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Spread Peace

Monday, December 1, 2014

Sectarianism and Schism



The world's extant religions have without exception fallen prey to sectarianism and schism that have preoccupied and divided their followers to such an extent that the true spirit of the Teachings of the Authors of their respective Revelations has been so obscured that the spiritual effect which these Teachings have had on the hearts of men has been progressively weakened. Sectarianism and schism have stemmed from differences over interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and the introduction into the original Teachings of man-made dogmas and rituals. 
Had the Founders of the past great religions made specific provisions concerning the matter of succession; that is, had they formally designated a successor or established a system whereby a successor or series of successors would have been endowed with unequivocal authority to interpret Holy Writ, there would have been no basis for the divisive interpretations that have sundered these Faiths, even in early Christendom, the institution of the Papacy and hierarchy of the Church had as the sole basis for its authority their interpretation of the meaning of a verbal statement that Christ had made to His Apostle, Peter. 
While this authority remained unchallenged for centuries during which time the Church remained united, it was ultimately challenged by the Protestant movement with the result that today Christianity finds itself divided into hundreds of sects.

2 comments:

Tinu said...

Remarkable post.

jules said...

Thank you Rajendra Upadhyaye for this timely reminder of what can happen to our beautiful scriptures
as the ravages of time erodes their true meaning and significance!
Perhaps our readers with this article from Dr. Dahesh (who many believe to be the re-incarnation of our beloved "The Bab"......

From Dr.Dahesh.........................

"Divine revelation is pure only at the source, that’s why it is essential that we retrace each religion back to its origin. The further we go in time, the more likely we are to see it muddled. Christianity (just to take an example I am familiar with) is the very proof of that degradation; for after the advent of Christ every century produced its own share of beguilement, laissez-faire, and concessions, adding them to the original spirit of the revealed truth, in that to serve our whims and wants. Such a par for the course tendency not only weakened our belief in the “spiritual,” but it also had a nefarious effect on our morals and ethics. And this adverse effect gave rise to a certain doubt in the existence of the soul and her immortality through the years, a legitimate doubt, nonetheless, which ended up being the Achilles’ heel of modern-day thinking. Our religion is what we have become, not what we ought to be!"

....respectfully, Observer Jules