Nearly all the Pastor Bobs admit the validity of The Lord’s Prayer. You know how it begins. “Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Even in the semi-Christian denominations, “Our Father Who art is Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name.” is accepted as Gospel Truth. All the Pastor Bobs say they believe in God and that He lives and works in Heaven.
And, there’s not too much disagreement with “Thy Kingdom come. . .” Nearly everyone repeats that. Those engaged in sin, may not be quite so enthusiastic. “Hmmmm. If He comes while I’m continuing doing something He doesn’t like I could be in Big Trouble. But, there’s not much chance of that. I’ll go along with “Thy Kingdom come . . .”
Pastor Bobs begin bailing out when they get to the next line: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Most Pastor Bobs are smart enough to realize: “That could hurt my job security!”
There is only One God in Heaven. He runs things. He makes the Big Management Decisions. There are no committees. There is only God. He makes His Will just as clear as He wants.
God had His Church provide us with His Scripture. The Bible tells us what His Will is. It is His will, for instance, that we obey The Commandments. He has left us some other instructions and indications of what His will is. He mysteriously said, several times, “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” That was so bizarre it drove most believers away. It still does. If it was not His Will to drive those people away, would He have said that so often?”
He also made His Will clear by telling us which Christian Organization He endorsed in Mt. 16: 18-20: “Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
His clear will on that subject was then reinforced with the Second Greatest Gift in history: “I give you (Peter, the Apostles, and their successors) The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
That’s where we see the split, the double-mindedness, of every Pastor Bob, in the unspoken words that dominate their thoughts: “It is true that we are to pray ‘Thy (God’s) will be done on earth as it is in Heaven‘, and yes, I ignore His will when it comes to being in The Only Church He Founded. I also ignore His will when it comes to eating His Body and drinking His Blood. I don’t care. To me, it’s more important that people go on giving me money, despite the fact that I absolutely refuse to do God’s will on earth if it gets in the way of my income. And, I don’t care who knows it.”
The common denominator among the forty three thousand schisms is their one, universally shared belief. Pastor Bobs: “My will be done.”
