December 13 - A Return to Tradition
A new interest in old ways takes root in Catholicism and many other faiths
Comment From Understand The Times:
Understand The Times has chosen the article "A Return to Tradition: A new interest in old ways takes root in Catholicism and other faiths" written by Joy Tolson, as the news item of the year for 2007.
On December 30, Understand The Times will be post the top twenty trends for 2007. These trends will be determined in terms of biblical significance and with regard to Bible prophecy. The above article and others will represent The Emerging Church as the number one trend for 2007, indicating the soon return of Jesus Christ.
For the past five years, we have been speaking on this topic and warning visitors at our web site through radio transcripts, commentaries and books written and published in order to document that apostasy presently underway. Two roads are being established - to Rome to Babylon.
While we have faced a tremendous amount of opposition, criticism and ridicule from the "brethren" because of our position, we are convinced that the emerging church is preparing the third leg" for the "three-legged-stool" plan that will bring about the global spirituality the Bible predicts will unfold in the last days.
We will continue to warn about this spiritual deception as long as God gives us breath.
Please consider warning someone else by forwarding this alert to others.
Trinity Fellowship is not the only evangelical congregation that is offering a weekly Eucharist, saying the Nicene or Apostles' creeds, reading the early Church Fathers, or doing other things that seem downright Roman Catholic or at least high Episcopalian. Daniel Wallace, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, which trains pastors for interdenominational or nondenominational churches, says there is a growing appetite for something more than "worship that is a glorified Bible class in some ways."
Something curious is happening in the wide world of faith, something that defies easy explanation or quantification. More substantial than a trend but less organized than a movement, it has to do more with how people practice their religion than with what they believe, though people caught up in this change often find that their beliefs are influenced, if not subtly altered, by the changes in their practice.
Put simply, the development is a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not simply a return to the past-at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new within the old forms. They are engaging in what Penn State sociologist of religion Roger Finke calls "innovative returns to tradition."
You see this at work quite clearly in the so-called emergent communities, new, largely self-organizing groups of young Christian adults who meet in private homes, church basements, or coffeehouses around the country. So free-form that many don't even have pastors, these groups nevertheless engage in some ancient liturgical practices, including creedal declarations, public confession, and Communion. They may use a piece of a bagel as the body of Christ, but the liturgy is a traditional anchor in services that may include films, skits, or group discussions of a biblical topic.
In all corners of Judaism, as in all parts of Christianity, traditions are being adapted in strangely innovative ways. Limits and openness: Welcome to the new, and sometimes bewildering, world of religious traditionalism.
