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When Jesus walked this earth his chief opposition came from two leading religious parties of the day; the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It was they who took steps to kill Jesus. Jesus did not fit into their religious views. They wanted to infiltrate the Christian church and apply their interpretation of the scriptures. They believed in God but wanted to install their traditional views. Now even today, contemporary Christianity is guilty of the error of these two factions. They have allowed much tradition into the church, and have changed some things in order to pacify their traditions. The first century church was perhaps the church in its purest form, before it was tainted by these powers.
Remember, the church is an organism, As such, it has DNA that will always produce Godly features if it is allowed to grow naturally. This can be infected if the church depends on the cultures in which they operate. If they absorb these cultures in an attempt to draw new people who have their religious cultures and doctrines in their traditions, and the church absorbs their traditions. Its not wrong to absorb new converts and respect their cultures , but when you absorb their religious views you can become in conflict with biblical principals and teachings.
(Frank Viola, pagan Christianity.)
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