "Holy Land") affects the world
to this day, and so does the reasoning that launched such
wars...
The Crusades:
The Reward of Imperishable Glory
It has been centuries since the Crusades, but even today
Muslims hate Christ because of them. Can the blood ever
be washed off the Church that called for them?
The Cathars
Called "the good Christians" by their neighbors, both
noble and common, this medieval Christian sect was ruthlessly
persecuted and exterminated by the Roman Catholic Church
in a bloodbath spanning three centuries.
The Inquisition:
Legal and Historical Roots
The nightmare known as the Inquisition is many centuries
older than its first use against heretics at the end of
the twelfth century.
The Inquisition:
Religious History
More than a few historians have noted that the persecuted,
when the tables are turned, often become the persecutors.
The Inquisition:
By Way of Fire
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain at first
resisted those calling for the Inquisition to finally come
to Spain. Isabella's confessor, the infamous Tomás
de Torquemada, finally found a way to persuade Ferdinand.
It was money.
The Reformation
Fathers
of the Protestant Reformation
Martin Luther, John Calvin, and several others are recognized
as the fathers of the Protestant reformation. What has
been the fruit of their lives over the centuries?
The Seven
Theses of the Anabaptists
Just ten years after Luther's
ninety-five theses shook the world, another young priest
posted seven theses on the door of the same cathedral
in Worms in which Luther was called to account... but
his movement met with a different fate.
The "New Zion" of
Münster
Just as the specter of Jonestown brands anyone who tries
to live communally today, a far more serious tragedy darkened
the Anabaptist movement in the sixteenth century.
Colonization of the New World
Till Kingdom
Come: The Vision of the Pilgrim Separatists
What the Pilgrims tried to do from the Scriptures is
virtually unknown, even though their moving story is told
year after year in America.
Roger
Williams, Father of Relisious Freedom in America
Roger Williams, founder of the colony that became Rhode
Island, came to the New World with much the same hopes
as the first Pilgrim Separatists. Ironically that desire
is what led to his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
Learning
from the Lessons of History
What is it about the nature and history of Christianity
that caused the founding fathers of America to fear its
grip on the reins of power?
The Great Wars
The American
Revolution: Just War or Holy War?
The term "Holy War" conjures up images of wild-eyed religious
fanatics seeking the glory of martyrdom. Oddly, there is
a rising tide of Christians who look to the American Revolution
as a holy war for their cause.
The Civil War
Revivals
The American Civil war was a failure of
Christianity as much as anything else...
The Legacy
of Martin Luther
The Nazi Holocaust was nurtured in the land of the Protestant
Reformation. In fact the seed of all that Adolf Hitler
would do was carefully transplanted from the Catholic Inquisition
into Protestantism by none other than Martin Luther.
The Longer View and
the Higher Wisdom
Which contradiction is more blatant to the gospel message
of love and forgiveness, Christians killing infidels or
Christians killing Christians?
God,
Country, and the American Dream
In World War II, the nations on both sides were praying
to their God for victory. In the end it was the God of
the Allies who gave them the victory. From that
point on, God and country went hand in hand in the United
States.
The '60s Movement and the Jesus Movement
My Elusive
Dream
No one told us that Thomas More's "Utopia" wasn't real.
Even if they had, we wouldn't have believed them... We couldn't
find an island like in More's 16th-century dream, so
we settled for something a little bit less... Haight Ashbury!
Shattered
Dreams
Even before the hippie movement crashed, the preachers
were ready to cash in on it. Donning long hair, beads,
and blue jeans, they said Jesus would give them true love,
solve their problems, and heal the damage from the failed
Movement of the radical hippies.
A New Wineskin:
Our Story
When we stopped going to church and started
being the church, something wonderful began to happen...
The Restoration of All Things
The Unshakable
Kingdom
Although the Bible describes it in terms of its stones,
walls, and gates, in reality the Unshakable Kingdom is
a people with enduring character, unbreakable unity, and
an uncompromising message of hope.
A City Set on a Hill
A
glimpse of who the bride of Messiah is, according to the
Scriptures, and of her great purpose, both in this age
and for all eternity...
What about
the Heathen?
Are all men doomed to eternal death who have never heard
the gospel?
What's in a
Name?
I had grown up in a society that had caused
me to question everything, but somehow I had never questioned
whether "Jesus" was really the Savior's name.
For more about this topic, please see The
Black Box stand-alone site:
TheBlackBoxSpeaks.org
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The Black Box 
