A video request to John
I'm hoping you can help me make sense of something, and in doing so maybe help others.
Why so many denominations of Christianity?
How can they say they follow the 'one true word' when they branch off into all these little subsets, which each apparently says is the 'right' one, and only they know the 'right' way to serve and worship and pray and read the source material?
The main thing I'm lost on is how they vary from one to the next exactly? If they're all supposed to be using the same source material and pushing toward the same understanding or results, what exactly then is the difference between a fundamentalist and a baptist and a catholic or a protestant, etc etc etc?
Actually, looking at Christian history, there's remarkable similarity compared to its early days. The differences between Ebionite Christians and Marcionite Christians are such that would make Catholic vs. Protestant look like petty thological hair splitting in comparison.
Ebionite Christians believed that Jesus was a mortal human, born regularly as all babies are, and a regular person until his baptism. At this point, the spirit of Christ (Yahweh) came down and took possession of him. The two then formed a symbiotic relationship, Jesus and this little piece of Yahweh, which is why he could perform miracles. He was eventually crucified to be the ultimate sacrifice which fulfilled only the Jewish obligation to perform animal sacrifices. Yahweh can't die so he abandoned Jesus on the cross. Hence the quote "My god, why have you forsaken me". Yahweh later resurrected Jesus and took him up into Heaven. Salvation for us is by carefully keeping Jewish law, not faith.
Marcionite Christians wanted to ditch all things Jewish. Yahweh was a lesser god of this world and the Jewish OT belongs to this "lesser religion". Jesus Christ is a superior god who came down fully formed as an adult in the temple one day. He had no conception or childhood. Marcionites would doubtless laugh at the idea of a god being a baby. Hence, Marcionite Christians believed in two gods. Salvation for us is by faith. All things Jewish, including Jewish laws, are to be cast aside.
You understand why I conclude that there's little difference between the different versions of modern Christianity? They all agree that the OT is sacred scripture. They all agree on only one god but in three parts. They all agree more-or-less that salvation has something to do with belief.
The differences that do exist are mostly due to the natural tendency for a story to change over time.
"They all agree that the OT is sacred scripture."
You must have no idea how often I've heard "Things are different now!! That was the OLD Testament!"
"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." - Albert Einstein
Very true, Parabola. Modern Christianity is an odd blend between the Marcionite and Ebionite factions I mentioned earlier. in a strange way, it's like they've kept the OT as sacred scripture but then ignore it as "fulfilled" (kind of a compromise between these two extremes).
As with other things in Christianity, they often have it both ways depending on the situation. The OT is still relevant when they're looking to post the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or if they quote Leviticus when speaking out against gay marriage. However, it's irrelevant when they stop by Red Lobster for dinner.
This isn't the only way that Christians try to have their cake and eat it too. Jesus is God and also a sepereate being from God depending on which verse of the Gospels you read. We have "free will" and yet there's a divine plan for everything. You can pray to God for things, which presumably means you can influence God's behavior, and yet they somehow deny this is a claim to have power over God. I'm sure we could generate a list of examples of how Christianity tries to have something both ways.
What exactly are graven images?
Are those videomakers on YouTube breaking a commandment?
AFAIK, "graven images" are idols that are worshipped in place of Yahweh. Your call as to whether crosses count.
I was actually thinking more along the lines of art, film and animation. Abominations like American Idol also fit in there somewhere.