The Problem

"What causes most trouble for most Christians of all ages is not legalism or lack of faith or theological controversies; it is Jesus Himself, who bestows freedom so evenhandedly and dangerously on those who do not know what to do with it. The church always gets panic stricken for fear of the turmoil that Christ creates when he comes on the scene; and so it takes His freedom under it own management for the protection of the souls entrusted to it, in order to dispense it in homeopathic doses when it seems necessary. The church claims to represent Jesus on earth, but in fact it often supplants Him. It must tremble in all its joints when confronted with His portrait. Ecclesiastical traditions and laws have domesticated Jesus, and today all the churches are living off the success of the attempt." Ernst Kasemann