Christianity Today 255Christian marriage - of how a man should behave towards a
woman, and a woman towards a man.
This has been exacerbated by many of the official Churches'
current permissive attitudes towards extra-marital sex, homosexu
ality and lesbianism - all of which are forbidden by the teachings
of all the Prophets, induding Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, may
the blessings and peace of God be on them and on whoever fol
lows their example.
Extracting moral principles from the Gospels and trying to live
in accordance with them is not the same as acting in a certain man
ner because it is known that Jesus acted that way in that situation.
One course of action is the fruit of deductive knowledge, the other
course of action is based on revealed knowledge. Only the former
can he changed and manipulated; the latter cannot - it can only be
ignored.
There is neither any written record, nor any living existentially
transmitted human record, of how Jesus walked, of how he sat, of
how he stood, of how he kept himself dean, of how he went to the
toilet, of how he went to sleep, of how he woke up, of how he
greeted people, of how he was with old people, of how he was
with young people, of how he was with old women, of how he
was with young women, of how he was with strangers, of how he
was with guests, of how he was with his enemies, of how he con
ducted his transactions in the market place, of how he travelled, of
what he was allowed to do and of what he was not allowed to do.
The records of Jesus' message as revealed to him by God are
incomplete and inaccurate. The doctrines on which Christianity
today is based are not to be found within these records. The record
of how Jesus acted is almost non-existent, and what little is known
is virtually ignored. Yet the institution of the Church, in whatever
form, has always claimed to be the interpreter and guardian of Je
sus' message. The Church was not instituted by Jesus. He did not
establish a hierarchy of priests to act as mediators between God
and man. Yet the established Pauline church, from very early on,
always taught Christians to believe that their salvation was assured
if they acted and believed as the Church told them. From where
did the Church derive its authority?
This daim for authority, in its most extreme form, is to be found
in the Roman CatholicChurch's doctrine of papal infallibility. Car
dinal Heenan has summed it up in these words: