This past Wednesday we had a rather lively discussion on the notion of visions in Christianity – visions of Mary for Catholics and just general visions by Pentecostals or other generally charismatic sects.  It’s quite interesting that the Mother Mary almost never (to my knowledge) appears to Protestants – visions of Mary almost always occur to poor girls in small villages that are going through war or political strife.  For Protestants, claims of visions or other prophetic utterances seem to be hit or miss according to the limited experiences we discuss from our own personal encounters.

There was also some discussion on whether or not missions (in general throughout history) isn’t a form of Western imperialization in some respects.  We tend to go there and not only want to preach the gospel to them, but also hope and pray that they’ll receive the same benefits and even the comforts of an affluent Western lifestyle.  Has the Western mindset of the gospel been diluted and mixed with the gospel of Western standard of living and materialism?  There was also some thoughts as to whether or not Marcion was right in stating that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are NOT one and the same.  Christianity has moved so far away from Judaism and its understanding of God that when you compare the two, they seem worlds apart.  It is arguable, but it’s an interesting thought nonetheless.

Here are our submissions from our meeting this Wednesday.