But what storm at sea was ever so fierce and wild as this tempest of the Churches? In it every landmark of the Fathers has been moved; every foundation, every bulwark of opinion has been shaken; everything buoyed up on the unsound is dashed about and shaken down. We attack one another. We are overthrown by one another. If our enemy is not the first to strike us, we are wounded by the comrade at our side. If a foeman is stricken and falls, his fellow soldier tramples him down. There is at least this bond of union between us that we hate our common foes, but no sooner have the enemy gone by than we find enemies in one another.
Basil the Great, 330-379 AD, On the Spirit, Chapter XXX, 77 (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII, Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, translated by Blomfield Jackson, T & T Clark and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1996, p. 48, 49)
How does this compare with the state of the Christian church at the present day? How can we avoid such a situation?
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
14 hours ago
It sounds an awful lot like today's Church. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anything we can do to avoid it, short of God shaking his Church and purifying it.
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