Trek To Rome

Martial arts and religion have a lot in common.  For instance, they:

• Are a way of life
• Each (school/church) has a head teacher (SiFu/Pastor)
• Contain members who attend at regular intervals
• Are comprised of good and bad members (sinners and saints)
• Produce skilled individuals (fighters vs saints)
• Are helpful to persons (physical vs spiritual)
• Each has a founder
• One’s correctness is based on adherence to the founder’s teachings
• A lineage/succession is associated with the founder
• In the absence of the founder, the founder’s appointed successor serves as the primary authority.  In their absence, their valid successor serves as the primary authority.

Some of these are generalities common to all teaching institutes.  The importance placed on lineage and adherence to the founder’s teachings through an authoritative succession of the founder’s students is where it gets interesting.

Or in other words:

Whose kung fu is most like Bruce Lee’s kung fu?

a.)  Bruce Lee

b.)  Bruce Lee’s closest disciple

c.)  Someone who read Bruce Lee’s book Tau of Jeet Kune Do and then started their own school

The answer is obviously A.  Bruce Lee’s kung fu is most like Bruce Lee’s kung fu. 

Alright, so Bruce Lee is not around to teach us.  Now if we want to follow Bruce Lee, who do we learn from?

The answer is obviously B.  If you want to learn Bruce Lee’s kung fu, you learn from his closest disciple.  (btw, if Bruce Lee had appointed a disciple as his official representative it’d be even easier for us who want to learn Bruce Lee’s kung fu to know who that closest disciple is).

Christianity is the same way.

Whose teaching is most like Jesus Christ’s?

a.)  Christ Himself

b.)  Christ’s closest disciple

c.)  Someone who read Christ’s teachings in the Bible and started their own church

Again the answer is obviously A.  Christ’s teachings are most like Christ’s teachings. 

Alright, so Christ is not around to teach us.  Now if we want to follow Jesus Christ, who do we learn from?

Again the answer is obviously B.  If you want to learn Christ’s teachings, you learn from his closest disciple.  (btw, Christ did officially appoint and approve of a disciple as the official head of his church–St. Peter the first Pope, demonstrated here).

In summary…

If I want to learn kung fu the way Bruce Lee taught it, I’m going to seek out the closest authoritative teacher I can get to Bruce Lee.

If I want to learn Christianity the way Jesus Christ instituted it, I’m going to seek out the closest authoritative teacher I can get to Jesus Christ.  Currently alive, that teacher is Pope Benedict the XVI, the 265th direct successor of St Peter, whose unbroken lineage from St. Peter you can find in any public library.

Related posts:

1. The One True Religion “How do I know which religion is right?  They all claim to be correct, yet they all teach different things!”...